NASA's New Lunar Rover in Action

holy_calamity writes "New Scientist has video of Nasa's new Chariot lunar rover in action on simulated moon surface in Houston. As the associated story explains, the two-ton "truck" has a top speed of 20km/hour and is currently fitted with a plough, with additional back hoe and drill attachments to come. Sure it's not glamorous — more of a lunar tractor — but sure looks handy for establishing that permanent moon base NASA wants."

Comments

Simulated surface

[chrisjwray]

I wonder if this is the same simulated surface where the original landings were filmed.

Re:Simulated surface

[oni]

no, the original landings were filmed in Area 51, but that whole region is now a radioactive wasteland, so now they've actually had to move the *testing* to the moon, so that the public doesn't know Earth has been polluted.

It's easy to see through NASA's lies. Why are there no clouds in the sky in this footage? Answer: it's because they're on the moon, and they added in the blue sky using Adobe Aftereffects, but they couldn't make realistic clouds so they left those out.

Why didn't the rover kick up little clouds of dust? Answer: because there's no air on the moon.

Re:Simulated surface

[alexhard]

Everybody knows the original landings were filmed at a soundstage on Mars.

But does it have a gun rack?

[UberHoser]

Also all the other things a "truck" in Houston should have.

*Gun Rack
*Redneck Bumper stickers
*Shiney nude girl mudflaps
*A Wooden Back bumper (Usually 4x8)
*Empty Bud cans on the floor
*A Nascar Sticker on the Back window. #3 or #8) or both !
*Marlboro boxes everywhere.

Lunar base

[PodissRT]

As the associated story explains, the two-ton "truck" has a top speed of 20km/hour and is currently fitted with a plough, with additional back hoe and drill attachments to come. Sure it's not glamorous -- more of a lunar tractor -- but sure looks handy for establishing that permanent moon base NASA wants. It looks handy for establishing the moon base, and knocking out its fiber optics.

Energy Shields Activate!

[bwak]

Maybe this has been discussed before on another thread, but how the heck do you protect your buildings that are completely exposed to the elements of space? Without an atmosphere to burn up or dismantle most of what comes at it, is there really a plausible way to shield your structures from essentially anything at any speed? Hopefully some of the space guys can shed some light on this for me.

Re:Energy Shields Activate!

[confused one]

Probability on an impact is fairly low. Still would be a consideration which probably results in building (initial) permanent settlements underground. Radiation is a bigger concern, since lethal doses are possible every time energy from an x class solar flare hits the lunar surface.

Build your shelter then cover it with lunar regolith.

Burrow tunnel and build shelter underground

Dig into side of crater and build shelter into crater wall.

your choice. Simply Choose one

There's always risk. Every 100 years or so a rock big enough to do considerable damage gets through Earth's atmosphere. Every few years a storm big enough to do considerable damage hits a major population center. Hell, we live on a molten ball of rock with a crust that's only 30 or so miles thick. Tomorrow the east coast of the U.S. (where I live) could be wiped out by a tsunami.

Back ho?

[sm62704]

They got ho's on the moon? Sign me up!

Legitimate Question.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do we not try and 'pave' parts of the moon we want to land on? Ok, granted it'd probably be pretty difficult (rocket science and all that...) to land in the exact same 30m x 30m grid every time, but the point remains. If we have so many concerns about moon dust and what damage it can cause, why don't we solidify a large section of the top layer?

I refuse to believe I'm the first person to suggest this, but I have yet to see it mentioned anywhere else.

My suggestion, since that's what your thinking at this point, is some type of ceramic.

Re:Legitimate Question.

[jameskojiro]

Lookup "Lunar Lawnmower" it uses microwaves to sinter the top few milimeters of the lunar soil into a hard glassy like substance using microwaves.

Re:'...Currently fitted with a plough'

[carambola5]

Your comment was obviously tongue-in-cheek, but there are reasons for a plow. First is for infrastructure: it's useful to push off all of the fluffy regolith (moon dirt) to get to the compacted stuff when you want to drive moon buggies and such things.

More interesting (for me, at least) is for excavation. The plow is used to strip the top layer of loose regolith so that a mining attachment can dig up the compacted stuff. There is evidence of water ice near the poles as well as He-3, so an effective cutterhead and muck retriever could collect resource-laden material. I just so happen to be lead mechanical engineer on such a Chariot-attachable mining module. :)