Audi is known for their sleek, high-end cars as status and virility indicator for the young wealthy. Buut, instead of bolstering the image of those who uncomfortable in a tight cardigan, Audi is tossing their hat into the space race. At the North American International Auto Show, the company revealed its Audi Lunar quattro – a pint sized lunar rover gearing up to be sent to the moon in 2017.
The Audi Lunar quattro, featuring that familiar four-ring logo of the company, is the work of a German team called Part Time Scientists (PTS). It was built for the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, which challenges private teams to build, launch, and land robots on the moon. It also has to successfully traverse 500 meters across the lunar surface and take high-definition pictures. The grand prize is $30 million for the first team that does it.
Even though the vehicle was designed and built by the Berlin-based PTS team, Audi helped them develop specific technology for the rover. The company contributed the vehicle’s all wheel drive setup and 3D printing technology, which allowed the team to build their rover out of aluminum and titanium to save weight and provide the configuration they needed. For example, the light-weight materials allowed them to include interior cable channels that would otherwise be impossible to make using traditional CNC milling techniques.
Though the rover is still being developed and currently in the prototype stage, the current model weighs only 77.2 pounds–and that’s with two stereo cameras equipped inside. Still, the team believes they can shed off a few more ounces, maybe even pounds, as they continue to integrate magnesium into the design. The rover’s top speed isn’t very impressive, topping at only 2.2 mph, but what matters is not its speed, but the vehicle’s reliability. The rover is required to safely travel across the moon’s surface powered only by its solar panels. The all-wheel drive will, of course, give the rover a bit of an edge in traversing the rocky surface.
For the launch, its thought that PTS will contract with a Russian or Indian rocket team. The lander, which PTS will also design and build, will look like the Apollo lander with four legs and a cube shaped body, and two of the quattro rovers underneath, which will be lowered to the surface for exploration. Though PTS are hoping to win the competition, they mainly want to study the moon’s surface. They have plans to travel to the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) at the site of the Apollo 18 landing. Once there, they’ll study how materials have aged after more than 40 years on the surface. The Audi Lunar quattro is still in development and has a way to go before it gets anywhere close to the moon, but hopefully great strides in moon exploration. One can only imagine the rover will cost as much as their luxury cars.
https://youtu.be/vBsV2PAaHRo
