Developed by Dr. William Whittaker from Carnegie Mellon, Astrobotic Technology’s prototype of a lunar rover is hoping to win the $25 million Google Lunar X Prize. Scheduled to take to the Apollo 11 landing site by the year 2011, the rover’s been tucked with solar panels, and has been tweaked and tuned to send back to Earth, HD videos of what it sees up there.
The Astrobotic rover for its sophisticated make, stuffs two motors inside its body, wherein they are safeguarded against heat and abrasive lunar dust. Each motor pulls chains to drive its side of the robot, which on top has solar panel to generate enough power to run the wheels, computers and energize the transmitter. While on the other side, i.e. to the colder side, the robot has a radiator, perhaps to do away with the excessive heat.
