On June 16, during the Paris Air Show, Venturi Space unveiled its Mona Luna wheeled rover concept. It is expected that it will propose to the European Space Agency to send it to the moon.
European lunar rover
Venturi Space, a company collaborating with Astrolab on the development of new lunar rovers, has unveiled a fully European design for a rover that it hopes to offer to the European Space Agency.
The Monaco-based company unveiled a concept rover called Mona Luna at an event during the Paris Air Show on June 16. It is a robotic vehicle, 2.5 meters long and 1.64 meters wide, weighing 750 kilograms.
However, the main feature of the new rover is that all of its components are manufactured in Europe. This fact is very important, given that relations between the Old World and the US are currently extremely tense. And NASA is going through some tough times too. So, ESA can only count on itself.
Bicycle design
The main challenge facing developers of self-propelled lunar rovers is the presence of steep slopes and loose soil in various combinations. When we’re talking about a big vehicle like Mona Luna, which also has to move around at speeds of up to 20 km/h, it’s a really tough task.
However, the developers of Mona Luna managed to accomplish this task. It uses battery technology and “hyper-deformable” wheels, which Venturi also supplies to Astrolab, an American company that develops lunar rovers, in particular for NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) program.
Venturi has received some support from ESA regarding key technologies needed for the Mars rover. However, exactly how the construction of the model that will actually fly to the moon will be organized remains unclear.
ESA has the Argonaut landing module and the Ariane 64 launch vehicle, capable of delivering it to the Moon. Theoretically, they are the ones who should deliver the new rover to the surface of our moon. However, it is still unclear how this will actually be implemented. Most likely, some form of public-private partnership will be used.
According to spacenews.com
