The US space agency Nasa has begun requesting lunar landers, robotic rovers and drones as part of its plan to establish a permanent base on the Moon, less than two months after the record-breaking Artemis 2 lunar flyby mission.

Nasa unveiled the first phase of its lunar base strategy by awarding contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to four American companies.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will provide two cargo landers to transport lunar terrain vehicles to the lunar surface, targeting a site near the Moon’s south pole.

These lunar vehicles will be manufactured by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, whilst Firefly Aerospace, which successfully landed on the Moon last year, will be responsible for deploying the first drones to the lunar surface.

All of this equipment is scheduled to arrive before the landing of the first Artemis astronauts, which is provisionally planned for 2028.

The second phase of the lunar base, spanning from 2029 until the early 2030s, will see the initial construction of permanent infrastructure, including a power grid.

During the third phase in the 2030s, the base is expected to be fully prepared to host astronauts for extended periods within specialised, permanent habitats.