NASA may send a backup, nuclear-powered Mars rover to the Moon

NASA is considering repurposing an engineering development version of a nuclear-powered Mars rover for the moon's south polar region in a mission called PROMISE ("Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration"). The rover's plutonium power source would enable it to explore permanently shadowed lunar craters containing water ice, capabilities that solar-powered rovers lack. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated the PROMISE mission was still being defined but that "there's very little that would hold us back from making use of that hardware."

Source: Ars Technica | 2026-06-30