Welcome to Spotlight on Dynamism, where we shine a light on CEOs and companies at the intersection of innovation and national interest. Covering sectors from defense to public safety and supply chain, we delve into the stories of mission-driven leaders committed to civic responsibility, whose ventures not only cross verticals but also redefine business models in their quest to address critical national challenges.
This month, we turn our focus to Jaret Matthews of Astrolab, a visionary leading the charge in extraterrestrial exploration. Astrolab is advancing lunar mobility solutions by developing versatile rovers designed to support sustained human presence on the Moon and beyond.
In a rapidly evolving world where challenges are multifaceted, Astrolab embodies the pursuit of technological breakthroughs that expand humanity’s reach across the solar system. Astrolab is not just an innovator but a catalyst for the lunar economy and a cornerstone in shaping a sustainable future.
Please read our full interview with Jaret below.
Astrolab is pioneering new ways to explore and operate on distant planetary bodies. They are singularly focused on designing, building, and operating a fleet of multi-purpose commercial planetary rovers to extend and enhance humanity’s presence in the solar system.
Jaret Matthews
CEO
“Astrolab’s goal is to serve as a catalyst for the lunar and Martian economies by providing mobility, power, and data services solutions that we see as foundational to off-Earth industrial activity and sustained human presence.”
Jaret Matthews
CEO
Jaret is the founder and CEO of Astrolab and has spent his 20-year career creating revolutionary space systems. He spent seven years at SpaceX as manager of the Dragon Spacecraft Mechanisms development team where he conceived of and led the development of the novel docking system that the Crew Dragon spacecraft uses to dock to the International Space Station (ISS).
Prior to SpaceX, Jaret spent a decade in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Robotic Vehicles Group designing and operating innovative robotic mobility and manipulation systems for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Jaret was part of the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) mobility systems and operations teams and was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for his work leading the development of the ATHLETE Lunar rover.
- Hometown: Johnson City, TN
- University: Purdue University, School of Aeronautics & Astronautics
- Favorite Book: The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin
Lazard: What is Astrolab’s mission?
JM: Our mission is to develop the critical elements that will enable and accelerate humanity’s transition to life beyond Earth.
Our initial focus is on solving the last-mile problem: when SpaceX’s Starship lands 100 tons of equipment on the Moon, Astrolab is building platforms to mobilize that cargo and deliver it to the point of use. We also aim to create and deploy infrastructure for energy collection and storage, as well as communication and data services that we see as foundational for other players in the market. By developing versatile rovers and infrastructure solutions, Astrolab is positioned to play a pivotal role in establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars, supporting both scientific exploration and commercial endeavors.
“By developing versatile rovers and infrastructure solutions, Astrolab is positioned to play a pivotal role in establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars, supporting both scientific exploration and commercial endeavors.”
Lazard: What unique features of the FLEX Platform led NASA to award Astrolab a nearly $2B Lunar Terrain Vehicle System contract?
JM: What makes FLEX (the Flexible Logistics & Exploration Rover) unique is its versatility. Historically, rovers like JPL’s Curiosity have been completely bespoke and were landed with all the equipment and capabilities they were ever going to have.
FLEX is different in that there is a core reusable platform that provides the basic functions of driving, providing power, and communicating and that has a number of modular interfaces which allow it to pick up or put down a multitude of payloads and implements.
This modular approach allows FLEX to serve a wide range of use cases and customers and supports an evolving utility (not unlike how a John Deere tractor may support a mower attachment or a backhoe, depending on the job).
We are honored and humbled to have won this important NASA program and look forward to supporting humanity’s return to the lunar surface.
“FLEX is built on a core reusable platform that provides the basic functions of driving, powering, and communicating, with modular interfaces to accommodate various payloads and implements—not unlike how a John Deere tractor supports attachments like a mower or backhoe, depending on the job.”
Lazard: With the FLIP Rover set to land on the Moon later this year, how do you envision your customer base evolving once the technology is proven?
JM: The FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) is a 480kg rover set to land at the lunar south pole in late 2025. It carries critical technologies – such as tires, batteries, avionics, and software – integral to our larger 2,200kg FLEX platforms, alongside a dozen commercial and government payloads.
The first FLEX rover is slated for a lunar journey aboard a Starship as early as late 2026, boasting a 1,600kg payload capacity. We've already secured several customers for this mission.
FLEX is designed to address the last-mile challenge on the Moon, facilitating the transport of cargo delivered by major landers like Starship and Blue Moon to their final destinations – akin to how logistics operate on Earth, where large cargo ships handle transoceanic transport and FLEX manages local delivery.
“PwC estimates the lunar TAM to reach $170B over 15 years. With 20x less energy needed to lift a kilogram off the Moon and helium-3 valued at $20M per kilogram, lunar resources can drive the off-Earth economy.”
Lazard: How big is your potential end market, and what factors are driving its growth?
JM: A recent PwC study estimates the lunar TAM to reach $170B over the next 15 years. The Moon – a celestial body with a surface area larger than Africa – offers abundant resources such as aluminum, titanium, oxygen, and water. By providing essential services like mobility, power, and data, Astrolab aims to catalyze the off-Earth economy and support emerging industrial activities on the Moon. Notably, numerous startups are already exploring ways to extract value from these lunar resources.
Key factors driving this growth include the Moon’s unique advantages for space-based operations. For example, it requires twenty times less energy to lift a kilogram off the Moon than from Earth, making lunar materials particularly valuable for in-space applications. Additionally, resources like helium-3, which carries a terrestrial market value of $20M per kilogram, show promise for export back to Earth.
In Q1 2025 alone, three commercial companies launched lunar missions, signaling the nascent growth of the lunar economy. Astrolab is poised to capitalize on this momentum with our world-class team and strategic positioning.
Lazard: Was there a pivotal partnership or technological breakthrough that significantly accelerated Astrolab’s development?
JM: Our strategic partnership with Venturi definitely stands out in this regard. They have been pioneers in electric mobility for over 20 years and currently hold a multitude of world speed records for electric cars and motorcycles. They also ran a Formula-E (electric version of F1) team for eight years. Venturi is providing critical battery and tire technologies that are designed to withstand the harsh lunar environments (abrasive regolith, hard vacuum, radiation, and cryogenic temperatures). With their help, we hope to break the lunar speed record (17kph set in 1972) someday with FLEX.
Lazard: Can you share a memorable Astrolab moment?
JM: We have a strong culture of hardware-rich rapid iteration (i.e. – fast design, build, and test cycles). In the first couple of years (and through the thick of the pandemic), we sprinted towards designing and building a full-scale prototype of our FLEX rover platform (which is about the size of an SUV). Our first field test of the rover took place on the sand dunes near Death Valley, California.
We had spent several days putting the rover through its paces and on the fourth day, we invited Astrolab Board of Advisors member Commander Chris Hadfield out to do some test drives.
Chris is not only an experienced astronaut and former head of robotics for NASA’s astronaut corps; he is an accomplished fighter jet test pilot.
Within five minutes of hoping on the FLEX rover, he managed to blow up one of the rover’s motor controllers while doing a sequence of fast starts and stops. It was a good lesson for us in the fact that the engineers who spend years working on something have a subconscious understanding of what its limitations are but that understanding doesn't necessarily extend to the end user.
We quickly fixed the broken part and had a successful couple of days testing with Chris, where he continued to provide extremely valuable feedback.
“It’s hard to describe how unique this moment in human history is… you have two of the wealthiest individuals on Earth spending billions developing the infrastructure to make life multi-planetary... bolstered by billions of federal dollars… and almost unanimous bipartisan agreement that developing a sustained presence on the Moon and Mars is of strategic national importance.”
Lazard: Looking ahead, where do you see Astrolab in the next five to 10 years?
JM: It’s hard to describe how unique this moment in human history is – many stars are aligning at once (no pun intended). You have two of the wealthiest individuals on Earth (Elon Musk with SpaceX & Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin) spending billions developing the infrastructure to make life multi-planetary. These investments are also bolstered by billions of federal dollars through NASA’s Moon-2-Mars program. Additionally, there is almost unanimous bipartisan agreement that developing a sustained presence on the Moon and Mars is of strategic national importance – especially in light of China’s plans and growing list of achievements in these domains.
Riding this wave of support and urgency, Astrolab will build out a fleet of platforms and infrastructure operating on the Moon and Mars over the next five to 10 years. Our goal is to serve as a catalyst for the lunar and Martian economies by providing mobility, power, and data services solutions that we see as foundational to off-Earth industrial activity and sustained human presence.
Lazard: What is the strategic importance of having a human presence on the moon?
JM: I subscribe to the view that expansion of humanity beyond Earth is an inevitability and that, to the extent that we find it within our present technological means, we have an imperative to do so in order to preserve the light of consciousness. The Moon is our closest neighbor (a three-day journey away) and is a logical place to establish a sustained human presence. NASA envisions using the Moon as a proving ground for the tools and technologies that will enable humanity to live and work on Mars.
Space in general is also the ultimate high ground. It is important for the US to maintain a lead in the emerging domain of cis-lunar space.
Per the Outer Space Treaty (OST), no nation can lay claim to territory on the Moon, but it is the US policy position that companies and countries can still derive value from lunar resources. There are areas that are particularly important for supporting sustained human presence, such as the lunar south pole where you find large concentrations of water ice. Because countries have to operate on a non-interference basis per the OST, you may see actors conduct a de-facto land grab by putting down infrastructure in these areas and then declaring an arbitrarily large exclusion zone on the basis that subsequent landers in the area could cause damage or interruptions. The Moon is just the first step in our expansion across the solar system, so it would not be wise to idly sit by and watch others go before or without us.
“It’s hard to distinguish the space economy from Earth’s economy, as it already touches our lives in countless ways – GPS, weather monitoring, and global communications… Ultimately, companies must provide value to humans to thrive, no matter where they operate.”
Lazard: What does the space economy of the future look like and what do you think will be the key catalysts to its development?
JM: · It is hard to distinguish the space economy from Earth’s economy because it already touches our lives in an infinite number of ways (GPS, weather monitoring, global communications, etc.) on a continuous basis. Ultimately, companies need to provide value to humans in order to thrive, regardless of where those companies operate. What will change over time is where those humans reside. Right now, the space economy exists to serve Earthlings, but as the cost of access to space continues to rapidly decrease, the presence and distribution of humans in space will increase.
As space infrastructure grows, I believe we’ll start relocating operations that demand a lot of energy or cooling – or generate significant waste – to space or the Moon for the betterment and preservation of Earth. Imagine vast orbiting data centers collecting uninterrupted solar energy or rare earth mineral mining on the Moon where there is no ecology to be supplanted.
As with every other expansion of humanity throughout history, venturing beyond the current horizon will present vast opportunities for value creation and an improved quality of life for all humans (be they Earthlings or otherwise!).
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