The US space agency NASA has signed an agreement with three companies to develop a spacecraft (a lunar terrain vehicle) to send humans to the moon for the first time in more than five decades. On Wednesday, NASA authorities said that they had signed a contract worth 4.6 billion dollars with these three companies.
These three companies are Texas-based Intuitive Machines, Colorado-based Lunar Outpost, and California-based Venturi Astrolab.
It is up to the companies to design the lunar rover.
The United States will send astronauts to the moon in 2029. Prior to that mission, the spacecraft, called Artemis 5, will undergo testing. NASA plans to choose a design from any of the three companies.
Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement, “We are working to develop the Artemis generation of lunar probes, which can help to expand our understanding of the Moon.”
He hopes that this vehicle will greatly increase the ability of astronauts to carry out research and scientific activities on the lunar surface.
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Jacob Bleacher, chief research scientist for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said, ‘This spacecraft will take astronauts to places they cannot reach on foot. It increases our discovery capacity, and we are able to make new scientific discoveries.’
The Artemis is the name of the mission. It is envisaged that this campaign will enable the US to send astronauts to the moon two more times. Earlier in 1972, the country sent an astronaut to the moon for the first time on Apollo 17.
NASA is planning to place astronauts on the moon for the first time under this program.
Source: Al Jazeera
