Hyundai Motor, Kia and 6 research institutes to develop lunar exploration vehicle

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Hyundai Motor, Kia and 6 research institutes to develop lunar exploration vehicle

Published: 27 Jul. 2022, 17:13

Park Chung-kook, center, head of Hyundai and Kia's research and development division, and representatives from six state-run research institutes hold hands after signing an agreement to form a council to cooperate on the development of a vehicle for lunar exploration. [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

Hyundai Motor and Kia will form a council with six government research institutes to jointly develop a vehicle for lunar exploration.

The companies and institutes signed an agreement Wednesday promising to jointly conduct research on the technologies to make a vehicle that can explore the surface of the moon. The six state-run institutes are the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and the Korea Automotive Technology Institute.

The council will start its research as early as August. It will also come up with specific strategies for how to operate the vehicle on the moon, Hyundai said.

The moon’s surface has many craters and dynamic changes in temperatures, according to the companies, thus, combining the technologies and capabilities is essential to developing a vehicle suitable enough to be able to endure the extreme environment.

“This is our first step toward making our vision of robotics and metamobility into a reality,” Hyundai and Kia said in a release. “We will work to make Korea a leading country with the space age technologies that will come to us one day."

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]