WASHINGTON / RankWire.AI / – NASA has provided an update on its ongoing efforts to develop both crewed and robotic lunar vehicles designed to facilitate exploration and establish a sustainable base on the Moon. The agency detailed its latest progress in a Moon Base video update on Tuesday, October 20. These plans include the VIPER robotic rover as well as innovative lunar terrain vehicles intended for astronaut use. Robert Pickle, who leads the Surface Mobility Office within NASA’s Moon Base Program, emphasized that lunar rovers are integral to the agency’s overall surface mobility strategy.
Scheduled to arrive at the lunar South Pole in 2027, NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will investigate permanently shadowed craters in search of water and other resources critical for future missions. The rover will be delivered via Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. Designed to cover over 30 kilometers, VIPER will gather vital data on temperatures, lighting, and terrain conditions. Currently, the rover is fully assembled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and is undergoing final testing before it is shipped to Kennedy Space Center for launch. Mission operations will be managed remotely from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. In September 2025, NASA selected Blue Origin through a Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order worth up to $190 million to deliver VIPER, with the mission expected to last approximately 100 days. The information collected could significantly influence future lunar water resource utilization.
Vehicles for crew transport and surface exploration
To enhance surface mobility capabilities, NASA awarded task orders to Astrolab and Lunar Outpost for the development of lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs). These vehicles are designed to carry astronauts, transport equipment, and collect lunar samples. Astrolab’s CLV-1 draws from its FLEX rover platform, while Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus is a lighter iteration of its Eagle vehicle. Both companies aim to deliver operational hardware to NASA by the end of 2027. Additionally, NASA assigned Blue Origin a task order to supply the LTVs to the lunar South Pole by 2028.
These LTVs will be operational before crewed Artemis missions begin, allowing remote mapping of the lunar surface from Earth. They can cover up to 6 kilometers per day and are capable of traveling up to 10 kilometers on a single battery charge. Each vehicle can support up to three moonwalks per Artemis mission and carry as much as 80 kilograms of lunar samples and tools. They are engineered to withstand extreme cold, surviving in shadowed regions at temperatures as low as minus 203 degrees Celsius.
Upcoming testing stages and design evaluations
Both Astrolab and Lunar Outpost are advancing through critical design milestones. Lunar Outpost’s preliminary design review was scheduled for October, with Astrolab’s set for the end of December. Astrolab has also delivered a CLV-1 mockup to Axiom Space for astronaut evaluations. Meanwhile, Lunar Outpost has built two mockups and submitted a third static model to Johnson Space Center. The FLIP rover from Astrolab is slated to fly aboard Griffin Mission One in late 2026, while a second Lunar Outpost MAPP rover is planned for launch early in 2027.
These rover development efforts build upon NASA’s renewed focus on crewed deep-space missions. The Artemis II mission set the record for the farthest human spaceflight in April. Blue Origin intends to launch its Blue Moon landers aboard its New Glenn rocket. NASA highlights that these vehicles will assist astronauts in exploring geologically diverse regions of the lunar surface. The development of these rovers is fundamental to the broader goal of establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon.