Comments on: NASA lunar rover experiences big budget overruns

By: Edward

Edward — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:22:55 +0000

Jeff Wright wrote: “Tesla wasn’t built to work in a vacuum. It is electric yes—but lubricants suffer in vacuums”

There are vacuum approved lubricants available. Some real problems include: a Tesla chasis is heavier than necessary, air cooling is not available, and the tires are not appropriate for lunar travel. None of these are insurmountable problems. We have seen many landers not get bogged down with grit, and even Teslas are not so affected by grit on Earth.

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 06:22:56 +0000

What did NASA do for its rover?
What about the Chinese now?

Can’t modern engineers drop back and use old tech or at most just improve cheaply and easily what already works?

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 09:58:57 +0000

Tesla wasn’t built to work in a vacuum. It is electric yes—but lubricants suffer in vacuums. Get a Tesla as it, and after awhile the grit will seize it up most likely—if you don’t tear it down every so often. A simpler solution might be zip lines on towers. Looser tolerances.

By: MDN

MDN — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 07:21:24 +0000

What a joke.

SpaceX would just strip down a Tesla ModelX and dedicate a full Falcon Heavy or Starship mission to ship a half dozen up. And I bet they’d still come in under the original budget. The spares would cover the reliability concerns, and if those weren’t as bad as feared then they’d have 2X or 3X or 6X as many rovers to use.

Sadly the modern NASA is managed by morons.
: (

By: wayne

wayne — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 05:54:52 +0000

a repeat from me…

Spacecraft with Wheels: The Lunar Roving Vehicle
NASA film (1971-ish)
https://youtu.be/26oQ3m5EHrg

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 05:28:25 +0000

Lubrication issues in a vacuum may drive the expense up. Now here is where a seemingly un-related bit of tech can play a role. Some of you may have seen the video of the Starship derived Single Launch Space Station SLSS. Now this uses a rump Starship upper stage that-in the video-are linked with others of its kind. I’d prefer it use hypergols for what comes next. You see, I want to spread them out as a giant skycrane/Eagle deal. Why you may ask? Because a lot of heavy earth-moving equipment is already electrical! I want their worksites to have a contained atmosphere FIRST so these earthmovers can be moved as is-in a shirtsleeve nitrogen only environment for fire prevention. The astronauts only need oxygen masks and cooling suits. Perfect for lava tube worksites. Don’t drive front end loaders too fast-the weight is less but the mass is still there and could go flying. Lead batteries/reactors over drill-bits so you you have purchase and can bear down. Mass driver coils have to be in trenches and have three points of anchoredge. Put them on stalks and the torque will break the coils loose.

By: JhonB

JhonB — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 23:23:39 +0000

NASA, Budget overruns.. No, I just don’t believe it. That is just not like them.

By: Captain Emeritus

Captain Emeritus — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 21:39:18 +0000

Sounds like a job for the Tesla Cyber Truck.
Modified for airless operations on the moon, for roughly 1/12 of the fermenting NASA budget.