Commercial Lunar Payload Services

We're also working, you know, with some of...

Some of the CLPS providers on propulsion systems for land, for some of these CLPS cargo landers.

We are working with others on some of the habitats in terms of power systems and power management on habitats.

And then again, kind of things around in-space and getting there as well.

In Japan, I-Space, they have announced their next target is Schrodinger Basin, which is a region near the South Pole, and it's actually on the far side of the moon.

This is going to be a mission for NASA's CLPS program.

It's in collaboration with Draper Labs and others, and it's scheduled for no earlier than 2027.

Now, because this mission is gonna be on the far side of the moon, although at the pole, they're gonna need to deploy a couple of relay satellites.

And while Jared Isaacman has come in and made a bunch of changes and laid forth an ambitious vision for the coming years, The biggest question for me is, what happens next? And the logical answer for the Artemis program would be Artemis III, and that is indeed expected to happen next year.

But actually, before then, we are expected to have maybe as many as four different uncrewed missions landing on the lunar surface carrying payload as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

And we'll talk about those.

What I really want to focus on first is, what will it take to get SLS flying again? Does NASA and its partners have everything in place so that they can stick to their timeline and launch Artemis III next year? The plan being that Artemis III will fly into Earth orbit and rendezvous with the human landing system prototypes to verify some of the control capabilities, to verify the life support.

There's a lot of work for the HLS providers to do if they are aiming for this 2028 landing.

And in the meantime, we do expect a number of unmanned payloads landing on the moon.

So the next one we expect as part of the commercial lunar payload services should be Blue Moon Mark 1.

We don't know when that is.

They have to build the other cabin for the lander in Artemis III.

They still have to fly all their commitments that they have for Amazon, for the lunar lander that they want to fly, the Blue Moon Mark I, for the CLPS missions, the other lunar landing missions that they have on their books, because right before New Glenn blew up, they were landing a lot of them on their contract list.

So trying to fit all that in between early 2027 and even late 2028, is a tremendous amount of activity for a company that has not the best track record in getting things done.

So is what we're seeing right now, is what happened after the New Glenn explosion, this invigoration that it looks like from the outside, that's what it looks like to us, right? Is that they are progressing on the launchpad rebuild and the simplification of that as well.

And finally, the Australian Space Agency and the Ruver Consortium unveiled the latest design model of Ruver, Australia's first lunar rover, at the Queensland University of Technology's Lunar Testbed and Space Lab during World Space Week on October 7, 2026.

Scheduled to land at the Lunar South Pole in 2030 aboard an Intuitive Machines lander under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the semi-autonomous rover will collect and analyze regolith to support sustainable human exploration through the Artemis program.

Designed to withstand extreme lunar temperature swings from minus 246 degrees centigrade to plus 121 degrees centigrade, the vehicle features homegrown Australian technology, including specialized treaded wheels, thermal management systems, and tools to mitigate against lunar dust and radiation.

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Australia's first lunar rover, that would be the rover, met the public recently during World Space Week at the Queensland University of Technology's Lunar Testbed and Space Lab.

Plans are to land the semi-autonomous vehicle at the lunar South Pole in 2030.

The trip will take place under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

Ruver will make its journey aboard an intuitive machines lander and then conduct studies relevant to eventual human exploration under the Artemis program.

Plans are to land the semi-autonomous vehicle at the lunar South Pole in 2030.

The trip will take place under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program.

Ruva will make its journey aboard an intuitive machines lander and then conduct studies relevant to eventual human exploration under the Artemis program.

It is being designed and created by an industry consortium comprising universities, researchers, major companies and start-ups.