Photos and video: X-Teams race for the right to rove on the moon

Astrobotic - X-Teams race for the right to rove on the moon

Team Astrobotic, based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wants its rover to stay active through an entire period of lunar daylight – about two Earth weeks.

That means its rover will need to deal with some serious heat. Noon temperatures on the moon can reach 133 ºC. "The challenge is not so much building the right wheels to get through the regolith, but can you keep yourself from cooking?" says team member David Gump.

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More than a dozen teams are racing to claim the $30 million Lunar X Prize for landing a robot rover on the moon.

This article first appeared on New Scientist.