NASA Unveils Plans For Rover Transport System For Moon Exploration

NASA recently unveiled the details of a new lunar lander designed to transport payloads such as rovers to the Moon’s surface. The agency is planning to use the concept behind the lander for its upcoming mission to the Moon for its Artemis program.

The initiative leading the effort to develop new technologies for lunar exploration is NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). Through this program, the agency aims to develop a system designed to deliver payloads to the lunar surface.

One of the concepts that NASA is working on through CLPS is a mid-sized lander that will transport a rover to the Moon’s polar regions. Logan Kennedy, the head systems engineer for the project explained that the lander is being designed to carry large payloads to the Moon while being able to maintain accuracy when it comes to landing on the surface.

According to Kennedy, he and his team plan to accomplish this by making the lander’s design as simple as possible. This will ensure that the lander will perform smoothly as it delivers its payload.

“This lander was designed with simplicity in mind to deliver a 300-kilogram rover to a lunar pole,” he said in a press release. “We used single string systems, minimal mechanisms and existing technology to reduce complexity, though advancements in precision landing were planned to avoid hazards and to benefit rover operations. We keep the rover alive through transit and landing so it can go do its job.”

Kennedy noted that the concept behind the lander was detailed in an online document that’s available to the public. It was presented through an open document in order to allow commercial spaceflight companies and private organizations to design their own landers based on NASA's concept.

According to Kennedy, this will allow NASA’s commercial partners to develop new technologies that can help the agency accomplish its various space missions.

“As robotic lunar landers grow to accommodate larger payloads, simple but high-performing landers with a contiguous payload volume will be needed,” Kennedy said. “This concept was developed by a diverse team of people over many years and meets that need.”

“We hope that other lander designers can benefit from our work,” he added.