The Lunar Rover Initiative: breaking ground, laying foundations

Carnegie Mellon University and LunaCorp Inc. are conducting the first private lunar mission by sending a pair of teleoperated robotic vehicles to the moon. Once there, these rovers will generate live video for customers on Earth. The Lunar Rover Project will be the general public´s first chance to directly participate in space exploration. The sponsors, who will cover the $150-million price tag, include one or more theme parks, a television network, and interactive software vendors. Mission control will be housed in a theme park, where visitors will be able to board lunar “buses” that duplicate the rovers´ movements and provide a live, 360-degree panoramic video of the moon´s surface. Those scoring highly enough on a computer-simulated lunar-driving skills test will actually drive a rover in front of a theater of visitors