NASA's Gilded Chariot

Next-gen astronauts get a new, gold-plated ride

By Stuart Fox Posted 10.10.2008 at 4:22 pm 2 Comments

CRUISIN’ (Blow it Up!): Spacesuit engineer Dustin Gohmert takes the 4,400-pound Chariot prototype (the final design will weigh about half that) for a spin at Johnson Space Center. It has a top speed of 12 mph. NASA/JSC

After decades of staying in Earth orbit, NASA hopes to return to the moon. There, astronauts will drive Chariot, the newly designed replacement for the lunar rover that transported astronauts and moon rocks during the Apollo 15 through 17 missions in 1971 and 1972. Mechanical engineers designed Chariot [shown here being tested on a mock lunar surface at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas] to be an all-purpose hauler of people, tools, geological samples and even mobile habitats.

Batteries power the current design, but liquid-oxygen and liquid-hydrogen fuel cells—no batteries to run out of power—could replace them in the future. The wheels will rotate 360 degrees, allowing the platform to travel in any direction. The only extraneous part of the design is the gold color, from ano-dized aluminum, added for retro flair. A more suitable (albeit pricier) metal, such as gold foil, will provide thermal protection when the rover goes into operation.

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2 Comments

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OOTWOguy

10/14/08 at 10:58 am

Very cool prototype in deed. I like the fact that they took the retro flare and incorporated it into the "rover". Now, if they could take all of that and create the "Lunar Golf Rover" so that we can go play golf on the moon, that would be great, like the one seen here at www.ootwo.com/moon.asp . I cannot wait until they go back to the moon. One other "point of interest". The photo of the new prototype with the mock lunar soil and the astronaut look VERY real. Not that I am a "we never really went to the moon" guy, but dang, it looks like he is on the moon doesn't it?

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quasi44

10/25/09 at 11:24 pm

How long till FormLuna X racing on the moon, thats what we want to know. Maglev hydrogen ion drives, yeah, thats the ticket. High velocity figure 8's around the planet and moon every 4th lap. No turns at all. Victory lap skipping around Earth's atmosphere for a show. That'll sell yer beer for ya.