Moon Mark, in collaboration with Intuitive Machines, will offer a remote control car race in October 2021 on the Moon. An ambitious project that aims to involve the younger generation in the design of new space technologies.
Yes, you heard that right, small remote-controlled cars are scheduled to race on the Moon as early as next year. This slightly crazy project is brought to us by Moon Mark, a start-up founded in 2018 whose goal is to " create experiences and content to inspire and engage as many people as possible on Earth and in the world. space ” .
In concrete terms, at the end of a competition involving six teams of high school students selected from across the United States, who will participate in a series of technical challenges (drone race, autonomous vehicles, e-gaming, etc.), the top two teams will win a unique opportunity to build and drive two vehicles on the Moon.
As part of this project, Moon Mark is to collaborate with the company Intuitive Machines, whose lander, capped atop a Falcon 9 rocket, will take off in October 2021 to land a few days later in the Ocean of Storms, near the Schröter valley. Here, Intuitive Machines must deliver a hundred kilos of payloads in order to explore the region. The two small vehicles will therefore act as a secondary load.
Once freed, the two remote-controlled cars will connect via wifi to the lander, which will then relay the information to Earth, and vice versa.
Many questions then arise. How do I actually order each vehicle? Given the Earth-Moon distance, when these kids push their analog joystick, their cars will receive and operate the commands with a about 1.3 second lag . It will then be necessary to wait as much time to see whether or not everything has gone as planned. It is therefore difficult to imagine a good race performance in these conditions, especially since it will aim to " test the speed limits on the lunar surface " , explains Mary Hagy, founder and CEO of Moon Mark, interviewed by New Atlas .
Another point:there is a priori no question of sending a robot to trace the track to follow. Also, it seems more probable that the limits not to be exceeded are defined by pre-planned coordinates. All we know is that this track is currently designed by Hermann Tilke, who is behind all recent Formula 1 circuits.
For their part, the two small cars will be partially designed by high school students, accompanied by the designer of McLaren P1, Frank Stephenson. Each will weigh approximately 2.5 kg. This will take into consideration many factors, such as dust filtration, traction, weight, materials, endurance or stability issues, all while giving their car a "nice look". .
Finally, on the financing side, here again, two questions arise. The first:how much will this operation cost? Knowing that each vehicle will weigh about 2.5 kilos, and that the deployment mechanism used to drop them on the lunar surface will weigh about an additional three kilos, so we get a combined weight of about eight kilos . However, each kilo of payload is very expensive. We don't know the exact rates offered by Intuitive Machines, but for comparison, it will cost you 1.2 million US dollars per kilogram with the private company Astrobotic to integrate one of its Peregrine landing modules.
The second:what will be the financial fallout? Again, it's all a bit hazy, but Moon Mark is planning a live-streamed entertainment event.
