(Left) a team of MIT scientists anxiously watch their monitors waiting for a signal from the moon; the thumb-sized 'Astroant' will explore the terrain of the lunar surface.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — MIT's Astroant has arrived on the moon.
It's one of three MIT payloads that hitched a ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket safely landing on the South Pole's lunar surface Thursday.
MIT's three pieces of hardware including the thumb-sized Astroant will be carried by a larger suitcase-sized moon rover that will explore the moon's terrain.
A camera that's mounted on the front of the rover is designed to take the first-ever 3D images of the lunar landscape captured from the surface of the moon.
The third piece is a wafer-thin “record” etched with the voices of people from around the world speaking messages of peace in their native languages.
Shortly after the rocket landed on the moon, one of the happiest people on the planet was the founder of the MIT Space Exploration Mission Dr. Ariel Ekblaw. "I couldn't be prouder and more grateful to have this opportunity to send real hardware to the moon," she said. "We are pinching ourselves that this is possible."
This current lunar visit is designed to help pave the way for future missions to establish a permanent base on the lunar surface.
Ekblaw said if Astroant is successful, it will lead to expanding that concept. "What we want to do in the future is send hundreds or thousands that will crawl on the outside of space stations, maybe crawl on the outside of a lunar habitat, and do the inspections that would be really risky for humans to do."
NASA plans to send astronauts to the moon’s South Pole in 2027 as part of the Artemis III mission.
That will mark the first time humans have returned to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission back in 1972.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.