Audi in collaboration with a team of German engineers and scientists, Part-Time Scientists, designing unmanned vehicles that will work on the Moon. The vehicle was called 'Lunar Quattro,' and prototype now undergoing a series of trials in Europe. |
| Audi Lunar Quattro. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1BGBQ3t) |
And Quattro all-wheel drive system will be the foundation of the vehicle, this technology has been used in a variety of Audi models ranging from A3 sedan to the R8 supercar. Audi has now developed it further, Lunar Quattro should be able handle various problems on the lunar surface. |
| Left side view of Audi Lunar Quattro. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1BGBQ3t) |
The vehicles driven by four electric motors that get their power from a lithium-ion battery pack. The power supply for batteries obtained from solar panels that collect solar energy. The one-off vehicle is also equipped with two stereoscopic cameras and a scientific camera.
Moon's gravity is lower than the Earth because it is made of aluminum body structure in order to keep it has an ideal weight. Lunar Quattro can only accelerate from 2.2 mph (3.5 kph/one meter per second), Audi said it was enough to venture on the Moon's surface.
The Lunar Quattro development is done as part of a Google's Lunar XPRIZE competition in 2007. There is a reward of $30 million for anyone who first made the vehicle that will successfully land on the Moon and explore it for at least 500 meters. The team will also transmit HD videos and images to Earth. Part-Time Scientists is one of five teams still in the running, so the competition is far from won.
Although Lunar Quattro wearing an Audi emblem, but the Part-Time Scientists as the main developer. Lunar Quattro is scheduled to fly in 2017 and landed in the north of the Moon's equator near the Apollo 17's landing site, the last mission of human flight to the Moon in 1972. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | PT SCIENTISTS | LEFTLANENEWS]
