Previously we looked at Astrolab’s FLEX, a vehicle with no design predecessor. Intended for lunar exploration, the utilitarian two-person vehicle was designed for NASA.
Now NASA’s announced they’ve selected an additional two companies to develop additional Lunar Terrain Vehicles for their upcoming Artemis V mission. These offerings, or at least the early renderings of them, look a bit more sci-fi than Astrolab’s design. Here’s Intuitive Machines’ Moon RACER:
(Despite the name, it’s not designed for high-speed competition; it’s an acronym for Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover.)
The third LTV to get the green light is Lunar Outpost’s Lunar Dawn vehicle:
While all three vehicles are being developed, just one will be awarded the funding for a demonstration mission. That’s where they have to actually deliver the thing to the surface of the moon and “validate its performance and safety ahead of [the Artemis V mission].”
It’s a pretty tall order, as you can see in the brief below. But whichever company makes the cut will get an additional chance to boost their profit:
“The LTV will be able to handle the extreme conditions at the Moon’s South Pole and will feature advanced technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and state of the art communications and navigation systems. Crews will use the LTV to explore, transport scientific equipment, and collect samples of the lunar surface, much farther than they could on foot, enabling increased science returns.”
“Between Artemis missions, when crews are not on the Moon, the LTV will operate remotely to support NASA’s scientific objectives as needed. Outside those times, the provider will have the ability to use their LTV for commercial lunar surface activities unrelated to NASA missions.”
So far the only images we have are the renders above. I’ll be very curious to see how these things are realized on the surface, as I assume they’ll be shipped in pieces and assembled on the moon. Am also eager to see the eventual competing designs from China, India, Russia, et cetera. But we’ll have to wait for a bit; Artemis V isn’t scheduled to launch until 2030.
NASA posted this image as well, but has not attributed the design.
