Highlands Intermediate School 06-0043

     The Mars Exploration Rovers won’t be able to work on the moon for several reasons.  The first reason why they won’t work is that there is a major temperature difference between Mars and the small craters in the Aiken Basin.  The Aiken Basin craters are about 140 degrees colder than the MER heaters can handle.  The MER heaters were designed for temperatures up to -140 degrees F.[11]  The lunar heater will need to be able to withstand temperatures as cold as -280 degrees F.[10]

    Another problem with the MERs is that they don’t have a lamp since they use the light from the sun.  The rover that goes to the Aiken Basin must have a lamp since there never is any sunlight where it will be searching for water.[2]  A lamp will be needed for the rover to “see” what it is doing and for the cameras.
 
http://www.probotics.ch/images/news/opportunity.jpg
    Since the lunar rover will need a lamp and a core drill, it will probably need more batteries.  The batteries will need to be charged by the sun.  This would not be possible with the solar panels designed for the MERs because of the 24 hours of darkness within the craters.[12]  Instead, an extendable solar panel that can reach out of the shadows of the small craters is necessary.

     The lunar rover must have a better way of detecting water and excavating for it.  The Mars Exploration Rovers use panoramic cameras and a microscopic imager to take pictures of the environment.[13]  Because the water ice is believed to be under the surface of the moon, other water detection methods are required.
    These are the reasons why we believe the Mar Exploration Rovers will not work on the moon.  Instead a slightly different rover needs to be designed for the Aiken Basin.