Stalking Venus

The Crew Mobility Chassis Prototype is NASA’s new concept for a lunar truck. Researchers are trying it out at Moses Lake, Wash., this week as part of a series of tests of lunar surface concepts.

One feature is its high mobility. Each set of wheels can pivot individually in any direction, giving the vehicle the ability to drive sideways, forward, backward and any direction in between — important if the truck becomes mired in lunar dust, needs to zigzag down a steep crater wall or parallel park at its docking station.

NASA currently is building the spacecraft and systems to return to the moon by 2020.

(The weird thing is it looks exactly like the vehicle from the game Moon Patrol back in the ’80s?)

Image Credit: NASA/Sean Smith