Audi Lunar Quattro:Audi's Robot That Will Go To The Moon

Audi Lunar Quattro might be the next robot sent to the Moon.

The rover shall be traveling 380 000 km, pass some kilometers on the lunar surface and visit the landing spot of the last human team on the Moon - Apollo 17 in 1972.

Audi Lunar Quattro demonstrates the brand's high ambitions for the future, which is willing to prove its technical expertise concerning not only cars but spatial missions, as well.

The German brand decided to provide technical assistance to a group of researchers in Berlin, which are developing a rover able to get to the Moon, Earth's natural satellite.

The objective is a bold one: the engineers contribute to the development of an Audi Lunar Quattro, weighing 35 kg, made of aluminum and magnesium. The rover will have 4 wheels, able to rotate at 360 degrees.

It will collect energy through solar panels, transmitting it to Li-Ion batteries. The theoretical speed of the rover will not exceed 3.6 km/h. The vehicle will have two photo cameras for capturing images of the surroundings and another one for studying the rocks.

The project is part of the Google Lunar XPrize project, which is promising 30 million Euros to the team that will manage to transport a rover to the Moon and make it cover 500 m on the Moon's surface and transmit photos to Earth.

Audi, however, is aiming higher. The rover will be placed close to the landing spot of Apollo 17 and then pass 2.3 km from there and study the mission of Apollo 17 in order to identify how the 300 degrees difference of day and night temperatures have affected the integrity of the robot.

Audi Lunar Quattro is supposed to be launched in the first part of 2017 and travel over 380 000 km before reaching the Moon.