Solar-Powered Moon Rover To Explore Apollo Landing 151
Mike writes "Carnegie Mellon roboticist Dr. William Whittaker has teamed up with Astrobiotic Technology to develop a solar powered moon rover that will explore the Apollo landing site in 2011. The photovoltaic clad robot features two electric motors in the hub of each wheel, and a half cone of solar generators up top that will power the wheels, run computers, and beam stereo HD video back to earth. The project has been entered in the $25 million Google Lunar X Prize competition."
Re:Here's hoping they'll observe from a distance (Score:5, Informative)
You are aware that most (if not all) of the footprints were obliterated by the rocket that took the astronauts off the moon, right?
Uh, no they weren't. In fact, you can see the tracks of the astronauts in the latest images of the Apollo 11 landing site [discovermagazine.com] returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Aldrin's famous first footprint exists only as a photograph.
That's not at all obvious. When the rockets of the ascent stage were fired, thus beginning the return to rendezvous with Columbia, the surface of the moon may have been shielded by the components of the LM that were left behind.
Re:Here's hoping they'll observe from a distance (Score:4, Informative)
In fact, you can see the tracks of the astronauts in the latest images of the Apollo 11 landing site [discovermagazine.com] returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Um, maybe it's just me but I don't see any footprints in the LRO image of the Apollo 11 landing site. Perhaps you're referring to the footprints in the Apollo 14 image? Those footprints go quite a long ways away from the LM and due to the pixelation of the image it's hard to tell just how well-preserved they might be that close to the descent stage.
Re:No (Score:3, Informative)
According to http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_11_30th.html [nasa.gov] the Apollo 11 flag was knocked over.