NASA considers deploying a Mars rover on the Moon

Strategic turn under new leadership

According to NASA, such a lunar station should be permanently habitable for humans from the early 2030s onward. It would then be the first permanently occupied outpost of humanity on another celestial body. As early as April, the "Artemis 2" mission brought humans back into the vicinity of the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

The plans are set against the context of a new global race to the Moon. The United States' biggest competitor is seen as China, with the stated goal of putting humans on the Moon by 2030. Russia also intends to send its own astronauts to the Moon, but is grappling with delays due to economic difficulties.

Global race to the Moon

At the same time, NASA is expanding its unmanned program around the Moon. After originally announcing three unmanned missions for the current year, the agency has since awarded four additional contracts. The three US companies Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, and Intuitive Machines were commissioned to deliver various scientific instruments to the Moon.

The now-proposed repurposing of the Mars rover "Promise" for the Moon is, not least, a signal to the competition: Washington is pooling resources and relying on existing technology to keep the schedule for a crewed lunar station on track. Whether and in what form "Promise" will actually be used on the Moon remained open after the press conference.

Contracts awarded to private US firms

What is clear is that the coming months will be decisive in determining which contracts are awarded and which existing projects are repurposed. Observers view the move as an attempt to achieve results faster than the international competition with the resources available.

It remains unclear how the reorientation will affect the schedule of the "Artemis" missions. With "Artemis 2," the US most recently demonstrated that it can once again conduct crewed flights into the lunar vicinity after decades. These forays are now apparently to become a permanent program.

Overall, the press conference in Washington makes clear that lunar policy under Isaacman is taking a different course than before: away from a single flagship mission, toward a broadly conceived, modular program in which technology from the Mars program could also play a role.