Along with funding the commercial development of new rockets, Artemis moon landers and new spacesuits, NASA is pressing ahead with plans to buy an unpressurized moon rover that can carry astronauts, science payloads — or both — across the rugged terrain of the lunar south pole, officials said Wednesday.The agency announced contract awards to three companies to develop competing designs for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle, or LTV, similar in concept to the rovers that carried the last three Apollo crews across the moon’s surface more than 50 years ago. An artist’s impression of Intuitive Machines’ But the new models will feature state-of-the-art technology, long-lasting tires, autonomous computer control and other technology upgrades, allowing them to cover much greater distances under manual astronaut control or by remote control from Earth.”As astronauts explore the south pole region of the moon during our Artemis missions, they’ll be able to go farther and conduct more science than ever before thanks to the Lunar Terrain Vehicle,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Space Center. “Think of a hybrid of the Apollo style lunar rover … and an uncrewed mobile science platform.””This will give the crew the capability to travel a distance much further from their landing sites,” Wyche said. “In addition, during uncrewed operations, the LTV will provide autonomous operations for science and technology.” An artist’s impression of the Lunar Outpost The milestone-based Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract has a maximum value of $4.6 billion. But NASA is starting out small, doling out three “feasibility” contracts to Intuitive Machines of Houston, Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colorado, and Venturi Astrolab of Hawthorne, California.The companies will spend the next 12 months perfecting their designs and developing plans for getting their rovers to the moon. At that point, NASA will conduct a formal competition and choose a single contractor to proceed with actual development.The goal is to have a working rover waiting on the moon when astronauts making the third Artemis moon landing reach the lunar south pole later this decade.Company representatives, citing the competitive nature of the project, declined to provide details on what sort of range their rovers might achieve, w …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnAlong with funding the commercial development of new rockets, Artemis moon landers and new spacesuits, NASA is pressing ahead with plans to buy an unpressurized moon rover that can carry astronauts, science payloads — or both — across the rugged terrain of the lunar south pole, officials said Wednesday.The agency announced contract awards to three companies to develop competing designs for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle, or LTV, similar in concept to the rovers that carried the last three Apollo crews across the moon’s surface more than 50 years ago. An artist’s impression of Intuitive Machines’ But the new models will feature state-of-the-art technology, long-lasting tires, autonomous computer control and other technology upgrades, allowing them to cover much greater distances under manual astronaut control or by remote control from Earth.”As astronauts explore the south pole region of the moon during our Artemis missions, they’ll be able to go farther and conduct more science than ever before thanks to the Lunar Terrain Vehicle,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Space Center. “Think of a hybrid of the Apollo style lunar rover … and an uncrewed mobile science platform.””This will give the crew the capability to travel a distance much further from their landing sites,” Wyche said. “In addition, during uncrewed operations, the LTV will provide autonomous operations for science and technology.” An artist’s impression of the Lunar Outpost The milestone-based Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract has a maximum value of $4.6 billion. But NASA is starting out small, doling out three “feasibility” contracts to Intuitive Machines of Houston, Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colorado, and Venturi Astrolab of Hawthorne, California.The companies will spend the next 12 months perfecting their designs and developing plans for getting their rovers to the moon. At that point, NASA will conduct a formal competition and choose a single contractor to proceed with actual development.The goal is to have a working rover waiting on the moon when astronauts making the third Artemis moon landing reach the lunar south pole later this decade.Company representatives, citing the competitive nature of the project, declined to provide details on what sort of range their rovers might achieve, w …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
