- NASA awards lunar rover contracts to three US companies
- Designs include advanced technologies for navigating Moon’s extreme conditions
- Artemis missions aim to reestablish human presence on the Moon
NASA has awarded three companies contracts to construct vehicles for crewed missions to the Moon, which will occur for the first time in over fifty years.
NASA announced on Wednesday that Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab, located in Texas, Colorado, and California, respectively, have been selected to develop designs for the lunar rover under a contract valued at a maximum of $4.6 billion.
NASA has prepared to select a single company to conduct a Lunar Terrain Vehicle trial run before the crew’s arrival on the Artemis 5 mission in 2029.
According to the United States Space Agency, the winning bid will include sophisticated technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and cutting-edge communications and navigation systems. It will also be “capable of handling the extreme conditions at the Moon’s south pole.”
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We eagerly anticipate the development of the Artemis generation lunar exploration vehicle, which will assist us in expanding our knowledge of the Moon,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, in a statement.
This vehicle will significantly enhance our astronauts’ capacity to investigate and perform scientific research on the lunar surface by functioning as a science platform between crewed missions.
Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, stated that the rover would enable astronauts to “explore and make new scientific discoveries in locations we might not otherwise be able to reach on foot.”
“Using Artemis crewed missions and remote operations without a crew on the surface, we facilitate year-round scientific investigation and discovery on the Moon,” he explained.
The Artemis missions, named after the Greek mythological sister of Apollo, seek to reestablish human presence on the Moon following the 1972 Apollo 17 mission.
As part of this initiative, NASA intends to lay the groundwork for future Mars missions and establish the first permanent presence on the Moon.
The landing of Artemis 3, the initial crewed mission, is planned for 2026.
