Mexico prepares for first lunar mission: historic moment for Latin America

Space exploration will elevate the Latin American country

Mexico is eagerly finishing preparations for the first Latin American lunar mission, which experts say will “exalt the name of the country.” As part of the project, it is reported that microrobots will be delivered that will work on the Moon to create energy panels.

Photo: Gennady Cherkasov

As the United States and China explore the presence of critical minerals on the moon, Mexico will launch its first lunar mission in early 2024, which officials say will be a historic step for the country and Latin America as a whole.

“ This project will go down in history and is the first of its kind in Latin America, which elevates the name of our country, once again confirming that Mexican engineering is at the level of the best in the world,” said Salvador Landeros, director of the Mexican Space Agency (AEM).

A team of scientists and nearly 250 university students have developed five microrobots that AEM will launch from Cape Canaveral between January 8 and 11 as part of Project Colmena.

According to Fox News, each robot weighs 60 grams and measures just less than 13 centimeters in diameter.

The robots will «talk» to each other on the moon and work together to assemble a panel to generate energy, Mexico News Daily reports. Once set up, the robots will also measure the temperature of the lunar plasma and particle sizes on the surface and record previously unreported data.

The Colmena project is part of NASA's broader Artemis program, which also includes new space programs in Brazil, South Korea and Mexico. NASA will provide more than a launch pad. NASA's commercial lunar payload program has created a spacecraft called Peregrine that will carry microrobots to the moon.

“In today's world, developing our own technologies is a necessity for Mexico,” said the head of the Institute's Space Instrumentation Laboratory Nuclear Sciences Medina Tanco. She added: “If we want social well-being, if we want a better future, we need to stop being just consumers and transform the country into an entity with technological sovereignty.”

Recall that the Mexican team hoped to send robots into space in 2022, but delayed the project and canceled the launch after a “dress rehearsal” was interrupted due to a connection error.