These rovers are shaping the future of lunar exploration

Updated 0804 GMT (1604 HKT) May 25, 2023

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NASA's VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a lunar rover which, among other objectives, will search the moon's South Pole for water. James Blair/NASA /Johnson Space Center

NASA hopes that the data collected by VIPER will move humanity closer to establishing a sustained presence on the moon. Bridget Caswell, Alcyon Technical Services/NASA

VIPER will be delivered to the lunar surface by the Griffin lander. Pictured here is a full-scale model of the lander used for testing VIPER. Josh Valcarcel/NASA/Johnson Space Center

Rovers have long been a crucial part of lunar exploration. Pictured, in December 1972, for the Apollo 17 mission, commander Eugene A. Cernan operated the Lunar Roving Vehicle at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. This was the last time humans set foot on the moon. NASA

VIPER is one of a host of new specialized rovers currently in development or under construction. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai is developing a successor to its Rashid Rover, pictured here in a rendering, which was lost when the lander carrying it is thought to have crash landed on the moon. Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre

Engineers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands are working towards creating a fleet of miniature rovers that will collaborate to collect data from the moon's surface. TU Delft

The Laboratory for Space Instrumentation at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México hopes to catapult five miniature rovers onto the lunar surface with its Colmena mission. UNAM

Toronto-based start-up STELLS SPACE is creating a compact rover, shown in this rendering, that acts as a portable solar charger and could supply stranded rovers with energy. STELLS

Lunar rovers offer insight into what's possible for rovers on Mars. Here engineers Matt Robinson, left, and Wesley Kuykendall, are pictured with three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. NASA/JPL-Caltech