Tag Archives: lunar South Pole

Sci-Tech

New Moon Vehicle Will Safely Return Sick Astronauts To Artemis Base

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ALTA LUNA  © Venturi Space Paris, France September 2026 – Venturi Space unveils ALTA LUNA, a compact and manoeuvrable rover designed for local operations around future lunar bases. Designed to assist astronauts, it will also be able to carry out missions involving the handling and transport of payloads. At the International Space Summit, held in Paris on 9 and 10 September 2026, the team led by Gildo Pastor, President of Venturi Space, is presenting ALTA LUNA. This single-person lunar mobility vehicle has been conceived as a local utility vehicle capable of operating close to habitats.

With a target mass of 300 kg, ALTA LUNA’s compact size gives it a high degree of manoeuvrability. The vehicle is also designed to offer particularly high obstacle-crossing capability.

ALTA LUNA is designed to operate in two modes: with an astronaut on board or autonomously. In autonomous mode, navigation will rely on a combination of LiDAR, stereo cameras and artificial intelligence. AI will also be able to assist the astronaut in driving the vehicle.

In autonomous mode, ALTA LUNA will be able to carry out operations including excavation, grading and terrain preparation, as well as site development and the creation of routes and basic infrastructure. It will also be able to transport payloads. Each vehicle will be able to operate alone or in coordination with other ALTA LUNA vehicles. For certain operations, several vehicles will therefore be able to work together on the same task, pooling their efforts.

ALTA LUNA, VENTURI SPACE’S NEW LUNAR
UTILITY VEHICLEALTA LUNA · Payloads transport © Venturi SpaceThe onboard electronic system is designed to connect to the astronaut’s spacesuit and collect health data. If the astronaut becomes unwell, ALTA LUNA will be able to return the astronaut autonomously to base. The interface will also provide the pilot with essential information for driving and mission safety, including alerts relating to the space environment, such as an approaching solar storm.

With ALTA LUNA, Venturi Space is exploring a tracked mobility architecture for the first time as part of its lunar programmes. This choice has one specific objective: to allow the vehicle to climb steeper slopes than would be possible with a wheeled architecture.

ALTA LUNA will use the battery and battery management system (BMS) developed by Venturi Space. These two technologies are integrated into Venturi Astrolab’s CLV-1, which has been selected by NASA for the Artemis campaign.

Fifteen months after unveiling the MONA LUNA rover, and as the launch of FLIP to the lunar South Pole approaches (*), Venturi Space continues to strengthen its position in the space industry, just five years after its creation.

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Gildo Pastor, President of Venturi Space:
“I enjoy designing vehicles for extreme environments, but above all I like to see them prove their value in real-world conditions. I will therefore devote all the necessary energy to ensuring that ALTA LUNA supports the first inhabitants of the Moon in their daily lives”

Dr. Antonio Delfino, Director of Venturi Space:
“On the Moon, we will need to build, develop sites, transport, maintain and connect. We will face challenges similar to those of industrialisation on Earth: transport routes, habitats, infrastructure and logistics. This will require a range of specialised mobility solutions capable of operating as a fleet and carrying out a wide variety of missions. This is the new phase of lunar activity that we are preparing for”(*) Developed by the US company Venturi Astrolab, the FLIP rover is equipped with hyper-deformable wheels and high-performance batteries designed and manufactured by Venturi Space. Its launch aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander is scheduled by the end of 2026, with the lunar South Pole as its destination. Venturi Space, a European company, is Venturi Astrolab’s strategic partner.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Sci-Tech

Astrolab FLEX Moon Rover Nears South Pole Mission

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Monaco, April 2024 The American company Venturi Astrolab, Inc. (Astrolab), a strategic partner of the Monegasque Venturi Group, has been awarded a NASA contract to support the development of Artemis campaign’s lunar terrain vehicle. Its rover, known as FLEX, is equipped with batteries and wheels developed by Gildo Pastor’s teams in Monaco and Switzerland.

Gildo Pastor is no stranger to specialized high-performance vehicles- here with Bugatti EB110 he drove to win the world record for fastest car on ice in 1995.

Astrolab is one of three teams to win contract awards. Astrolab’s contract is worth up to $1.9 billion usd / $2.56 billion cad. Collectively the three contract winners may be awarded task orders over the next 13 years with a total potential value of $4.6 billion usd/ $6.2 billion cad over the life of the program. The contracts allow for two additional years for the completion of services.
With this announcement, and after two decades dedicated to high-performance terrestrial electric vehicles, Venturi is taking another major step forward. Indeed, the industrial Group led by its President Gildo Pastor designs and manufactures the lunar vehicle’s wheels and batteries. The hyper-deformable wheels, developed and manufactured by the Venturi’s Swiss entity in collaboration with Astrolab, were presented at the Paris Air Show in June 2023. As for the batteries, these will be manufactured in Monaco in specifically designed facilities at the heart of the Venturi’s historic headquarters.

SpaceX’s Starship launch and landing system will deliver FLEX to the lunar surface in mid-2026.

Astrolab first revealed the full-scale working prototype for its Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover in March of 2022. In the years since, Astrolab, has conducted thousands of hours of laboratory and field testing that has led to numerous design improvements. The improvements to the wheels and batteries came as a result of tests Astrolab conducted together with Venturi’s engineers.

As required by NASA, FLEX can carry two suited astronauts, accommodate a robotic arm to support science exploration, perform robotic cargo logistics, and survive the extreme temperatures at the lunar South Pole, which is a technological challenge, particularly for the hyper-deformable wheels and batteries. FLEX can be operated remotely from Earth even when astronauts are not present, or it can be operated by suited astronauts.
Once FLEX arrives on the lunar surface, Astrolab expects that FLEX will become the largest and most capable rover to ever travel to the Moon. With a maximum combined rover and cargo mass of more than two tons, the FLEX rover is nearly three times the mass of its largest predecessor. This increased capacity provides significantly more opportunities to conduct scientific experiments and commercial endeavors on the lunar surface.
“Through our strategic partnership with Astrolab, I am proud to see the Venturi Group’s know-how validated by NASA. After 20 years of innovation and world speed records in the field of terrestrial electric vehicles, we are now involved in an adventure that will go down in the history books: when Man returns to the Moon! When I see this rover, equipped with our wheels and batteries, operating up there I will have made my greatest dream come true“. – Gildo Pastor, President of the Venturi Group.

“Astrolab is honored to have its FLEX rover selected by NASA to participate in the development of creating a Lunar Terrain Vehicle for the Artemis Campaign. Our entire team, together with our business partners, including our strategic partner Venturi Group, are committed to delivering to NASA an LTV that serves as a critical tool in the agency’s efforts to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.” – Jaret Matthews, founder & CEO, Astrolab.