In 2015, Audi went into partnership with Germany's Part-Time Scientists team to help develop the Audi lunar Quattro unmanned lunar rover for the Google Lunar X-Prize. The latest iteration of the rover and its landing craft are now undergoing extensive testing ahead of a planned visit to the landing site of the Apollo 17 mission late next year.

The lunar Quattro incorporates Audi's e-tron power technology to provide intelligent all-wheel-drive power and, according to Audi, it has had a number of significant updates. It's now 8 kg (17.6 lb) lighter at 30 kg (66 lb) thanks to "an optimum mix of materials" and the use of 3D printing to fabricate aluminum parts.

The rover has already been subjected to a series of tests, including in the Audi sun simulation chamber, which provides the extreme temperature conditions found on the lunar surface. The rover, along with the ALINA lander, which will deliver two of the Quattros to the Moon, are scheduled to undergo stress testing as well as a complete mission simulation at a Middle East location in the early part of 2017.

Audi and Part-Time Scientists plan to launch mission atop a yet to be determined rocket late next year and set down the lander and the two rovers at the Taurus Littrow region of the Moon. There the rovers will travel to the Apollo 17 landing site to examine the manned lunar rover left behind by the astronauts in 1972 using four cameras to return 3D and 360° images.

How close the Audi lunar Quattros can get to the landing site is open to question because the US regards all the Apollo landing sites as historic monuments with only limited access. Apollo 17 is particularly sensitive and NASA requests that all future missions keep at least 2 km away.

Audi says that along with the rovers and lander will carry scientific experiments from NASA, ESA, and Wikipedia.

Made up of 16 teams from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Hungary, Japan, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, and the United States, the Google Lunar XPrize is a US$30 million competition to encourage new space technology by having private groups build, launch, and land a robotic lunar rover on the surface of the Moon by December 2017. The rover must then travel 500 m (1,640 ft) while taking high definition images.

Founded in 2008 by Robert Böhme and made up of international 35 engineers, the Berlin-based Part-Time Scientists is the only German team. Audi has contributed its technical expertise and helped the team to bring other partners on board.

Source: Audi, New Altas