The companies Northrop Grumman, AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Michelin will join forces to design and build a new rover. The latter will be used to transport the astronauts of the Artemis program to the Moon.
As part of the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions, astronauts were able to move on the lunar soil by means of Lunar Roving Vehicles (LRV). Weighing only 260 kg, these electric-powered two-seaters couldmove at around 18 km/h and transport astronauts up to 7.6 km from the landing site , thus promoting the exploration of our satellite. As part of the Artemis program, which foresees the return of humans to the Moon during the second half of the decade, astronauts will be able to take advantage of a more advanced version of these rovers.
A few months ago, NASA had indeed asked the space industry to work on the development of an unpressurized lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) allowing the exploration of the lunar south pole where the first installations will be established. Northrop Grumman recently entered into an agreement with AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Michelin to design and build this vehicle.
This new partnership has only just been announced. Also, no details on the design of this rover or its specifications have yet been released. What we do know, however, is that all of these partners have been selected for their individual areas of expertise . All will work together to create a fully integrated vehicle.
In detail, Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor, will handle systems integration, cargo storage, energy management, avionics, navigation, sensors, controls, mission planning. For its part, AVL will work on the electric propulsion system and Intuitive Machines on the landing system to deliver the rover to the Moon. Finally, Lunar Outpost will bring its expertise on dust mitigation and thermal technologies while Michelin will focus on the development of airless tires.
To help with the design of this vehicle, the Astronauts Harrison (Jack) Schmitt (Apollo 17) and Charles Duke (Apollo 16) will also give their opinion based on their experiences driving on the Moon.
“Together with our teammates, we will provide NASA with an agile and affordable vehicle design to dramatically improve human and robotic exploration of the lunar surface to enable a lasting human presence on the Moon and eventually Mars “, said Steve Krein, of Northrop Grumman.
Recall that NASA has also partnered with JAXA, the Japanese space agency, to develop a larger vehicle, pressurized this time, inside which two to four astronauts will be able to evolve for long periods. For this project, JAXA partnered with Toyota. This future vehicle should normally be based on rechargeable fuel cell technology with hydrogen.
