NASA Provides Progress Update on Moon Base Rovers
As NASA works to build the Moon Base, crewed and robotic lunar rovers will play a crucial role during early development through technology demonstrations, astronaut transport, terrain mapping, scientific investigations, and resource prospecting. Data from these early missions will inform future mobility systems and infrastructure needed for astronauts to live and work on the Moon. […]
6 min read
As NASA works to build the Moon Base, crewed and robotic lunar rovers will play a crucial role during early development through technology demonstrations, astronaut transport, terrain mapping, scientific investigations, and resource prospecting. Data from these early missions will inform future mobility systems and infrastructure needed for astronauts to live and work on the Moon.
On Tuesday, NASA released a Moon Base video update offering a closer look at the progress being made on the commercial lunar terrain vehicles and robotic rovers that will enable the surface mobility needed to build humanity’s first lunar outpost.
“Lunar rovers are central to our surface mobility strategy,” said Robert Pickle, director of the Surface Mobility Office within the agency’s Moon Base Program. “Their performance will lay the groundwork for the mobility systems that will define the next era of exploration and ultimately determine how effectively we can build, operate, and expand the infrastructure required for long‑duration exploration.”
NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) will embark on a mission to the lunar South Pole region in 2027 to venture into permanently shadowed craters looking for water and other valuable resources essential for sustainable exploration.
After delivery to the lunar surface by a Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, VIPER will travel more than 18 miles (30 kilometers), collecting information about the thermal, lighting, and terrain environment in the Moon’s South Pole region. This data could provide information about the origin and distribution of water on the Moon, help determine how lunar resources could be used for the Moon Base, as well as better understand the history of the Moon, Earth, and the processes that helped shape conditions for life.
Mission operations for VIPER will be run out of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley where teams are simulating possible scenarios for when the rover begins its mission on the Moon.
The VIPER rover is currently at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston where it is fully built and undergoing final testing before traveling to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch to the Moon.
To advance surface mobility on the Moon, NASA awarded Astrolab and Lunar Outpost task orders to build the first phase of Moon Base rovers capable of carrying crew, called lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs), that will be delivered to the Moon ahead of crewed Artemis missions. NASA awarded Blue Origin a task order to deliver the LTVs to the lunar South Pole region by 2028 through the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative.
The LTVs will be remotely operated from Earth, traversing up to 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) a day, mapping the lunar surface to help scientists produce high-resolution maps of the region, prior to crew arriving on future missions. The rovers also will collect information to help NASA and its partners learn about operating in this extreme environment, such as data on lighting, navigation, and how well the LTVs preserve energy and function when driving in and out of permanently shadowed regions that can reach minus 334°F (minus 203°C). This will help inform Moon Base development and improve on design and capability for future mobility systems, hardware, and infrastructure.