NASA Still Chooses One Company To Create Moon Vehicles

Illustration of vehicles on the Moon (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA In April, NASA announced that they had given study contracts to develop lunar rover robots. Of the three contract recipients, NASA will only choose one company. The three companies that receive the Moon Medan Vehicle Service (LTV) manufacturing contract are Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab. They must create an LTV design within one year and NASA will choose the best. This LTV will be used to support the Artemis mission and should be controlled from Earth when the astronauts are not on the Moon. Later, the selected company will have to develop an LTV design and demonstrate its technology on the Moon. If the LTV rover is completed, NASA will lease the vehicle to support the running of the Artemis mission. If NASA is no longer using its vehicle, the company could lease the vehicle to another space agency.

NASA only chooses one company because of a limited budget. In fact, if NASA had larger funds, the US space agency would choose another company to demonstrate its lunar rover ride. "(approximation to the LTV program provides) a better belief that we can remain within the budget given to complete our mission," said NASA's Deputy Manager of Extravehicular Activity Program and Surface Mobility Chris Hansen, quoted from Spacenews. So far, the three companies that have received new LTV creation contracts provide little details regarding the vehicle they are developing. Most likely, the selected vehicles will be leased for five or nine months by NASA.