Real-life Audi moon rover debuts in 'Alien' movie

A German-designed moon rover known as the Audi lunar quattro rover got a starring role at the premiere of Ridley Scott's 'Alien: Covenant' in London on Thursday (May 4).

Its developers hope the star quality rubs off when the rover joins a planned mission to the moon.

The planned landing site is close to the place where United States space agency NASA's last manned mission to the moon, Apollo 17, touched down in 1972.

The space vehicle was put through its paces on the set of the latest instalment of the Alien franchise. The mission depicted in the 'Alien: Covenant' film deploys the moon rover to assess an unknown new planet.

Berlin-based start-up Part Time Scientists worked with automaker Audi to develop the rover over two years, using cutting edge technology.

The lunar experience has been simulated with thorough temperature testing in Qatar and Tenerife, as well as the Audi laboratory.

The 85 percent aluminium vehicle was mostly produced using 3D printing and the developers have kept the weight down to just 30kg (around 66 pounds).

It is powered by a 60 degree pivoting 100 watt solar panel, which drives its Audi e-tron motor.

"The rover has four wheels which can be steered independently, which allows us to turn on the spot and drive sideways. It also has three cameras, two of which are for regular stereo vision and one is a scientific camera which allows us to analyse the Apollo 17 moon buggy," explained lead designer Robert Boehme.

The rover benefits from the vastly increased computational power available to engineers since the days of the Apollo 17 mission, according to its developer.

"If you look at today's technology, everything is very power efficient, very small and readily available for us. This is what enables us to develop such a vision without working for NASA or ESA, the agencies," said Boehme.

The Audi lunar quattro rover is set to be part of a mission to the moon later in 2017. — Reuters