CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has initiated the procurement of landers, rovers, and drones to establish a comprehensive moon base, following the Artemis II mission’s successful lunar flyby.
The space agency disclosed the initial phase of its moon base strategy on Tuesday, allocating hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies for this ambitious project.
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, will supply two landers designed to transport lunar buggies to a location near the moon’s south pole. These lunar terrain vehicles will be manufactured by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace, which successfully landed on the moon last year, will provide the first drones for lunar operations.
All equipment is expected to be in place prior to the arrival of the first Artemis astronauts on the moon, which is scheduled for as early as 2028. During the Artemis II mission in April, four astronauts orbited the moon, surpassing the distance traveled by Apollo crews in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For the upcoming Artemis III mission in 2024, another group of astronauts will test the docking of NASA’s Orion capsule with the lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX, led by Elon Musk.
NASA aims to launch Artemis III by mid-2027, with a subsequent landing by two astronauts anticipated as early as 2028. The second phase of the moon base project, which will span from 2029 into the early 2030s, focuses on constructing permanent infrastructure, including a power grid. The third phase, which is expected to support extended astronaut missions in specialized habitats, will likely commence in the 2030s.
“Then we’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re permanently here and we’re not giving it up,’” stated Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA’s moon base program executive. He envisions a vast moon base encompassing hundreds of square miles, with drones known as MoonFall marking its boundaries.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman emphasized that the perimeter markers are intended to respect the presence of other countries’ spacecraft and equipment that may be nearby, expressing an expectation for reciprocal respect. The primary objective of the moon base is to foster a lunar economy while facilitating scientific research and laying the groundwork for future Mars missions.
“For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand and we will not slow down,” Isaacman affirmed. “We are really just getting started.”