Audi unveils Moon rover for 2017 shot at Lunar XPRIZE

Hey, Lexus: Audi sees your hoverboard, and raises you one Moon rover.

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The luxury car brand has announced it will be "taking off for the Moon" by providing support to a team competing to win Google's Lunar XPRIZE to transport a rover to the surface of Earth's natural satellite, drive at least 500 metres and transmit high definition video back to Earth.

The $30 million Lunar XPRIZE, covered recently in WIRED, started with more than 25 teams and has now been whittled down to 16 from around the world including Brazil, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Israel, Malaysia, Canada, Chile, and the United States.

Audi will partner with one of those teams, Germany-based Part Time Scientists, and help to produce a four-wheel-drive Audi-branded 'Lunar Quattro' for delivery straight to the Moon. The current plan is to launch the rover in 2017 to the landing site of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to make it to the Moon. The launch would come one year after planned launches by Astrobotic and Hakuto, but the timeline is still aggressive.

The Part-Time Scientists team has a higher pedigree than its name suggests. It has existing partners in NVIDIA, Technical University of Berlin, the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), and counts 35 engineers in its ranks and three experts, including former Nasa employee Jack Crenshaw.
Audi said it will be able to provide experience with lightweight materials, electric mobility and piloted driving. "Audi is also providing wide-ranging assistance in testing, trials and quality assurance," the company said in a release. "In addition, the

Audi Concept Design Studio in Munich is revising the rover, which will be named the 'Audi lunar Quattro', to ensure ideal lightweight construction conditions."

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The rover itself has alady undergone testing in Tenerife and the Alps, Part-Time Scientists says. Powered by solar panels and a lithium-ion battery, it carries two stereoscopic cameras at the front and a scientific camera to examine the surface. Its maximum speed is a relatively stately 3.6kmph, but when you're travelling solo on the Moon it's fair to say reliability and durability is more important that breakneck speed. The rover has a total weight of 35 kgs. It is built from high-strength aluminium, with other parts constructed from magnesium. "Double wishbone suspensions are used at all four of the wheels that can each be rotated over 360 degrees," Audi says. "Four wheel hub motors power the drive system -- their interplay makes the rover an e-quattro."

"With Audi we have acquired a strong partner that will bring us a big step forward with its technological and mobility capabilities," said Robert Böhme, founder and head of the Part-Time Scientists, in a release. "We look forward to future interaction and a fruitful partnership."