Hummers in Space!?

In the last couple of years, the General Motors Company has been able to make a comeback. Even though the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, they are making a comeback, focusing only on a few brands and keeping up with the market. For example, just this year, GM revived the Hummer as an electric. But now, GM’s business is going to go out of this world. Literally! They are developing a crewed lunar rover for NASA.

Render of New Rover on the Moon

Today, on May 26, Lockheed Martin and GM announced that they would be developing a crewed lunar rover for NASA’s Artemis program. The program aims to bring people back to the Moon and bring the first woman to the Moon. The program also hopes to establish a lunar base. With a new generation of crewed lunar rovers, astronauts will be able to extend the range of exploration for astronauts on the Moon.

This idea isn’t coming out of the blue. Last year, NASA started asking commercial industries about how to develop an unpressurized Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV). The function of the LTV would be to aid the exploration of the Moon’s south polar region. That is because the first phase of the Artemis program will be focused on the South Pole of the Moon and NASA hopes to establish a research outpost. Even though Lockheed Martin and GM are working together on building this lunar rover for NASA, they have not been contracted to build the LTV just yet. They are still multiple competitors who are competing to try to win this contract. However, this brings GM and Lockheed Martin one step closer to winning that contract.

Render of Lunar Base on Moon's South Pole

Lockheed Martin and GM have now been working together on this project for about a year, but the rover is still in a very early design phase. However, Lockheed Martin and GM have announced that the vehicle will be fully electric and will be able to accommodate two astronauts. GM and Lockheed Martin also plan to put some autonomous capabilities in the rover. The two companies aren’t new in collaboration with NASA. Lockheed Martin has worked with NASA for years on many projects, including the Orion crew capsule. GM has helped to develop the Lunar Roving Vehicle that was used to drive astronauts around the Moon during the Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 missions.

As a part of NASA’s plan, the LTV won’t be the only rover used in the Artemis program. NASA intends to provide lunar explorers with a larger, pressurized rover in which astronauts can live for long periods of time to make traversing the lunar south pole easier. NASA has already said that they plan to develop this vehicle with the help of JAXA and may even get help from Toyota. Nonetheless, as we get closer and closer to the start of the Artemis program, more and more commercial companies will start to work with NASA to complete their goal of bringing humans back to the Moon.

Sources:

Gmblogs, director. Lockheed Martin General Motors Partner to Develop Next-Generation Lunar Rover. YouTube, General Motors, 26 May 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5869l2cKLZw. 

“Lockheed Martin and General Motors Team to Further Lunar Exploration.” Lockheed Martin, www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2021/lunar-terrain-vehicle.html. 

Wall, Mike. “Lockheed Martin, GM Team up to Build New Astronaut Moon Buggy.” Space.com, Space, 26 May 2021, www.space.com/lockheed-martin-gm-moon-rover-artemis-astronauts.