Venturi Astrolab

Venturi Astrolab, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Hawthorne, California, develops the FLEX Rover — a large-format lunar terrain vehicle designed to support both crewed astronaut operations and autonomous robotic missions on the Moon's surface, with particular emphasis on NASA's Artemis program requirements for sustained polar operations near the lunar south pole.

The FLEX Rover's defining physical innovation is its hyper-deformable wheel system: custom-engineered wheels that flex and deform over rocks and craters rather than rigidly rolling over them, distributing load across a larger contact patch and reducing slippage in the loose, low-cohesion lunar regolith. NASA's Apollo-era Lunar Roving Vehicle used rigid wheels with wire mesh construction; FLEX's compliant wheel design draws on lessons from decades of Mars rover wheel failures (Curiosity's aluminum wheels accumulated extensive puncture damage) to engineer passive deformability as a durability solution for multi-year lunar surface operations.

FLEX carries a 1,500 kg payload capacity — substantially larger than Apollo's LRV (approximately 490 kg total loaded) — and is designed for a 10-year operational life, reflecting NASA's intent to maintain permanent infrastructure near the lunar south pole rather than conduct short-duration sorties. The rover accommodates detachable payload modules (science instruments, drill systems, construction equipment) that can be swapped at a lunar base, enabling the same rover chassis to serve multiple mission types over its service life.

In 2024, NASA selected Venturi Astrolab for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) services contract, which will provide crewed and autonomous rover capabilities for Artemis lunar surface missions. NASA reported that Astrolab achieved the highest mission suitability score among finalists — which also included Intuitive Machines and a Lockheed Martin / General Motors team — validating the FLEX design against NASA's operational requirements for crew safety, payload versatility, range, and autonomous navigation capability.

Venturi Astrolab is backed by the Venturi Group (Monaco-based clean energy and mobility conglomerate) and has conducted terrestrial FLEX prototype demonstrations in the Mojave Desert, accumulating dozens of kilometers of rough-terrain test data to validate the wheel design and autonomous navigation systems.