Hyundai and Kia want to explore the moon

Hyundai and Kia want to explore the moon

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Sister companies, Hyundai and Kia have always had a mutual partnership; hence why most of their vehicles share platforms, powerplants, parts and engineering components.

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This time around, the duo isn't partnering for some engineering marvel to settle underneath a prototype with no name, no. This is something completely different, and it's out of this world, excuse the pun.

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The two industry titans have now announced that they are expanding their partnership with the signed joint research agreements with six Korean research institutes.

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This will see the formation of a consultative body to develop mobility solutions to explore the surface of the moon, which Hyundai and Kia will support with their smart mobility technologies. Both institutions will develop the scope of human movement experience to further contribute to the progress of humankind for "a more promising future".

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So far, the initial steps have been taken to change their focus to robotics and bring the concept of Metamobility into existence.

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The collaboration is expected to start sometime in August. It'll define the concept of lunar exploration mobility and major core technologies and see the development of specific strategies and implementation measures to operate on the moon.

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Regarding the research institutes, the signing event was attended by officials from Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Korea Automotive Technology Institute, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. Quite the guestlist...

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Chung Kook Park, the man who oversees the R&D division of Hyundai Motors and Kia, was also in attendance.

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The private and government sectors will also have input whereby they'll integrate their knowledge to come up with new solutions to better explore the moon. This will be across various areas such as exploration equipment, software for mobility operations and remote communication functionality.

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While the moon remains a harsh environment that poses a great threat to the development of surface exploration mobility, it'll help deliver useful lessons for Hyundai and Kia to speed up the delivery of smart and sustainable mobility solutions here on earth.

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With that said, an internal consultative body has been formed with key personnel for the development and operation of lunar surface mobility, with resources to be brought from the two brands' robotics labs.

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The two Korean manufacturers will also work together to develop software and hardware design and interpretation, space environment response technology, and special equipment to undertake the missions. 

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