The curtain is about to rise on NASA’s subsequent moon automotive.The house company will announce the corporate, or corporations, that it has chosen to develop the rover for its Artemis program of lunar exploration throughout a press convention at the moment (April 3) at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).You possibly can watch the occasion reside right here at Area.com, courtesy of NASA, or straight through the company.Associated: NASA’s new moon automotive for Artemis astronauts shall be impressed by Mars roversArtist’s idea of the Artemis Lunar Terrain Automobile on the floor of the moon. (Picture credit score: NASA)Collaborating within the press convention are:Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA’s Johnson Area Middle (JSC)Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist, NASA HeadquartersLara Kearney, supervisor, Extravehicular Exercise and Human Floor Mobility Program, JSCThe two-person Artemis rover, formally often known as the Lunar Terrain Automobile (LTV), will assist astronauts discover the moon’s south polar area. NASA plans to arrange a base on this space, which is assumed to harbor numerous water ice. Like NASA’s authentic lunar rover, the Apollo moon buggy (formally, the Lunar Roving Automobile), the LTV shall be unpressurized, which means astronauts might want to put on spacesuits whereas driving it round on the moon.Breaking house information, the most recent updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!However there will not all the time be astronauts aboard; NASA desires the LTV to have a good diploma of autonomy, so the car can proceed conducting science work within the gaps between crewed Artemis missions. Astronauts are scheduled to land close to the moon’s south pole for the primary time on the Artemis 3 mission, in September 2026. However the LTV will not be a part of that mission; the rover will debut no sooner than Artemis 5, which is at the moment focused to carry off in 2030.NASA posted its request for proposal for the LTV on Might 26 of final 12 months. Submissions had been due lower than two months later, on July 10.