Desert Rats Wheels

The moon's terrain and extreme temperatures will require future lunar rovers and robots to have a set of wheels unlike anything used by vehicles on the Earth. Vivake Asnani explains what makes the TWEEL (tire/wheel) concept a more suitable candidate than rubber, air-filled tires.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Desert rats
• Wheels
• tweel
• Mars

[jwcornish]

Also, why 'reinvent'. I assume you drive a car built in 1969? Or use electronics manufactured in 1969? We have electronics, motors and batteries a fraction of the mass that the Lunar Rover uses, but more powerful/higher capacity/more rugged than was available.

Are you saying that I should be taking a wagon train to work because that was good enough for my grandfather? Why must we re-invent this??

[jwcornish]

Although I recall one of the engineers who worked on the lunar rovers saying that if you were to put a new battery in them, they would likely be drivable.

However, here's the biggy--the lunar rovers are NO WHERE NEAR where NASA is planning to land. The two rovers are at the Equator, and the immediate plans for the return to the Moon are to land at the South Pole.

There isn't a practical way to get those rovers to the new base.

[davisgreen2020]

Shame those wheels wil not be on the Moon in 2020 !! :((

[jwcornish]

so here's the deal, and I"m going to sound like a socialist. No individual can foot the bill for defending our borders and interests, building a bridge, teaching a child, handling a pandemic, feeding the hungry or taking us to the Moon.

So how about this. I chip in some money, and you chip in some money, and we'll have our representitives work it out in the congress.

If you don't like how your tax dollars are being spent, don't say it on YouTube, write your congressperson a letter.

[jwcornish]

pt4,

and guess what. I agree about military spending. I think it should be cut back quite a bit.

I also think that NASA should be having the private sector provide the ride into orbit and back for our astronauts (look up the SpaceX Dragon capsule)

I do think we should be putting billions more into education, basic science research and infrastructure (I live near Seattle and our SR99 Viaduct is likely to fall in the next major quake)

[jwcornish]

pt3

Except for NASA. NASA needed an extremely compact computer. And the Apollo guidance computer was the first to use Integrated circuits. That manufacturing technology that Americans developed for the space program is now in just about every device in your home, car and where you work.

Yes, spend spend spend. You pay less than a penny on the tax dollar, and you as a result get to complain about it on your computer over ARPANET---er, the Internet

[jwcornish]

Pt 2

Now, would you say that an American engineer developing a new technology that no one has tried before 'needless'

Look at that computer on your desk. What you have there is an absolutely IMPOSSIBLE device--from the point of view of companies like IBM in the 60's. There was no need for any small computers at all. You could have terminals connected to a building sized mainframe to run everything.

[czubspenx]

You people crack me up. Spend, spend, spend no matter what. Hey, guess what? This country is broke, the wars abroad are killing us, there is NO money, the printing presses are running 24/7 printing money out of thin air, etc. Everyone says cut somebody's elses budget. This country has to quit spending money like drunken sailor, whether it's NASA, The Dept of Defense, etc. It costs close to a million dollars to put one troop on the front line for one year. Now, go figure it out.

[jwcornish]

Do you know what's in the US Federal Budget?

Look up '2009 United States federal budget' on wikipedia.

most of it ($1.89 trillion) is Mandatory spending

$644 billion - Social Security

$408 billion - Medicare

$224 billion - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

$360 billion - Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending

$260 billion - Interest on National Debt

The rest is 'discretionary' spending, of which half goes to the Dept. defense.

NASA gets crumbs

[czubspenx]

So, if I pay an American soldier to fight a needless war, that's okay. If I pay an attorney to start a frivolous lawsuit, that's okay. If I pay some government worker to do some needless job, that's okay. I don't think any of that is okay. I want more bang for my dollar in tax money. I want something to show for all the hard work, like maybe a freeway or a park or something like that. Not some tire on a landing craft.

[birthdaymatt]

I did not know that. Not much money by comparison. I changed my mind. Thanks.

[jwcornish]

Mind you, NASA's budget is less than one third of one percent of the total US Federal budget. The funds allocated to NASA bring us a lot of value.