On May 26, 2021, General Motors and Lockheed Martin announced a new collaboration, and while it isn’t the groundbreaking foray into flying cars that you might expect, the project is truly out of this world.
The automotive and aerospace powerhouses have teamed up to develop a next-generation lunar vehicle designed to transport astronauts on the moon’s surface.
The effort is part of NASA’s Artemis program, which hopes to return humans to the moon by 2024, including the first female astronaut and the first person of color. The plan is to conduct operations on and around the moon that will help prepare NASA for the first human mission to Mars. Artemis includes building infrastructure as well as systems and robotics that will enable a prolonged and sustainable base camp on the moon’s south pole.
In February 2020, NASA issued a call to all industries looking for new lunar rover concepts.
Lockheed and GM will develop the first of many types of surface mobility vehicles NASA’s Artemis program requires. Astronauts will use the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to explore the lunar surface.
With experience building robotic spacecraft that have gone everywhere from the Moon and Mars to asteroids and comets throughout the solar system, Lockheed Martin will lead the team. GM will oversee battery-electric technology and propulsion system development. The automaker will also spearhead the autonomous technology that will make the rovers driver optional.
GM previously worked on the Lunar Rover Vehicle that Apollo 15 astronauts drove on the moon, but the old rovers only traveled 4.7 miles from the landing site (total). Lockheed and GM’s rover will be able to travel significantly farther, including missions to the cold, dark and rugged terrain of the moon’s south pole.
Conditions on the moon are brutal. Days and nights last a little less than two weeks each, reaching temperatures that range from -280° Fahrenheit to 260° Fahrenheit.
So far, humans have only traversed 5% of the moon’s surface. Lockheed and GM hope to help explore a whole lot more.
