测试中的商用月球车
Through NASA’s Artemis campaign, astronauts will land on the lunar surface and use a new generation of spacesuits and rovers as they live, work, and conduct science in the Moon’s South Pole region, exploring more of the lunar surface than ever before. Recently, the agency completed the first round of testing on three commercially owned and developed LTVs (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) from Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA/Bill Stafford
Venturi Astrolab’s FLEX, Intuitive Machines’ Moon RACER, and Lunar Outpost’s Eagle lunar terrain vehicle – three commercially owned and developed LTVs (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) – are pictured at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in this photo from Nov. 21, 2024.
As part of an ongoing year-long feasibility study, each company delivered a static mockup of their vehicle to Johnson at the end of September, initiated rover testing in October and completed the first round of testing in December inside the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) test facility. Lunar surface gravity is one-sixth of what we experience here on Earth, so to mimic this, ARGOS offers an analog environment that can offload pressurized suited subjects for various reduced gravity simulations.
See how these LTVs were tested.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Stafford
通过NASA的阿尔忒弥斯计划，宇航员将登陆月球表面，使用新一代宇航服和月球车，在月球南极区域生活、工作并进行科学研究，探索比以往更多的月球表面。最近，NASA在位于休斯顿的约翰逊航天中心完成了三种由商业公司拥有和开发的月球地形车（Lunar Terrain Vehicle, LTV）的第一轮测试。这三种LTV分别来自直觉机器公司（Intuitive Machines）、月球前哨站公司（Lunar Outpost）和文丘里天体实验室（Venturi Astrolab）。
影像来源: NASA/Bill Stafford
照片显示的是2024年11月21日在NASA休斯顿约翰逊航天中心拍摄的三种LTV模型：文丘里天体实验室（Venturi Astrolab）的FLEX、直觉机器公司（Intuitive Machines）的Moon RACER和月球前哨站公司（Lunar Outpost）的Eagle月球地形车。
作为为期一年的可行性研究的一部分，各家公司于9月底向约翰逊航天中心交付了其月球车的静态模型，在10月开始月球车测试，并于12月在主动响应重力卸载系统（Active Response Gravity Offload System, ARGOS）测试设施内完成了第一轮测试。月球表面的重力仅为地球的六分之一，为了模拟这一环境，ARGOS提供了一个模拟环境，可以卸载加压适合各种降低重力模拟的受试者。
图片来源: NASA/Bill Stafford
