Australians vote on name for home-made Moon rover

Australians vote on name for home-made Moon rover

SYDNEY: Australians began voting Monday on a name for the country first home-made Moon rover, with a shortlist including "Mateship", "Roo-ver" and "Kakirra" -- an Indigenous word for the Earth satellite.
Australia space industry will develop the semi-autonomous rover to collect lunar soil under an agreement signed two years ago with NASA, which plans to fly it to the Moon surface as soon as 2026.
NASA will then attempt to extract oxygen from the soil sample, marking "a key step towards a sustainable human presence on the Moon", the Australian Space Agency said in a statement.