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NASA's Chariot Is Not Your Father's Moon Rover
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Chariot Spec | Earth Prototype | Lunar System |
Payload | 1000 kg | 3000-6000 kg |
Vehicle Mass | 2000 kg | 1000 kg |
Top Speed | 20 kph | 20 kph |
Range | 25 km | 100 km |
Slope Climbing | 15 Degrees | 25 Degrees |
Science fiction writers have spent a fair amount of time thinking about how to get around on the Moon's surface. Arthur C. Clarke thought we might need mass transit:
The monocab entered a long tunnel at the base of one of the domes. Sadler had a glimpse of great doors closing behind them - then another set, then another. Then there was the unmistakable sound of air surging around them, a final door opened ahead...
(Read more about Clarke's monocab from Earthlight [1955])
Clarke also created a practical vehicle for towing material around on the Moon's surface that took advantage of the powdery lunar soil - the dust-ski, which moved like a jet-ski through deep lunar powder:
At that very moment... one of the searching dusk-skis was passing directly overhead. Built for speed, efficiency and cheapness ... It was, in fact, no more than an open sledge with seats for the pilot and one passenger - each wearing a space suit - and with a canopy overhead to give protection from the sun. A simple control panel, motor and twin fans at the rear, storage racks for tools and equipment - that completed the inventory. A ski going about its normal work usually towed at least one carrier sledge behind it
(Read more about Clarke's dusk-ski from A Fall of Moondust [1961])
Robert Heinlein thought that lunar prospectors might want to have something more personal for travel and hauling:
The solitary prospector, deprived of his traditional burro, found the bicycle an acceptable and reliable, if somewhat less congenial, substitute. A miner's bike would have looked odd in the streets of Stockholm; over-sized wheels, doughnut sand tires, towing yoke and trailer, battery trickle charger, two-way radio, saddle bags and Geiger-counter mount made it not the vehicle for a spin in the park - but on Mars or on the Moon it fitted its purpose the way a canoe fits a Canadian stream.
(Read more about Heinlein's lunocycle from The Rolling Stones [1952])
From NASA Chariot via Wired.
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