Rover

When NASA returns to the Moon, its astronauts will enjoy tooling around in a pressurized camper van courtesy of JAXA and Toyota. The two-person vehicle is part of a US/Japan agreement that includes putting the first Japanese astronauts on the Moon.

NASA has selected three companies to develop extreme off-road vehicles that astronauts will drive on the Moon during Artemis missions starting in 2030, awarding US$4.6 billion in contracts to Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab.

There aren't any organizations other than NASA that can claim they are operating on two different planets. The space agency is now using that reach to create better helicopter blades on Earth and to push its copter to greater heights on Mars.

India is furthering its bid to become a major spacefaring power. The launch of its first mission to the Sun comes just as it winds down its first successful robotic Moon landing, with the Pragyan lunar rover completing its work and going into sleep mode.

India's Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission has hit the ground running with the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover sending back their first images and instrument data while the rover makes a slow-motion swerve around a crater.

India's Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander has deployed its Pragyan lunar rover as it begins its exploration of the Moon's south polar region. The robotic rover today rolled down a ramp and charged its solar batteries before beginning surface operations.

Not satisfied with sending rovers to other worlds one at a time, NASA is sending three miniature robots to the Moon in 2024 as part of the CADRE project. The goal is to see how such explorers can work as a team without direct control from Earth.

As far as landscapes go, Mars is pretty dull – it’s mostly just rocks and craters. But now the Perseverance rover has spotted a couple of particularly weird rocks that have been hollowed out in eerie shapes.

A bright red waterfall isn’t something you’d expect to see on the icy landscape of Antarctica, but that’s what’s pouring out from the foot of Taylor Glacier. Scientists now claim to have solved the mystery behind the crimson waters of Blood Falls.

The first aircraft to fly on another planet has hit a new milestone. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has recently clocked up its 50th flight, and achieved a new altitude record in the process.

When SpaceX launches its lunar mission scheduled for 2026, it’ll be accompanied by Venturi Astrolab’s Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover, making it the largest, most capable rover to ever travel to the Moon.

It may look like a lightsaber sitting on the surface of Mars, but this titanium tube is a sample canister dropped off by Perseverance. This could eventually be the first pristine sample of Martian soil and rock returned to Earth in a future mission.