Race to Drive on the Moon: Inside the Battle for NASA’s Artemis Lunar Rover Contract
Three competing lunar rover prototypes on display at NASA’s Johnson Space Center: Venturi Astrolab’s FLEX rover, Intuitive Machines’ Moon RACER, and Lunar Outpost’s Eagle LTV. NASA is once again in the market for a Moon rover – and this time it’s turning to private industry. Under the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and eventually send crewed missions to Mars, NASA issued a call for next-generation lunar vehicles that astronauts can drive on the Moon’s surface. The agency’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle will be an unpressurized, “open-top” rover akin to an Apollo-era moon buggy, but far more capable. It must ferry two suited astronauts across the airless, icy desert of the lunar south polar region, dramatically extending their exploration range beyond the lander’s vicinity. “We will use the LTV to travel to locations we might not otherwise be able to reach on foot, increasing our ability to explore and make new scientific discoveries,” explained Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist. Between crewed landings, the rover should even drive itself to conduct science remotely – serving as a robotic research platform “year round” on the Moon.
