Venturi Space unveils lunar mobility rover for Moon missions at Paris Air Show

At the Paris Air Show 2025, Venturi Space has unveiled MONA LUNA, a fully European-made lunar rover designed for future missions by the European Space Agency (ESA) and French national space agency CNES. 

As the main trade days came to an end and the event transitioned to become more public-oriented, AeroTime took the opportunity to visit Venturi Space, an aerospace company based in Monaco, with a focus on designing mobility solutions for the Moon and Mars. 

The company showcased the newly designed lunar rover at its booth all week, drawing the attention of guests, industry experts and media representatives attending the Paris Air Show.  

The company’s booth at PAS25 / AeroTimeIn an exclusive interview with AeroTime, Remain Bolde, the Chief Designer at Venturi Space, said that the company’s goal with this rover is to create a platform capable of delivering payloads such as scientific equipment, instruments, or cargo to the Moon at the speed of 20 km/h. 

“It’s quite a big lunar rover, able to go to the Moon with actual landers. We just want to show Europe that we developed this kind of rover for the next lunar application,” Bolde told AeroTime when speaking about the company’s goals. 

Meet MONA LUNA: rover built to explore Moon’s terrain 

The vehicle, details of which had not been widely disclosed to the public prior to the 2025 Paris Air Show, was built at Venturi Space France’s facility in Toulouse.  

MONA LUNA is designed to be carried into space by the Ariane 6.4 launch system and landed on the Moon’s surface by the European Argonaut lunar lander. According to the company, the rover itself will be equipped with a robotic arm to handle scientific instruments and payloads. 

The vehicle, which weighs a total of 750 kilograms, is electrically powered, able to recharge via solar panels, designed to move autonomously, and equipped with three high-performance batteries. Additionally, it can be used in emergencies to carry an astronaut in difficulty. 

Bolde explained that this rover is unique because the company has developed wheels specifically designed for use on the Moon. 

“The rover has hyper-deformable wheels, which were developed at Venturi Lab in Switzerland,” Bolde told AeroTime. “Additionally, we are using our own battery pack, which is developed in Monaco, our headquarters.” 

Venturi Space said that it will oversee MONA LUNA’s development, coordinating every aspect of the process, to deploy the rover at the Moon’s South Pole by 2030.  

Building on proven experience 

According to the company, European autonomy in lunar mobility is a major strategic challenge, so the European Space Agency and CNES are backing Venturi Space in their work to create and develop critical technologies required for a large lunar rover. 

This is not Venturi Space’s first venture into lunar mobility. The project will draw on the experience acquired from the programs to develop the FLIP and FLEX rovers under a strategic partnership with Venturi Astrolab, a US-based company and strategic partner of Venturi Space. 

As for the MONA LUNA rover, Venturi Space is currently designing and building hyper-deformable wheels that will be fitted to those vehicles, along with the associated electrical systems and high-performance batteries. 

FLIP will be deployed to the Moon in February 2026. FLEX has been pre-selected by NASA for manned missions under the Artemis program. The post Venturi Space unveils lunar mobility rover for Moon missions at Paris Air Show appeared first on AeroTime.

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