8 July 2008
The Moon: Then and Now
Posted by Ryan Anderson
Boston.com has a fantastic photo-essay showing some of the new hardware that NASA is testing for the return to the moon, plus some classic images from the Apollo missions. You should really check it out, and pass the link on to everyone you know. More people need to know that NASA is serious about returning to the Moon! Here’s a sample picture from the site:
These are the All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorers (ATHLETEs). I was lucky enough to see these in person when I visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory last year, but they didn’t have the big capsules on top at the time. On the left is Lauren Edgar, a friend of mine at Caltech who is involved in the Mars Exploration Rovers too. You can see that the ATHLETE is a big robot, but the engineers we talked to said that these prototypes are only a fraction of the size of the final version.
Is it bad I can picture two large clawed arms attached to that trying to kill everybody. Also, awesome.