NASA taps trio of companies to build the next generation of lunar rover NASA has selected three companies to develop designs for a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) to transport astronauts around the Moon. Worth $4.6 billion in total, the award will kick off with a year-long feasibility task order before eventually resulting in an LTV that will see action as part of the Artemis V mission, possibly in …
ditch the pork barrel, publish the specification, and run a global competition over several years to come up with a champion design, sell the film and distribution rights, have some serious racing with serious prize money, and the winner/s get the contact.
There would still be change out of $4.6B.
I'd watch that!
Of course there are limits to testing a 1/6 G vehicle at 1G, and in atmosphere.
Here's a 1972 NASA report looking at the differences between the predicted behaviour of the Lunar Rover and its actual performance.
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/documents/NTRS/collection2/NASA_TR_R_401.pdf
Admittedly, Luna isn't a planet, but over at the Tesla website, the Cybertruck is promoted as "Built For Any Planet"
https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck
May be Musk should be challenged to take one of them to the Moon and let it run around under Autopilot.
No, that's a common misconception. While it is true the Sun exerts a stronger gravitational force on the Moon than Earth does, and also true the Moon never travels "backwards" relative to the Sun as it orbits Earth, these things do not mean the Moon is orbiting the Sun instead of Earth. The Earth-Moon system is a bona fide satellite system in its own right, and because the barycentre of this system is inside Earth it is correct to say the Moon orbits Earth.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
