Lockheed Martin and General Motors are partnering to develop a brand new sort of lunar automobile for NASA to make use of throughout its upcoming Artemis missions to the moon, the businesses introduced on Wednesday.

“Floor mobility is important to allow and maintain long-term exploration of the lunar floor. These next-generation rovers will dramatically lengthen the vary of astronauts,” Lockheed Martin government vice chairman Rick Ambrose mentioned in an announcement.

Earlier this yr NASA issued a discover to corporations that it “requires a human-class rover that may lengthen the exploration vary of” astronauts throughout missions for the company’s Artemis program. The NASA program, introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration and continued below President Joe Biden, consists of multiple missions to the moon’s orbit and surface in the years ahead.

NASA’s request for a next-generation lunar automobile famous it ought to make the most of a wide range of cutting-edge applied sciences, together with electrical automobile programs, autonomous driving, and dangerous terrain capabilities.

GM has constructed such a automobile earlier than, as the corporate was the foremost subcontractor that helped Boeing create the lunar roving automobile that was utilized throughout three Apollo missions on the moon.

Whereas NASA’s earlier rover was able to reaching almost driving across the moon at almost six miles per hour, it traveled lower than 5 miles from the Apollo touchdown website.

Lockheed Martin says its next-generation lunar terrain automobile is “being designed to traverse considerably farther distances to help the primary excursions of the moon’s south pole, the place it’s chilly and darkish with extra rugged terrain.”

—CNBC’s Mike Wayland contributed to this story.