At an April 3, 2024, news conference, NASA announced its approach for the development, construction, and fielding of one (or potentially more) lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) as one more element of the Artemis Program. As opposed to selecting one company to produce an LTV, three “awardees” were selected to compete in a rather complicated process for the final project award.
NASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab to advance capabilities for an LTV that Artemis astronauts will use to travel around the lunar surface, conducting scientific research during the agency’s Artemis campaign at the Moon and preparing for human missions to Mars.
Here’s the complicated part: Each provider will begin with a feasibility “task order,” which will be a year-long special study to develop a system that meets NASA’s requirements through the preliminary design maturity project phase. The agency will issue a subsequent request for task order proposal to eligible provider(s) for a demonstration mission to continue developing the LTV, deliver it to the surface of the Moon, and validate its performance and safety ahead of Artemis 5. NASA anticipates making an award to only one provider for the demonstration. NASA will issue additional task orders to provide unpressurized rover capabilities for the agency’s moonwalking and scientific exploration needs through 2039.
In addition to this “open air” LTV, NASA revealed that in about a week it will announce its plans for a “closed” pressurized vehicle. Toyota is apparently developing such a vehicle that they call “Lunar Cruiser;” it is not known if any other companies are involved in such an initiative.
The LTV will likely differ substantially from the familiar Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (commonly called a “moon buggy”) driven in 1971 and 1972 by the astronauts of Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17. Built by Boeing, each moon buggy weighed about 460 pounds. Each could carry a payload of about 970 pounds, which might include 2 astronauts, equipment and lunar samples. The vehicles of Missions 15 and 16 were reported to have top speeds of about 6 miles per hour (on relatively flat surfaces. The vehicle provided for Apollo 17 was rated at about 11 miles per hour. Each moon buggy was carried to the Moon folded up in the Lunar Module’s Quadrant 1 Bay. After being unpacked, each was driven an average of 30 km, without major incident. These three moon buggies remain parked at different locations on the Moon, awaiting enterprising antique car collectors.
Jacob Bleacher (chief exploration scientist in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington) pointed out that the three awardees were still in competition with each other and therefore reluctant to reveal too much about their design direction. However, the representatives from each could not restrain themselves from doing a bit of “bragging” about their designs and design capability. Design life was specified by NASA as ten years, but this might be achieved with more than one vehicle. The Lunar Terrain Vehicle will be capable of remote (uncrewed) use. The plan is for the LTV (or LTVs) to be on the Moon and ready to go when the Artemis 5 astronauts arrive (perhaps to pick them as they disembark). It’s likely that they will have much farther range that the moon buggies. The LTV will feature advanced technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and state of the art communications and navigation systems.
Lunar Outpost (LO) had a press release ready during the news conference. It has Lockheed Martin as its principal partner, with teammates General Motors, Goodyear, and MDA Space. LO claims that their diverse team combines proven robotic and human space exploration heritage, cutting edge technology and automotive industry strengths to create a true off-road vehicle for living and working on the Moon’s surface.
The other two awardees also have teammates and partners. Intuitive Machines has Lockheed Martin, among others. Venturi Astrolab has Axiom and Odyssey Research and perhaps others.
NASA says that it will acquire the LTV as a service from industry. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, milestone-based Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract with firm-fixed-price task orders has a combined maximum potential value of $4.6 billion for all awards over 15 years.
NASA says that it will be the “anchor tenant” for the LTV … having perhaps 75% of the LTVs time during the first year. Given the likely intense interest as commercial Moon exploration gets underway, it may be that the commercial companies may order their own LTVs. Will we see something like the typical airport rent-a-car service, with a line-up of vehicles from which to choose, tote-boards listing the parking slot for each customer, and frequent renter points? We shall see.
