General Motors will team up with Lockheed Martin to develop the next-generation of lunar vehicles, which will be used to transport astronauts on the surface of the Moon and enable them to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.
In a press release sent out this week, the two companies revealed they will work together to develop a new Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) for the NASA Artemis program. GM and Lockheed Martin say the next-gen LTV will “allow astronauts to explore the lunar surface in unprecedented fashion and support discovery in places where humans have never gone before.” Unlike the Apollo rovers, which only travelled 4.7 miles from the moon landing site, the next-gen LTV will traverse significantly farther distances and allow astronauts to explore the moon’s south pole, which is cold, dark and has much more rugged terrrain.
GM helped develop the original Apollo lunar rover that was used during the 1969 moon landing, lending its expertise to the vehicle’s chassis and wheels. This time around, GM will offer its extensive battery-electric vehicle knowledge to the lunar rover program. It will also help develop a fully autonomous driving system for the rover, allowing the vehicle to automatically prepare for human landings, provide commercial payload services and enhance the range and utility of scientific payloads and experiments.
“General Motors made history by applying advanced technologies and engineering to support the Lunar Rover Vehicle that the Apollo 15 astronauts drove on the Moon,” said GM’s senior vice president of Innovation and Growth, Alan Wexler. “Working together with Lockheed Martin and their deep-space exploration expertise, we plan to support American astronauts on the Moon once again.”
“This alliance brings together powerhouse innovation from both companies to make a transformative class of vehicles,” added Lockheed Martin Space vice president, Rick Ambrose. “Surface mobility is critical to enable and sustain long-term exploration of the lunar surface. 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.”
The NASA Artemis program hopes to land human astronauts on the moon’s south pole by the mid-2020s.
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Comments
LFG!!!!
Great Marketing opportunity. GM was involved with Boeing with the last Rover that was Electic and had AWD and 4 wheel steering.
Maybe this time they can slap a Hummer label on it and it would make sense of the Lunar graphic in the new EV Hummer.
I was thinking the same thing, the Hummer Platform would be an excellent foundation for the new vehicle and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets chosen, I just hope that the Rover won’t be as heavy as the upcoming Hummer which is 9,000+ lbs. , overall, this will be an interesting project.
Are you nuts man! Look at the original rover and the tiny frame with basic chairs that look like old style aluminium lawn chairs. Every gram counts and costs a fortune to take to space and you’re dealing with less than 1/6 of the gravity.
C8R is talking about a Hummer label not the whole platform.
I hope it doesn’t have that cheap, Crappy truck interior in it!
hahaha!!!
Will you ever stop with your crappy cheap trolling?
in space, no one can hear you scream about crappy interiors!!!
It wouldn’t matter, it won’t be available for the average consumer and it’s purpose would be beyond the limits of what’s going on here on earth.
“GM will offer its extensive battery-electric vehicle knowledge to the lunar rover program”
Super intelligent tinfoil-hat petrol heads; “Puhahah good luck with finding an electric outlet and waiting nine days to charge your golfcart, lowercase, soft gm! Don’t you get it, electricity doesn’t work! Neither on earth nor on moon! They’re pushing this chinese hoax to serve big electricity! Instead they should just put the beautiful five mpg coalburner V8 in it to smoke cheese roads of moon. Also you can put a supercharger to improve your moon drag racing capabilities for that matter.”
Wolfman,
Don’t worry as this will be another fake lunar landing just like 1969. There will be plenty of outlets in the Hollywood studios where it will be featured.😂🤣
And the earth is flat.
In space, gasoline emissions don’t matter! ;P
Logical! GM was one of the Primary contractors on the Apollo Era Moon rover along with Boeing.
Maybe GM can get ahold of those alien battery parts Lockheed is hiding LOL!
Will it have a 4.3 v-6 (for the base model), 3speed auto and a blacktie radio? Onstar Galaxy?
With low gravity I’m surprised we haven’t seen more flying hovercraft/aircraft on the moon.