The lunar quattro is being built to compete in the Lunar XPRIZE competition that Google launched in 2007. The tech giant will award $30 million to a privately-funded team that can design a relatively low-cost method of surveying the Moon. The rover can’t simply crash and burn on the surface, it has to be able to cover at least 546 yards and it must send high-resolution pictures and videos back to earth.
Although it wears an Audi emblem, the lunar quattro was largely developed by Part-Time Scientists over the past few years. It is fitted with four in-wheel electric motors that draw electricity from a compact lithium-ion battery pack topped up by a large solar panel, and its bodywork is crafted out of aluminum in order to keep weight in check. Its top speed is just two mph, which Audi says is plenty on the Moon’s rough surface.
Prototypes are currently undergoing a series of tests in Europe, and the lunar quattro is expected to make its maiden voyage in 2017. If all goes according to plan, the four-wheeled rover will travel more than 236,000 miles over the course of five days and land precisely where Apollo 17, NASA’s last manned Moon mission, touched down in 1972.
Part-Time Scientists is one of five teams still in the running, so the competition is far from won.
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