Leading car manufacturer Audi is set to launch a lunar rover made with weight-saving 3D-printed aluminium parts by the end of 2017.
Audi has developed the vehicle in last two years in collaboration with a space travel group called Part-Time Scientists and entered the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition. The final goal is to facilitate the sending of the co-developed rover to the moon. Today, the companies have announced the completion of Audi Lunar Quattro rover and its plan to set it off with a launcher booked with Spaceflight Inc. in late 2017.
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Audi have highlighted the role of 3D printed aluminium parts in the construction of the Lunar Quattro. The wheels of the rover were made with 3D printing, reducing lead time and weight.
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Commenting on the technique, arald Eibisch, an engineer in casting and additive manufacturing technology development at Audi said, “3D printing with aluminium makes it possible to produce lightweight parts of almost any shape with a closed shell…The wheel of the Audi Lunar Quattro has a wall thickness of only a millimetre but displays outstanding strength thanks to its sophisticated design. The material has also been thoroughly tested in the Audi laboratories. We’ve been using alloy AlSi10MgSr in the aluminium castings of our Spaceframe bodies for decades.”
The total weight saving achieved in the Lunar Quattro rover comes to around 1.6 kilograms just for the four wheels alone. Because of the weight savings in the body, the team have been able to load the vehicle with additional material worth around €1.28m.
For the wheels, Audi designers revamped the open spoke wheel of the Part Time Scientist’s Asimov Rover and turned it into a closed system in order to cope up with the moon dust. They also increased its size by 22% to achieve improved climbing capability in fine-grained moon sand dunes.
Audi engineers redesigned the wheel, originally made up of several machined aluminium parts and tweaked the profile of the treads for better grip. The decisive step to reduce weight was the use of 3D printing technology.
“In 3D printing, we convert design data files into a buildable format,” Eibisch said. “We just take the shape of the part’s outer shell and add a millimetre of material. This results in a complex and stable surface on the inside that even the best CAD programme can’t achieve. The entire wheel has a wall thickness of only one millimetre. That way we’ve been able to reduce the weight per wheel by 400 grams,” he added.
The next step is to safely land the lunar rover on the moon’s surface, travel at least 500 metres and transmit HD images back to Earth. Audi’s Lunar Quattro is equipped with four cameras to take 360-degree photos. The Lunar Quattro is all-wheel drive facilitated by electric motors in all of its wheels. More testing including stress testing of the Audi rovers and the lander to be done before launching the rover to the moon and the mission will also be simulated in the Middle East to make a fool-proof vehicle.
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