Astrolab announced a new lunar rover for an upcoming mission to the moon with SpaceX Starship. The Flexible Logistics and Exploration rover or FLEX is expected to launch as soon as mid-2026.
(Photo : Astrolab Official YouTube Channel)
FLEX's six degree-of-freedom, 2.4m long, robotic arm has a dust tolerant, swappable end effector. This gives FLEX the ability to extract payloads, instruments, and tools from a mezzanine onboard the rover.
Astrolab FLEX Rover
A new lunar rover is heading to the moon as Venturi Astrolab announced that it had signed an agreement with Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX to transport the FLEX rover for an upcoming mission to the moon. Engadget reported that Starship would be used to launch and land the system in mid-2026.
This rover is the same size as an SUV, making it much bigger than NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars. FLEX also features a robotic arm to assist with cargo and has a travel time p to 15 miles per hour. Astrolab claims that the lunar rover can carry up to two astronauts, despite being designed to be controlled remotely without any in-person operators.
Chief Executive Officer Jarat Matthews stated that this will be the first commercial cargo contract of SpaceX to the lunar surface. Astrolab built this rover within NASA's requirements for the agency's Lunar Terrain Vehicle specifications and is expective to have an entire FLEX fleet roving the moon's surface as part of the Artemis program.
He said, "We've created a logistics system that can accommodate a wide variety of cargo. We expect that this approach will help establish a permanent lunar outpost on the moon at a lower cost and in less time than previously envisioned." Space News reported that engineers also see the rover operating on future missions to Mars.
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Matthews previously worked at SpaceX and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA. Following his time with both companies, he founded Astrolab less than four years ago and located its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, with 20 employees.
Astrolab's Funding
As of the moment, Astrolab's lunar mission is an entirely commercial venture without financing from NASA. The New York Times reported that the CEO did not reveal how much it would cost the FLEX rover to launch or how much the company has raised for this mission but clarified instead that they had several signed agreements for payloads.
He said that Astrolab would make some money by lifting and deploying cargo for customers for this mission to the moon, like scientific equipment and instruments. Through these abilities and its robotic arm, the FLEX rover could help build future infrastructures on the Moon.
"Essentially providing what I like to call last-mile mobility on the moon. You can kind of think of it like being U.P.S. for the moon. And in this analogy, Starship is the container ship crossing the ocean, and we're the local distribution solution," he added.
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