Abstract According to historian Mitchell Sharpe, the notion of a wheeled, electric-powered lunar exploration vehicle made its first literary appearance at the virtual dawn of the Automotive Age. In 1901, almost as soon as it became plausible to think about driving on the Moon, a Polish writer by the name of Jerzy Zulawski described an early ancestor of the Lunar Rover. Like all those who would follow in his footsteps, Zulawski realized that combustion engines wouldn’t be practical on the airless Moon and, instead, chose to power his vehicle with an electric motor. And like most later concepts of lunar rovers, Zulawski’s was a big vehicle with an enclosed cabin. His, he said, could carry a crew of five and a year’s worth of supplies.
The Lunar Dune Buggy
2007-01-01
56 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch