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Three companies are vying for the chance to send their lunar probes to the moon to support NASA’s upcoming Artemis mission.of This week, we announced that Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab have been selected to develop the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) in a feasibility study next year. After that, only one spacecraft will be selected for a demonstration mission, and that spacecraft will be completed and sent to the moon for performance and safety tests. NASA plans to use LTV starting with the Artemis V crew scheduled to launch in early 2030.
The LTV that will eventually make its way to the Moon’s south pole will need to function as both a manned and unmanned vehicle, sometimes as a means of transportation for astronauts, and sometimes as a remotely operated rover. NASA plans to contract selected vehicles for lunar surface services through 2039, and says all mission orders related to LTV could be worth up to $4.6 billion. Selected companies can also leverage LTV during downtime for commercial operations.
Intuitive Machines, which develops the LTV called Moon Racer, already has multiple contracts with NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and Odysseus will go to the moon to accomplish . Venturi Astrolab is developing a vehicle called Flex, and Lunar Outpost is working on an LTV called Lunar Dawn. All must be able to support her two-person astronaut crew and withstand the extreme conditions of the Moon’s south pole.
“We will use LTV to increase our ability to travel, explore and make new scientific discoveries to places that would otherwise be impossible to reach on foot,” said Jacob Breacher, NASA’s Chief Exploration Scientist. said.