Summary The weight of the vehicle is reportedly 5,000 pounds with an astounding length of 28 feet.
Web Desk - Every year, automobile makers come up with out-worldly and futuristic concept cars that push the boundaries of the idea of how a vehicle is supposed to look and operate. But NASA has taken their imagination one step further and has come up with a concept vehicle that is a realisation of the wildest dreams of comic book geeks and Batman enthusiasts.
Recently, videos and images surfaced on social media showing a vehicle that looked strikingly similar to the Batmobile driven by Christian Bale in the Dark Knight trilogy. A clip shared on Instagram showed the vehicle in what was supposedly an unveiling ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at NASA, Florida.
Black and sleek, the beastly looking vehicle slowly comes into view. Though its tyres are higher than those present in the Batmobile, they are ones with which the Batman would definitely want to run the Scarecrow over.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at NASA collaborates with privately run organisations and includes exhibits of historical spacecraft, concept vehicles, along with a simulated ride into space.
According to reports in foreign media, NASA has collaborated with a private firm to build a six-wheeled electric rover designed to overcome the challenges of travelling across the surface of Mars. The weight of the vehicle is reportedly 5,000 pounds with an astounding length of 28 feet.
In an interview published in the Business Insider, the creator of the rover, Marc Parker, said that NASA provided his company with the parameters for the functionality of the vehicle, with the specific aim of traversing across sandy and rocky surfaces.
Marc’s company has been involved in producing vehicles for television and movie productions, so it’s no wonder that they came up with something that closely resembles one of the most famous vehicles in Hollywood.
According to Marc, the vehicle is designed to house astronauts and allow them to explore and investigate the surface of the Red Planet. For this purpose, the rear section of the vehicle is a research laboratory that can actually be detached from the front of the rover. A video clip posted on Instagram by SeaDek, another company that worked on the project, shows the interior of the vehicle.
According to the designer, the vehicle comes with an electric motor, solar panels, and a 700-volt battery so that it does not have to rely on conventional fuel sources. Moreover, the vehicle is made from aircraft grade aluminum and carbon-fiber in order to keep its weight down, about 5000 pounds. That is less than the weight of a 4,500 CC Land Cruiser, which comes up to around 5,700 pounds.
The vehicle won’t see the surface of Mars yet, as according to Marc, the vehicle is going to travel across US cities as part of NASA’s Summer of Mars event, and will be featured in a reality TV series about the building of the vehicle.
The vehicle can serve as an inspiration for automakers who want to create futuristic vehicles which, due to their design, do not have much practical use on earth, but could be of use in the exploration of other planets.
