NASA selects a landing site for its 2023 Moon rover mission

NASA has selected a landing site for its golf cart-sized VIPER rover, which is set to land on the Moon in 2023 in search of traces of water. The robotic vehicle will land near the western edge of the Nobile Crater, a 45-mile-wide impact crater at the Moon's south pole, the space agency announced. NASA said the terrain in the Nobile region is'most suitable for the VIPER rover to navigate, communicate, and characterise potential water and other resources'. Nobile Crater was formed through a collision with another smaller celestial body, and is almost permanently covered in shadows, allowing ice to exist there. The Moon's south pole is one of the coldest areas in our Solar System and no prior missions to the Moon's surface have explored it.