Shift Magazine - May 2021 - 19

to contract to build a lunar landing system
and partnered with international space
agencies - including JAXA, the European
Space Agency and the Canadian Space
Agency - to build a space station in lunar
orbit that astronauts can use as both a laboratory and holding area.
Now NASA is trying to answer another
question: If humans again reach the lunar
surface, what kind of vehicle technologies
are needed to drive across it?
Early last year, NASA issued a call for companies in the U.S. auto industry to submit
ideas for " human-class " lunar rovers. The
agency received about 30 responses,
spokeswoman Monica Witt said.
NASA said submitted tips helped inform
its strategy for acquiring vehicle technologies capable of navigating the grainy, gray
orb and the lunar south pole, a key area of
research interest for Artemis astronauts.
NASA indicated its interest in a smorgasbord of mobility systems, such as electric or autonomous lunar rovers that can
be recharged or self-navigate hazardous
terrain.
Lunar rovers built with materials that
can withstand extreme environments are
also desirable, the agency said.
Proposed rovers also need to be spacious enough to fit crew members who

will be wearing the bulkier extravehicular activity suits they need to stay alive,
according to the agency.
NASA also is looking at robotic mobility
systems that could be used to send tools
and research equipment across the moon.
A vehicle without a crew could be used to
explore a wider area of terrain with fewer
constraints, the agency said.
Hyundai Motor Group revealed one such
mobility concept in February - the TIGER
X-1. " TIGER " stands for " Transforming
Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot " ;
the " X-1 " means the vehicle is in its experimental first iteration.
Part all-wheel-drive vehicle, part walking pod with four extendable legs, the
mobility system is designed for travel over
rough or unfamiliar terrain, the Korean
auto company said.
It's an evolution of Elevate, a similar
concept vehicle Hyundai showcased at
CES in 2019. The key difference between
the two? TIGER X-1 is not intended to
carry human passengers.
Testing of TIGER beta prototypes could
start as soon as 2023 or 2024.
Once it's developed, the automaker
wants TIGER to be deployed both on and
off Earth.
The company's hope is that TIGER will

be able to carry out a wide range of tasks
- from delivering food and medical supplies to humans in remote disaster zones
on Earth all the way to carrying payloads
across the lunar surface. TIGER designers
also intend for it to connect to aerial vehicles without crews - drones and other
aircraft that operate autonomously or via
remote control - so it can be charged up
or delivered to an area otherwise considered unreachable.
TIGER X-1 is a collaboration between
Hyundai's California-based New Horizons
Studio, Detroit-based product innovation
studio Sundberg-Ferar and Autodesk, an
engineering design software company.
German automaker Audi has also dabbled in the world of rovers since 2015. The
automaker lent support to PTScientists,
now Planetary Transportation Systems, a
private aerospace startup based in Berlin,
to manufacture the Lunar Quattro, a tiny
solar-powered rover so named because
it incorporates Audi's all-wheel-drive
Quattro technology and an E-tron motor.
Audi and PTS officials did not respond
to requests for a project update, but the
companies previously indicated an intent to
send the Lunar Quattro to touch down near
the 1972 landing site of Apollo 17 and take
360-degree photographs on the moon. n

Toyota and JAXA teamed to build
the six-wheeled Lunar Cruiser,
which is set to launch in 2029.

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Shift Magazine - May 2021

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