The Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) is an unpressurized rover being developed by NASA that astronauts can drive on the Moon while wearing their spacesuits. The development of the LTV is a part of NASA's Artemis Program which involves returning astronauts to the Moon, specifically the lunar south pole, by 2025, but the LTV will not fly until Artemis V in 2029 at the earliest.[1] The LTV will be the first crewed lunar rover developed by NASA since the Lunar Roving Vehicle used during the Apollo program.
History
On February 6, 2020, NASA issued a request, seeking industry feedback on relevant state-of-the-art commercial technologies and acquisition strategies for a new Lunar Terrain Vehicle. NASA also stated in the request that they want the new LTV to draw on recent innovations in electric vehicle energy storage and management, autonomous driving, and extreme environment resistance.”[2]
On August 31, 2021, NASA released another request to private companies for additional input on approaches and solutions for a vehicle to transport Artemis astronauts around the lunar south pole. NASA also asked if American companies are interested in providing the LTV as a commercial service, or as a product NASA would purchase and own.[3]
On Nov 2, 2022, NASA issued a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for the LTV as a service (LTVS).[4] The draft was open for feedback until December 1, 2022, with a planned Final RFP release date of on or about February 8, 2023, a proposals due date approximately 30 days later, and an anticipated contract award date of on or about July 19, 2023.
On January 27, 2023, NASA published an update stating that it anticipated that the LTVS Final RFP release will be delayed until no-later-than May 26, 2023.[5]
On May 26, 2023, NASA officially released its services request for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle with proposals due on July 10, 2023 and a contract award scheduled for November 2023.[6]
On October 30, 2023, NASA delayed the award of the contract to March 31, 2024 to allow additional time to evaluate proposals.[7]
Proposals
Five proposals for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle have been publicly unveiled since NASA's initial request.
On May 26, 2021, Lockheed Martin and General Motors announced they would be teaming up to design a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) for NASA capable of transporting astronauts across the lunar surface.[8] On April 5, 2022, MDA Ltd. announced they would work with Lockheed Martin and General Motors to integrate MDA’s commercial robotic arm technology on their planned human-rated lunar mobility vehicles.[9] On July 20, 2022, Goodyear announced they would join Lockheed Martin and General Motors and develop tires for the LTV drawing from its advanced airless tire technology.[10]
On November 16, 2021, Northrop Grumman announced they would team up with AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Michelin to design a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to transport NASA’s Artemis astronauts around the lunar surface.[11]
On April 7, 2022, Teledyne Brown Engineering announced that it would lead a team including Sierra Space and Nissan North America to design a crewed Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) that will support future exploration on the Moon.[12] On September 22, 2022, Teledyne announced that Bridgestone would also join its team and provide tires for the LTV.[13]
On March 31, 2023, Astrolab announced that they expected to offer their FLEX (Flexible Logistics and Exploration) rover for the upcoming LTV competition.[14]
On April 17, 2023, Leidos and NASCAR announced they would collaborate in the areas of speed, safety and reliability to develop a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) for NASA.[15]
Plans
NASA currently plans to launch the Lunar Terrain Vehicle on Artemis 5, which is expected to launch no earlier than September 2029.[1] The Lunar Terrain Vehicle will be a co-manifested payload on a Space Launch System Block 1B rocket in which the rover will ride on the Exploration Upper Stage right below the Orion spacecraft.[16]
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