NASA has revealed its new Moon buggy, which will eventually cart humans across the surface of the Moon.
It has been reported that this space-bound car can crawl across rocks, drive in all directions, and comes complete with a toilet.
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The lunar rover from Nasa is currently crawling around Flagstaff, Arizona.
A desert city, Flagstaff’s 50,000-year-old lava flow, makes it the perfect training grow for its future destination.
This area is the most like the Moon of any place in the world, NBC News 12 reported.
Its design is the dream of every monster-truck-loving kid: it spins, climbs over rocks as high as a foot tall with ease, and drives forwards, backward, and sideways.
Omar Bekdash, a NASA engineer working on the project, said: “All the wheels are independently controlled and they also have active suspension, so they can raise and lower when needed,” according to News 12.
Though impressive, this is still just a test model.
Through the design testing, the engineers have been able to see what roving through space will realistically require.
The team aims to get as realistic of a test model as they can, using windows and cameras to navigate Flagstaff’s extraterrestrial terrain.
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They even stayed overnight in the vehicle.
“People spent two nights in the rover and three days traversing all over the lava flow doing actual geologic science conversing with Mission Control in Houston and really simulating a real lunar mission,” NASA engineer Bekdash said.
Even the capabilities of 4G technology are being examined for how they would work out on the Moon.
Michael Zemba, a NASA communications engineer, said: What’s the point of going if you’re not going to send cool pictures back and cool data and science info?”
