Next Lunar Rover rides in Inaugural Parade
By Susan Wilson
Unless you were in Washington D.C. watching the entire Inaugural Parade, chances are that you never got a chance to see NASA’s next Lunar rover. It seems the Moon may have an electric vehicle, albeit one that appears to be made from at least a few spare parts.
The 6,000-pound “Chariot”, as the next Lunar vehicle is being called, was part of yesterday’s Inaugural Parade in Washington. The vehicle was driven “by Astronaut Mike Gernhardt, with Astronaut Rex Walheim walking in a Lunar Space Suit”. Walheim may have been the warmest person in or watching the parade.
The electric vehicle will run off of a Li-ion battery. For those who have bemoaned the death of General Motors EV1 electric car, take heart. NASA bought a former GM EV1 inductive charger from eBay to charge the Chariot’s batteries. Although GM did its best to destroy all evidence that the EV1 had once existed, at least one part slipped through the crushers jaws.
A further down to earth element of the Chariot is its regenerative braking. The vehicle will use a system similar to the regenerative braking found in Toyota, Ford and GM cars.
The actual vehicle will obviously look quite different than any electric vehicle produced so far. To begin with the rover will have 6 wheels and be twelve tiered-not a typical configuration found in the Think, Tesla or Smart Car.
Each wheel will have two 3 hp motors that will propel the vehicle. It will also have an active, electric suspension to make sure that the Chariot remains on the Moon.
With NASA’s planned return to the Moon by 2020, the Chariot will still go through a few modifications before it is expected to function as “an all-terrain exploration vehicle, a backhoe, a bulldozer and a ‘mini-Winnebago’.” The final version of the rover isn’t expected to be constructed until 2017-2018.
Who knows, by then NASA might be able to purchase more sophisticated braking and charging systems from places other than eBay.
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January 22nd, 2009
Well, it’s a sign of the times when NASA has to buy its technology from eBay.
January 22nd, 2009
Actually, it makes a lot of sense. Why develop new technology when the technology already exists.
January 22nd, 2009
Actually, it makes a lot more sense for NASA to use off-the-shelf parts whenever possible. Good thinking, if you ask me.