Last Friday was shaping up to be another normal day at the Colorado headquarters of small space startup Lunar Outpost when CEO Justin Cyrus learned of a surprise press conference called by Jared Isaacman, NASA’s new administrator.
Cyrus’ company embodies the space agency’s many private contractors working on myriad projects crucial to the Artemis program seeking to return humans to the moon, so anything Isaacman had to say about it was naturally of interest to him.
What I didn’t expect was the surprising announcement that NASA was restructuring its entire strategy for the first human lunar landing in more than half a century, and was moving its astronauts to a later launch attempt, scheduled for 2028, on Artemis IV.
Beset by technical problems that put the Artemis program billions of dollars over budget and years behind, as well as criticism that the agency was trying to do too much too soon, NASA made a decision with significant consequences for its many commercial partners, such as Lunar Outpost, and in the process raised many more questions.
But in the best tradition of decades of challenging human spaceflight, Cyrus saw opportunity in adversity.
Barring further delays or reconsiderations by NASA senior management, the company’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (Mapp) rover, a small but powerful vehicle packed with technology crucial to the agency’s plans for future long-term habitation on the Moon, will now travel alongside the Artemis IV astronauts.
“Humans will be returning to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and one of our rovers will be right next to them, which is a pretty awesome feeling,” he said.
“For us, selfishly, that’s a pretty exciting prospect. I’m 100% on board with the broader announcement, higher cadence, more missions to the moon. It’s great that NASA has concrete plans for how they can speed things up, and that opens up what we’re doing behind the scenes.
“At the end of the day, rovers and robotic systems are critical to staying on the moon. With Mapp, we are going full steam ahead, the hardware has been completed for a long time, there are still some checks to be done for the electrical power system between the lander and the rover, and some software integration, but once that is complete, we will be on the moon.”
The story of Lunar Outpost is typical of young companies that have carved out an important role in a new era of public-private partnerships in space, in addition to experiencing, 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 series of rovers, of varying sizes and capabilities, for use by NASA on the Moon and, eventually, Mars.
Its largest project, the in-development Eagle lunar terrain vehicle (LTV), is billed as “the most capable crew and cargo transport ever built” for human spaceflight, and a full-size prototype impressed crowds at the visitor center at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center last year.
Mapp, for his part, hasn’t had much luck to date. The sturdy, much smaller rover, which was supposed to survey dust and soil at the Moon’s south pole last year and provide vital research for a possible human lunar base, reached the lunar surface in March, becoming the first commercial exploration vehicle to land.
But the spacecraft in which it made the eight-day journey from Earth—the Athena lander, made by another private space operation, Texas-based Intuitive Machines—fell upon landing, trapping the rover inside. Mapp was denied his big moment, sending signals to Lunar Outpost headquarters in Golden, Colorado that he was fully operational and raring to go, but was left helpless as his batteries slowly drained.
It was a huge frustration for Cyrus and his more than 200 employees who had spent years developing, building and testing it.
“It made it to the moon, survived the difficult landing and, unfortunately, we couldn’t get it out of the garage,” he said. “It’s a source of pride to have survived a difficult landing, but at the same time it makes the pain a little worse.”
Lunar Outpost refused to admit defeat and workers have worked diligently and timely ever since to prepare Mapp for its next attempt. Elsewhere in the company, work is progressing apace not only on the rovers, but also on a number of other projects, including the development of power and oxygen generation systems that can be used by humans in space, and robotic arms that will act as cranes to assist in the construction of lunar bases.
Most importantly, Cyrus said, the workforce is focused on quietly going about its own business and ignoring the well-publicized failures, delays and challenges faced by others, such as NASA’s ongoing Artemis problems.
“Don’t get me wrong, on big days like today, I still have to go talk to the team and say, ‘Hey guys, this is good, you know, this is a positive thing,'” Cyrus said.
“But really, if my workforce is watching what’s going on every day, worrying about how it’s going to affect their schedules, they wouldn’t be doing much, right? So I’d say we have a pretty positive working relationship with constant changes. It sounds a little strange, I know, but you 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 be at its side 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 hopefully 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 a real blast.”
