GM to develop electric lunar rover for NASA

General Motors in its electric vehicles fleet expansion process plans to expand its vehicles to drive not only on roads but also on the moon. It has announced that it aims to help NASA to bring electric and autonomous vehicles on Moon. It said it is partnering with longtime NASA contractor Lockheed Martin an American aerospace, arms, defence, security, and advanced technologies company to develop new moon buggies. Let us now read in detail about GM to develop an electric lunar rover. 

The GM’s vehicles will be the ultimate off-road, self-driving and electric vehicles specially designed for Moon. The project is still in the early stages and aims to design light yet rugged vehicles that can give more life and performance in terms of range and speed than the lunar rovers. In general, the land rovers that used in the 1970s to carry NASA’s Apollo 15,16 and 17 astronauts ventured no more than 4 1/2 miles from their landers. General Motors is also helping them to design those vehicles.

Kirk Shireman, a former NASA manager said that “Mobility is really going to open up the moon for us.” Last year NASA had sent a request to the industry asking for help from the space agency to develop a lunar terrain vehicle for the Artemis program, that aims to send the astronauts back to the moon surface for the first time at the end of the Apollo program.

“These next-generation rovers will dramatically extend the range of astronauts as they perform high-priority science investigation on the Moon that will ultimately impact humanity’s understanding of our place in the solar system,” Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space, said in a statement.

As per the partnership, the project will be lead by Lockheed Martin with 50 years of work experience in space human and robotic spacecraft. Whereas GM is one of the world’s leaders in electric vehicles, the carmakers’ expertise in both electric technology and advanced engineering will be used to develop the rover’s propulsion system.

The GM claims that the next-generation rover will have more range than the Apollo rover. “These next-generation rovers will dramatically extend the range of astronauts as they perform high-priority science investigation on the Moon that will ultimately impact humanity’s understanding of our place in the solar system,” said Rick Ambrose, Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Space.

Also, read related article: GM plans to invest $1 billion to manufacture electric vehicles in Mexico

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