Will Audi be the first car manufacturer to visit the Moon?

Photo credit to www.popsci.com

Audi has backed a team of scientists, aptly named the Part Time Scientists or PTS for short, who are gunning for the $30 million purse that comes with winning the Google Lunar XPrize. To prize will go to the first team that is able to build, launch, and land a Lunar Rover on the Moon. They then must traverse at least 500 meters (about 1500 feet) all the while sending pictures back to earth.

Audi has helped design the All Wheel Drive system on the Rover, which has the companies four-ringed logo right on the front of it. Audi has also contributed the use of advanced 3D printing techniques which has allowed PTS to build the Rover out of Titanium and Aluminum, yet have it configured however they need it to be. Using the 3D printing method they are able to create channels for wiring that would otherwise not be possible with standard CNC milling processes. Another example of this would be the wheel, which has structural elements embedded inside the wheel allowing them to cut down on weight elsewhere.

PTS plans on actually studying the Lunar surface as well, They plan on visiting the original Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) and study how the materials have aged over the past forty years.
"The Apollo 17 LRV is of particular interest to us because it wasn't made from the same high tech materials NASA used on the lander." Team Leader Robert Bohme says. "It was made using things like piano wire and plastic, so it will be interesting to see how that has all held up."