NASA has unveiled a new Lunar Rover that will allow astronauts to undertake two week long ‘road trips’ when they touch down on the moon in the next decade.
Unlike the stripped-down moon buggies that NASA abandoned on the moon’s surface after the 1970s Apollo program, the latest proposal is more akin to a campervan with a pressurised living pod. This means the next generation of lunar explorers will not require space suits unless they need to leave the vehicle – in which case they climb directly into suits mounted externally to air-locked exit ports.
The cabin is reportedly comfortable with leather seats and bunks, as well as large windows, and would allow two astronauts to make camping trips of up to 625 miles – a far cry from the six or seven mile range of the first Lunar Rovers.
With 12 wheels mounted in pairs, the Small Pressurised Rover Concept doesn’t look quite as cool as the original, but that’s the price of progress. The vehicle is pictured here undergoing testing in the Arizona desert.
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