NASA has selected three companies to develop a lunar rover for the Artemis program
Three automakers will compete for the opportunity to send their version of a vehicle to the moon to participate in the Artemis program, Engadget reports.
The agency has announced that it has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab to develop its lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs) as part of a feasibility study over the next year.
After that, only one company is expected to be selected for a demonstration mission, in which the vehicle will be developed and sent to the Moon for performance and safety tests.
NASA plans to use lunar vehicles starting with the Artemis V crew, which is scheduled to launch in early 2030.
The lunar rover, which will eventually go to the Moon, should function as both a manned and unmanned vehicle, sometimes serving as a vehicle for astronauts and sometimes as a remotely controlled research vehicle.
NASA says it will award the selected company a contract through 2039, with all LTV-related orders potentially worth up to $4.6 billion. The selected company will also be able to use the LTV for commercial activities during its downtime.
Intuitive Machines, which will develop the Moon Racer, has already signed several contracts with NASA under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and in February launched its Odysseus lander to the Moon.
Venturi Astrolab will develop a vehicle called Flex, and Lunar Outpost will work on a vehicle called Lunar Dawn. All of them must be able to support a crew of two astronauts and withstand the extreme conditions of the Moon’s south pole.
“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,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s principal investigator for lunar exploration.