Venturi Space and Venturi Astrolab have announced their collaboration to produce a lunar rover, designed to meet the growing number of institutional, corporate and scientific organizations in the US and European markets seeking access to the Moon for smaller payloads. A development prototype of the rover was unveiled today at Venturi Space’s exhibit booth at the "75th International Astronautical Congress".

Currently known as Flip (Flex Lunar Innovation Platform), the rover uses the same technology as Astrolab’s Flex rover introduced in 2022. Like Flex, Astrolab is responsible for the overall design and manufacturing of the rover. Specifically, the company developed the vehicle’s actuators, chassis, launch and release mount, avionics, solar array, communications system, flight and ground software. As before, this rover relies on three key technologies when it comes to tackling the extreme conditions of the lunar South Pole: proprietary cryogenic materials, hyper-deformable wheels and batteries, as well as the associated testing systems and manufacturing processes. These were designed and developed by Venturi Space at its facilities in Monaco, Switzerland, France and the United States. Astrolab is leading and conducting the integrated testing and operations of the vehicle from its headquarters in California.

"This vehicle represents a critical step in Astrolab's spiral-based rapid development approach for Flex: design-build-test-flight cycles that demonstrate expanded capabilities and incorporate lessons learned during development and qualification testing", the company said in a statement. "The rover has a mass of half a ton, a payload capacity of 30 kg, and is designed to be compatible with the growing number of medium-class lunar landers entering the commercial space market. It also offers customers the opportunity to perform technology demonstrations and commercial exploration, as well as collect valuable science data. It also features critical components, subsystems, and processes common to the core platform used by the Flex rover".

The vehicle will be on display at the Venturi Space stand at the "International Astronautical Congress" until the event's conclusion on October 18in Milan.