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.”
Learn more about NASA’s VIPER
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.
Lunar terrain vehicles
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.
During missions on the lunar surface, Artemis astronauts will drive the LTVs as they explore geologically diverse areas of the lunar South Pole region, gathering geology samples to bring back to Earth for scientists to study. The LTVs will be able to support up to three moonwalks per Artemis mission, transport up to 176 pounds (80 kilograms) of lunar samples and tools, and travel up to six miles (10 kilometers) on a single battery charge.
Astrolab
Astrolab’s Crewed Lunar Vehicle 1, or CLV-1, is a rover adapted from the company’s FLEX (Flexible Logistics and Exploration Vehicle) LTV architecture. Astrolab recently delivered a mockup of CLV-1 to Axiom Space, where NASA astronauts wore mock-ups of the Artemis lunar spacesuit and evaluated the lunar rover’s design, crew cabin, and display interfaces.
Prior to CLV-1 arriving to the Moon, Astrolab will send its first robotic rover, FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform), to the lunar surface as a payload on Voyager Technologies’ Griffin Mission One scheduled to launch in late 2026. FLIP will study the environment of the South Pole and serve as a testbed for critical subsystems on CLV-1, which will include similar tires, batteries, radios, and cameras.
In the next few weeks, Astrolab engineers will head to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland where they will use the center’s Simulated Lunar Operations laboratory to evaluate the how CLV-1’s flexible, airless wheels perform while driving on a simulated lunar surface.
Lunar Outpost
Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus crewed LTV is a lighter, mission-ready evolution of the company’s Eagle LTV. Prior to the award, Lunar Outpost built two mockups of Pegasus and recently delivered a third static mockup to NASA’s Johnson Space Center for crewed testing. During the test, NASA astronauts wore pressurized spacesuits and evaluated the rover’s design, usability, and crew comfort.
In 2025, Lunar Outpost’s robotic exploration rover MAPP (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform) operated at the Moon’s South Pole. During the mission, MAPP acted as a testbed and collected data, achieving flight-proven readiness for key hardware and software subsystems, like its automatic thermal control system, navigation cameras, and mission control software that will be used to remotely operate Pegasus. With a second MAPP rover scheduled to launch in early 2027, Lunar Outpost is advancing many of the key technologies that are directly transferable to Pegasus.
In the next few weeks, Lunar Outpost teams also will head to NASA Glenn to test and evaluate the soil mechanics, traction, and mobility of Pegasus’ spring mesh tires.
In the coming months, both Astrolab and Lunar Outpost will test drivable LTV mockups with NASA crew to evaluate how the rovers drive and operate in a simulated lunar environment. Lunar Outpost is scheduled to complete the preliminary design review of their LTV in October, and Astrolab is scheduled to complete their preliminary design review by the end of December. Both companies are on schedule to deliver the flight-ready hardware to NASA at the end of 2027.
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions near the lunar South Pole to explore more of the Moon than ever before. In addition to providing economic benefits and advancing scientific discovery through its Moon missions, NASA will establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface and build on the agency’s foundation for the first crewed mission to Mars.
To learn more about the Moon Base, visit:
Source: NASA