In April 2024, NASA selected three finalists to design, build, and pitch their own Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) for the Artemis program within 12 months. Ever since, Intuitive Machines, Venturi Astrolab, and Lunar Outpost have raced to meet the impending deadline to deliver the best moon car plan possible. Lunar Outpost's Lunar Dawn team revealed its latest high-fidelity prototype, the Lunar Outpost Eagle, on April 8. The vehicle will officially debut at Space Symposium 2025 in Colorado Springs and provide attendees with the closest look yet at the Artemis program hopeful. Eagle is the fourth prototype iteration so far, and was built in collaboration from General Motors, Goodyear, MDA Space, and Leidos, the Eagle is envisioned as the "quintessential Space Truck," according to AJ Gemer, Lunar Outpost CTO.

There was a time not so long ago that space was known as the final frontier--the exclusive domain of governments and a small handful of aerospace companies who could muster the technology and resources to depart the Earth's atmosphere. Today, however--similar to what we've observed with technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing that were once accessible only to universities and research labs--space technologies are being democratized thanks in part to the cloud. I closed out last year with a prediction that space will be the area where we see some of the greatest advancements when it comes to novel application of cloud capabilities. Now, only six months later, a new crop of space pioneers are preparing to supercharge their efforts with cloud technology. Within the emerging commercial space industry, where it's feasible for even small startups to make a big impact by introducing innovative new space technologies, the cloud will be critical to accelerating experimentation, expanding automation, and delivering deeper insights. Getting to this point of expanded commercial activity was no accident.

NASA's Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway has its first international partner. The agency announced today that Canada will be joining the effort to set up the lunar-orbit space station that will help to house astronauts, generate research and eventually enable trips to Mars and beyond. Canada brings the expertise of space-based robotics to the project. The nation will be tasked with developing a smart robotic system, called the Canadarm3, that will be able to make necessary repairs to maintain the function of the Gateway. Canada has previously contributed to the construction of the International Space Station and repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.

While NASA stays diligently focused on its marathon to Mars, it seems everyone else in space exploration wants to sprint to the moon. Between Vice President Mike Pence taking aim at the moon in a speech last week, SpaceX's plans to carry two rich people into lunar orbit in 2018, and the Google Lunar XPrize--a literal moon race for private companies--our lonely satellite is becoming the center of attention lately. Moon Express is one of the companies hoping to take home the $20 million Lunar XPrize for being the first commercial company to land on the moon, travel 500 meters, and send images back to Earth. Today, it released plans for building a robotic outpost on the moon and returning a sample of moon dust to Earth by 2020. "Outpost" is a bit of a strong word here.