Illustrations of NASA astronauts on the lunar South Pole. Credit: NASA

Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar South Pole. Credit: NASA

Lunar Outpost Joins Lockheed Martin’s Consortium to Develop First Crewed Rover in Over 50 Years

GOLDEN, COLORADO, UNITED STATES, April 18, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Lunar Outpost has partnered with Lockheed Martin to contribute technology and engineering expertise in the development of Lockheed Martin’s Lunar Mobility Vehicle (LMV). This next generation lunar terrain vehicle will give astronauts a front row seat to discoveries as they traverse unexplored regions of the Moon.

The Lockheed Martin-led team will be strengthened by Lunar Outpost’s mission heritage and rapid innovation and prototyping practices in end-to-end rover development and operations expertise. Lunar Outpost will be providing COSMOS, a comprehensive mission control software for robotic vehicle teleoperation, data management and payload operations. In addition to leading this key role, Lunar Outpost will be contributing to the vehicle’s onboard navigation, advanced thermal management, lighting and dust mitigation technologies – creating a safe and efficient vehicle for Artemis astronaut exploration.

In 2025, the Artemis program will return U.S. astronauts to the surface of the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The addition of a crewed lunar rover to this mission will extend human mobility further than ever before across harsh lunar terrain.

Astronauts will use the vehicle to conduct critical scientific research and prospect for resources – offering opportunity and insight into fundamental aspects of the solar system. The LMV rover will also be operated autonomously without astronauts on board. Early rover missions will target the Moon’s South Pole, a previously unexplored region thought to have an abundance of water ice and other resources. Uncovering these resources would unlock the ability to build and maintain life support mechanisms for a sustained human presence on the Moon and beyond.

It has been over 50 years since the U.S. last visited the lunar surface, but Lunar Outpost is looking to change that sooner than most think.

“We have secured three missions to the Moon over the next three years and have flight-ready technology to execute those missions and perform numerous tasks including prospecting for resources,” said Justin Cyrus, CEO at Lunar Outpost, “We are excited to support Lockheed Martin’s LMV program with critical rover technologies that will have been demonstrated, tested, and operated multiple times on the lunar surface”.

Lunar Outpost’s three autonomous lunar rover missions include infrastructure, science, and resource prospecting activities - one of which will be the first ever rover to visit the lunar South Pole later this year as well as the first rover to ever collect and sell space resources through a deal with NASA. This mission will also serve as a scouting mission for Artemis astronauts. These missions all occur before the crewed lunar terrain vehicle is expected to be delivered to the surface on the Artemis mission. They bring the opportunity to test LTV software and technology on the lunar surface before deploying it on the human-rated vehicle.

In this consortium, Lunar Outpost joins the likes of General Motors, Goodyear and MDA. Together with Lockheed Martin, the consortium will use their strength in engineering and their innovative technologies to contribute to the expansion of space exploration and research. At the same time, Lunar Outpost is continuously working to apply these technologies as sustainable solutions for the benefit of Earth and humankind.

ABOUT LUNAR OUTPOST
Founded in 2017, Lunar Outpost is an industry leader in commercial space robotics, lunar surface mobility, and space resources. From their terrestrial product lines revolutionizing the air quality sector on Earth to the creation of oxygen on Mars, their impact spans the solar system. Lunar Outpost’s flagship rover, the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), will be the first rover to explore the lunar South Pole in 2023 in human history.

Lunar Outpost has raised $12 million in funding backed by investors including the Explorer 1 Fund, Promus Ventures, Space Capital, Type One Ventures and Cathexis Ventures. In 2021, Lunar Outpost announced that their commercially funded 15 kg MAPP rover—including payload mass allocations for MIT and Nokia — was scheduled for delivery by an Intuitive Machines lander and SpaceX rocket to the lunar South Pole in 2023. Shortly after Lunar Outpost announced its second mission, this time under the NASA PRISM program, to explore Reiner Gamma; a magnetic anomaly on the lunar surface that had been puzzling scientist for hundreds of years. With over a dozen active contracts across commercial, defense, and civil space Lunar Outpost is well positioned to lead in the new space economy. Most recently, Lunar Outpost won a contract with NASA and the Australian Space Agency to design and develop a lunar rover for Australia’s first mission to the Moon.

Find out more at lunaroutpost.com. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram.

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Kealy O'Brien
Lunar Outpost
+1 661-703-0523
kealy.obrien@lunaroutpost.com
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