Space agencies are partnering with car manufacturers to custom build new rovers—or retrofit commercial vehicles—for future missions to the moon and Mars.
Of the many “firsts” from NASA’s Apollo program of lunar exploration, one often overlooked is that the Apollo missions included the first—and so far only—times that humans have driven on another world. Presaging today’s eco-conscious market for carbon-neutral transportation, Apollo’s battery-powered lunar roving vehicles were all-electric as well.
In response to those challenges, space agencies are drawing on the deep experience of commercial automobile manufacturers to design durable rovers from scratch. At least two partnerships have sprung up to vie for NASA’s next lunar terrain vehicle: One between General Motors and Lockheed Martin was announced last May. And another between Northrop Grumman, AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Michelin launched last November.
Once deposited on either body, a vehicle would have to contend with unearthly extremes in temperature. Mars receives only about half as much of the sun’s warming radiance as Earth, and the Red Planet’s atmosphere is too tenuous to hold on to much heat, Niles says. Another hurdle that a vehicle must surmount in space is radiation. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field act as shields against high-energy particles ejected by the sun and cosmic rays, each of which can degrade materials and damage delicate electronics. But neither the moon nor Mars offers similar protections.
GM and Lockheed Martin’s bet is probably not all that risky, though: According to Hodgins, the Apollo missions generated up to a 700 percent return on investment for industry partners, based on technology that was developed for space and applied to Earth. These included pumps for artificial hearts and some of the flame-resistant materials used in firefighting suits.
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