Lockheed Martin and Goodyear to jointly develop lunar rover for NASA's Artemis mission

American aerospace and defence company Lockheed Martin alongside tyre-maker Goodyear is reportedly working on a joint project to develop a new lunar rover that will be used by space astronauts for NASA's Artemis lunar landing program.

NASA is reportedly planning to have a variety of lunar vehicles on its roster. From hauling commercial payloads to carrying human astronauts to isolated regions of the moon on extended trips, NASA is looking for a wide pool of options.

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Kirk Shireman, vice president of Lunar Exploration Campaigns at Lockheed Martin stated that,unlike previous rovers that only lasted a few days, the new and much improved jointly-developed rover is being built for extended use and other commercial setups as well.

“We’re developing this new generation of Lunar mobility vehicle to be available to NASA and for commercial companies and even other space agencies to support science and human exploration,” said Shireman.

It is pertinent to note that Goodyear has previously worked with NASA on the famous Apollo missions. The tyre company is expected to use a state-of-the-art airless tyre technology that can be used for rovers as well as passenger vehicles, here on Earth.

Chris Helsel, senior vice president, global operations and chief technology officer at Goodyear was quoted as saying to the media, “Everything we learn from making tires for the moon’s extremely difficult operating environment will help us make better airless tires on Earth."

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The new lunar vehicle will allow the astronauts to reach the dark side of the Moon i.e South Pole. Up until now, the Moon has been relatively unexplored. According to estimates, only five per cent terrain of earth's natural satellite has been traversed by humans. The rest remains there for exploration.

(With inputs from agencies)

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