Reporter | Li Wenbo
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Humans want to go back to the moon, and GM wants to go with them.
As it did with Boeing in the 1960s, GM is working with Lockheed Martin aerospace experts to develop the latest version of the lunar rover, the Lunar Rover. This time, much of the technology used in the new lunar rover comes from the Altnon technology used on GMC Hummer and Chevrolet Silverado electric trucks.
For now, renderings of the future lunar rover Lunar Rover have been published, and unlike the original lunar rover, today's lunar rover is much larger and could drive farther thanks to modern battery technology.
The original lunar rover was launched in 1971 to extend the walking distance of astronauts. It was developed in about 17 months by GM Defense Research Laboratory, Delko Electronics and Boeing and built in Kent, Washington. The rover uses four brushed DC motors, which are about 0.25 horsepower and have a speed cap of 8 mph.
The lunar rover is powered by a pair of 36-volt, 4.4 kWh silver-zinc batteries that are connected in parallel for a total capacity of 8.8 kWh. While far from our current lithium batteries, the lunar rover can travel up to 50 miles at full power. The total mileage traveled during the Apollo 15 mission was 17.25 miles, and the Apollo 17 traveled a total of 22.3 miles
Fortunately, since Apollo 17, battery technology has made huge leaps and breakthroughs. According to GM in May 2021, the next generation of lunar rovers could travel longer distances to support the first tour of the moon's south pole. These new lunar rovers will also face new tests, as the moon's south pole is dark, temperatures are colder and the terrain is more rugged than sunny.
GM's Oton technology will likely help complete this interstellar exploration mission, which, according to GM, could "increase the scope and utility of scientific payloads and experiments."
GM isn't the only player of rovers in the age of space exploration, with one of the strong rivals being another rover built by Northrop Grumman. Together with AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Michelin, it built the all-terrain lunar rover, the LTV.
Each brand brings its own expertise to LTV: Northrop Grumman integrates leadership systems, combining its own flight-proven experience in spacecraft design with experience in cargo storage, energy management, avionics, navigation, sensors, control, mission planning, operations and training.
AVL is an industry leader in vehicle system development, simulation and testing and will leverage its expertise in advancing battery electric vehicles, autonomous driving and propulsion solutions. Intuitive Machines and its Nova-D spacecraft will be used to bring LTV to the moon, using four liquid methane/oxygen engines from its Nova-C program. Lunar Outpost, a leader in the Lunar Mobile Platform, will leverage its dust mitigation and thermal technologies during the development of the MAPP rover to help develop a similar LTV solution.
Tire manufacturer Michelin also wants to be a part of this, and it is using its experience in NASA's high-tech materials, as well as its airless solutions developed in extreme applications, to design airless tires for LTVs. If you want to go to the moon, a tire made of galvanized piano wire and aluminum strips is not ok.
We're in an exciting era of space exploration, and it looks like it's a matter of time to get back to the moon. Only this time the technology went in a different direction: not to learn knowledge in the process of developing a trip to the moon, but to use the technology we use for everyday travel on Earth for interstellar travel.