NASA on Wednesday awarded contracts to three commercial space companies to develop autonomous rovers that the space agency would use to move cargo and people on the surface of the moon as it seeks to build an enduring presence there.

The rovers would allow astronauts to traverse more of the lunar surface, especially as NASA seeks to explore the lunar South Pole, where there is ice in the permanently shadowed craters. The rovers would operate even when astronauts are not on the moon — similar to how NASA’s rovers have crisscrossed Mars for years.