Newest electric car to come from... NASA?
Click above for a gallery of the Small Pressurized Rover
NASA has been testing its latest rover that it hopes will shuttle astronauts around on the surface of the moon when the agency heads back around 2020. Initial testing is taking place in the Arizona desert, which features a rocky landscape that is similar to what the rover will face when it actually goes interstellar. There's all kinds of cool technology built into the six-axle twelve-wheeled machine, of course. Each axle can move independently, allowing the Small Pressurized Rover (SPR) to turn, or "crab" 360-degrees on a dime. Sitting atop that chassis is a pressurized cabin where passengers can operate the vehicle without wearing suits, though a pair of spacesuits are available through two portals at the front of the vehicle.
The rover is electric and gets its juice from on-board batteries. Those batteries (of unknown chemistry or capacity) can be charged by the astronauts as they exercise or presumably when the vehicle is docked, likely with solar power or with hydrogen fuel cells. There is reportedly enough capacity available to travel up to 625 miles at speeds of 6 miles per hour, which is just over a walking pace.
Gallery: NASA electric moon rover
[Source: NASA via Autoblog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Reptile 9:24AM (10/28/2008)
Interstellar? Going on the Moon or Mars doesn't make it Interstellar. It's still in the same solar system.
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GoodCheer 10:32AM (10/28/2008)
Man, the aerodynamics on that NASA EV thing are total crap.
Oh, wait...
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Serge 11:07AM (10/28/2008)
625 miles range for that hulking beast! I'd like to know what type of battery chemistry they use.
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Chris M 10:15PM (10/28/2008)
With a 10 trillion dollar national debt and a major economic meltdown, manned spaceflight is a luxury we can't afford. I'm betting the "moon and mars" program will be put on hold until economic conditions improve and the national debt is drastically reduced - that will be a very looong delay.
Unlike sattelites and basic research, there is no financial return on manned spaceflights, just a bit of entertainment and a national ego boost.
The fact that it was a Bush Jr. program won't help it at all, considering how badly Bush Jr. botched things.
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DasBoese 10:27AM (10/29/2008)
No. Manned spaceflight might not produce short-term revenue, but the long-term benefits are enormous. For one, the effects of a successfull Moon or Mars Mission on popular mood may very well have a positive economic impact. The second benefit are advances in engineering and technology that will trickle down into everyday technology, not overnight, but they do.
Lastly, long-term revenue from actual space operations. A specific example would be asteroid mining. The technology exists. Nobody has the balls to risk it because the initial (launch) costs are astronomic, but whoever eventually does... they'll have an easily accessible resource that will generate revenue for centuries. Asteroid mining corporations will be the oil giants of the next centuries, with the difference that their primary resource is virtually inexhaustible.
Josh 7:59AM (12/18/2008)
They are confused. The spacesuit ports are on the back of the rover. Little picture doesn't show the front view with the windows so you can see where you are driving.
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