NASA’s next moon buggy is starting to take shape.
The agency selected three dedicated teams, led by companies Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab, respectively, to develop versions of the rover Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) that Artemis astronauts will use around the Moon’s south polar region. In 2030.
“We look forward to the development of the Artemis generation lunar rover that will help us advance what we have learned on the Moon,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, said in a statement today. she said. “This vehicle will greatly enhance our astronauts’ ability to conduct research and science on the lunar surface while also serving as a science platform between crewed missions.”
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Each team will continue to develop its rover concept over the next 12 months under a “feasibility task order” issued by the agency. Teams will then be eligible to compete for a different NASA task order; one is to build its own vehicle and take it to the moon in a major demonstration ahead of the Artemis 5 mission, currently scheduled to launch in March 2030.
“NASA anticipates awarding only one provider for the demonstration,” agency officials wrote in today’s statement. “NASA will issue additional task orders to provide unpressurized rover capabilities for the agency’s moonwalk and scientific exploration needs through 2039.”
As stated in this statement, NASA will purchase rover services, not actual LTVs. The setup is similar to contracts the agency has signed with SpaceX for cargo and crew delivery services to the International Space Station, which the company performs with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule.
The total potential value of the LTV services contract is $4.6 billion for all awards, NASA said in today’s announcement. The selected team or teams will be responsible for not only building the rover but also taking it to the south polar region of the moon.
LTV will be the United States’ first lunar rover since the Lunar Rover first used on the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.
The new machine will be similar in some ways to the famous “moon car”. For example, it will be unpressurized, which means astronauts using it will need to wear spacesuits. It will also be a two-person vehicle like the Apollo rover.
But the Artemis car will be different in some important ways. Most importantly, it will be able to move without anyone in the driver’s seat, something the old moon buggy could not do.
NASA officials wrote in a May 2023 statement that the LTV “will support astronaut-driven stages and phases as an uncrewed mobile science exploration platform, similar to NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers.” “This will ensure that the science continues to perform even when the crew is not on the lunar surface.”
This work will be carried out near the south pole of the moon, where NASA aims to establish one or more Artemis bases. This part of the moon is thought to contain large amounts of water ice, and if sufficiently accessible it could be used for astronaut life support and could also be processed into rocket fuel.
NASA has launched one Artemis mission to date: Artemis 1, which sends an uncrewed Orion capsule into lunar orbit (and back) in late 2022. Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch four astronauts around the moon in September 2025, and will feature Artemis 3’s boots. If all goes as planned, we will land near the Moon’s south pole in a year.
NASA wants to have an LTV on the moon before the arrival of the Artemis 5 crew in 2030. But it would be much better if it was ready before then.
“If they can get there earlier, we’ll get there earlier,” Lara Kearney, JSC’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program manager, said at a press conference this afternoon.
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The wheels of LTV development began turning in February 2020, when NASA asked industry to contribute ideas for the nation’s next moon buggy.
The agency requested additional input in August 2021. Then, on May 26 of last year, NASA released its official request for LTV proposals with a July 10 deadline. The agency originally planned to award the pool in November but delayed its decision until 2013. four months to date.
One of the companies making this first major disruption, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, has already sent a vehicle to the moon. In February, Intuitive Machines’ robotic Odysseus lander became the first private spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon. Odysseus achieved this milestone under a different NASA contract awarded by the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.