![]() ![]() In addition to a suited crew of two weighing 550 kilograms, the LTV must transport up to a total of 250 kilograms of cargo, science instruments, lunar samples and technology demonstration payloads between desired points on the Moon. These requirements chiefly come from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to ensure efficient scientific use of the rover when a crewed mission isn’t ongoing, which is at least 11 months of the year! ![]() The agency also desires the rover to have sufficient autonomous capabilities. NASA wants the rover to be remotely operable from anywhere between the lunar surface and Earth. ![]() Given its criticality to astronauts being able to safely return to the lander or Artemis Base Camp, the rover’s mobility must be at least single-fault tolerant. To that end, NASA would also like the LTV to have a robotic manipulator arm for deploying science instruments, for example. Combined with the same requirement for commercial Artemis spacesuits, this sets the stage for astronauts exploring and bringing cryogenic samples of pristine, precious lunar polar volatiles to Earth for meticulous studies, an identified key priority for Artemis science. Within this slope limit, the LTV should be able to spend up to two hours in permanently shadowed regions, where temperatures are well below -180 degrees Celsius. The LTV should be able to traverse 20 degrees slopes, and in general navigate the challenging rugged terrain at the Moon’s south pole, which is where all currently planned Artemis surface missions will take place. That’s even better than NASA’s upcoming polar-water-studying VIPER rover, which is being designed to survive complete darkness periods of about 96 hours by parking at pre-identified high-altitude spots throughout the mission. This means the LTV must survive frigid night-time temperatures on the Moon’s south pole every month, which can last from a few hours up to at least 150 hours even in favorably selected high-altitude locations. Unlike Apollo, the LTV will be used across multiple Artemis missions for at least 10 years. That’s roughly thrice Apollo LRV’s range and twice its drive time. The LTV will be an unenclosed, all-electric rover that two suited astronauts can drive on the Moon for up to 20 kilometers on a 8-hour roundtrip without the rover needing a recharge. Since NASA intends to sustain its return to the Moon, the LTV will be far more capable than the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) used by Apollo astronauts, and more sophisticated than even the current crop of Mars rovers. ![]()
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