NASA, Other Space Agencies Partnering With Car Manufacturers to Custom Build Electric Lunar Rovers

As space agencies race towards sending missions to deep space, they are also preparing for the technologies they will be sending. NASA and other space agencies around the world are now eyeing electric lunar rovers as they partner with car manufacturers to build a customized vehicle that can be used to explore the lunar and Martian surfaces.

Last year, NASA announced in a video a request for a brand new lunar terrain car that can help Artemis astronauts in their mission while on the Moon. Meanwhile, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is also working with Nissan to develop a rover prototype that will someday roam the lunar surface.

Car Manufacturers Preparing to Design Sturdy Rovers From Scratch

NASA plans to conduct the first moonwalk of Artemis astronauts around the area where they will touchdown to explore the place in a bid to form a base camp for future lunar forays, according to Scientific American. For this reason, the American space agency would need a suitably high-endurance lunar rover to help astronauts explore the area.

The lunar rover will be part of NASA's automotive fleet that will help Artemis astronauts. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), one of NASA's rovers under development, is an alternative to roam uncrewed across the Moon's south pole for 100 days to look for water ice. Now, NASA is contemplating a third lunar rover that would transport astronauts for as much as 45 days.

But it would likely need at least a decade from designing to its final output to be in line with NASA's requirements. Scientists are hoping it would help future missions to discover the floor of the Moon autonomously and will set the subsequent generations of floor autos constructed for other space missions.

In response, Lockheed Martin and General Motors announced last May an autonomous Moon rover, while Northrop Grumman, AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Michelin also announced last November to team up for NASA's lunar terrain vehicle design. Meanwhile, Nissan announced in December 2021 that it is partnering with JAXA to develop a prototype of a lunar vehicle.

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The First Lunar Vehicle That Roamed the Moon

According to NASA, the first lunar vehicle sent to the Moon roamed the lunar surface on July 31, 1971. During the Apollo 15 mission, astronauts used the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) to explore the Moon.

The LRV is a lightweight electric vehicle designed to operate in a low-gravity vacuum that was capable of traversing the lunar surface to let Apollo astronauts extend their range of extravehicular activities.

In 2019, NASA marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program, which is a historic effort that sent the first astronauts into orbit around the Moon in 1968 and landed dozens of astronauts on the lunar surface for three years between 1969 to 1972.

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