Source: AFP
Three companies are vying to provide NASA’s next lunar rover for crewed missions planned later this decade, the space agency announced Wednesday.
Texas-based Intuitive Machines – which landed a robot near the lunar south pole in February – Lunar Outpost of Colorado and California’s Venturi Astrolab have been tasked with developing designs under a contract with a total maximum potential value of $4.6 billion .
The US space agency expects to award one of the three companies a “demonstration work order” — that is, a test run for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) on the surface of the Moon before the arrival of the crew for the Artemis 5 mission that it is currently set for the end of the decade.
“We are building the capabilities needed to establish a longer-term lunar exploration and presence,” Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist, told reporters. “I like to imagine the views and vistas that the LTV will allow us to see from the surface of the Moon.”
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Although the contracts were awarded to relatively new companies, they have partnered with more established players in the aerospace industry. Intuitive Machines said it has been given a seed round of $30 million to advance its prototype, called the Reusable Autonomous Reconnaissance Rover (RACER), with teammates including AVL, Boeing, Michelin and Northrop Grumman.
Astrolab said its contract could be “worth up to $1.9 billion” – although it did not say how much it was originally awarded – for the Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover, which it is building with Axiom Space and Odyssey Space. Research. An initial design of his rover was presented in 2022.
“The FLEX rover is designed to carry two qualified astronauts, support scientific exploration with a robotic arm, perform cargo logistics and withstand extreme temperatures at the lunar South Pole,” the company said in a statement.
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Lunar Outpost is working with Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Goodyear and MDA Space, with the team collectively called “Lunar Dawn”, on a Lunar Dawn LTV.
“We are using the advantages of cutting-edge technology and automotive engineering to deliver a true off-road vehicle capable of allowing us to live and work on the surface of the Moon,” said the company’s CEO, Justin Cyrus. Lunar Outpost plans to place an unmanned mini-rover on the Moon later this year as part of Intuitive Machines’ next lander mission.
The US plans to return astronauts to the Moon and build a permanent presence there under the Artemis program, named after Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology.
The first crewed mission, Artemis 3, is due to land in 2026, although such a timetable is widely believed to be overly optimistic. China also plans to send a crew to the Moon in 2030 as a new space race heats up.
Source: AFP