Lockheed Martin and General Motors partner to design manned lunar rover
Capitalism in space: Lockheed Martin and General Motors announced yesterday that they are partnering to design a manned lunar rover, intended for sale to NASA’s Artemis program as well as any other manned lunar missions anyone else should decide to fly.
Lockheed and GM don’t have a NASA contract to build the LTV [Lunar Terrain Vehicle]; the agency hasn’t awarded any such deals yet. But the companies are positioning themselves to be in the driver’s seat when such decisions are made — and when other customers may come along as well.
Obviously the first customer for this moon buggy would be NASA for Artemis. Nor is this the only manned rover being planned. Toyota and Japan’s space agency JAXA are also partnering to build one.
The decision by NASA to use Starship as its lunar lander however has made such a project much more viable. Unlike the lunar landers proposed by Blue Origin and Dynectics, Starship has the payload capacity to carry such things to the Moon, right off the bat. Thus it makes sense now to start designing them and offering them for sale. We should not be surprised if other car manufacturers start proposing their own manned rovers.
Moreover, Starship’s potential also means these rovers could be purchased by others for work on the Moon. If anyone besides NASA decides to hire SpaceX and Starship for their own lunar missions, the Lockheed Martin/GM LTV can also be sold to them. So can the Toyota rover. So could one built by Ford or Mazarati.
Isn’t freedom and capitalism wonderful? Instead of a half century of the nothing that international cooperation and government control brought us in space, private enterprise is suddenly in a burst opening the entire solar system to the world. And don’t expect the pace to slow.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Capitalism in space: Lockheed Martin and General Motors announced yesterday that they are partnering to design a manned lunar rover, intended for sale to NASA’s Artemis program as well as any other manned lunar missions anyone else should decide to fly.
Lockheed and GM don’t have a NASA contract to build the LTV [Lunar Terrain Vehicle]; the agency hasn’t awarded any such deals yet. But the companies are positioning themselves to be in the driver’s seat when such decisions are made — and when other customers may come along as well.
Obviously the first customer for this moon buggy would be NASA for Artemis. Nor is this the only manned rover being planned. Toyota and Japan’s space agency JAXA are also partnering to build one.
The decision by NASA to use Starship as its lunar lander however has made such a project much more viable. Unlike the lunar landers proposed by Blue Origin and Dynectics, Starship has the payload capacity to carry such things to the Moon, right off the bat. Thus it makes sense now to start designing them and offering them for sale. We should not be surprised if other car manufacturers start proposing their own manned rovers.
Moreover, Starship’s potential also means these rovers could be purchased by others for work on the Moon. If anyone besides NASA decides to hire SpaceX and Starship for their own lunar missions, the Lockheed Martin/GM LTV can also be sold to them. So can the Toyota rover. So could one built by Ford or Mazarati.
Isn’t freedom and capitalism wonderful? Instead of a half century of the nothing that international cooperation and government control brought us in space, private enterprise is suddenly in a burst opening the entire solar system to the world. And don’t expect the pace to slow.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
According to this artist concept, is not far from what SpaceX is planning. (No evidence)
https://electrek.co/2020/06/06/tesla-cybertruck-modified-lunar-vehicle/
Apparently the Germans had a concept built back in 2016. Arrange to fly to the moon on a falcon 9.
https://electrek.co/2016/11/30/auds-all-electric-vehicle-moon-rover-spacex-falcon-9/
There’s been a lot of changes the battery technology. Graphing batteries, glass batteries, and now aluminum batteries which are much lighter, hold a larger charge, and charges fast… almost like a capacitor.
Article:
EV Range Breakthrough As New Aluminum-Ion Battery Charges 60 Times Faster Than Lithium-Ion
https://flip.it/WEAGFw
Lots of claims, few products. I’ll cross my fingers and hope this one is real. It’ll actually make electric cars more than 25% efficient. Charging stations could be embedded in the road.
Aluminum is a common element, that’ll be cheaper to ship to space… It could be also be manufactured off world?
I wish the engineers on this project success, but I am worried about Lockheed’s management after reading this headline in the Daily Mail – “ Lockheed Martin forced top execs including a three-star general to complete three-day Zoom course to ‘unlearn their white male privilege’”.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9625609/Lockheed-Martin-defense-execs-Zoom-course-unlearn-white-male-privilege.html
“white male privilege” = “competitive advantage”. Biology isn’t interested in ‘playing nice’; biology is interested in out-competing other biology. I would say ‘you compete’, not ‘I’ll voluntarily reduce my ability”.
D-Day shows what gov’t CAN do…if it wants too.
Since Apollo-spaceflight starved. Bill Gates could have done something like SpaceX-but didn’t. Musk is Korolev. He has a forceful personality.
LockMart already lost their vitality when Kelly Johnson passed-so I’m suprised the CRT folk bothered to show up-because corporate profit-seekers gelded LockMart long before the woke crowd was even born. NASA had the passion but no money. Wall Street-that libertarians defend no matter what evil they do-have money…but no passion-no soul. Musk has both. He is truly an endangered species.
If I were driving down the road and had a blow-out….and had to either swerve into Elon on one side—or a short bus?
Sorry, Corky….but you’re eating the engine block today.
It sounds like everyone expects humans (in enough numbers to open a car dealership) to return to the Moon soon. That’s not something I expected to see in my lifetime, but it does seem to be happening anyway. It’s an interesting time to be alive.
When people were speculating about what musk might do for a lunar rover, he tease them with this tweet 3 years ago.
Cyborg Dragon Tesla almost done
5:24 PM · Jun 24, 2018
Apparently he has his own ideas that is thinking about or will unveil at the proper time.
I would just use a modified 4 person dune buggy as a model starting point.
Instead of a steel tube frame just use aluminum.
Keep the high ground clearance ability.
Keep the roll cage for safety.
Turn it to electric two wheel drive.
Use the old lunar rover design for the wheels.
And keep it simple.
The only problem i can see is recharging. It will take a very large solar system to do it inside 24 hours.