 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of employees | 200 (2024) |
| Website | www |
Lunar Outpost is a private space company headquartered in Golden, Colorado, USA. Its primary mission is to become an industry leader in the areas of space robotics, lunar surface mobility and space resources. The company has developed the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover, and also holds a contract to develop a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) for the Artemis Program. [1]
The company was formed in 2017 and as of 2024 has multiple projects in progress including being one of three finalists to develop the Lunar Terrain Vehicle for the Artemis Program in partnership with Lockheed Martin. [2] The company will also provide the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover on the IM-2 mission in order to demonstrate ISRU on the lunar surface, the mission is scheduled for late 2024. [3] [4] On the IM-3 mission, the company will again provide a rover. [5]
NASA proposed several concept moonbases for achieving a permanent presence of humans on the Moon since the late 1950s. Research and exploration of the Moon have been a large focus of the organization since the Apollo program. NASA's peak budget was in 1964-1965, when it comprised 4% of all federal spending in service of the Apollo Moon landing project. Though lunar landings ever since the conclusion of the Apollo program in 1972 have ceased, interest in establishing a permanent habitation on the lunar surface or beyond low Earth orbit has remained steady. Recently, renewed interest in lunar landing has led to increased funding and project planning. NASA requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion, in order to make another crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program by 2025, followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028. A crew was selected for the planned crewed mission, Artemis II, in April 2023.
A moonbase is a human outpost on or below the surface of the Moon. More than a mere site of activity or temporary camp, moonbases are extraterrestrial bases, supporting robotic or human activity, by providing surface infrastructure. As of 2024 missions to the Moon have realized single-mission bases,, as well as some small permanent installations.
A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move over the rough surface of a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies. Some rovers have been designed as land vehicles to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots. Rovers are typically created to land on another planet via a lander-style spacecraft, tasked to collect information about the terrain, and to take crust samples such as dust, soil, rocks, and even liquids. They are essential tools in space exploration.
Astrobotic Technology inc., commonly referred to as Astrobotic is an American private company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their first launch occurred on January 8, 2024, as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The launch carried the company's Peregrine lunar lander on board the first flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida's Space Force Station LC-41. The mission was unable to reach the Moon for a soft or hard landing. On June 11, 2020, Astrobotic received a second contract for the CLPS program. NASA will pay Astrobotic US$199.5 million to take the VIPER rover to the Moon, targeting a landing in November 2024.
A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Other rovers have been partially or fully autonomous robots, such as the Soviet Union's Lunokhods, Chinese Yutus, Indian Pragyan, and Japan's LEVs. Five countries have had operating rovers on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan.
The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".
Artemis 3 is planned to be the first crewed Moon landing mission of the Artemis program and the first crewed flight of the Starship HLS lander. Artemis 3 is planned to be the second crewed Artemis mission and the first American crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972. In December 2023, the Government Accountability Office reported that the mission is not likely to occur before 2027; as of January 2024, NASA officially expects Artemis 3 to launch no earlier than September 2026 due to issues with the valves in Orion's life support system.
The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a space station which Artemis program participants plan to assemble in an orbit near the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts. It is a multinational collaborative project: participants include NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). The Gateway is planned to be the first space station beyond low Earth orbit.
Blue Moon is a family of lunar landers and their associated infrastructure, intended to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, under development by a consortium led by Blue Origin and including Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics. Two versions of Blue Moon are under development: a robotic lander planned to land on the Moon in 2024, and a larger human lander planned to land a crew of four astronauts on the lunar surface for the NASA Artemis V mission in 2029.
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and perform lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed-price contracts. The program achieved the first landing on the moon by a commercial company in history with the IM-1 mission in 2024. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025.
Orbit Beyond, Inc., usually stylized as ORBITBeyond, is an aerospace company that builds technologies for lunar exploration. Its products include configurable delivery lunar landers with a payload capacity of up to 300 kg (660 lb), and rovers.
The Intuitive Machines Nova-C, or simply Nova-C, is a class of lunar landers designed by Intuitive Machines (IM) to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. Intuitive Machines was one of three service providers awarded task orders in 2019 for delivery of NASA science payloads to the Moon. The IM-1 lunar lander, named Odysseus, was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 15 February 2024, reached lunar orbit on 21 February, and landed on the lunar surface on 22 February. This marked the inaugural Nova-C landing on the Moon and the first American spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon in over 50 years. It is the first spacecraft to use methalox propulsion to navigate between the Earth and the Moon.
The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program that is led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The Artemis program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 moon mission in 1972. The program's stated long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate human missions to Mars.
Artemis 4 is a planned mission of the NASA-led Artemis program. The mission will include the fourth use of a Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle, will send an Orion spacecraft with four astronauts to the Lunar Gateway space station, install a new module on the Gateway, and conduct the second lunar landing of the Artemis program.
Artemis 5 is the fifth planned mission of NASA's Artemis program and the first crewed flight of the Blue Moon lander. The mission will launch four astronauts on a Space Launch System rocket and an Orion to the Lunar Gateway and will be the third lunar landing of the Artemis program. In addition, Artemis V will also deliver two new elements to the Gateway Space Station.
First Lunar Outpost was a proposal for a crewed lunar mission that would have launched sometime in the 2010s. It was part of George H. W. Bush's Space Exploration Initiative. The main purpose of the proposal was to offer a much cheaper alternative to NASA's 90-day study from 1989 by a factor of US$30 billion. Although it did not gather much mainstream attention, NASA dedicated much time to assembling a very detailed and thorough proposal. However, the entire Space Exploration Initiative was cancelled soon after the proposal's completion, and NASA had to close the Office of Space Exploration in March 1993.
IM-2 is an upcoming lunar mission that will be carried out in 2024 by Intuitive Machines for NASA's CLPS program, using a Nova-C lunar lander. The company named this lander Athena. The mission aims to uncover the presence and amount of lunar water ice using PRIME-1, which consists of a drill and mass spectrometer. The lander will carry a Micro Nova Hopper, a drone that will utilize its neutron spectrometer in the PSR of the nearby Marston crater. If successful, this would provide the first measurement of hydrogen on the surface in the PSR, a key indicator of water.
The Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) is an unpressurized rover being developed for 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 2026, but the LTV will not fly until Artemis V in 2030 at the earliest. The LTV will be the first crewed lunar rover developed by NASA since the Lunar Roving Vehicle used during the Apollo program.
The Lunar Cruiser is the nickname of a crewed pressurized lunar rover being developed jointly by JAXA and Toyota that astronauts can drive and live on the Moon.