2023-05-29 18:31:00
NASA has launched a call for industrial projects to design the future lunar machine, which will be used at the end of the decade on the surface of the Moon. Michelin is involved in one of the competing programs.
The lunar “jeep” of the Apollo missions will have its descendant by the end of the decade, NASA and its partners are working on it. She has published an image of how her engineers imagine it and is preparing to commission manufacturers who will be responsible for providing her with the machines with which astronauts will travel on the Moon. In principle from Artemis V, in 2029.
1/2 History making missions will require a next generation ride.@NASA is seeking proposals from industry for a LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) that will transport astronauts across the Moon to explore during #Artemis missions:
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) May 26, 2023
Driven vehicle but also autonomous
Thomas Pesquet or Sophie Adenot will perhaps pilot on the lunar star, in the next ten years the heiress of the LRV, the Lunar Rover Apollo, this time baptized LTV, for Lunar Terrain Vehicle. The US space agency presented an artist’s image of a next-generation lunar craft on Friday. Large narrow wheels, a light and open structure, two seats, loading capacity, electric motorization, these are fundamentals that remain in relation to the rover of the Apollo astronauts, it must be transported to there.
The four-wheeler “will allow astronauts, explain NASA, to go further, to conduct more scientific experiments than ever before, during their exploration of the South Pole region of the Moon during the Artemis missions. The Artemis astronauts will take their explorations further and collect more samples aboard the LTV than on foot.”
Driven vehicle but also autonomous
Unlike its predecessors, the future rover will be able to transport a crew and be driven by it, but also, on the model of Curiosity and Perseverance, to operate without anyone on board and to carry out exploration phases alone. . “This will allow scientific work to continue even when the crews are not present on the lunar surface”but also to drive “the remote LTV for transporting scientific cargoes and payloads”to scout.
NASA does not intend to support the design of the machine alone, in particular to reduce its investments and costs. It wishes to contract with private sector companies, on the basis of a service including development, delivery to the Moon and operation of the vehicle on site, and launched a call for projects on Friday 26 February. Candidates have until July 10 to submit their proposals, but some have not waited to share their thoughts. Among which the French Michelin, associated with Northrop Grumman, for the wheel part, and the Monegasque Venturi.
The Flex, four-wheeled multitasking freighter
The Clermontois, who equipped space shuttles with his tires, imagined – like his rival Goodyear, engaged with General Motors and Lockheed Martin – an airless tire, the Lunar Wheel. It has already been tested on a small rover.
Another competitor on the line, the Monegasque companies Venturi and Californian Astrolab, which have created a joint venture. They developed the Flex and signed an agreement with SpaceX for its transport to the lunar satellite – first flight envisaged in 2026 aboard a Starship rocket, admittedly not yet quite developed.
The company announces a transport capacity of 1,500 kg, whether it is cargo, scientific instruments or experiments. In 2022, “The Astrolab team began testing a full-scale, fully functional terrestrial prototype of the Flex rover in the California desert. Testing included both crewed and telerobotic operations”explained the company by presenting its rover, on March 31, 2023.
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