The next frontier for carmakers could be the moon.
BAIC Group is working with China’s Lunar Exploration Project to set up a laboratory for joint technology development, the company said on Tuesday. The laboratory will provide support for BAIC’s development of a planetary rover, it said.
BAIC and other Chinese companies are trying to tap into an $8-billion national space budget that’s second only to the US.
Big plans
China wants to be one of the world’s top three aerospace powers in about a decade, and the government is working on landing Chinese taikonauts on the moon by the 2030s. The Change-4 probe landed on the far side of the moon in January.
BAIC’s announcement comes a month after Toyota Motor Corp said it was teaming up with Japan’s space agency to build a lunar rover.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the country’s largest carmaker are working to build a six-wheeled, self-driving transporter that can carry two humans for a distance of 10,000 km.
They’re planning to land a vehicle on the moon in 2029.
Toyota’s fuel-cell technology will power the rover, which will be big enough for two astronauts. The moon may soon get pretty crowded, as US Vice-President Mike Pence said the nation will return astronauts there within five years, possibly by using commercial rockets.
Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have started their own companies looking to commercialise space flight.
This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.