There’s a new set of wheels in town at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
NASA has unveiled its latest Mars Rover concept, which has been described as looking like looks like ‘a mashup of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and the Dark Knightâs Batmobile’. Technology has come a long way since the manned lunar rover that explored the moon in the early 1970s.
The six-wheeler is powered by an electric motor with a 700-volt battery and also by solar panels. The front the rover is equipped with GPS and the separated rear segment of the vehicle is a research station for fieldwork.
There will be changes from the concept vehicle to the final version that NASA plans to send to Mars in 2020 to look for evidence of microbial life and gather core samples for possible recovery.
WOW! Check out @ExploreSpaceKSC's new rover concept! The scientifically-themed outreach vehicle uses technology that could be used on Mars! pic.twitter.com/wQpe8zetBj
— NASA_SLS (@NASA_SLS) June 6, 2017
The concept will spend June at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and then tour the East Coast of the USA in July and August before returning to the space centre.
