Competition Heats Up For Lunar Terrain Vehicle

As the Artemis I mission draws closer, NASA is looking ahead to future manned missions. By 2024 NASA plans to land humans on the moon, where they will explore the surface for about a week before returning to Orion for the trip home to Earth. 

At the lunar South Pole, NASA and its global partners will develop an Artemis Base Camp to support longer expeditions on the lunar surface. Planned Base Camp elements include a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV, or unpressurized rover), a habitable mobility platform (pressurized rover), a lunar habitation module, power systems, and on-site resource utilization systems.

The incremental build-up of capabilities on and around the Moon is essential to establishing long-term exploration of the Moon and preparing for eventual human exploration of Mars.

The development of a robust, effective lunar terrain vehicle is a critical element of the return of humans to the lunar surface. Nasa’s Artemis Plan report states that if the LTV can be delivered to the lunar landing site region prior to the crew’s arrival, the distance they will be able to cover on each moonwalk will greatly expand.

NASA is in the process of soliciting proposals to produce the next-generation LTV. A virtual industry forum took place in February of 2020, with the second industry forum scheduled for August 31 of this year. According to NASA sources, the Draft Request for Proposal deadline is set for November 1, 2022, with the next steps in the process to take place at an unspecified future date.

At this time, four contenders are currently in the running: Lockheed Martin, which is partnering with General Motors (GM); Northrop Grumman; Astrolab; and Teledyne Brown Engineering, which is partnering with Sierra Space and Nissan North America.

Of the four, the youngest contender in the race to produce the next lunar rover is Venturi Astrolab, an aerospace startup based in Hawthorne, California and formed by a team of NASA veterans, former “SpaceXers”, and JPL engineers. Astrolab’s multipurpose FLEX rover, designed for use on Earth, the Moon, and Mars, can collect, transport, and deploy payloads semi-autonomously and is currently undergoing field testing in the California desert.

Engineers at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Dulles, VA location are teaming up with AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Michelin to design its version of the LTV. The company has engaged Apollo astronauts Dr. Harrison (Jack) Schmitt and Charles Duke to incorporate their hands-on experiences into the design, allowing the team to optimize the vehicle for the needs of NASA researchers and Artemis astronauts. 

The LTV concept from Lockheed Martin and GM is designed to operate either with or without humans. A Lockheed Martin-GM rover would be able to pre-position itself autonomously near a landing site prior to the astronauts’ arrival, and astronauts would have the ability to task the LTV from the Human Landing System or the orbiting lunar Gateway to conduct science operations without a driver. This would enable the crew to multitask more efficiently, fitting more science into a smaller amount of time.

GM brings to the table state-of-the-art battery-electric technologies and propulsion systems that are central to the company’s extensive electric vehicle strategy. Research from the development of battery and power systems for the lunar rover will likely contribute to advances on electric vehicles back on Earth as well.

“Because the operating conditions are so extreme in space, our work on this project will help us make safer and better batteries back on earth,” said Madhu Raghavan, Global Research & Development Group Manager at GM. “The Moon and Mars are, of course, totally unstructured, unlined roads. Designing for that environment will ultimately just make our EV capabilities on Earth that much stronger.”

Another particularly notable standout in the race to produce the next-gen LTV is Huntsville’s own Teledyne Brown Engineering, which has formed a partnership with Sierra Space and Nissan North America to create a lunar vehicle with autonomous capabilities.  

Although Boeing and General Motors ultimately produced the first-generation moon buggy to roam the lunar surface, Teledyne Brown Engineering built the first lunar rover prototype in the 1960s for Dr. Wernher von Braun and has subsequently supported nearly every major U.S. human rated space mission.

Its partner, Sierra Space, will soon have deeper ties to the Rocket City with Huntsville International Airport’s recent authorization as an official commercial landing site for its Dream Chaser spaceplane. The first landing should take place on Runway 18L-36R in 2023.

Like GM, Nissan has deep knowledge into autonomous driving and intelligent vehicle systems, as well as the desire to translate the data gathered from the lunar surface into enhanced capabilities on Earth. 

“We feel that we have created a dynamic, cutting edge and proven team for this effort,” stated Scott Hall, President of Teledyne Brown Engineering.  “Together this team will deliver a rugged, versatile and intuitive vehicle to support our future in space.”