WASHINGTON / RankWire.AI / – NASA has provided an update on its initiatives to develop both crewed and robotic lunar vehicles designed to facilitate exploration and lay the foundation for a permanent Moon base. The agency revealed the latest progress in a Moon Base video update on Tuesday, October 20. These plans include the VIPER robotic rover and new lunar terrain vehicles intended for astronauts. Robert Pickle, director of the Surface Mobility Office in NASA’s Moon Base Program, emphasized that lunar rovers play a pivotal role in the agency’s surface mobility strategy.
The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, known as VIPER, is scheduled to explore the lunar South Pole in 2027. Its mission is to investigate permanently shadowed craters for water and other vital resources to support upcoming missions. VIPER will be delivered by Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to the lunar surface. The rover, capable of traveling over 30 kilometers, will gather data on terrain, temperatures, and lighting conditions. Fully assembled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, VIPER is in its final testing phase before being shipped to Kennedy Space Center for launch. Mission operations will be managed from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. In September 2025, NASA selected Blue Origin under a Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order, which could total up to $190 million, for delivering VIPER. The planned mission duration is 100 days, with the potential to influence future lunar water resource utilization.
Robotic terrain vehicles designed for astronaut transport
To broaden surface mobility, NASA granted task orders to Astrolab and Lunar Outpost to develop lunar terrain vehicles, or LTVs. These vehicles will serve multiple purposes, such as transporting crew, moving equipment, and collecting samples. Astrolab’s CLV-1, an adaptation of their FLEX rover concept, and Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus, a lighter iteration of their Eagle vehicle, are the two designs under development. Both firms aim to deliver operational hardware by the end of 2027, while Blue Origin has been tasked with providing the LTVs to the lunar South Pole region by 2028. The vehicles will arrive on the Moon prior to crewed Artemis missions and can be remotely operated from Earth to map the surface, covering up to 6 kilometers daily. Each LTV can travel as far as 10 kilometers on a single battery charge and support up to three moonwalks per Artemis mission. They will carry up to 80 kilograms of lunar samples and tools and must withstand temperatures as low as minus 203 degrees Celsius in shadowed areas.
Upcoming testing phases and design assessments
Both companies are progressing through critical design milestones. Lunar Outpost was scheduled to conduct its preliminary design review in October, while Astrolab’s review is planned for the end of December. Astrolab has already delivered a CLV-1 mockup to Axiom Space for astronaut evaluations. Meanwhile, Lunar Outpost has built two mockups and delivered a third static model to Johnson Space Center. Additionally, Astrolab’s FLIP rover will participate in Griffin Mission One in late 2026, with a second Lunar Outpost MAPP rover set to launch early in 2027. These rover programs build upon NASA’s return to deep space exploration with crewed missions. In April, the Artemis II mission set a record for the farthest human spaceflight, as documented in Artemis II mission. Blue Origin intends to launch its Blue Moon landers on the New Glenn rocket. NASA highlights that these vehicles will assist astronauts in exploring geologically diverse lunar terrains, with the rovers forming an essential part of the plan to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon.