Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab will participate in the NASA competition for the development of a vehicle which will be able to travel on the Moon — an order with a potential value of $4.6 billion for the next 13 years.
The Lunar Lunar Vehicle (LTV) will help astronauts explore the Moon’s southern polar region, where frozen water is believed to be present — where NASA plans to initially camp.
According to NASA, all three companies must develop a vehicle that can accommodate two astronauts in specialized suitsIt will also be able to cope with extreme terrain conditions and will be equipped with robotic functions for remote control (so that the space agency can conduct tests and research even in the absence of humans on the Moon).
Next, the companies will have to fulfill «the feasibility study order» and submit proposals to continue development, deliver the vehicle to the Moon, and test its efficiency and safety before the Artemis V mission.
«We will use LTV to travel to places we could not otherwise reach on foot,» said Jacob Bleacher, chief scientist for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Division. «With crewed missions during remote operations, we will be able to operate on the Moon within a year».
Intuitive Machines is now known for being the first private aerospace company to landed (albeit sideways) a spacecraft on the Moon — and this is the first lander from the United States in 50 years that «rendezvoused».
The Artemis program is designed to ensure a permanent human presence on the Moon and, eventually — launch missions to Mars. Artemis II, previously scheduled for November 2024, postponed to September 2025 — the 4-person mission will repeat the path «Orion», which will fly around the Moon in 2022 without a crew. As for the Artemis III mission, which is supposed to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, it is now scheduled for September 2026, 9 months later than previously reported.
Earlier, Ars Technica journalist Eric Berger shared information on how much money NASA will need to land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis program over the next 5 years — The amount exceeds $41 billion.
NASA also recognized that development and operation of the SLS rocket «they cannot afford». The project turned out to be much more expensive than planned — the development of the rocket cost American taxpayers a staggering $11 billion, and the cost of one launch of «Orion» on the SLS is as much as $4.1 billion (of which $2.2 billion is the rocket itself, another $0.57 is the necessary ground costs, and the rest is the cost of American and European components of the «Orion» spacecraft).