Mexico could be the first Latin American country to conquer the Moon
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The project called ‘Autonomous Assembly of Structures on the Lunar Surface’, will launched the robots which will fall in different places of Moon surface and then regroup to work as a swarm in the assembly of structures. These intelligent devices designed by the Laboratory of Space Instrumentation of the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, are so light that each of the robots weigh less than half a kilo, but despite its lightweight, they will be able to overcome atmospheric adversities without major complications.
Gustavo Medina Tanco, head of the Space Instrumentation Laboratory of Universidad Nacional de México (UNAM), told local media that the launch of the robots to the Moon will take place during the second half of 2019 and will be fundamental for the development of new space exploration projects conducted from Mexico.
A small step for the world, a giant leap for Mexico
Countries such as China, Russia and USA have a wide trajectory and a special exploration, this sometimes can make a little more difficult the intentions and consequent success of cosmic exploration lead by undeveloped nations, especially in Latin America. However, Mexico has found in its technology a significant advantage, by constructing simple and low cost equipment that consumes a minimum of power and is designed with units that do not need to be repaired, but replaced by reserve devices.
Under these qualities, Mexico discovered a zone of exploration opportunity and the first launch of robots in 2019, will be a big test from Mexico. As Medina told local media, "the Moon is the ideal place to build a base, it is already known that it can have water and other elements with which it can generate fuel for spacecraft. Mexico developing this technology is buying a ticket for when world economies change."
Mexican road towards conquest of space exploration has been slow, but never suspended. It began in December 1957, when professors from the School of Physics of the University of San Luis Potosí, launched the first Mexican probe rocket to explore the properties of the atmosphere. Since then, in the midst of financial constraints but with ambitious projects to carry out, the Aztec country continued designing technology, training scientists and carrying out tests that finally gave life to the Mexican Space Agency (AEM), a public and decentralized agency that since 2010 manages Mexican Space Policy.
This is how in 2019, the shipment of the eight Mexican robots to the lunar surface, a project financed with Sectoral Funds of the National Council of Science and Technology, and the support of the American company Astrobotic Technology, intends to become a new phase for the Mexican space exploration, a leap that would also position the country as the first Latin American nation to reach the moon and ‘wave’ its flag on space.
