A tiny commercial rover is set to land near the south pole of the moon today (March 6).
Colorado-based space firm Lunar Outpost's Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform, or MAPP, launched aboard Intuitive Machines' Athena moon lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast on Feb. 26. The spacecraft is now in lunar orbit preparing for its landing attempt.
Athena's mission, known as IM-2, is targeting a landing at around 12:32 p.m. EST (1732 GMT) today near Mons Mouton, in the lunar south pole region. You can watch the Athena moon landing live on Space.com.
If all goes well with landing, MAPP — also known as Lunar Outpost's Lunar Voyage 1 — will be the first American robotic rover on the moon, as well as the first private rover on a planetary body. It will deploy from Athena using a mechanism mounted on the lander's side. It will then get to work on the lunar surface with a suite of instruments and technologies.
Related: The private Athena moon lander will touch down near the moon's south pole today: Watch it live
The four-wheeled rover measures 17.7 by 15 by 15.7 inches (45 by 38 by 40 centimeters) and is designed to provide critical data on the navigability of the lunar environment to guide the design of lunar vehicles for future moon excursions and NASA's Artemis astronaut campaigns.
MAPP is expected to facilitate the first commercial sale of space resources by collecting a small amount of lunar regolith, which will be imaged and sold to NASA for a symbolic sum of $1. This transaction, while symbolic, is intended to set a legal precedent for space resource utilization and open the door for a lunar economy.
The rover also carries Nokia antennas that will deploy in order to test the Finnish company's LTE/4G communications system for the moon, which is one of 10 payloads from global partners on the vehicle. Among these is AstroAnt, a prototype micro swarm robot designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that will take contactless measurements of MAPP's temperature. AstroAnt is using advanced space-grade lubricants from Castrol. The Time-of-Flight Depth Camera for 3D mapping is one of two further MIT payloads aboard the rover. Other mission partners include the Juventus football club and Adidas.
"Lunar Voyage 1 is not just about exploration — it's about proving that private industry can operate, sustain, and create economic value on the moon," Justin Cyrus, Lunar Outpost CEO, said ahead of the landing attempt. "These historic accomplishments create real-world lunar infrastructure, resource utilization and planetary mobility — essential steps toward a lasting human presence beyond Earth."
At 1:30am UTC, we established communications with MAPP on orbit!!! About an hour into its lunar voyage, MAPP let us know it has powered on. Over the next few days, MAPP will provide real-time updates and data. Thanks to @SpaceX + @Int_Machines! Follow along for more updates! pic.twitter.com/EiCFNCRkQ2February 27, 2025
Like Athena, MAPP is solar-powered and its mission lifetime is one lunar day, or around 14 Earth days. It is not expected to reactivate following the harsh low temperatures of lunar nighttime. MAPP's mission is just the first for Lunar Outpost, which is developing a series of rovers. The company is also competing for a NASA contract to build an unpressurized rover for a lunar test mission ahead of the Artemis 5 mission, currently scheduled for 2030.
MAPP is not the only mobile spacecraft aboard Athena. The rocket-powered, crater-diving Micro-Nova hopper, known as Grace, will be in action on the moon if Athena can stick the landing, as will Yaoki, a small rover built by the Japanese company Dymon.
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