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An artist's rendering of a potential Moon base near the lunar south pole. Image: NASA
NASA is already ordering landers, rovers and drones for its planned Moon base.
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The space agency announced hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies working on gear to support the off-world outpost.
🚗 Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will make two landers to deliver Moon buggies to a spot near the lunar south pole.
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They'll be built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost.
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Firefly Aerospace will deliver the first drones to the Moon.
👩🚀 All this hardware is supposed to arrive before the first Artemis astronauts land on the Moon.
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That's planned for 2028 at the earliest.
🛰️ Astronauts will first practice docking NASA's Orion capsule with lunar landers from Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX.
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That mission — Artemis III — is planned for mid-2027, in Earth orbit.
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Neither of those landers are ready yet, and that date could slip.
🚀 NASA is then targeting a crewed lunar landing as soon as 2028.
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That will be followed by missions to build up infrastructure for a long-term lunar base, including a power grid.
The agency hopes that such a base will support astronauts for extended visits sometime in the next decade.
A rendering of Astrolab's CLV-1 rover on the lunar surface. Image: Astrolab
🔬 NASA administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters that the point of the base is to encourage a lunar economy, conduct scientific research and lay the foundation for a Mars trip.
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"For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand, and we will not slow down." Go deeper.
🧊 Meanwhile: Indian scientists have found signs of potential water-ice under four craters near the Moon's south pole, Bloomberg reports. (Gift link.)
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