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

You KNEW this was coming

[BlackCobra43]

.......but does it run Linux?

Re:You KNEW this was coming

[RobertB-DC]

Finally! After all these years, and now it's here: a story for which "Yeah, but does [ridiculously incongruous device] run Linux?" is actually on-topic!

Great

[CalcMan]

A penguin with gas.

Which weapon, now?

[ScentCone]

From TFA: The Lunar Penguin, originally intended to land on the south pole of the moon to search for ice, is based on tactical weapons technologies, which should make it much more affordable, Raytheon said

Just curious what booster-powered hopping weapons system Raytheon has been working on lately, and if they have lasers strapped to their heads or what.

Name for the Machine?

[-Grover]

Personally I like

Lunar Terrestrial Unmanned Excursion.

Lunar TUX :)

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?

Affordable?

[Red Flayer]

"The Lunar Penguin, originally intended to land on the south pole of the moon to search for ice, is based on tactical weapons technologies, which should make it much more affordable, Raytheon said, without disclosing a price.

See how much great stuff comes out of military research? This is why all you tech-happy people should support increased military funding, instead of something so silly as direct funding of research.

Seriously, this is much more affordable only because we've already paid for the research. That's like a waiter saying, "Your meal will be 10% off, because you gave us the chicken we made it out of."

It's great that we can apply some of our military tech to space / lunar exploration. But don't say it's more affordable just because we already paid for it.

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?

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.

Russian rovers still hold traverse record

[peter303]

Despite the NASAs great results with their three successful Mars rovers, the two Russian Lunokhods still hold the distance records covering about 30 miles together, or an order of magnitude more than the Martian rovers. The Moon is near enough to allow interactive control of surface robots, unlike Mars.

Of course many of us would like to see dozens of rovers crawling all over the planets and moons. The cost of the International Space Station would have funded over 200 rovers.

Re:ill avoid the linux jokes...

[Red Flayer]

Please RTFA.

It's only called the Penguin because it was originally designed to explore the south pole of the moon to search for ice.

Penguins are native only to the Antarctic region (near the South Pole) here on Earth.

I don't know where they are native to on other planets.

Damn movie sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

It never fails that Hollywood will always ruin good movies with really crappy sequels. I can just see it now:
"March of the Penguins 2: Electric Boogaloo: In Space"

encapsulation

[milktoastman]

I bet no one will get this reference...it's obscure and irrelevant...but I'm curious just to see if anyone is as nerdy as me.

"Make it jump with its flippers extended, like a friendly gesture."

"I don't know, the sight of that robot penguin jumping toward me with flippers extended would scare the piss out of me."

"Good point"

You have to wonder...

[lost in place]

You have to wonder how many other animals they considered before deciding that a 250 lb rocket propelled vehicle was anything like a penguin. So...

TOP 5 NAMES SUGGESTED BY RAYTHEON ENGINEERS BEFORE THEIR PR DEPT TOOK OVER:

1. Giant Flying Cockroach
   
2. Big Flying Rat, Mark I
   
3. Lunar Kangaroo
   
4. Rocket-propelled Barrel-o-Electronics
   
5. Flatulent R2D2
   

Re:ill avoid the linux jokes...

[spun]

Penguins live in many more regions in the southern hemisphere than just the antarctic. Here is a nice little interactive map of penguin habitats around the world. Looks like a school project of some sort, but it is the first page returned in a google search for penguins and it looks pretty informative. My favorite are the Macaroni penguins. Penguins with mullets, what could be cooler?

Scene in the Oval Office:

[DarkHand]

I can see how it went down:

Scientist: "Mr. President, we have a number of new designs for our next Mars probe. Utilizing various state of the art metallurgy processes and the most advanced..."

Bush: "Can the scientologist mumbo jumbo, Doc."

Scientist: "::sigh:: This one looks like a penguin."

Bush: "Ooh, a penguin? Heh heh, I like penguins. Approved!"

Speaking of Linux Jokes

[Ingolfke]

Q: What's the difference between maggots and Linux zealots?

A: Maggots love open sores.

To the moderators: This post could be considered to be Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, or Offensive. Please moderate +1 Funny... understanding that we all need to laugh at ourselves and few bad puns ever once in awhile

you forgot the line..

[tont0r]

Bush: "Put some lasers on it and you got a deal!"

Scientist: "::sigh::"

Where was Raytheon in 1991?

[Baldrson]

In 1991 I went to work at E'Prime Aerospace as VP of Public Affairs getting the first Ka-band satellite license issued. While doing that work it occurred to me that the MX-missile warhead bus we were using as the basis of the Norstar satellite could, with minor modifications, be turned into a lunar lander that could hop around the lunar surface.

We did a study of the tankage sizing changes required and a few other features and actually got some quotes back from some of the contractors. It would have been a relatively cheap mission, about the same as a geostationary satellite launch.

I don't recall whether Raytheon was one of the contractors we contacted for pricing.

Credit the President

[amightywind]

President Bush also cut NASA funding. They can't even get the shuttle into space without it falling to bits, despite a $1bn re-fit.

The fact that we are even debating the post shuttle/ISS space program is a credit to President Bush. The 'failure' to fix the space shuttle is illusory. The shuttle performs consistent with its design. It's just that the design can never be safer than 1 failure in 100 launches. First it was the SRB O-rings, then frayed wiring, and latest ET foam. If it keeps flying some other problem will reveal itself.