NASA and private companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX are focused on exploring Mars, so if they’re in need of a vehicle to navigate the surface of the Red Planet, using a Land Rover wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
The British car manufacturer makes some of the best off-roaders on Earth, so it would only be fitting for it to also use its expertise on our planetary neighbor. This is not an official concept, though, but a rendering from designer Alexey Andreev, who imagined what a Mars exploration vehicle from Land Rover could look like.
Andreev’s creation is a modular, all-electric vehicle that could offer room for up to four astronauts. The ‘Land Rover Mission Terraform’ would also be modular, meaning it could perform a variety of different missions. For example, it can be equipped with a module with medical supplies, one with communication equipment, or a cargo-hauling unit.
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That’s not all. This futuristic Land Rover could be converted to perform a host of different tasks. If needed, it could be equipped with a seed dispenser at the rear to grow crops, or used to haul raw materials and be fitted with an extension to deliver oxygen wherever necessary. The wheels and tires could also be replaced with engines that allow for vertical take-off and landing.
Occupants would interact with the vehicle via artificial intelligence and sit in reclined seats. Yes, that AI thing is still some way into the future, although maybe not as far as we think.
A vehicle like this will probably never become a reality in our lifetimes. Sometime in the next century, though, humans could be living on Mars and driving around its surface. This is not mere science fiction; scientists have warned that our planet’s resources won’t last forever, and if our species is to survive, it must expand. Our own solar system looks like a good place to start.