Back in May of 2021, General Motors and Lockheed Martin announced plans to develop the next generation of lunar exploration vehicles, promising astronauts the ability to traverse the face of our nearest celestial neighbor like never before. Now, GM Design has revealed new concept renderings showing off the next-gen lunar rover in detail.
The new GM Design posts include both still images and a brief video of the new lunar rovers. During the video, we see a lander touch down on the lunar surface, with a GM-branded rover descending a platform carrying a load of supplies. The rover appears to be driving autonomously, making its way towards a moon base alongside several other supply vehicles.
The design of the supply vehicle includes a flat floor for cargo and four independent wheels. We later see two chairs flip up in the front of the vehicle, presumably with enough space for a pair of passengers.
During the Apollo missions, General Motors and Boeing manufactured the original Lunar Roving Vehicle, and now, with renewed interest in sending astronauts to the lunar surface, the question is what the new lunar rovers will look like.
Either way, it’s highly likely that the new lunar rover will incorporate some kind of all-electric propulsion system, similar to that of the original vehicle. General Motors currently offers its Ultium battery and Ultium motor technologies for its road-going vehicles, such as the GMC Hummer EV and upcoming Cadillac Lyriq, but these technologies could be adapted for use in projects like the new lunar rover.
Looking ahead, this technology could also be adapted for when astronauts visit the planet Mars.
While the original LRV could only travel about 4.7 miles, the next-generation vehicles may enable exploration missions as far as the lunar south pole.
Either way, seeing these new GM Design concepts is surely exciting for those readers eager to see General Motors back at the business of space exploration technology.
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Comments
As I watched the video I was wondering why there would be an entire city on the moon, until I saw Lockheed Martin was involved. Then it made perfect sense.
I bet the Ford Lightning gets there 1st!
Needs a bigger screen!
Definite gm quality it looks super cheap
Will batteries burn in space?
no, they will not burn, because there is no oxygen in the athmosphere, because there is no arhmosphere in the first place.
Many elements are keen to oxidize, i.e. create new molecules with oxygen.
Oxidazation may go slow, which is then called to rust, or fast, which we then call burn a fire, or even super fast, i.e. explode.
But — no oxygen = no oxidization.
doesn’t the battery contain oxygen? if the battery overheats, can’t that oxygen come loose and fuel a fire?
There will probably all kind of hydroxides, but would a fire not need FREE oxygen atoms?
But: reading about „Combustion“ on Wikipedia (actually the German language version), I learned that in some materials, both the burnable substance and the oxygen are contained in one and the same molecule. Example Nitroglycerine is C3H5N3O9, i.e. it contains with 9 oxygen atoms enough to oxydize all hydrogen and carbon atoms in that molecule to CO2 and water (H2O). This is unstable and explosive stuff.
Now my knowledge is not sufficient to know if similar conditions exist in those batteries used in a lunar vehicle. But I doubt it.
BTW, didn’t the original moon rovers brought there by the Apollo program not produce the electricity for the motors with fuel cells?
Ha ha, they haven’t been to the moon since the 70’s claiming they destroyed the technology and they cant figure out how to go back, really? Many claimed years ago that the landing was filmed in Hollywood and it’s starting to look that way.
there is a film showing that it was actually the famous film director Stanley Kubrick who produced the images of the moon landing in his studio. The actual presence of Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Alexander Haig, and Lawrence Eagleburger appesr in the film as proof of authenticity, also Christiane Kubrick, spouse of stanley and many more.
Read more about »Dark Side of the Moon (2002 film)« on en.wikipedia.org an on IMDB dot com.
Highly recommended!
Not another fake lunar landing filmed in a Hollywood studio!
If your comment was meant as a reply to mine: reconsider your reject! This film is great fun, you will like it.