NASA AWARDS $4.6 BILLION CONTRACT TO 3 COMPANIES TO DEVELOP ROVER FOR MOON MISSION

A FLEX prototype used during testing in the California desert. (Photo: Venturi Astrolab)

Thu 04 April 2024:

Three companies have been given contracts by NASA to create the vehicles needed for the first crewed Moon landings in almost 50 years.

Under a contract worth up to $4.6 billion, NASA said on Wednesday that Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab—based in Texas, Colorado, and California, respectively—were selected to create designs for the lunar rover.

The US space agency said the winning bid will be “able to handle the extreme conditions at the Moon’s south pole” and “feature advanced technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and state-of-the-art communications and navigation systems.”

“We look forward to the development of the Artemis generation lunar exploration vehicle to help us advance what we learn at the Moon,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement.

“This vehicle will greatly increase our astronauts’ ability to explore and conduct science on the lunar surface while also serving as a science platform between crewed missions.”

Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said the rover would allow astronauts to “travel to locations we might not otherwise be able to reach on foot, increasing our ability to explore and make new scientific discoveries.”

“With the Artemis crewed missions, and during remote operations when there is not a crew on the surface, we are enabling science and discovery on the Moon year around,” he said.

The Artemis missions, named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, aim to return humans to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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