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NASA Testing Lunar Rovers In Moses Lake, WA

Posted by timothy on from the bring-me-my-chariot dept.

deadaluspark writes "I work at a local news station, and found out NASA was testing their lunar rovers in a nearby city. I pulled some strings and got our news director to send out one of our reporters. I would link to the original video on the KVEW website, but the video is screwing up on the badly designed, WMP only website. So I uploaded the package to youtube for everyone on Slashdot to enjoy. Very cool video of NASA toys in action." Don't believe anyone who says it always rains in Washington.

5 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Color scheme by Xzzy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What amuses me is how closely the NASA's color scheme matches the LEGO mars mission color scheme. ;)

    http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=7690

    Which came first I wonder?

  2. Re:While your in Eastern WA by deadaluspark · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, Eastern WA has lots of interesting science installations (and one NSA installation!), yet since most of the populace is farming community there is very little local interest in these things. Honestly, it was me and a friend in the production crew who called NASA and set it up for one of our reporters to go. We just handed it off to the news director once we had gotten in contact with the NASA reps. The news reporters at our station KNEW that this was going on in Moses Lake but didn't think A) that it was in our coverage area, and B) that it just wasn't an interesting story. Fools.

  3. Velocity by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to Wikipedia, the original lunar rover did about 8 mph. I don't think they mentioned in the video how fast the chariot goes, but it looked pretty slow compared to the rate people were walking next to it. Wouldn't that kind of limit the range they could cover in some practical amount of time? Unless they're planning on outfitting that thing as the lunar equivalent of an RV. Or maybe this is just because it's the prototype and the real one will be faster.

    --
    Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
    1. Re:Velocity by deadaluspark · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Those are good questions. I only wish the reporter our station had sent out was smart enough to ask questions like that. Unfortunately, he is clueless on almost entirely everything in reality, and refuses to listen to anyone about anything. Everyone I work with had wanted a longer story with better questions. It seemed really half-ass to us, because we knew it would blow up on Slashdot. So, I guess our opinion about how it should have been handled was different because we're nerds.

  4. Re:Rain in WA by mark_hill97 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sorry, but if it's east of the Cascades, then it's "Eastern Washington" (at least to those of us on the wet side of the state). ;-)
    except eastern washington, the areas around spokeane and such are all green, central washington is fucking barren and hilly, its no wonder NASA is out there, its the closest thing we have on earth to the moon.