SpaceX Will Launch Remote Controlled Racecars to Lunar Surface
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
SpaceX will launch remote controlled racecars to lunar surface:
An ambitious startup is sending a pair of 5.5 pound, remotely-controlled racecars to the lunar surface to hold the first ever car race on the Moon, New Atlas reports - and a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will help them get there as soon as October 2021.
The race is being organized by Moon Mark, a multimedia and education content company, which partnered with Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based aerospace outfit.
Intuitive Machines claims it could soon become "the first private aerospace company to land on the Moon," according to a recent press release.
Only eight percent of the 100 kilogram payload is taken up by the remote-control cars, which will race around the sandy dunes of Oceanus Procellarum, a massive plain near the western edge of the near side of the Moon.
The rest of the payload is provided by NASA as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which is laying the groundwork for sending astronauts back to the surface of the Moon in 2024, according to an April press release.
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