NASA announces $433.5m mission to send a rover to the MOON in 2023 to scout out potential landing sites for the Artemis crew in 2024

NASA has revealed plans to send a rover to the Moon in 2023 to scout out potential landing sites for a crewed Artemis mission a year later and find sources of water.

The space agency plans to send the $433.5 million (£306 million) rover, named VIPER, to explore the lunar south pole, where it will look for water ice and other resources that could be harvested by humans and scout the terrain for a future crewed mission, the Daily Mail reports.

The first woman and next man are expected to land in the same region in 2024 as part of the Artemis mission, the first crewed landing on the Moon since 1972. 

VIPER will be the first rover with headlights on the Moon, helping it explore regions of our natural satellite that have been in permanent darkness for billions of years.

The golf-cart sized vehicle will spend three lunar days on the surface, or about 100 Earth days, handling unknown terrain and temperatures varying by 500F. 

The rover is part of the wider Artemis mission aimed at making lunar exploration sustainable, rather than a series of one-off trips like the Apollo-era missions. 

Data from the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will help the agency map resources at the lunar South Pole.

The agency says these resources could one day be harvested for long-term human exploration at the Moon and even used by a permanent settlement. 

The golf-cart sized rover will explore areas that haven't seen sunlight in billions of years and are some of the coldest spots in the solar system.