The Audi Lunar Quattro is finally heading out further into space, well at least on the silver screen. This futuristic rover will be featured in Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant" providing research and exploration support for the crew of the colony spaceship Covenant.
In the sneak peek provided by Audi about the upcoming suspense sci-fi film, we get to the Lunar Quattro in action, sort of, as it explores the ship's cargo bay exploring an "unidentified lifeform." But this futuristic rover is more than just a prop for the movie.
The Audi Lunar Quattro was developed, since 2015, in partnership with the Berlin-based start-up Part-Time Scientists. And as real as it gets, it is actually getting ready to go to the moon "in the very near future," to be precise, later this year.
Google's X Prize program was designed to "spur technological development for the benefit of mankind." It enticed creative minds and tech experts to join the race of landing a new rover on the moon. Thus, in 2015, Audi joined forces with Part-Time Scientists in the hopes of being the first to land a rover.
Despite Part-Time Scientists being no longer part of the Google's X Prize program, Audi and the team still wants to head to the moon with the Audi Lunar Quattro. They plan on using Space X's Falcon 9 rocket, which the team announced last March, to help deploy two rovers in the Taurus-Littrow lunar valley. This mission to the moon will be the first private venture but the Audi Lunar Quattro will be the second rover ever to land on the moon since the 1970s, following China's Yutu rover.
The most of the parts of the Audi Lunar Quattro was mainly developed by Audi. Weighing only 66 lbs, this futuristic rover is 85 percent aluminum and was produced by the 3D metal printer at Ingolstadt, Germany, the automaker's HQ. Also, the rover features Quattro drive tech and a pivoting solar panel supplies energy to the lithium-ion battery that powers its e-tron motor.
Catch the Audi Lunar Quattro on "Alien: Covenant" as the film hit US theatres this May 19. It is the sequel to 2012 "Prometheus," which was the prequel to the 1979 "Alien."
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