The three companies are Intuitive Machines from Texas, Venturi Astrolab from California and Lunar Outpost from Colorado. They have one year to design a moon rover. Afterwards, one of the companies will be selected to build the moon rover and send it to the moon with the Artemis 5 mission.
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Artemis 5 is planned for the end of the decade. Artemis 3, the first to return astronauts to the moon, is scheduled for 2026. With the Artemis program, NASA wants to explore the south pole of the moon, where no human has ever been. The region is very interesting because it has water in the form of ice, but it also poses challenges, including temperature differences.
The new rover will “fundamentally change our view of the moon,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s top scientist. The device, which must be equipped with, among other things, a robotic arm, should enable astronauts to explore more distant zones at the South Pole and to take samples.
Also autonomous
It will be the first American moon rover since the rover of the Apollo missions in the 1970s. In contrast to that vehicle, the new type will also have to be able to function autonomously when the astronauts are not there.
NASA wants the winning company to provide services for ten years, but the contract also leaves the option for the rover to be used by private customers.
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The total value of the combined contracts for the development of the new lunar vehicle should not exceed $4.6 billion, the space agency said.
Intuitive Machines succeeded in the first commercial moon landing at the end of February, with an unmanned aircraft.
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