Nearly 55 years after astronauts first drove on the Moon, NASA is once again turning to automotive innovation to support its upcoming lunar base. The space agency has officially selected two American companies — Astrolab and Lunar Outpost — to develop the next crewed moon buggies, designed to help astronauts explore the lunar south pole as part of the Artemis program.
The new vehicles, known as Lunar Terrain Vehicles (LTVs), will be a far cry from the fold-up rovers of the Apollo era. They are expected to operate for at least one year, travel hundreds of miles across rugged lunar terrain, and serve as both crewed transports and remotely operated science platforms.
A 21st-Century Upgrade to the Apollo Lunar Rover
In a warehouse on a back street of Hawthorne, California, Astrolab CEO and founder Jaret Matthews recently demonstrated a prototype called FLEX. The final design for NASA will resemble a four-wheel drive electric vehicle, capable of carrying two suited astronauts or operating autonomously under Earth control.
"The Apollo Lunar Rover was a phenomenal machine, but fundamentally it had a very different job to do than the one we're doing," Matthews told CBS News during the demonstration. He explained that the new buggies must blend the crew-carrying ability of the Apollo rover with the long-duration, remote-operating features of modern Mars rovers like Perseverance.
The Lunar Terrain Vehicles will be delivered to the Moon's surface via a lunar lander being developed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos. That lander is part of NASA's Artemis moon base infrastructure, which the agency announced plans for earlier this week, with a price tag of approximately $20 billion over the next seven years.
$440 Million in Contracts as Rocket Test Fails
NASA is awarding Astrolab and Lunar Outpost roughly $220 million each to build their respective moon buggies. The Colorado-based company Lunar Outpost will develop a vehicle named Pegasus.
However, the timeline for the rovers' deployment may face new challenges. Just two days after NASA unveiled its moon base plans, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded during a test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That rocket plays a central role in the Artemis program, and the lander intended to carry each rover to the lunar surface is still under development by Blue Origin. At this stage, it remains unclear how significantly the test failure will impact the overall schedule of NASA's lunar base efforts.
Beyond NASA: A Commercial Lunar Economy
Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus highlighted that the rovers are designed with a broader vision in mind. "NASA wants to be one of many customers," Cyrus said. "NASA doesn't want to be the only customer. And the only way you can do that is creating a vehicle that is truly capable enough to allow for new activities on the lunar surface."
Both companies envision their vehicles supporting not only government science missions but also commercial activities — from resource prospecting to cargo delivery and even lunar tourism. The goal is to establish a sustainable, multi-user transportation system on the Moon, much like how roads and trucks serve remote areas on Earth.
With the lunar south pole as the target destination, where water ice is believed to exist in permanently shadowed craters, the new rovers could become essential tools for building a long-term human presence on the Moon — and eventually, for preparing for missions to Mars.
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May 31, 2026
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