Astrolab announces first customers for commercial lunar rover mission
spacenews.com
Lunar rover developer Astrolab announced eight customers have signed contracts worth more than $160 million for its first mission to the moon in 2026.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/8579838

“The company, formally known as Venturi Astrolab Inc., announced Nov. 21 that it signed the customers to fly payloads on Mission 1, a flight of the company’s Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover slated for as soon as mid-2026. Astrolab announced a contract with SpaceX in March to launch FLEX on that mission on a Starship commercial lander.”

Astrolab disclosed the names of five of the eight customers. All are relatively early-stage startups developing technologies associated with long-term lunar development. The companies did not disclose the individual values of each contract.

Argo Space Corp., one of the customers of Mission 1, plans to fly a demonstration payload on the rover to test technology to extract low concentrations of water from lunar regolith. Astroport Space Technologies will send a payload to test how to sort lunar regolith to obtain grains best suited for producing lunar bricks as construction materials. Avalon Space will contribute an unspecified series of “science, exploration and sustainable development” experiments.

Interstellar Lab will fly two small pods carrying plants that the rover will deploy on the lunar surface to see how the plants grow in the lunar environment. LifeShip will send a capsule carrying a DNA seed bank and data archive as part of that company’s effort to establish a seed bank on the lunar surface as an “off-world backup.”

    • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      It sounds like Astrolab have purchased a ride to the lunar surface on a Starship mission. In turn, other companies have purchased payload slots on Astrolab’s rover.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 months ago

        Yes I think you’re right. Does starship have the ability to land on the lunar surface though? I thought it was just launch into space, but maybe I’m mistaken

        • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          11·
          10 months ago

          They’ll need a lunar variant of Starship to support the Artemis III crewed landing, so it seems likely that they’ll have a version for lunar cargo as well.