Name: Companies compete to develop next generation lunar rover for NASA
Uploaded: 2025-12-22T15:11:35.645Z
Duration: 2 min 42 s
Description: NASA astronauts took their first drive on the moon 54 years ago. Now, three companies are competing for a NASA contract to build a new lunar rover for use starting with the Artemis 5 mission in 2030.

NASA astronauts took their first drive on the moon 54 years ago. Now, three companies are competing for a NASA contract to build a new lunar rover for use starting with the Artemis 5 mission in 2030.

Hawthorne

NASA is seeking a new generation of lunar rovers for its Artemis V mission, scheduled for 2030, with three companies—Astrolab, Intuitive Machines, and Lunar Outpost—competing for the contract. The new vehicles must be significantly more robust than the Apollo Lunar Rover, with the ability to last up to 10 years, withstand extreme temperature swings, and operate remotely or be driven by astronauts in space suits.

Astrolab's Flex rover, Intuitive Machines' Moon Racer, and Lunar Outpost's Eagle are all designed to carry two astronauts and cargo, featuring innovations such as airless tires and joystick controls. The companies also see potential for commercial use of these vehicles beyond NASA's needs, aiming to enable new activities on the lunar surface.

Companies compete to develop next generation lunar rover for NASA

It was 1971 when America's love affair with the car went lunar. The Apollo Lunar Rover turned American moonwalkers into moon drivers, allowing astronauts to explore more than 50 miles of lunar crust and craters. The Apollo Lunar Rover was a phenomenal machine, but fundamentally it had a very different job to do than the one we're doing. So the Apollo Lunar Rover was only designed to last about three days on the lunar surface. We have to last up to 10 years on the lunar surface. So you just point the joystick whichever way you want to go, super intuitive. Jared Matthews is the founder of Astrolab. On a backstreet in Hawthorne, California, he took us for a spin in a Zamboni-looking prototype of his company's 21st century lunar rover called Flex. We can also do what's called crabbing, so this steers all the wheels laterally and this is for all those tight parking spots on the moon. The final design will look like this, a four-wheel-drive electric vehicle that can carry two astronauts and move cargo at a top speed of about nine miles per hour. The lunar terrain vehicles have to be a mashup of the Apollo Lunar Rover to carry two suited astronauts as well as something more modern like the Perseverance rover on Mars and can be operated remotely from Earth. You kind of got to be a Swiss army knife of vehicles. Absolutely, yeah. Astrolab is one of three companies competing for a NASA contract to build a new lunar rover for use starting with the Artemis V mission in 2030. Flex must survive in an unforgiving environment with 400-degree temperature swings and lunar nights that last two weeks. It has to be robust to temperature extremes, radiation, I mean everything is trying to kill it. In some ways you have no margin of error, there's no triple A if you blow a tire. Absolutely. For some reason they're airless. Its airless tires made of silicone and stainless steel can conform to the terrain, but Flex has some competition. Intuitive Machines of Houston is pitching NASA its Moon Racer rover and Colorado-based Lunar Outpost has developed a space truck called Eagle. Lunar Outpost's CEO Justin Cyrus told us he sees opportunity on the moon beyond NASA. NASA doesn't want to be the only customer and the only way you can do that is creating a vehicle that is truly capable enough to allow for new activities on the lunar surface. Do you want to drive yourself? I'd love to. Okay. Steering with a joystick designed for the limited movement allowed by a space suit. Oh, now we're really going. Now we're cooking, huh? Cooking up a slow and steady ride to the moon and beyond. For CBS Mornings, I'm Chris Van Cleave in Hawthorne, California.

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