Aerospace startup reveals new modular lunar rover for carrying people and cargo on the Moon

Image: Venturi Astrolab

The new rover is designed to transport cargo and people across the surface of the Moon and eventually Mars. The company plans to build a fleet of these rovers over the next decade to help NASA and commercial companies establish a long-term presence on the Moon.

The FLEX rover is able to carry cargo up from the surface of the Moon and then deliver it to its intended location. It can carry many different types of objects if they are built to an agreed upon standard of size and shape. In keeping with the name FLEX, the rover can be controlled remotely or even be modified to allow astronauts to ride on it while guiding it through lunar terrain.

According to Jaret Matthews, Astrolab's CEO, the goal of FLEX and ultimately Astrolab is to exploit the world's renewed push to send people back to the Moon. NASA is trying to send the first woman and the first person of color to the moon. Blue Origin is working on a landers that will be able to take people to the moon. Commercial companies are building robotic lunar landers that will carry cargo to the Moon. Matthews hopes that FLEX rovers will be up there by then.

The long haul transportation problem is being solved by companies like Blue Origin, and we want to solve the local transportation problem and set the standard for lunar logistics.

Matthews has worked with rovers before. He began his career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on the Mars rovers. He left to work on the Crew Dragon spaceship for the company, which will dock with the International Space Station. He formed Astrolab with his co-founders in January of 2020 and is now taking his expertise to the company.

Image: Venturi Astrolab

A full-scale prototype of FLEX was built by Astrolab and was recently tested out in the California desert near Death Valley, about five hours away from the company's headquarters in Hawthorne. Chris Hadfield, who is on Astrolab's board of advisors, took the rover for a spin and gave his advice on how the vehicle held up. Matthew says that the company used FLEX to pick up and deliver the payloads, as well as set up a vertical solar panel, which is critical for in-space energy that future lunar astronauts will probably need to set up to stay on the Moon long-term.

The company went with a modular design because they wanted to be able to carry as much cargo as possible. Matthews thinks it's similar to how shipping containers are made in other countries. He wants to create a standard for cargo on the Moon.

The FLEX prototype was used in the field tests. The prototype is built for Earth terrain, so the equipment is more suited for a lunar environment. The final rover should weigh about 1,100 pounds and be built specifically to handle the lunar terrain.

The lunar night is a two-week period when the Moon is plunged into darkness and temperatures can drop to -130 degrees Celsius. Astrolab claims that FLEX will have insulation and sufficient internal battery capacity, which will allow the rover to stay warm between 100 and 300 hours at the Moon's south pole. FLEX's external solar array will start generating electricity once the sun rises again.

FLEX will be able to launch on multiple types of rockets and landers when it is complete. Astrobotic's lander, which is supposed to carry a NASA rover to the Moon, is a potential ride for FLEX. The company isn't saying how much FLEX will cost, but Matthews says the long-term plan is to charge for services of the rovers rather than for each individual vehicle.

NASA put out a call for companies to come up with designs for a lunar terrain vehicle that could transport future Artemis astronauts across the Moon. Astrolab reached out to potential customers, including the company that is next to Astrolab in Hawthorne. Astrolab wants to send up its first FLEX rovers in the years ahead, testing them out on the lunar surface before astronauts arrive.

It's quite likely that it will be a while before astronauts return to the moon. Auditors of the space agency say a 2026 landing is more realistic than the first landing date of 2025. Astrolab has more time to get the FLEX up and running.

An earlier version of the article said that Astrobotic's lander could carry the FLEX. The article has been updated. We regret the mistake.