It is understood that NASA, better known worldwide as NASA, has chosen electric vehicle startup Canoo to provide electric vehicles to transport astronauts for the Artemis mission from the prep building to launch. tower. Canoo thus joins manufacturers such as Tesla and Rivian as part of NASA's space exploration missions.
NASA is a world-renowned institution. All of its projects are watched by millions, both on TV and in the field. Its latest space program, which began in 2017 under the name Artemis, has more than a decade of history behind it, and if successful, it will be the first human landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Moon.
With a goal of landing on the moon's south pole in 2025, the Artemis program has a further goal of supporting manned missions to Mars in the longer term. NASA has selected one of its prime contractors, SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System (Starship HLS), for use during a prolonged crewed lunar landing.
Astronauts in Tesla Model Xs on previous NASA and SpaceX launches were welcomed by the Elon Musk-owned electric car company. Also billionaire Jeff Bezos, a technology and space travel enthusiast and founder of space transportation company Blue Origin, got the chance to fly his first manned suborbital flight last July .
On that mission, Blue Origin used Rivian's R1T electric pickup to pick up the astronauts when the capsule returned to Earth's surface minutes after launch. Following NASA's latest announcement, Canoo will be the next automaker to offer an electric vehicle for space travelers.
Canoo has been selected by NASA as the winner of a $147,855 contract that will have at least one of the company's electric vehicles transporting astronauts for the Artemis mission from the prep building to the launch pad during rehearsals and on official launch day . Other NASA parameters include that electric vehicles must be zero-emissions, have a minimum range of 80.5 kilometers (50 miles), and can seat eight people.
Canoo's Lifestyle car, which is scheduled to go into production by the end of this year, looks like the best option available in the manufacturer's offering, though it can only seat seven passengers, according to the company's website. While it's not the most lucrative contract it can get, what makes up for it is the publicity it'll get from it, especially considering it's a much smaller EV startup than most of its competitors.
Canoo's first EVs are scheduled to start production in 2022. The first crewed mission of the Artemis program, Artemis 2, is scheduled to launch in 2024, while the SLS rocket supporting the unmanned mission Artemis 1 is currently on the launch pad A "wet rehearsal" is underway, and its launch is expected to take place by the end of the year.
