LER Selected To Bring Up The Rear As Parade's Finale
In the months since it was unveiled, the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration's latest moon rover concept has covered a
lot of ground: up simulated Martian hills, down simulated lunar
craters, through real dust storms and across lava flows.
But on January 20, it'll attempt something totally new: the
streets of Washington, DC, crowded with the hundreds of thousands
of people expected to be in town for President-elect Barack Obama's
inaugural parade.
The Lunar Electric Rover was chosen from a record 1,382 parade
applications to not only take part in the parade, but to bring up
the rear as the parade's finale.
"We thought about parades before, but we never thought to aim as
high as the inaugural parade," said Rob Ambrose, the human robotics
systems project lead for NASA's Exploration Technology Development
Program. "We're very honored. We are also very excited to show the
public the new machines that NASA is developing for
exploration."
The team of Johnson Space Center engineers and scientists
behind the concept have said from the beginning that they wanted
the vehicle to be "America's rover" -- they wanted the LER, as it's
called for short, to be a symbol of the work that NASA's doing as
the agency prepares to return to the moon.
Everyone seems to agree that the LER is eye catching. It has
twelve wheels on six steering columns, each of which can raise or
lower to go over obstacles or give the crew inside a closer look at
interesting features on the lunar surface. And each wheel can turn
a full 360 degrees, allowing the rover to go forward, backward,
sideways, in a circle or anything in between.
But that's just the beginning. The cockpit holds everything two
people would need to head off on a 14-day expedition, miles away
from a moon base: driver's seats that fold into beds, water for
drinking and rehydrating food, a toilet and plenty of curtains to
provide privacy.
Plus, attached to a suitport on the back -- where the crew can
get in and out without bringing the lunar dust back in with them --
are two spacesuits, ready for a moonwalk at almost a moment's
notice. That innovation alone could cut the preparation time for
spacewalks from hours to minutes.
Other innovations could help a little closer to home. The
development of the rover led to new technologies in batteries, fuel
cells, advanced regenerative brakes and tires. These are all the
same technologies that are required for electric vehicles here on
Earth -- the cars, tractors and heavy equipment that the United
States needs to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.
For instance, the LER is a plug-in electric vehicle with a
cutting-edge Lithium-ion battery. With the batteries NASA is
developing, an Earth-based electric sedan could travel 500 miles
before needing to be recharged.
But for now, the rover just needs to make it the almost two
miles that the parade route winds through downtown Washington,
DC.
"This is an exclamation point on the hard work and vision of our
team," said astronaut Mike Gernhardt, who will drive the rover
during the parade and is the LER project manager. "The LER is the
culmination of a lot of great work by a very talented team, and it
will demonstrate our vision of the new lunar program to our new
president."
And, perhaps, help persuade Obama to support NASA's far-flung
lunar program...