How Nasa contractors are pressing on to bring humans to the moon with Artemis | Nasa

Last Friday, at the headquarters of the small space start-up Lunar Outpost, in Colorado, CEO Justin Cyrus learned of the existence of a surprise press conference called by Jared Isaacman, the new NASA administrator.

Cyrus’ company embodies the space agency’s many private contractors working on myriad projects crucial to the Artemis program that aims to return humans to the Moon, so anything Isaacman had to say about it was naturally of interest to him.

What he didn’t expect was the stunning announcement that NASA was restructuring its entire strategy for the first human landing on the Moon in more than half a century and moving its astronauts to a later launch attempt, planned for 2028, on Artemis IV.

Plagued by technical problems that put the Artemis program billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, as well as criticism that the agency was trying to do too much, too soon, NASA made a decision with far-reaching consequences for its many commercial partners such as Lunar Outpost, and in doing so created many more questions.

But in the best traditions of decades of challenging human spaceflight, Cyrus saw opportunity in adversity.

Barring further delays or rethinking from NASA’s senior leadership, the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (Mapp) rover, a small but powerful vehicle packed with technologies critical to the agency’s plans for a future long-term habitation on the Moon, will now travel alongside the Artemis IV astronauts.

“Humans will be back on the Moon for the first time in over 50 years and one of our rovers will be alongside them, which is a pretty awesome feeling,” he said.

“For us, selfishly, it’s a pretty exciting prospect. The broader announcement that I’m 100 percent on board with, a higher cadence, more missions to the Moon. It’s fantastic. NASA has concrete plans for how they can speed things up, and that sets the stage for what we’re doing in the background.”

“Ultimately, rovers and robotic systems are essential to staying on the moon. With Mapp, we are well ahead, the hardware has been completed for a long time, there are still some checks to do for the power system between the lander and the rover, and some software integration, but once that is completed, we are off to the moon.”

Lunar Outpost’s story is typical of young companies that have carved out an important role in a new era of public-private partnership in space and that know – much like NASA itself – the obstacles and frustrations of the industry.

Founded by Cyrus, an aerospace veteran, and two friends in 2017, it has ambitious plans to build and fly a number of rovers, of varying sizes and capabilities, for NASA’s use on the Moon, and eventually Mars.

Its biggest project, the Eagle Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) in development, is billed as “the most capable crew and cargo transport ever built” for human spaceflight, and a full-size prototype wowed crowds at the Kennedy Space Center visitors’ center in Florida last year.

Mapp, meanwhile, hasn’t had much luck so far. The rugged and much smaller rover, which was expected to examine dust and soil at the moon’s south pole last year and conduct vital research for a possible human moon base, actually reached the lunar surface in March, becoming the first commercial exploration vehicle to land.

But the spacecraft on which it made the eight-day journey from Earth — the Athena lander, made by another private space operation, Texas-based Intuitive Machines — overturned upon landing and trapped the rover inside. Mapp was denied his big moment, sending signals to Lunar Outpost headquarters in Golden, Colorado that he was fully functional and raring to go, but became helpless as his batteries slowly died.

This was a huge frustration for Cyrus and its more than 200 employees who had spent years developing, building and testing it.

“It made it to the Moon, it survived that rough landing and unfortunately we just couldn’t get it out of the garage,” he said. “It’s a matter of pride that we survived a rough landing, but at the same time it makes the situation a little more painful.”

Lunar Outpost refused to admit defeat, and workers have worked diligently and quickly since then to prepare Mapp for its next attempt. Elsewhere at the company, work is progressing rapidly not only on rovers, but also on a host of other projects, including the development of energy and oxygen generation systems that can be used by humans in space, and robotic arms that act as cranes to help build lunar bases.

What’s important, Cyrus said, is that staff focus on their own business and stay away from the high-profile failures, delays and challenges facing others, such as NASA’s current Artemis woes.

“Don’t get me wrong, on big days like today, I still have to go talk to the team like, ‘Hey, guys, this is good, you know, this is a positive thing,'” Cyrus said.

“But realistically, if my employees were monitoring what was happening every day and worrying about how it was going to impact their schedules, they wouldn’t do much, would they? So I would say we have a pretty positive working relationship with constant change. It seems a little weird, I know, but you kind of get used to it.”

Ultimately, he said, NASA will return to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972, and Lunar Outpost will stand with it as proof that the new era of government partnership with private companies in space is essential, potentially lucrative and sustainable.

“We currently have five missions signed up to go to the Moon, and I hope the Eagle LTV with NASA will be announced in the coming weeks,” he said.

“It’s kind of a step-by-step vision over the next five years, and I think it’s going to be fun. In fact, I think it’s going to be absolutely awesome.”