 I'm Jordan with The Verge and I'm here at the Detroit Auto Show where Audi is introducing something really exciting. A lunar rover that's going to go to the moon as part of Google's XPRIZE Challenge. We sat down with one of the scientists to learn more. So why don't you tell us a little bit about why you built a lunar rover? At one point in time Google announced the so-called Google XPRIZE Challenge. Basically a bet by the two founders of Google who say if you get back to the moon privately and drive 500 meters we give you 30 million dollars. And I was hearing about this prize and was thinking like why are they doing this? Why is somebody offering money to get back to the moon? It was such a crazy situation and thinking about this I kind of got a lot of friends together with scientists and engineers and we were thinking about is it possible? Could you do something about it? And that's where it all started and seven years later with where we are today we've now developed multiple generations of lunar rover prototypes, landing module prototypes. We're just about to purchase a very large rocket to put it all in and launch to the moon in the third quarter of 2017. So a lot has happened in seven years. Got it. And you've chosen a very historically and scientifically significant landing point for your craft. Yeah we're going back to the Taurus-Littrow Valley which is the site where man set last foot on the moon. And a lot of research has been done because it was the only Apollo mission, it was the site of the Apollo 17 mission. It was one of the only missions where a scientist actually went to the moon. So as one of the sad matter of fact it was actually the only mission which generated a huge amount of scientific valuable data and this is perfect for us to build upon. We have this opportunity to redo this value with much finer equipment and figure out what this anomaly has been caused and also of course expand the range of exploration that has been done there. The main mission objective from our mission is not just to get back to the moon itself but actually visit something that's been left on the moon. That's the LRV, the lunar roving vehicle. That's the moon buggy that the Apollo astronauts used to drive around the moon. And it's parked outside of the Apollo 17 landing site about 225 meters. We want to go there and study the remains of it. It's been on the moon for over 43 years, exposed to the vast amount of space, to the radiation and to all of the space weather. So this kind of material science helps you to understand what materials you can use to build a lunar base. And what's the partnership with Audi bring to you? The partnership with Audi actually adds two big values for us. Of course access to the technology and the engineers at Audi and of course the funding that we need to develop everything we do. So for the first thing, something that's really cool is that Audi helps us to do all of the optimizations. So they helped us from the very last generation to this generation of the rover to get the weight down by over 10 kilograms using 3D printing technology, for example in-house. For example the latest rover that you just see here has been based on 3D printed aluminum and titanium with special mixes done by Audi, for example, which have a very high strength but are very lightweight. So the parts are just one millimeter thick. Then of course we have these electrical drive subsystem where we have highly efficient brushless drives integrated into the wheel, which gives us 360 degrees of freedom from the top side perspective and of course from the side perspective. So it means that you can traverse the terrain quite a lot. That's where the guys from Kratow help us a lot. And then you have of course the e-tron sector where the guys help us a lot in getting everything qualified because it's a very complex system. So it's not like, you know, it's not something where you can pick up, it's not like a 3D puzzle where you have all the pieces mapped out, but you really need to understand all the states where your hardware could be in. Almost everything is self-developed from, you know, starting from the firmware level to the PCB layouts to the hardware programming that you need to do to get things running. And that's something that you need to do to get to a level where you have the kind of reliability that you need but also can balance the cost. The rover could make it to the moon within two years, but space is hard, so good luck to them. We'll have much more from the Detroit Auto Show here later this week. Subscribe for more videos to youtube.com slash the verge or just check out the verge.com.
 I'm Jordan with The Verge and I'm here at the Detroit Auto Show where Audi is introducing
 something really exciting.
 A lunar rover that's going to go to the moon as part of Google's XPRIZE Challenge.
 We sat down with one of the scientists to learn more.
 So why don't you tell us a little bit about why you built a lunar rover?
 At one point in time Google announced the so-called Google XPRIZE Challenge.
 Basically a bet by the two founders of Google who say if you get back to the moon privately
 and drive 500 meters we give you 30 million dollars.
 And I was hearing about this prize and was thinking like why are they doing this?
 Why is somebody offering money to get back to the moon?
 It was such a crazy situation and thinking about this I kind of got a lot of friends
 together with scientists and engineers and we were thinking about is it possible?
 Could you do something about it?
 And that's where it all started and seven years later with where we are today we've
 now developed multiple generations of lunar rover prototypes, landing module prototypes.
 We're just about to purchase a very large rocket to put it all in and launch to the
 moon in the third quarter of 2017.
 So a lot has happened in seven years.
 Got it.
 And you've chosen a very historically and scientifically significant landing point for
 your craft.
 Yeah we're going back to the Taurus-Littrow Valley which is the site where man set last
 foot on the moon.
 And a lot of research has been done because it was the only Apollo mission, it was the
 site of the Apollo 17 mission.
 It was one of the only missions where a scientist actually went to the moon.
 So as one of the sad matter of fact it was actually the only mission which generated
 a huge amount of scientific valuable data and this is perfect for us to build upon.
 We have this opportunity to redo this value with much finer equipment and figure out what
 this anomaly has been caused and also of course expand the range of exploration that has been
 done there.
 The main mission objective from our mission is not just to get back to the moon itself
 but actually visit something that's been left on the moon.
 That's the LRV, the lunar roving vehicle.
 That's the moon buggy that the Apollo astronauts used to drive around the moon.
 And it's parked outside of the Apollo 17 landing site about 225 meters.
 We want to go there and study the remains of it.
 It's been on the moon for over 43 years, exposed to the vast amount of space, to the radiation
 and to all of the space weather.
 So this kind of material science helps you to understand what materials you can use to
 build a lunar base.
 And what's the partnership with Audi bring to you?
 The partnership with Audi actually adds two big values for us.
 Of course access to the technology and the engineers at Audi and of course the funding
 that we need to develop everything we do.
 So for the first thing, something that's really cool is that Audi helps us to do all of the
 optimizations.
 So they helped us from the very last generation to this generation of the rover to get the
 weight down by over 10 kilograms using 3D printing technology, for example in-house.
 For example the latest rover that you just see here has been based on 3D printed aluminum
 and titanium with special mixes done by Audi, for example, which have a very high strength
 but are very lightweight.
 So the parts are just one millimeter thick.
 Then of course we have these electrical drive subsystem where we have highly efficient brushless
 drives integrated into the wheel, which gives us 360 degrees of freedom from the top side
 perspective and of course from the side perspective.
 So it means that you can traverse the terrain quite a lot.
 That's where the guys from Kratow help us a lot.
 And then you have of course the e-tron sector where the guys help us a lot in getting everything
 qualified because it's a very complex system.
 So it's not like, you know, it's not something where you can pick up, it's not like a 3D
 puzzle where you have all the pieces mapped out, but you really need to understand all
 the states where your hardware could be in.
 Almost everything is self-developed from, you know, starting from the firmware level
 to the PCB layouts to the hardware programming that you need to do to get things running.
 And that's something that you need to do to get to a level where you have the kind of
 reliability that you need but also can balance the cost.
 The rover could make it to the moon within two years, but space is hard, so good luck
 to them.
 We'll have much more from the Detroit Auto Show here later this week.
 Subscribe for more videos to youtube.com slash the verge or just check out the verge.com.