 When we think about astronauts on the moon, we think about them in big, bulky spacesuits hopping around or maybe driving a lunar rover. But what if they'd been total bad boys and had lunar motorcycles, or had huge, all-terrain vehicles? NASA explored quite a few different mobility concepts before settling on the lunar rover we know and love. So everyone, I'm Amy, this is The Vintage Space, my little corner of the internet where we talk about a variety of old things that I love and many of those happen to be in space, or in this case on the moon. So let's take a look at some unflown lunar mobility concepts. The first order of business for the Apollo program was landing astronauts on the moon. As such, the first landing missions were about the landing itself. But even from the start of the program, NASA knew it wanted to get more science and exploration from its time on the surface with later missions, packing the EVAs with experiments and extending the astronauts' range. This latter goal meant giving the astronauts some way to cover more ground than they could just walking. One early idea was to give them rocket-powered platforms. I have a video about a couple of those concepts right up here. NASA looked at more traditional means of transportation, too, and in the mid-1960s had a number of proposals from Belcom to consider. Belcom was the division of AT&T established in 1963 to assist NASA in research and development. This was the agency that explored the possibilities of a manned mission to Venus and Mars with Apollo hardware. I did a deep dive into these proposals right up here. Belcom was thus very familiar with creative solutions to space problems, so let's take a quick look at some of its mobility concepts. Belcom's proposals all built off hardware already under development for the Apollo missions, namely the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules, exploring different ways to turn these vehicles into rovers. One proposal was called MOLUM for Mobile LM Shelter. This was a third-generation derivative of the lunar module that combined it with a lunar rover, turning the landing vehicle itself into the rover, thus eliminating the need for another vehicle on the surface. There were two versions of this proposal. The first was the minimum-change version that added a four-wheeled chassis to the LM. Then the second was a moderate-change option that, in addition to the chassis, added a two-wheeled trailer to carry more gear. In either case, fuel cells provided power for the mission's duration. The mobile unit could be landed ahead of a crew and safely wait in a state of readiness for up to 90 days. Once the crew was onboard, the MOLUM could support them for as long as two weeks. It would serve as their primary living quarters and support EVAs, meaning the crew could step outside and explore on foot, not just through the windows. The mass varied depending on individual considerations permission, but it was roughly 6,700 pounds. Another similar option was called MOLUM. This proposal called for a later-generation command module to dock with a mobile base similar to the lunar module's descent stage to turn the mothership into a mobile shelter. On the surface, it would be mounted to the same four-wheeled chassis. It was a heavier option weighing about 9,500 pounds, but that wasn't considered prohibitive at this early stage in research and development. The LM truck was a different style option. This proposal was considered as part of a mission profile that saw an upgraded lunar module and a command module landed on the lunar surface with some kind of added landing stage. This proposal focused on turning the lunar module descent stage into the Lunar Logistics Vehicle, or LLV, that replaced the Ascent Stage with a cargo platform. The interesting thing about this concept was, like MOLUM, it too could deliver a vehicle to the surface ahead of a crew, but it was much bigger, weighing in around 22,200 pounds. MOLAB was a proposal for a full mobile laboratory, that's where the name comes from. After delivery to the surface via the LM truck we just discussed, it could safely wait on the surface for six months before a crew arrived to use it. It had an active lifetime of 14 days, with an additional seven days of contingency life support, though it would have to stay stationary for those additional days. But for its primary two weeks, it was a fully functioning lab with an internal volume of 452 cubic feet, plus an additional 122 cubic feet in the airlock that could support EVAs. And though it was more functional than other proposals, it fell within the 6,500 to 8,500 pound weight class, so it was actually within the capability of the Saturn V. And this was the basic MOLAB. Belcom noted that it could be scaled up to support a larger crew for a longer stay. All of these mobile lab concepts were big and heavy, and as such demanded operated base vehicles to support the longer duration stays. But such long-term thinking didn't work for Apollo, which was on a tight timeframe and had a limited amount of space. The mission couldn't carry a multi-thousand pound pressurized vehicle to the surface, so NASA took another route and started looking at lightweight, minimalist vehicles. One path was flying vehicles that could be folded into the lunar module's descent stage. Another was surface vehicles, and one concept was an electric bike. The lunar bike was pioneered by a mechanical engineer from MIT named David Gordon Wilson. He figured that at least on the first landing missions, astronauts wouldn't need anything as complicated as a pressurized lab. If the goal was just to cover more ground, a bike would be perfect. NASA briefly studied a prototype electric mini-bike before the Apollo 15 mission, treating it as a backup in case the lunar rover then under development wasn't ready in time for launch. But the idea of a car-inspired lunar vehicle was favored at NASA, because it was not only more familiar engineering, having four wheels on the ground promised increased stability in the alien environment. The challenge was building something that would fit into Apollo's architecture. It would have to be lightweight, since NASA didn't have a lot of wiggle room with mass on the lunar mission. But it still had to be strong enough to hold two men in pressure seats and their gear and experiments. It would also have to navigate varied terrain, climb slopes up to 25 degrees in incline, and work without issue in temperatures ranging from minus 279 to plus 243 degrees Fahrenheit. Boeing ultimately won the contract to build the lunar rover, and the final design met NASA's constraints. It was an electric-powered vehicle that weighed 480 pounds on Earth or 80 pounds on the Moon. It could carry about twice its own weight and had top speed of roughly 8.6 miles per hour. To keep the mass low, it was an open design, two seats on a frame with a central joystick that either astronaut could easily use with his bulky glove on. The wheels were a mesh metal designed to avoid getting gummed up with lunar regolith. Getting it to the Moon was a separate feat. I have a video about how the lunar rover was packed and stored in the lunar module right up here, but in short, it was stored inside one of the lunar module's descent stage storage base. Once on the surface, the crew had to pull cables and release pins to allow the rover to unfurl and descend to the surface. They added fender extensions over the wheels, toe holds, hand holds, and foot rests, and set up the controls, display console, unfolded the seats, and it was ready for use. The lunar rover was ready in time for Apollo 15's launch, so the closest the bike ever got to the lunar surface was a low-gravity test on the vomit comet in 1969. I hope you guys enjoyed this look at lunar mobility systems that never flew, but we might still see bicycles and pressurized ATVs on the Moon someday. That's going to do it for me for today. I want to remind you guys that both of my books, Fighting for Space and Breaking the Chains of Gravity, are available however you like to consume books. I've got links to both in the description below. I also want to say a special thank you to my Patreon supporters and YouTube members. You guys truly make all the difference in the world. Without your continued support, I would not be able to keep making content, so thank you so much. And I want to say thank you to every single one of you for spending a little bit of your day with me today. I've had a lot of fun. I hope you did too. I'll see you next time.