NASA's new lunar vehicles

[Zatnikitelman]

I think NASA stole my idea for a dropship!
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=476

 

[Andy44]

I think NASA stole my idea for a dropship!
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=476

Yeah, and that cylindrical rover thing looks like a tailor-made payload for my own lander.

ANyone else think that landing pad in the forth image looks suspiciously like an Orbiter pad?

 

[Dman1410]

on the fourth pic im sure them vehicles are from TTM24 ( To The Moon In 24 hours) the lander is more or less identical and that cylindar looks like the PDA or something like that.

 

[MajorTom]

That new moon rover is so compact. I could fit that in my suitcase and haul it off to anywhere want with minimal energy. >.<

How the HELL are they going to get that thing in orbit, much less on the moon

For sure, they'll need a great big lunar lander and large launch vehicles. Enough to keep Orbinauts guessing and creating add-ons for years. :speakcool:


Edit: The lander and cylindrical modular cargo units reminded me of your add-ons, Andy.

 

[thomasantony]

And these are the new spacesuits:


The base would most likely be built on the Lunar North pole, where there would be constant sunlight for power generation.


-----Post Added-----


And yes, the suits will be attached to the pressurised rover, as shown here:




-----Post Added-----

Does anyone else notice that the front of those vehicles look a LOT like what the original design of the LEM was supposed to look like, before it was stripped down and revamped by Tom Kelly and others at Grumman?

 

[Andy44]

Does anyone else notice that the front of those vehicles look a LOT like what the original design of the LEM was supposed to look like, before it was stripped down and revamped by Tom Kelly and others at Grumman?

Yes, and those designs were changed because window panes are too heavy. I imagine that a lunar rover won't need such big windows, either, and since it must be transported by rocket just like the lander itself, big windows will be a problem.

 

[thomasantony]

I know. Saw those on From the Earth To the Moon. They look cute .. maybe once we have cheap heavy lifting capability we can think of those nice rovers with big views .

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Hmmm, maybe I'm a total moron, or maybe I'm thinking too Sci Fi, but you wouldn't need one large launcher, you could use the space shuttle... launch them and store them somehow at the ISS, then use a vehicle that can preform lunar transfers to get them to the moon... still need a rather large transfer vessel, but you could perhaps have a ship that was constructed "on orbit" so as to cut down on the launcher for that as well.

Maybe unlikely, but perhaps not completly stupid

 

[Andy44]

Correct, but you can't cheat Isaac Newton. More mass to the moon means either a bigger rocket or many smaller ones. Unless you can build a better launch method.

 

[RisingFury]

Paved surfaces would cut down on the dust and make life easier on both hardware and lungs.

Probably not... if you take a close look at the footage from the Moon, you'll see dust falls down instantly. With no atmosphere, the dust particles, however small, have nothing to hold them up.

That's also why there's no huge dust cloud when the engine was close to the surface.

The only reason to "pave" the ground would probably be to support the structures above, probably preventing any sinking over time - also the movement across the ground would be easier and would take less energy.

 

[Andy44]

No, you pave it to keep the dust from kicking up when you walk or move wheeled vehicles over it. The dust clings to everything it touches via static charge, and the Apollo space suits were covered in the stuff. Once the astronauts took them off, it was floating around the cabin and they were breathing it in.

 

[RisingFury]

You'd have to pave a rather large area to avoid bringing dust home. The expedition won't be limited to a few hundred square meters...

If you want a more permanent solution, you'd have to have some kind of air blasting chamber to clean the astronauts when they come home. That would be an easier solution for the dust then paving the whole thing.

 

[JamesG]

I believe they have developed an electrostatically charged duster that works to remove the dust effectively.

Moon dust will probabaly prove to be much more dangerous than just the basic lung irritation and getting into stuff. Alot of the trace elements in lunar regolith are radioactive,carcinogenic, or otherwise bad for being inside the lungs. Can you say "moon lung"?

Best bet is to keep the people and inhabited areas completely separate from the lunar environment, except for carefully controlled samples. Telerobotics, externally parking space suits, and the basic inhospitability of the moon make it feasable to do I think.

 

[RisingFury]

Hmmm yea... a space suit that could "attach" it's back to one of the modules and open up so that people could enter and exit, without having to bring the space suit in and out.

 

[Andy44]

Those dockable suits look neat. I wonder how feasible they are? You still need to carry your life support sytem around on your back, too.

 

[RisingFury]

Or just hook the suit up and let it fill with life support and power.

It would eliminate a big health risk, but it would still have to be isolated with an airlock...

 

[Andy44]

That means two hatches, one on the suit and one on the docking structure. Tough to engineer, but it's too cool an idea to ignore. (Plus it was used in Star Frontiers...)

 

[Marcel]

I think that rover is rather beautiful. It has a sort of Jules Verne steampunk look to it. By the way, weren't some of those photos taken at the place where they faked the Apollo landings?
(Ducks and quickly runs out of the room...)

 

[silent_protagonist]

Those are some pretty sweet designs. I wonder if their maybe a bit too complex, though. You may be able to go more places with a hexapod, but a K.I.S.S. four-wheeled rover could go to almost as many places, and be simple enough to actually repair in the field. I don't want to picture trying to take apart one of those drive units in a spacesuit.:crazy:

 

[mjessick]

I got to watch the cab version drive around outside the mockup building at JSC today. It had a dozen dignitaries/tourists taking pictures of it parked since the engine of the tourist tram was parked just 20 ft away. Then they moved off and did some maneuvering in the street with the occasional car moving past. Then they turned around essentially in place and moved back past the tourist tram driving past it in the far lane across the street (that is, about 20 ft away from it)... driving sideways with the cab facing perpendicular to the line of travel facing toward the tram. Then they wandered on up the street and the tram turned and followed them.

No prius for me when I win the lottery. I want one of THOSE!