NASA orders rovers and drones for ambitious new Moon base

NASA is rapidly advancing its ambitious plans for a sprawling lunar base, ordering landers, rovers, and drones less than two months after the Artemis II mission completed its record-breaking flyaround of the Moon.

The space agency outlined the first phase of its project on Tuesday, awarding hundreds of millions in contracts to four US companies.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will provide landers to deliver moon buggies near the Moon’s south pole. These lunar terrain vehicles will be built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace, which landed successfully last year, will deliver the first drones. This hardware is expected before the first Artemis astronauts land, planned for as early as 2028.

April's Artemis II mission saw four astronauts fly around the Moon, travelling deeper into space than Apollo crews did during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Next year's Artemis III will involve astronauts practising docking NASA's Orion capsule in Earth orbit with lunar landers from Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX. NASA targets Artemis III for mid-2027, with two astronauts landing as soon as 2028.

The moon base's second phase (2029-early 2030s) will build permanent infrastructure, including a power grid. Extended astronaut support in specialised habitats is expected in the 2030s, during the third phase.

Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA's moon base programme executive, envisions a base sprawling over hundreds of square miles, its perimeter marked by drones, dubbed MoonFall. "Then we'll be able to say, 'Hey, we're permanently here and we're not giving it up,'" he stated.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said territory markers are for respecting other countries' spacecraft and equipment that might be nearby, expecting reciprocity.

The base's goal is to encourage a lunar economy, conduct scientific research, and lay the foundation for a Mars expedition, Isaacman stressed. "For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand and we will not slow down," he affirmed. "We are really just getting started."