The Canadian Lunar Rover Mission to the South Pole of the Moon

The Canadian Lunar Rover is the first ever Canadian-led planetary exploration endeavour. Funded by the Canadian Space Agency's Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program, Canadensys Aerospace Corporation was selected in November 2022 as the prime contractor for this mission. The overall goal is to land a 35 kg rover in the south polar region of the Moon on a future NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services launch. There are three high-level mission objectives for the Canadian Lunar Rover: (1) demonstrate and characterize Canadian technology on the surface of the Moon; (2) perform meaningful science; and (3) increase the Canadian Space Sector's readiness for future lunar missions. The three overarching science objectives are: 1) lunar polar geology and mineral resources; 2) lunar polar shadow, cold-traps, and volatiles; and 3) environmental monitoring for astronaut health. In order to address these science objectives, the rover will carry six science instruments: 1) Stereo cameras. There are two identical forward-looking imagers, tilted downward, located at the top of the rover and separated by ~30 cm forming a stereo pair; 2) Multispectral Imager (MSI). This instrument uses LEDs with a wavelength of 365 to 950 nm. The MSI points diagonally downward from horizontal and can image objects ranging from horizontal surfaces to vertical surfaces. 3) NISA-1000. This is a forward-looking camera mounted near the top of the rover equipped with a long-pass IR filter that allows reflected ambient sunlight to be sensed. 4) Lunar Hydrogen Autonomous Neutron Spectrometer (LHANS). This is a combined neutron and gamma-ray instrument with the overall goal of detecting hydrogen as a proxy for water ice in the south polar region of the Moon. 5) Radiation Micro-Dosimeter. The goal of this instrument is to provide data on the radiation environment through time for the lunar south pole. 6) LAFORGE. The Lunar Advanced Filter Observing Radiometer for Geologic Exploration (LAFORGE) instrument is being provided by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory through a partnership with NASA. LAFORGE will provide high-resolution thermal imaging with an ability to obtain highly accurate temperature measurements across the full range of thermal environments present on the Moon. In addition to these six science instruments, the rover also has two side-looking RGB cameras (Pano Cameras) and the RGB forward and downward-looking Hazard Camera (HazCam). The identification and analysis of potential landing sites is the subject of ongoing investigations. Following a workshop in May 2023, the current status is that six candidate landing sites are being considered.