High-Rate Mobility

NASA/ Ames Research Center (ARC) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for planetary surface mobility and navigation.

High-Rate Mobility Overview:

NASA is investigating robust, high-rate, autonomous surface mobility for future planetary surface missions, including advances in perception sensors and high-performance space computing to enable high-speed autonomy to drive farther faster and with less need for human operator intervention. Taking advantage of new flight-worthy sensors like rover-capable Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors combined with a new generation of high-performance space computing, future systems will go beyond the kinds of navigation algorithms used by current planetary rovers like Perseverance or the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to adapt cutting edge technologies to the unique challenges of planetary surface mobility of the Moon and Mars.

To date, missions have used slow computers, stereo imaging cameras, approaches that rely heavily on teams of operators, and achieved a mobility pace measured in meters per hour. New technology will enable planetary mobility systems to move faster in a productive manner, cover significantly longer distances, and greatly reduce the need for human operator oversight or control. Systems with these capabilities will enable completely new mission profiles that can achieve significantly greater science objectives at reduced cost.

Requesting Input from Providers of Surface Mobility:

NASA ARC is seeking information about the navigation capabilities of potential mobility system providers. If you have mobility systems or mobility system concepts, please provide us with information about the capabilities your system provides or is intended to provide. We have provided a questionnaire form and an email address for any additional information beyond the questionnaire. There is no need to provide implementation details or any other proprietary or competition-sensitive information. If you have more than one mobility platform or concept, feel free to submit the form more than once.

Requesting Input from Users of Surface Mobility:

NASA ARC is seeking information about the requirements of potential users of planetary surface mobility. If you have a payload, experiment, or mission concept that could be enabled or enhanced by planetary mobility, please provide us with information about the requirements your use case would place on the mobility system. We have provided a questionnaire form and an email address for any additional information beyond the questionnaire. There is no need to provide precise experimental details, science aims, or any other competition-sensitive information. If you have more than one mobility platform or concept, feel free to submit the form more than once.

Please respond by filling out this form:

https://forms.gle/2Hr3Pu488iVtakeq8

Additional inputs may be submitted via email to:

Other information relevant to the topics contained in this RFI and the form above (such as quad charts, spec sheets, or whitepapers) can be provided via email. Please reference “High-Rate Mobility RFI” in the subject line of your response. Address your email to Noor Khazendar at noor.khazendar@nasa.gov. 

Responders may voluntarily submit proprietary information, controlled unclassified information (CUI), export-controlled information (including International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) or Export Administration Regulations (EAR) data), or other confidential information in response to this RFI. Any such information must be clearly and conspicuously marked in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

The responses to this RFI may be reviewed by NASA Government personnel and by personnel from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) operated by the California Institute of Technology under contract with NASA.

Submit responses no later than February 28th, 2026 at 11:59 pm EST.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.