Category Archives: Lunar Rovers

Tuesday / 30 September 2025

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NASA Awards Blue Origin US$190M VIPER Delivery Contract

Blue Origin will now deliver NASA lunar rover to the Moon South Pole using Blue Moon Mark 1 lander; targeting late 2027, the 100-day mission will seek water ice and volatiles, supporting Artemis; Blue Origin $3B Space Coast facility, including the 18,600 m² Lunar Plant 1, will build the lander, employing 1,500 workers; the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket will enable lunar deliveries, while Blue Origin advances its Human Landing System for Artemis V

Image Credits: Blue Origin

Friday / 19 September 2025

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Paving Moon Surface Necessary for Counteracting Regolith Dust

Michigan Technical University (PI, associate professor Paul van Susante) and SpaceFactory.ai (PI, founder David Malott) working together to create Moon-paving machines to polymerize regolith top layer, preventing future issues of dust-encrusted spacesuits on Moon-walking Astronauts; paving substance must endure 300°C temperature swings, -173 to +127; NASA Small Business Technology Transfer awarded US$150,000 in 2023, and US$850,000 this year funds R&D into 2027; current work is automating excavation / grading and preparing viscoelastic, asphalt-like material; road-bed samples are cryocooled and heated to lunar temps, rover wheel traverses sample paving 900x

Image Credits: NASA / SPC / ILOA, NASA / Gene Cernan of Harrison Schmitt, MTU, SpaceFactory.ai

Tuesday / 16 September 2025

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Space Calendar Offers to Land Your Message on the Moon

15 September announcement from Space Age Publishing Company communicates it will carry customer names and 100-character messages to Moon surface via Astrolab FLIP mission, landing near south pole in Nobile region NET late 2025, and via International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) ILO-1 mission in 2027; US$50 is the nominal fee for a limited time, see SpaceCalendar.com/MoonMessage; ILO-1 mission is to initiate 2-way lunar communications, adding real-time images from its lunar surface telescope to the weekly Space Calendar, published since 1976 and landed on Moon via a CLPS lander on 22 Feb 2024; Canadensys to build ILO-1 instrument

Image Credits: Space Age Publishing Company, International Lunar Observatory Association

Friday / 8 August 2025

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Agreement with Astrolab for Interlune Helium-3 Rover-Mounted Camera

Helium-3 lunar prospector Interlune will mount multispectral, multi-wavelength camera developed with NASA Ames on Astrolab FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) rover, headed to Nobile Crater ~85°S NET Q4 2025 on Astrobotic Griffin-1 lander, to seek titanium-rich ilmenite mineral correlated with helium-3; precursor for NET 2027 dedicated helium-3 mission, privately held Seattle-based Interlune has agreements for purchase by US Department of Energy and Maybell Quantum of Denver CO; estimated price for helium-3 is US$20 million per kg

Image Credits: Astrobotic, Astrolab, Interlune 

Tuesday / 29 July 2025

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IM Re-Sets 3rd Landing to 2026, Pushing Forward on LTV, International Collaboration

Intuitive Machines (IM) is networking / outreaching internationally, working with companies in Norway, Germany, Hungary, and inspiring Mohamed Al Aseeri, CEO of Bahrain Space Agency, who signed the Artemis Accords for his country with goals of global collaboration / staying apprised of lunar tech; IM will add NASA-chosen Infrared Spectrometer (AIRES) developed at ASU Tempe and Microwave Spectrometer (L-MAPS) developed at UH Manoa to its Lunar Terrain Vehicle competing for NASA award to be announced NLT 31 Dec; IM CTO Tim Crain expects full IM-3 success via redundant laser rangefinders, lunar crater maps, 12 pre-landing orbits

Credits: NASA, IM

4-7 July 2025
USA Holiday Weekend Edition

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International Lunar Observatory Association ILO-1 Flagship Mission to Fly on Astrolab FLEX Rover to Moon South Pole NET 2026

ILOA Hawai’i will have instruments for Milky Way Center observation and commercial 2-way communications mounted on light bar of Astrolab FLEX rover, targeted to launch on Starship NET Dec 2026 and land at 1 of 9 possible Artemis landing sites near Moon South Pole; aim is for at least 1 year of operations for ILO-1 payload to fulfill long-term astronomy, science and exploration goals, as well as provide commercial lunar broadcasting for Space Age Publishing Company / Space Calendar, and others

Credits: Astrolab, SpaceX, Smithsonian

Friday / 20 June 2025

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Newly Announced Mona Luna European Lunar Rover Model Is at Paris Air Show

Venturi Space of Monaco shows 750kg, 2.5m x 1.64m rover Mona Luna to CNES, ESA, 300,000 at Paris Air Show; Venturi working with Astrolab of Hawthorne, California for NASA LTV rover, both have lunar-night-surviving batteries, Swiss-developed hyper-deformable wheels; Mona Luna travels 20kph, climbs 20° slopes, hibernates 14 days; remote-control enhanced by onboard AI; designed to reach Moon on ESA Argonaut lander launching on Ariane 6.4 NLT 2030 

Credits: Venturi Space

Friday / 13 June 2025

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Astrobotic Lunar Rover Ready to Go, Passes All Tests

CubeRover-1 ready 18 months early says project manager / lead mechanical engineer Andrea Davis of Astrobotic, Pittsburgh, who praises team, notes 16 years of development, US$20M+ cost for 4kg rover; 37 funders including Canadian Space Agency under Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program, and NASA Small Business Innovation Research award; rover has thermal-vacuum / electromagnetic survivability, software / communications compatibility; will fly on Griffin Mission One NET Nov with Astrolab ~500kg FLIP Rover, to land near Moon South Pole at Nobile Crater, 85°S

Credits: Astrobotic; Pictured CW: Griffin One lander, Andrea Davis with CubeRover, CubeRover team

Friday / 23 May 2025

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Astrobotic Announces Power Technology Breakthrough for Surviving Lunar Night

 Wireless charging is now commercially available for space applications, furthering Astrobotic goal “to make space accessible to the world”; 125W of power to rovers or astronaut-held tools will transfer from lander or Vertical Solar Array Technology platform, whether covered in 4cm of regolith dust, at -180°C, vibrating, or in an electromagnetic field with virtually no atmosphere; Astrobotic led WiBotic, Bosch, University of Washington and NASA Glenn in development, for ~54 months, under US$5.7M NASA Tipping Point contract; 400W system is in the works

Credits: Astrobotic

Friday / 16 May 2025

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ispace Lander in Lunar Orbit, 20 Days Ahead of Anticipated Moon Landing

 ispace 340-kg lunar craft Resilience in stable Moon orbit due to ~9-minute main thruster burn ahead of final maneuvers before anticipated 5 Jun (UTC) touchdown near Mare Frigoris with 5-kg rover Tenacious; rover will shovel regolith, analyze and send data; ispace aiming to fulfill US$5,000 NASA Lunar Regolith Transfer Contract; Resilience also carries water electrolyzer, food production experiment with algae, Moonhouse by artist Mikael Genberg, deep space radiation probe, UNESCO memory disk, commemorative plaque based on Charter of the Universal Century fictional document from Japanese science fiction franchise Gundam

Credits: ispace-Inc