autoevolution
 

Tesla Cybertruck Follows Roadster to Mars as a Settler's Daily Driver

Elon Musk's space exploration ambitions are looking very promising at the moment. His goal of having people sent to Mars by 2024 is still challenging, especially since nobody's done it before and so we don't know exactly what to expect, but he must be feeling good about his chances right now.
Tesla Cybertruck Mars rover 5 photos
Photo: Slave Popovski
Tesla Cybertruck Mars roverTesla Cybertruck Mars roverTesla Cybertruck Mars roverTesla Cybertruck Mars rover
The plan all along was to use the money gained from the ISS crew launches as well as the Starlink satellites to fund the much more ambitious colonization of the Red Planet. Only a few days after the successful launch that brought two astronauts on board the ISS, Musk made it very clear: the new priority now is the SpaceX Starship.

The Starship is a two-stage reusable heavy-duty rocket that should bring the first humans on the surface of Mars. The behemoth will weight anywhere close to five thousand tons, with an active payload of 100 tons. That may sound like a lot, but just remember how difficult it is to pack whenever you go on holiday and then imagine what it would be like if that holiday was on another unexplored planet. You'd want to pack the entire house. And some air.

Among those 100 tons of equipment, there will definitely be some sort of a vehicle. It'll be electric, and not just because this is Musk we're talking about, but also because it's much easier to produce electricity on Mars than it is to bring fuel from Earth. Not to mention you need oxygen to burn anything, so not even a coal roller will be able to argue against EVs on Mars.

There's no doubt a special vehicle will be developed for the mission when the time will come, but out of the current Tesla bunch, it's definitely the Cybertruck that makes the most sense. It's rugged and offers the kind of utilitarian functions people establishing a base on Mars would certainly appreciate.

If Moon rovers are anything to go by, you would expect these vehicles to be as tiny and as stripped of any unnecessary equipment as possible. Well, Slave Popovski, the man behind the Mars-bound Cybertruck, not only didn't make the electric pickup smaller or lighter, but quite the contrary.

The six-wheeler is a stretched version of the upcoming truck with an extra axle added at the back to support the added weight. The bed cover is made out of solar panels and hides an extendable arm with a satellite dish at the end. The wheels feature airless tires, but the author doesn't go into any more details on how they work. And, apart from a bull bar and some antennas, that's pretty much all the obvious modifications we can spot.

The artist shows he has a good commercial brain when he shows us there's also a civilian version of the six-wheeler because those would definitely sell like the proverbial hotcakes. Driving a Mars vehicle on Earth? Who could say no to that?




 
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Vlad Mitrache
Vlad Mitrache profile photo

"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories