NASA has announced three finalists who will pitch their best lunar vehicle ideas for use on the upcoming Artemis moon mission by this time next year.inside Press conference Yesterday afternoon, the government agency confirmed that Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab will all spend the next 12 months developing the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) concept as part of a “Feasibility Task Order” Did.
Vanessa Wich, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the final LTV will “significantly improve the ability of astronauts to explore and conduct science on the lunar surface, while also providing a science platform between crewed missions.” It also functions as a.
Neither Lunar Outpost nor Venturi Astrolab have gone to the moon yet, but they are planning unmanned spacecraft missions in the next few years. In February, Intuitive Machines became the first private company to successfully land on the moon with the NASA-backed Odysseus spacecraft. Audi officially returned the United States to the moon after a more than 50-year hiatus, but touchdown complications caused the craft to land on its side, severely limiting the scope of its mission.
[Related: NASA’s quirky new lunar rover will be the first to cruise the moon’s south pole.]
The last time astronauts flew around in a moon buggy was in 1971 during NASA’s Apollo 15 mission. The new LTV, like its Apollo predecessor, seats only two people in its unpressurized cockpit. In other words, it is exposed to the harsh lunar environment.
However, once deployed, LTV differs from a lunar rover in several important ways. The most notable thing is that you don’t need someone at the wheel all the time. An astronaut will pilot his LTV during the expedition, but the vehicle will be specifically designed to be remotely operated by the Artemis crew once they return to Earth.among them First call for proposals in May 2023, the agency explained that its LRV capabilities will be “similar to NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers.” If NASA does not rent LTV, the winning company is free to contract it out to private ventures in the meantime.
But while it’s great to see promising lunar rover designs on paper, companies need to demonstrate their vehicles’ performance on more than just desert driving courses on Earth before NASA makes a final selection. There is.
After considering the three proposals, NASA will issue a second mission order to at least one of the finalists, requiring them to see the prototype in action on the Moon. This means companies must plan and execute independent lunar exploration missions, deliver work vehicles to the moon, and “verify their performance and safety.” Only after that small hurdle is cleared will NASA plan to give the green light to one of the company’s spacecraft.
If all goes well, NASA’s Artemis V astronauts will use the winning LTV when they arrive near the moon’s south pole in 2030.
