The Audi Lunar Quattro
As one of the automotive industry’s first four-ringed vehicle not meant for Earth, the Audi Lunar Quattro will head to the Moon to compete for the Google Lunar XPRIZE in the coming months. Created by the X Prize Foundation and sponsored by Google, the XPRIZE challenge asks privately funded spaceflight teams to launch a robotic spacecraft onto the surface of the Moon. Once the robo spacecraft has landed safely on there, its job is to then traverse its surface while sending images, video, and other data back to Earth. The prize is $30 million and of course, bragging rights.
The Audi Lunar Quattro will face the Moon’s infamously rocky surface (it’ll need to travel roughly 500 meters and temperatures as high as 250 degrees Fahrenheit). In order to get to the moon, it’ll need five days of travel onboard a rocket. But that’s exactly what the Lunar Quattro was built to do. Uncrate notes that the vehicle was built from a mix of high-strength magnesium and aluminum, has a swiveling solar panel to charge up the battery powering its motors, uses a pair of stereo cameras to navigate obstacles, and proudly posts Audi’s all-wheel drive system.
When the contest was first announced in 2007, the last operational vehicle to land on the Moon was in 1976.
