NASA Testing Lunar Rovers In Moses Lake, WA

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.

Comments

Rain in WA

[treeves]

When someone says it always rains in Washington (1) they're exaggerating. a bit. (2) they mean WESTERN Washington. Moses Lake is in Eastern Washington.

Re:Rain in WA

[Carnildo]

True. In Eastern Washington, it snows.

We got mixed rain and snow here last Tuesday; some of the surrounding towns got as much as an inch.

Re:Rain in WA

[Dutch Gun]

it is absolutely not eastern washington 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). ;-)

Anyways, pretty cool to see where I grew up getting into the news. Well, the last time my home town (Mount Vernon, WA) was in the national news was because some whack-job took off all his clothes, ran out onto the freeway, and climbed up onto a semi-truck that had stopped because of him. This is decidedly cooler than that.

Re:Rain in WA

[mark_hill97]

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.

Re:Rain in WA

[HungWeiLo]

I don't know who modded this funny. I don't know about eastern Washington, but Seattle's (that's in western Washington) gone through a cold snap lately. Today (6/12) is the first day the temperature went above 65 degrees. So far in June, I was told we're colder than Fairbanks and parts of Siberia.

The rovers were bad!

[mseidl]

You should have seen the rovers during spring break.

I think NASA went over board with the number of probes installed on the rover.

Re:The rovers were bad!

[owlnation]

I think NASA went over board with the number of probes installed on the rover.

What? No Harpoons? How will they hunt whales?

Re:The rovers were bad!

[Nethead]

That was a joke son.. pulling your leg. Maybe this will work for you: "he he, he said probe."

Color scheme

[Xzzy]

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?

Re:Color scheme

[Carnildo]

Which came first I wonder?

NASA. They've been using the white (standard reflective paint), black (heat shields) and gold (reflective gold foil) color scheme since the beginning.

Moses Lake

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. Seattle is in Western Washington. If you drive East from Seattle until you cross over the Cascade Mountains, you find yourself in very different weather: dry and hot in the summer. One time I passed through Moses Lake in August, and the temperature was over 100 degrees F (Seattle was more like 75 or 80 degrees F, IIRC).

Moses Lake is in the dry part of the state, and there is a decent airport there, so that's probably why NASA is testing there. Yakima would also be a good choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Lake,_Washington

Weather data here:

http://www.wunderground.com/US/WA/Moses_Lake.html

Right now it's 77 degrees F in Moses Lake, while it is 63 F in Seattle. (The whole month has been cold and wet. People are calling it "June-uary".)

As for the famous rain in Seattle, it is indeed exaggerated. But we really do get about nine months out of the year with slate grey overcast; heavy clouds block out the sun. I don't mind; I'm happiest in a dark office writing software. But some people get "Seasonal Affective Disorder" (SAD) from the months of bleak darkness. It sure makes you appreciate the other 3 months, though. And you can always drive over to Eastern Washington for some sun.

Re:Moses Lake

[DerekLyons]

But some people get "Seasonal Affective Disorder" (SAD) from the months of bleak darkness.

Or, as a friend of mine puts it "there is a reason why the Puget Sound area is a petri dish for serial killers".

Get it right

[RomulusNR]

that's not Washington, that's Eastern Washington.

It always rains in Washington

[jbrader]

[i]Don't believe anyone who says it always rains in Washington.[/i][p]Yeah, I live in Pullman, Washingington. The day before yesterday it snowed. Today it was 70 degrees. I wish it was raining.

Re:Video

[deadaluspark]

Are they shooting in HD or imax. ? Nah, they are using old DVCPro cams. They digest the video from DVCPro tapes to Apple G5's and from there the video is edited in FCP. everything around here is kind of held together by duct tape.

While your in Eastern WA

[Bananatree3]

Go visit the LIGO Hanford Observatory. It is one of a handful of places that can detect gravity waves, the kind of waves made by colliding black holes and the like. LIGO is south of Moses lake, and just make sure to check out their public tour times.

Re:While your in Eastern WA

[deadaluspark]

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.

Re:How can they test them ?

[rhombic]

You've obviously never driven through Eastern Washington

Humor aside, the area around Moses lake is mainly dust and exposed lava rock. Would think it'd make a pretty good proxy for the moon's surface.

Velocity

[je ne sais quoi]

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.

Re:Velocity

[deadaluspark]

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.

Re:Velocity

[je ne sais quoi]

Unfortunately, he is clueless on almost entirely everything in reality, and refuses to listen to anyone about anything.

So you're saying he's just like every other reporter? :)

Re:Velocity

[rcamans]

On the moon, fast is dangerous. There is not much gravity holding you down, so if you speed up a dune, you go sailing off into space for a while. While you are off the ground, you are not in control of your movement, or your landing. So slow is the way to go. Great bounding leaps look cool in videos, but they are a great "here's your sign, stupid".

Re:How can they test them ?

[deadaluspark]

Actually, while trying to find more out about this before I was able to contact the NASA reps, I ran across and article that said Moses Lake had been considered before in the 90s (I think 97, but don't quote me on that.). So, its been in the running to get used as a testing ground for quite a while.

I wonder

[cdomigan]

Testing? Or filming...

Re:Washington rain...

[Nethead]

With a population of just over 3,190, this vibrant, progressive community offers a quality of life that is rare today. I don't think they know what the common usage of the word progressive is. Isn't that part of the 4th district of Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings? I thought that my mom was the only progressive in the dryside, and she lives in Yakima, the Palm Beach of Washington. Hell hole? Just because the nearest towns are Sulphur, Curry, Mesa and Cactus.

Copyright?

[KGIII]

I say this not tongue-in-cheek, I'm really curious if you got permission to post this? The reason I ask is not to enable a debate about the merits of copyright but to ensure that you're not going to lose your job over something like this which, really, is very cool. Either way, I thank you very much for the video share and hope that you're not going to get into any trouble at work for any of this.

Ooooh.

[CopaceticOpus]

I would link to the original video on the KVEW website [CC], but the video is screwing up on the badly designed, WMP only website.

So, what are your plans after you get fired?

Re:Holy shit! My hometown in the news!

[themushroom]

News will be back to normal shortly. ;-)

Re:How can they test them ?

[livewire98801]

Unless you're skipping rocks on Moses Lake, you don't know it's there. I live in Wenatchee (about an hour away). It's a semi-arid desert here, and ML gets less precipitation than we do. Trust me, the lake isn't going to interfere with desert-based operations :)

Re:Perfect location

[livewire98801]

Sure there is.

I-90 goes right through it. I would imagine that intelligent life is seen several times per day if you have a good high-speed camera. . .