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NASA Considers Mobile Lunar Base
colonist writes "During the Apollo missions, astronauts explored on foot or in rovers. The next astronauts on the moon may move the entire base instead. Marc Cohen, from NASA's Ames Research Center, proposes a lunar base on wheels or legs, such as the habot (robotic habitat) or the mobitat (mobile habitat). Cohen considers mobile bases superior to rovers: 'To avoid life-threatening or other compromising situations that might occur with only one rover traveling to a remote place, a second rover might travel with the first. But what if the second rover runs into a problem, too - the same or a different problem? Well, that means a third rover. So, why not make the entire base mobile, so that all the resources, reliability and redundancy of the lunar mission move with the excursion crew?' Of course, mobile bases are nothing new. Terran buildings have been lifting off for years."
That's just the ticket, ain't it. Winnebago finally becomes a NASA vendor. Mobile base, spare wheel on the back with a "Good Sam" wheel cover, towing a couple of electric Honda Quad-Runners as mini rovers. I can see it now. Space tourism will be huge.
Start a happiness pandemic
As long as we've discovered Doctrine:Mobility beforehand, we'll be fine.
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
read that as mobile laser base?
Ha, Protoss will wipe you out!
The mobile habitat runs into the same problem that toasted the rovers. It may suck crashing your moon buggy off a crater lip, but imagine wrecking your entire mobile-Moon-house.
Mobile homes on the freaking moon. Dale Earnhardt commemorative posters and a car on cinderblocks are all that's left.
...I have a cheaper solution than NASA. It would cost 80 billion less, too.
Only for astronauts who demand better things in life.
For a truly practical design, NASA will need to add front and top mounted lasers, as well as the ability to hop over craters. If Moon Patrol taught us nothing else, it taught us that.
But, would AAA honor my membership card off-planet for when my mobile habitat needs a tow?
Actually, as well as the benefits mentioned above, we eliminate (mostly) the problem of transporting weighty materials to the moon. All we really need is the mining equipment.
...plus a few fluoro lights, brightly-coloured flower wall-paper, lava lamps, spiders to leave their webs around the upper parts of the tunnel and dark areas so you can walk through them...
...the author of a post tries to pass a StarCraft strategy guide off as a legitimate news source.
Its called a spaceship
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
In keeping with the Bush doctrine of only
supporting applied science (as opposed to
pure science), the mobile lunar base will
be used as a replacement penal colony for
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ashcroft has adviced
that it will be the only way to keep the
Red Cross, ACLU, and Amnesty International
away from his "boy toys" in detention there.
"Shouldn't they first set up a permanant base on the moon before worrying about a mobile one? That plus a vehicle would provide good coverage until they can learn a little more about driving on the moon."
Shouldn't they first set up a mobile base on the moon before worrying about a permenant one? That plus a vehicle would provide good coverage until they can learn a little more about establishing a base on the moon.
"Derp de derp."
Habot? Mobitat? E-gads! What horrid names!
Hell, even Lunabago would be better than those monstrosities!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Oh My God!
Don't you see the real point of this.
The US creates a trailer park on the moon and ships up all their trailer trash.
Leave 'em for a few years and let natural selection work things out. Pretty soon the moon will be overrun with mutants that can shoot a stop sign with deadly accuracy from a mile away.
It Science gone mad I tell you.
Something tells me that this is something slashdotters can contribute a lot to. I call it Project: Parents' Basement.
All y'all, grab some six-packs of buds, yer shotguns and some copenhagen, we're going to the moon!
How long until the aliens start performing lunar anal-probing?
But what if the second rover runs into a problem, too - the same or a different problem? Well, that means a third rover. So, why not make the entire base mobile...
What if the base has a problem? that means a second base...
Your head a splode
Makes for some interesting postulations, though. Who'll have the first spinners in outer space? If you're building a Lunar Conversion Van, do you go with the teardrop or diamond back side windows? Shag carpeting or faux-wood paneling on the walls? Hide-a-bed to be stealthy or just put in the queen-sized waterbed and be obvious about it?
What would be sweet is if it had chicken legs.
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So imagine a large cylinder about 30-40 feet in diameter, and about 100ft long. Then put the exercise tracks inside at each end. Whenever the moon folks want to move the mobitat they just 'RUN' in circles. Same direction to go straight, opposite to turn. Brilliant I say!
Maybe I should go patent that right now!
They Live, We Sleep
Let's replace a relatively simple lunar rover that just might break with a super complex movable base! Nothing disaterous could ever happen to something like that.
Here's an idea, lets take the big mobile base design and scale it down. Then it could leave the base with say, one or two people in it and cruise around. Surely these little bases would be less prone to failure than the big base. We could call them Rovers!