The curtain is about to rise on NASA's next moon car.
The space agency will announce the company, or companies, that it has selected to develop the rover for its Artemis program of lunar exploration during a press conference today (April 3) at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).
You can watch the event live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency.
Related: NASA's new moon car for Artemis astronauts will be inspired by Mars rovers
Participating in the press conference are:
- Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
- Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist, NASA Headquarters
- Lara Kearney, manager, Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program, JSC
The two-person Artemis rover, officially known as the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), will help astronauts explore the moon's south polar region. NASA plans to set up a base in this area, which is thought to harbor lots of water ice.
Like NASA's original lunar rover, the Apollo moon buggy (formally, the Lunar Roving Vehicle), the LTV will be unpressurized, meaning astronauts will need to wear spacesuits while driving it around on the moon.
But there won't always be astronauts aboard; NASA wants the LTV to have a fair degree of autonomy, so the vehicle can continue conducting science work in the gaps between crewed Artemis missions.
Astronauts are scheduled to land near the moon's south pole for the first time on the Artemis 3 mission, in September 2026. But the LTV won't be part of that mission; the rover will debut no earlier than Artemis 5, which is currently targeted to lift off in 2030.
NASA posted its request for proposal for the LTV on May 26 of last year. Submissions were due less than two months later, on July 10.
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