China has developed a folding car that drives on the moon

The CELV 4-wheeled vehicle is designed for emergency travel by astronauts, has a maximum speed of 10 km/h and can carry 90 kg to the Moon..

word study group Jilin University And China Institute of Space Technology (CAST) develop a small vehicle that easily folds and unfolds for emergency return to base or for short trips around base on the Moon, SCMP 4/11 was reported.

The CELV prototype car was developed and used for testing.

ƝThe CELV car prototype was developed and used for testing. (Photo: CPM)

New named car model Chinese Boxy Emergency Moon Vehicle (CELV), with a maximum speed of 10 km/h. The vehicle has 4 wheels, weighs 40 kg, is as big as a mini fridge when folded and stored in the back of a regular vehicle.

ϹELV is made entirely of metal and is nearly 2m long when open. The vehicle is designed to carry 90 kg on the surface of the Moon, or about 540 kg on Earth, where the gravity is about 6 times greater than that of the Moon. The car runs by two electric motors, each rear wheel is equipped with a motor. Meanwhile, the front wheels can rotate 30 degrees.

In performance tests, the ELV was able to overcome obstacles 10 cm high and climb 20 degrees, carrying two people weighing a total of 130 kg, one sitting in the front seat and the other standing on the pedal. back. The results of the study have been published in a Chinese-language journal Optics and precision engineering.

The researchers say the ECML is small, light and very flexible. “Astronauts only need to pull or rotate certain parts to open the vehicle, with no major assembly or adjustment required in the process.”, write the authors. The manufacturing team removed components such as the dashboard to simplify the structure of the vehicle, improving the damping capacity to make the ride more comfortable.

“The development of a vehicle for emergency return to base is extremely important for future Chinese crewed lunar missions.”said Zou Meng, an expert at Jilin University’s Key Laboratory of Bioengineering, and co-authors.

To date, the United States is the only country to have ever used manned vehicles on the Moon. During the last three Apollo missions in the early 1970s, NASA astronauts covered more than 90 km on the surface of the Moon and collected more than 280 kg of rock to bring back to Earth.

In recent years, a number of countries like the United States, China, and Japan have developed manned autonomous vehicles and vehicles with robotic legs to navigate the Moon and Mars. NASA plans to put a man on the moon by the end of 2025, while China aims to make the first moon landing around 2030.

Article source: VnExpress