Venturi Space unveiled ALTA LUNA, a 300-kilogram, single-person lunar utility vehicle designed for crewed and autonomous operations around future Moon bases, during the International Space Summit held in Paris on September 9–10. The compact tracked rover expands the European company’s lunar mobility portfolio beyond wheeled vehicles and is intended to support astronaut transport, payload movement, terrain preparation and surface infrastructure development.
ALTA LUNA is designed to operate close to lunar habitats, where crews will require short-range transportation and utility vehicles capable of repeatedly moving across rough terrain. Its compact dimensions are intended to improve maneuverability around landing sites, equipment, power systems and other base infrastructure.
The vehicle can be driven by an astronaut or operated autonomously. Its autonomous navigation system is planned to combine LiDAR, stereo cameras and artificial intelligence, while AI-based functions would also assist astronauts during manual driving.
Venturi Space said the autonomous configuration could perform excavation, grading and terrain preparation, as well as build routes and basic infrastructure around a lunar outpost. ALTA LUNA would also transport payloads and could operate individually or coordinate with multiple vehicles, allowing several rovers to combine their capabilities for larger construction or logistics tasks.
The company did not disclose the rover’s dimensions, payload capacity, power rating, operating range or planned mission date.
Tracked Architecture Targets Steep Lunar Terrain
ALTA LUNA is Venturi Space’s first lunar vehicle based on a tracked mobility architecture. The company selected tracks to give the rover greater obstacle-crossing performance and allow it to climb steeper slopes than its wheeled vehicles.
That capability could be useful around the lunar south pole, where candidate exploration and base sites contain crater rims, uneven regolith and significant variations in elevation. Tracks can distribute vehicle loads across a relatively large contact area and provide continuous contact with the surface, although the design will still need to demonstrate durability in abrasive lunar dust and under extreme temperature cycles.
The tracked architecture distinguishes ALTA LUNA from Venturi Space’s existing work on hyper-deformable lunar wheels. Those wheels are designed to conform to irregular terrain and maintain traction without using conventional pneumatic tires, which are unsuitable for vacuum and extreme lunar temperatures.
ALTA LUNA will use a battery and battery management system developed by Venturi Space. Related battery technology is being incorporated into Venturi Astrolab’s CLV-1 crewed lunar vehicle, which NASA selected for further development under the Artemis lunar mobility program.
The rover’s electronics are also designed to connect with an astronaut’s spacesuit and collect health data. If the system detects that the astronaut has become incapacitated, ALTA LUNA is intended to navigate autonomously back to the base. Its crew interface would display driving and mission-safety information, including warnings about space-weather hazards such as approaching solar storms.
Venturi Expands a Multi-Vehicle Lunar Portfolio
ALTA LUNA joins a portfolio that includes MONA LUNA, a European scientific rover unveiled approximately 15 months earlier, and mobility technologies supplied to the U.S.-based Venturi Astrolab.
Venturi Space is Astrolab’s strategic European partner and provides battery systems and hyper-deformable wheels for its lunar vehicles. Astrolab is developing CLV-1 as a crewed Lunar Terrain Vehicle for NASA’s Artemis campaign. NASA awarded Astrolab a $219 million contract in May 2026 to develop and deliver a lunar terrain vehicle, placing the company alongside Lunar Outpost in the agency’s effort to acquire commercially operated surface transportation.
Venturi technology will first receive an opportunity for lunar flight aboard Astrolab’s FLIP, or Flex Lunar Innovation Platform, a robotic rover scheduled to travel to the lunar south polar region on Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander by the end of 2026. FLIP incorporates wheels and batteries designed and manufactured by Venturi Space and is intended to demonstrate technologies relevant to larger surface vehicles.
Together, the programs cover several prospective lunar mobility requirements: FLIP as a robotic technology demonstrator, MONA LUNA for scientific exploration, CLV-1 for longer-range crew transportation and ALTA LUNA as a compact utility vehicle for work close to a habitat.
ALTA LUNA remains a development concept, and Venturi Space has not announced a customer, flight assignment or qualification schedule. Its next major milestones would be expected to include prototype testing, validation of the tracked drivetrain in lunar-regolith simulants and environmental qualification of the rover’s power, autonomy and crew-safety systems.
