General, Research, Technology

There will be races on the moon in 2021. What is known about this competition?

In October 2021, the first inhistory of the race of radio-controlled cars on the surface of the moon. The competition will be organized by Moon Mark, which has already agreed with SpaceX to send racing vehicles using a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The race cars will be designed by American schoolchildren who will best demonstrate their drone control skills and offer the best use of vehicles in scientific research. purposes. The project seems very interesting, especially considering that the competition will be broadcast live, and with remote control of devices, there will be practically no delays. But how is this possible?

Racing cars on the moon as seen by the artist. But they are unlikely to be so beautiful

Content

  • 1 How to become a racer?
  • 2 Race cars on the moon
  • 3 Cost of sending cargo to the moon
  • 4 How will the cargo be sent to the moon?
  • 5 How will the machines be controlled?

How to become a racer?

At the moment, who will manage the racingmachines are not exactly known. In a press release, Moon Mark said that the competition will be two teams of high school students from different parts of the United States. The selection will be carried out in the form of a school Olympiad. Students wishing to take part in the race need to prove their ability to operate unmanned vehicles. They will also take part in several virtual competitions and propose their own projects for the commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles on the Moon. Out of the best-performing teams, two will be selected - they will develop their own racing cars.

Another variation on what racing cars might look like on the moon

Race cars on the moon

The requirements for racing cars are very serious.The most important of them is that the final version of the device should not weigh more than 2.5 kilograms. Sending cargo to the moon is very expensive, so the organizers want to put 8 kilograms of cargo in the capsule, and in no case more. Considering that there will be two racing cars, and the landing module Nova-C required for their operation weighs 3 kilograms, it turns out just the necessary mass. To make the devices lighter, the developers will clearly deprive them of their heavy body. So while racing moon rovers may be amazing from a technological point of view, outwardly they are unlikely to be beautiful.

The cost of sending cargo to the moon

As of February 2020, the cost of sending a 200kg cargo on a Falcon 9 rocket costs from $ 1 million... For every additional kilogram you need to pay extra 5 thousand dollars... This is relatively inexpensive when you consider that Astrobotic charges from $ 1.2 million per kilogram.

Read also: Flying car races will start in the USA

How will the cargo be sent to the moon?

To put the cargo into low-earth orbit in OctoberIn 2021, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle will be used. The racing cars will be shipped with the Nova-C lunar module developed by Intuitive Machines. This is the first such device developed by a private company. The components of the Moon Mark project will take up approximately 8% of the total payload mass of the lunar module Nova-C - other non-race vehicles will be located inside.

Falcon-9 launch vehicle

First, the capsule will make a revolution around the Earth, andthen it will enter lunar orbit and land in the region of the Moon, referred to as the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum). This area is located on the left side of the visible side of our satellite and its diameter is 2 592 kilometers. On this territory, a track will be drawn for the future race. This will be done by Formula 1 track designer Hermann Tilke, who has already received data on all the irregularities in this part of the moon.

Ocean of Storms Location

It is important to consider that the authors of the project are unlikely to create a full-fledged track, because it is very expensive. Most likely, the participants in the race will receive only the coordinates of the places for which they cannot go.

How will the machines be controlled?

According to Moon Mark CTO ToddWallach (Todd Wallach), the lunar module will act as a relay. This means that it will receive commands from the Earth and transmit them to racing cars via Wi-Fi. It is reported that there will be no delays. For example, when the pilots press the "left" button, the car will turn in the right direction at the same time. But the authors of the New Atlas cannot believe it, because it will take at least 1.3 seconds for the signals to travel 384,000 kilometers between the Earth and the Moon. And if we take into account that the cameras installed on the module will also transmit the picture with a delay, the lag will be even greater.

If you are interested in the news of science and technology, subscribe to our channel in Yandex. Dzen. There you will find materials that have not been published on the site!

In general, the second half of 2021 promises to be interesting. At the moment, it remains only to keep track of which teams will become participants in the race and which vehicles for the races they will create.