What moves after landing: scout rovers, hoppers, and crewed lunar terrain vehicles.
AstroAnt, the Australian Roo-ver, CADRE, VIPER, and YAOKI are the rover jobs. μNova is the hopper. Astrolab CLV-1 is the crewed lunar terrain vehicle.
Mission brief
AstroAnt, YAOKI, and μNova are on IM-2 Athena. CADRE is on IM-3 Trinity. The Australian Roo-ver is on IM-5 Nova-D. VIPER is on the Blue Moon CS-7 flight. CLV-1 is on CX-2.
Schematic
Mobility cargo and surface mobility jobs are the category match. Scout rows include AstroAnt, CADRE, and YAOKI. The hopper row is μNova. The crewed row is Astrolab CLV-1.
Grace is Intuitive Machines' small hopper, designed to leap across the surface after IM-2 landed near the Shackleton connecting ridge. · IM-2 Athena · 2025-02-27
Venturi Astrolab FLIP tech-demo rover on Griffin-1 maturing FLEX/LTV-relevant mobility, power, and avionics. · Griffin-1 (Moon Base II) · NET late 2026
Moon Pi is a community payload from Stand Up Maths that calculates the constant pi on the lunar surface, using spare rover computing capacity on Griffin-1. · Griffin-1 (Moon Base II) · NET late 2026
NASA JPL's CADRE, Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration, is a set of three suitcase-scale mini-rovers that drive as a team to test autonomous roving, carrying ground-penetrating radar to sound the subsurface at Reiner Gamma. · IM-3 Trinity · NET Q1 2027
Lunar Outpost's MAPP-variant rover flies in NASA's Lunar Vertex (LVx) PRISM suite on IM-3, hosting an APL magnetometer and a Canadensys rover multispectral microscope at Reiner Gamma. · IM-3 Trinity · NET Q1 2027
Space Applications Services LUVMI-M commercial lunar rover on Blue Origin Blue Moon MK1 to the lunar south pole (Belga/VRT: NET early 2029). · Blue Moon MK1 Endurance (Moon Base I) · NET Q1 2027
Observe near-IR light from lunar soil/cuttings to identify composition and volatile-bearing materials (VIPER-heritage instrument family). · VIPER on Blue Moon (CS-7) · NET late 2027 (contingent)
Polar volatiles prospecting rover (~100-day science goal): map and sample ice-bearing regolith at the lunar south pole. · VIPER on Blue Moon (CS-7) · NET late 2027 (contingent)
Venturi Astrolab's Crewed Lunar Vehicle CLV-1 is a crewed rover derived from the company's FLEX architecture, built to carry astronauts and supplies and to support remote operations. · CX-2 Lunar Terrain Vehicle Delivery · NET 2028
Firefly contracted Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin) for a lunar rover on Blue Ghost Mission 3 Gruithuisen Domes path (public 2025 announcement). · Blue Ghost Mission 3 · NET ~2028
NASA assigned SpaceX’s Starship cargo lander to deliver JAXA’s pressurized rover to the lunar surface no earlier than fiscal year 2032, in support of Artemis VII-class missions. · Starship Lunar Cargo (HLS path) · NET late 2020s-2030s (HLS path)
Lunar Outpost's Pegasus is a lighter, mission-ready evolution of its Eagle rover, built to NASA's updated crewed LTV requirements. · CX-2 Lunar Terrain Vehicle Delivery · NET 2028
Blue Origin public path for NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle related delivery / CX-2 class surface mobility logistics. · CX-2 Lunar Terrain Vehicle Delivery · NET 2028
Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) PRISM-class suite on Blue Ghost M3 / CP-21 Gruithuisen Domes, rover+lander cameras, radiometer, gamma-ray/neutron spectrometer path. · Blue Ghost Mission 3 · NET ~2028
Observe near-IR light from lunar soil/cuttings to identify composition and volatile-bearing materials (VIPER-heritage instrument family). · IM-5 Nova-D · NET ~2030 class
Unison Industries holds a public long-term agreement with Blue Origin for ignition systems on BE-7, the liquid oxygen / liquid hydrogen engine for Blue Moon.
Space Applications Services LUVMI-M is a commercially funded Belgian lunar rover booked on Blue Origin Blue Moon MK1 for early 2029 delivery to the lunar south pole.
On 30 April 2024 NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock and Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson spent a day on Starship HLS development hardware at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Venturi Astrolab Crewed Lunar Vehicle CLV-1 (FLEX-derived) under NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Phase 1 High Achievability Mission award for crewed/uncrewed lunar mobility.
Axiom Space and Odyssey Space Research are named on the Astrolab CLV-1 team under NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Phase 1 High Achievability Mission awards for CX-2 delivery.
Yokogawa Electric signed R&D agreements with Toyota for prototype measurement and control equipment on the JAXA/Toyota pressurized rover (Lunar Cruiser): the control platform and battery measurement components.
Konica Minolta and Toyota signed a joint-development contract for a space dust-removal device on the JAXA/Toyota pressurized rover (Lunar Cruiser), applying copier toner-removal methods to lunar regolith on the vehicle body.
Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (Korea) signed a payload service agreement with ispace on 2026-03-31 to fly SCARAB, a two-wheeled ~2 kg-class rover, on ULTRA Mission 3 (NET 2028).
The Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics at Czech Technical University in Prague provides the neutron spectrometer suite of Neutron HardPix and Radiation HardPix on MAGPIE, ESA's first lunar rover.
RAL Space leads joint assembly and testing of the MAGPIE Volatile Analyzer with support from The Open University, which provides the Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer.
Technische Universität München provides the instrumented drill Volatiles Sampler as part of the Lunar Volatiles Scout on MAGPIE, ESA's first lunar rover.
Redwire's Luxembourg team, with Added Value Solutions and ESA support, developed, tested, and delivered the MANUS (Manipulator for Argonaut Payload Needs and Unloading Support) Breadboard Model to ESA (Redwire 21 May 2026).
Venturi Space unveiled ALTA LUNA on 9 September 2026 at the International Space Summit in Paris: a single-person tracked lunar utility rover for local work near future habitats.
On 19 August 2026 Astroport and XelerateVR announced a partnership to pair planned humanoid construction robots on the Moon with a human operator on XelerateVR's ODT 1 omnidirectional treadmill.
Astroport and Venturi Astrolab signed an MOU on 3 February 2026 after an Earth field demo of a prototype lunar excavator payload on Astrolab's FLEX rover.
Cislune Excavators, listed by NASA as from Alhambra, California, was one of three Phase 2 Level 2 runner up teams in the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.
NASA Glenn awarded Modulate Space Corporation a firm-fixed-price contract of approximately $38 million, announced 2026-09-30, contract 80GRC026C0017, place of performance Boerne, TX, to develop key elements of a 5G lunar-surface communications system with built-in Wi-Fi 6.
NASA Goddard and Starpath Robotics have a Space Act agreement to build an engineering-model lidar from NASA's Wearable Active Sensing Processor technology, WASP, GSC-19414-1, under evaluation license DN-2592.
Starpath, of Hawthorne, California, placed second overall in NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge finale in June 2024, and NASA says the Phase 2 prizes across three levels totaled $838,461.
Starpath is building a vertical solar array for the lunar south pole.
Flights
Chang'e-52020-11-23 · CNSA national lunar sample-return (near side).Hakuto-R Mission 12022-12-11 · Private Japanese lander.Chandrayaan-32023-07-14 · ISRO national soft-landing mission near lunar south polar highlands.SLIM2023-09-07 · JAXA SLIM precision soft-landing demo.Peregrine Mission One2024-01-08 · First CLPS launch: propellant leak after leaving Earth.Chang'e-62024-05-03 · CNSA national far-side lunar sample-return via Queqiao-2 relay.Hakuto-R Mission 2 Resilience2025-01-15 · Commercial payloads ~$16M.IM-2 Athena2025-02-27 · IM-2 Athena (PRIME-1 path): south polar attempt (Mar 2025).Griffin-1 (Moon Base II)NET late 2026 · Astrobotic / Voyager Lunar Systems Griffin Mission One, NASA Moon Base II.IM-3 TrinityNET Q1 2027 · Intuitive Machines IM-3 (CLPS CP-11): Nova-C Trinity, NASA Moon Base III.Blue Ghost Mission 2NET 2027 · Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 2 (CS-3 ~$112M, charter-bg2): planned far-side dual-stack (Blue Ghost stacked on Elytra Dark + ESA Lunar Pathfinder).Blue Moon MK1 Endurance (Moon Base I)NET Q1 2027 · Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance.Chang'e-7NET 2027 · CNSA south-pole complex (orbiter, lander, rover, hopper) focused on water-ice and polar environment.Artemis IIINET late 2027 · NASA: Artemis III is a 2027 crewed demonstration in low Earth orbit.VIPER on Blue Moon (CS-7)NET late 2027 (contingent) · VIPER polar rover on second Blue Moon MK1 (CS-7).CX-2 Lunar Terrain Vehicle DeliveryNET 2028 · NASA CX-2 CLPS task order: Blue Origin Blue Moon MK1 delivers Astrolab CLV-1 and Lunar Outpost Pegasus to the lunar south pole.MoonFallNET 2028 · NASA JPL MoonFall sends four propulsive hop drones to the south pole in 2028.Starship Lunar Cargo (HLS path)NET late 2020s-2030s (HLS path) · SpaceX Starship lunar architecture: NASA HLS crew lander path plus heavy cargo configurations.Blue Ghost Mission 3NET ~2028 · Six NASA science payloads to Gruithuisen Domes.ispace Mission 3 ULTRANET 2028 · ispace Japan ULTRA lunar lander, inaugural ULTRA flight.Artemis IVNET early 2028 · NASA: Artemis IV is the first planned crewed south-polar landing, early 2028.Artemis VNET late 2028 · NASA: Artemis V is the second planned crewed south-polar landing, late 2028, when lunar-base surface work begins.Blue Ghost Mission 4NET ~2029 · South-pole CLPS with multiple rovers (MoonRanger, CSA path) and instruments.ispace Mission 4 polar landerNET 2029 · ispace Japan polar landing, currently scheduled 2029, on the ULTRA lander line (same ULTRA design used on Mission 3).IM-5 Nova-DNET ~2030 class · First cargo-class Nova-D CLPS.Argonaut Mission 1 (ArgoNET)NET ~2030-2031 · ESA Argonaut Lunar Descent Element (LDE) is Europe's cargo lander transport element, primed by Thales Alenia Space Italy with Thales Alenia Space France, Thales Alenia Space UK, OHB System AG, and Nammo Space (UK) (ESA consortium 20 Nov 2025).