Space Penguin Could Hop Around The Moon

notdanielp writes "A robotic Lunar Penguin explorer could be hopping around on the moon by 2009, said Raytheon on Tuesday, as it unveiled the concept lander at an aerospace conference. The unmanned lunar device, in development for two years, is 3 feet tall and weighs approximately 230 pounds. It "hops" by reigniting small propulsion engines ... President Bush last year refocused the space program on sending people to the moon, Mars and beyond. Raytheon said the Penguin could be a robotic precursor to future manned space missions and that it was being proposed to NASA."

Comments

Huh?

[skelly33]

A robotic pre-cursor to manned moon landings? Why?

We were able to do manned moon landings for almost 40 years ago; has our know-how diminished, or are we just less determined than we used to be?

Re:Not

[wtmcgee]

What does Bush have to do with NASA's inability to repair debris issues on the shuttle?

Would throwing another billion at the problem have changed the outcome? No. Sorry, I despise Bush as much as the next guy but at a certain point, the "bush sucks" rhetoric gets old.

Re:Affordable?

[notdanielp]

Seriously, this is much more affordable only because we've already paid for the research.Not entirely. It can also be more affordable if the manufacturing processes for these tactical weapons technologies are already active. Which is cheaper, a production run off of an existing assembly line or building a new factory and then doing a single run?