2026年5月30日 美国东部时间晚上8:31 / 哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻
加利福尼亚州霍桑—— 1971年，美国人对汽车的热爱延伸到了月球。阿波罗月球车让美国登月宇航员变身月球驾驶员，让航天员得以探索超过50英里的月球地壳和陨石坑区域。
“阿波罗月球车是一款非凡的机器，但从根本上来说，它的任务与我们如今要完成的任务截然不同，”Astrolab公司首席执行官兼创始人贾勒特·马修斯在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时表示。
在加利福尼亚州霍桑的一条后街，马修斯带着哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的记者试驾了该公司21世纪月球车的原型机，这款外形类似赞博尼路面养护车的车辆被其命名为FLEX。
为NASA打造的最终设计将是一款四轮驱动电动汽车，既可以自动驾驶，也可搭载两名宇航员和物资。
该车设计使用寿命为一年，可在月球地形中行驶数百英里。
“月球地形车需要兼顾阿波罗月球车的载人能力——可搭载两名身着舱外航天服的宇航员，同时也要具备更现代化的技术，比如火星上的毅力号探测器，还能从地球远程操控，”马修斯说道。
Astrolab是NASA选定的、将为其计划在未来七年内于月球南极附近建造的月球基地打造首批月球车的两家公司之一。NASA同时还选中了总部位于科罗拉多州的Lunar Outpost公司，来建造一款名为“佩加索斯”的月球车。
NASA将为两家公司各自提供约2.2亿美元的项目资金。
NASA于本周二宣布了其价值200亿美元的月球基地计划。两天后，杰夫·贝佐斯旗下蓝色起源公司的新格伦号火箭在卡纳维拉尔角太空军基地进行测试时发生爆炸。
新格伦号火箭在NASA的阿尔忒弥斯登月计划中扮演着重要角色，蓝色起源公司还正在开发一款月球着陆器，用于将每一辆月球车运送至月球表面。目前尚不清楚此次爆炸会对NASA的月球基地计划造成多大程度的挫折。
与此同时，Lunar Outpost公司首席执行官贾斯汀·赛勒斯在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时表示，他认为月球上的机遇不止于NASA的项目。
“NASA希望成为众多客户之一，”赛勒斯说道，“NASA不想成为唯一的客户。而要做到这一点，唯一的途径就是打造一款真正足够出色的车辆，能够支持月球表面的全新探索活动。”
NASA taps 2 companies to develop buggies for its moon base program
May 30, 2026 8:31 PM EDT / CBS News
Hawthorne, California— It was 1971 when America’s love affair with the car went lunar.The Apollo Lunar Rover turned American moon-walkers into moon-drivers, allowing astronauts to explore more than 50 miles of lunar crust and craters.
“The Apollo Lunar Rover was a phenomenal machine, but fundamentally it had a very different job to do than the one we’re doing,” Jaret Matthews, CEO and founder of Astrolab, told CBS News.
On a back street in Hawthorne, California, Matthews took CBS News for a spin in a Zamboni-looking prototype of his company’s 21st-century lunar rover, which it calls FLEX.
The final design for NASA will look like a four-wheel drive electric vehicle that can either rove on its own or carry two astronauts and supplies.
It will be designed to operate for a year, traversing hundreds of miles across the lunar terrain.
“The lunar terrain vehicles have to be a mash-up of the Apollo Lunar Rover to carry two suited astronauts, as well as something more modern like the Perseverance Rover on Mars, and can be operated remotely from Earth,” Matthews said.
Astrolab is one of two companies NASA picked to build the first moon buggies for the moon base it plans to spend the next seven years developing near the lunar south pole. NASA also tapped Colorado-based Lunar Outpost to build a moon buggy called Pegasus.
NASA is paying Astrolab and Lunar Outpost about $220 million each for the project.
NASA announced its $20 billion plans for the moon base on Tuesday. Two days later, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket exploded during a test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The New Glenn Rocket plays a major role in NASA’s Artemis moon program, and Blue Origin is developing a lunar lander that will deliver each rover to the lunar surface. It’s unclear how big a setback the explosion will prove to be to NASA’s moon base plans.
Meanwhile, Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus told CBS News he sees an opportunity on the moon that goes beyond NASA.
“NASA wants to be one of many customers,” Cyrus said. “NASA doesn’t want to be the only customer. And the only way you can do that is creating a vehicle that is truly capable enough to allow for new activities on the lunar surface.”
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