The National Center for Space Studies (Cnes) has developed three CASPEX cameras, intended to capture unpublished images of the Moon. They were integrated into the Rashid rover, sent to the Moon as part of the United Arab Emirates’ lunar mission. In video posted on YouTube channel from Cnes, Cédric Virmontois, project manager at Cnes, explains that CASPEX stands for Camera for Space Exploration and that these cameras have been designed for a large number of applications.
Leaving Earth on December 11, the rover is supposed to land in early 2023 in the Atlas crater. These CASPEX cameras, specially designed for space exploration, are the first French instruments sent to the Moon in 50 years. Once there, and for only 8 to 10 days, these cameras will study the geology of the Moon, its soil, as well as the movement of lunar dust. “Called the Emirates Lunar Mission, the mission aims to demonstrate robotic technology on the surface of the Moon, collect unique scientific data useful for future exploration missions and prove the resistance of a technology to the test of night. lunar“, explains the Cnes in a communicated.
Developed since 2015 by Cnes in collaboration with the French company 3D Plus, this type of camera dedicated to space missions embeds technology almost identical to that used to design those of our smartphones. They provide high resolution images of the lunar ground and environment (2000 x 2000 pixels). This scientific data will be useful for future exploration missions.
In the future, other CASPEX cameras are intended to go even further. In 2024, for example, they should equip another rover, that of the Japanese mission Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) to Phobos, one of the natural satellites of Mars. A world reference in the field, this type of camera was already fitted to the famous Perseverance rover during its mission to Mars in 2020.
