NASA seeks a “warm backup” option as key decision on lunar rover nears

Summary

For this reason, the LTV program at NASA would like to award one company the services contract while also funding a second company as a “warm backup.” Essentially, the backup company would receive a few hundred million dollars—a tiny fraction of the overall contract—over the next several years to progress through the critical design review phase. This is the final step before the construction of flight hardware. So if a significant problem arose with the primary company, this second bidder could be activated. “This would be a cheap insurance policy,” a source said. Preserving flexibility A warm backup would not only preserve flexibility in the LTV program but could also prevent one or more of the companies from going out of business. The agency is concerned about losing the investments and innovations that two of the newest LTV companies, Lunar Outpost and Astrolab, have made in the lunar economy. Although leaders of both companies have said they will press on with lunar rover development if they don’t win the large services contract, NASA officials aren’t sure that will be possible. The companies have signed up some commercial customers for their rovers, but it may be difficult to close a business case without NASA’s investment. The third company, Intuitive Machines, has other lines of business beyond its LTV program. The officials praised the varying designs of the rovers by each company, each of which supports different use cases from extra mobility to research capacity. NASA’s fairly lean requirements allowed the companies to develop innovative proposals. “All of the proposed rovers are different, and it’s a great result of a competition,” one of the sources said. Right now, the LTV program does not have the funding available to create a warm backup option. If the decision were made today, just a single company would receive an award. The decision is complicated by the fact that NASA Headquarters is reticent to make a decision on something like this, even at a c...