First Robotic Rover to Operate on the Moon Alongside Astronauts
- Dec 23, 2025
- 2 min read
December 2025, NASA selected Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover to join Artemis IV, launching in 2028. Lunar Voyage 5 (LV5) marks a historic milestone: MAPP will be the first-ever robot to operate alongside Astronauts on another planetary body. MAPP’s job is to advance critical scientific research into lunar dust and plasma that unlocks long-term operations on the Moon.
With our first rover surviving an off-nominal mission and returning data from the Moon in March 2025, to our second Lunar Voyage flight rover being delivered over 2 years ago, and our third through CDR, Lunar Outpost is ready for our next challenges. As a result of on-time and high quality deliverables for our previous missions, we were awarded an Artemis IV Deployed Instruments contract for the DUSTER investigation, alongside our partners at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder, University of Central Florida, and UC Berkeley.
LV5 ushers in a new era of human-robotic collaboration on the Moon. For the first time, Astronauts and a robotic rover will work side by side on the lunar surface, combining human expertise with autonomous precision to deliver foundational science and unlock insights that will shape the future of exploration. LV5 provides a key jumping off point for human-robot interaction on other planetary bodies while also directly contributing to our Eagle Lunar Terrain Vehicle capabilities.
Mission Overview
Launch: 2028
Location: Lunar South Pole
First Robotic Rover to Deploy with Astronauts
Rover Class: Exploration Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) – 20kg
Science Team: LASP at CU Boulder, University of Central Florida, and UC Berkeley
Launch Vehicle: NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B
Crew Spacecraft: NASA Orion
Landing Vehicle: SpaceX Starship Human Landing System
Why This Matters
Establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon, Mars, and beyond will require Astronauts and robotic systems to work together as a team, from building infrastructure to exploring far beyond landing sites and conducting science. LV5 MAPP will demonstrate this human-robotic partnership on the lunar surface for the first time, setting the standard for all future mission operations.
The Apollo missions exposed one of the Moon’s most persistent challenges: lunar dust. Sharp, abrasive, and electrostatically charged, lunar dust poses a serious threat to surface systems, long-term operations, and Astronaut safety. On LV5, MAPP will begin to tackle this challenge by carrying instruments to study lunar dust dynamics and plasma conditions during launch, landing, and surface operations, including the impact of space weather.
These measurements will improve Astronaut safety, reduce mission risk, and inform the design of next-generation lunar mobility systems including our Eagle Lunar Terrain Vehicle.
The Next Steps
LV5 is Lunar Outpost’s fifth lunar rover mission and seventh mission to cislunar space before 2030, demonstrating our ability to deliver the most capable, versatile, and mission-ready platforms . As we prepare MAPP for Artemis IV, we continue advancing technologies that enable humanity’s long-term presence beyond Earth.
