Neat new lunar rover concept

This is not Gene Cernan's moon buggy.

NASA wants the next astronauts visiting the moon to be driving a pressurized rover they could ride around like they were in a motor home, climbing into attached spacesuits they could use to go outside whenever they saw something cool they wanted to explore.

"It's not much bigger than the Apollo rover. I call it a cross between a sports car and a spacesuit," said NASA astronaut Mike Gernhardt, who is working with engineers to develop more capable moon buggies.

The ice-shielded rover will protect the astronauts inside from solar storm radiation. The crew could spend most of their time in the comfort of shirtsleeves over trips lasting hours to more than a week. If they need to go out, then can hop through a porthole right into the already ready-to-go spacesuits.

"It would only take 10 minutes to get in the suit and be boots on the surface," Gernhardt said.

Why is that so important? Astronauts in spacesuits take a physical beating: blisters, bruises, cuts and soreness. That's for just a few hours in a suit. On the moon, NASA is looking at 2,000 spacewalks over a decade long period. The entire Apollo program featured 20 spacewalks.

The idea of an RV-like approach to trolling the moon, and getting away from a lunar base is driven by science needs. NASA does not want to set up base at one lunar pole and be stuck near that site if they later learn there is more valuable work to be done elsewhere.

The new rover concept is part of the second phase of lunar architecture development. NASA officials unveiled that updated framework at the Space 2007 conference in Long Beach, Calif., on Thursday, to get feedback.

The architecture is a sort of broad outline of the equipment and techniques to be used when astronauts return to the moon, which President Bush has challenged the agency to do by around 2020.

The goal is a lunar base with permanent astronaut residents. That means equipment to live and work at the moon just like they do on the International Space Station today, but with new twists.

That means new spacesuits, habitat modules and maybe even lunar landers that could serve as a habitat module or rover or both. As concepts evolve, NASA's latest architecture is leaning toward the use of 2-3 modules that could be mobile upon arrival. Combined with a pair of the new souped up rovers, astronauts would be equipped with a base that is easy to put together and easy to be relocated if necessary to meet science goals.

"We looked at innovation to get the early return, how to get the most from the astronauts that we get to the surface," NASA associate administrator Doug Cooke said in Thursday's presentation.

Other concepts studied called for many small modules that would be assembled on the surface separate from the landers, forcing the crew to spend almost half of their time upon arrival on setting up the base rather than on the objectives of the mission: scientific study.

A set of medium sized modules that require less construction would give crews more time to explore. The rovers being studied now would make the exploration time even more productive. For instance the suit port idea presented by Gernhardt could save more than 2,000 hours spacewalk preparation time compared to the technology used at ISS today.