NASA is getting serious about its plans to develop a lunar base, announcing a slew of missions bound for the Moon to help lay the groundwork for the habitat’s infrastructure. During an event held on Tuesday, NASA revealed four companies assigned to building rovers, landers, and drones as part of the first Moon base infrastructure and exploration missions. The earliest missions may launch as soon as this year, while the rest are planned ahead of the anticipated astronaut landing on the Moon. “Every mission, crewed and uncrewed, will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. Leaving to stay As part of the ongoing Artemis program, NASA is heavily focused on building a permanent base on the Moon within the next decade. The agency is aiming to launch uncrewed missions to the Moon on a regular basis to lay down the infrastructure for the lunar base, starting with three missions planned for later this year.
NASA will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander to deliver a suite of instruments to study the lunar surface ahead of the Artemis 4 Moon landing to help reduce risk for future crewed missions. Later this year, Astrobotic’s Griffin lander is set to deliver more than 1,000 pounds of cargo to the Moon’s south pole, including Astrolab’s FLIP rover. The rover will also be used to study ways to mitigate the risks that lunar dust poses to vehicles. Another mission planned for 2026 will use Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lunar lander to deliver Lunar Vertex, a rover designed to study a magnetic anomaly known as lunar swirls.
