HAWTHORNE, Calif. — It’s been five decades since humans last set foot on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, but NASA is preparing for a return with the Artemis mission in 2025 hoping to build a long-term presence on the moon.

What You Need To Know

  • The last time humans last set foot on the moon was during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972
  • NASA is preparing for a return to the with the Artemis mission in 2025 in hopes of building a long-term presence on the moon
  • A start-up company called Venturi Astrolab developed a lunar rover called Flexible Logistics and Exploration, or FLEX, which is in the running to join the Artemis mission
  • FLEX has four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and solar panels to collect and store energy in rechargeable batteries

The mission calls for a lot of new technology and Jaret Matthews, CEO of a startup company called Venturi Astrolab Inc., said he’s hoping to get in on the action.

“Companies like SpaceX are making big landers that can deliver lots of cargo and we want to be the next link in that transportation network,” he said. “We want to be the local delivery service, the ‘UPS’ of the lunar surface.”

Matthews and his team spent the past two years developing a lunar rover called Flexible Logistics and Exploration, or FLEX, that can carry not only astronauts across the moon’s surface but also plenty of cargo.

“It’s got four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering,” he points out. “And then it also has the wheels attached to these limbs and the limbs allow us to raise and lower each wheel independently.”

Matthews said this allows the rover to move up and down, to pick up things more easily, and navigate rocky terrain. Matthews said FLEX is one of several rovers in the running to join NASA’s Artemis mission. Spectrum News got to take FLEX for a test drive, in a specially built moon yard. It can go up to 11 miles per hour, which is the current speed record on the moon.

“It’s fairly intuitive,” he said, steering the rover. “You just pull backward or push forward and then right to left to steer.”

A rover is crucial for helping with tasks like setting up habitats, but building one here on Earth is no easy feat, according to Madhu Thangavelu, a professor of astronautical engineering at USC. He points out the moon’s environment is vastly different, with extremely frigid temperatures.

“We are talking about minus 260, minus 250 degrees,” he said. “Some of the coldest places in our solar system are right out there by the moon in the south polar region and the north polar region. So it is a challenge in itself — just the sheer cold temperature and to deal with that. You have to be really prepared and test out all the systems.”

Thangavelu said engineers must also consider lunar dust, which sticks to everything, and the moon’s gravity. ‘

“It is one-sixth of Earth’s gravity, which makes it very light and you can’t travel fast,” he said. “And the reason is simple: every time you hit a bump or a rock, your vehicle lifts off from the surface and you lose traction.”

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Since the lunar rover must last for more than one mission, Matthews said they equip FLEX with solar panels to collect and store energy in rechargeable batteries. It travels much like a car, but it can also move sideways and go into ‘zero-point turn mode’.

“It will allow us to perfectly spin about a point,” he said. “So these two modes will be perfectly useful if you’re trying to get into a tight parking spot.”

Or if you’re trying to move across the moon, which we may see the FLEX do one day.