Well my best laid plans for posting the next section of the Small Scale Spaceman series have gone out the window due to pressures from the real world. Meanwhile, back at the Moonbase, I thought i'd flag up a possible inspriation for the Sword Scramble Bug. Not a direct design influence, but the wheel layout is very close to the toy. The machine in question is a Lunar Roving Vehicle Test Article and is being put through its paces at the NASA proving grounds. All different kinds of wheels were tried out due to the fact that pneumatic tyres were impossible to use in zero atmosphere. Weight was also a consideration and this giant roving platform would have probably have been intended for use with the modified LEM 'truck' which inspired the Valigursky Moonbase.
Another interesting image is the Boeing concept vehicle shown below being driven by Von Braun, possibly as a press exercise. The shape is very reminiscent of the Prospector, having a roughly trinagular aspect and large antenna on top. Seeing all these wonderful designs for rovers and Molabs makes me feel a little shortchanged when I look at the eventual vehicle which made it to the moon - a glorified electric go cart with wire mesh wheels!
Well my best laid plans for posting the next section of the Small Scale Spaceman series have gone out the window due to pressures from the real world. Meanwhile, back at the Moonbase, I thought i'd flag up a possible inspriation for the Sword Scramble Bug. Not a direct design influence, but the wheel layout is very close to the toy. The machine in question is a Lunar Roving Vehicle Test Article and is being put through its paces at the NASA proving grounds. All different kinds of wheels were tried out due to the fact that pneumatic tyres were impossible to use in zero atmosphere. Weight was also a consideration and this giant roving platform would have probably have been intended for use with the modified LEM 'truck' which inspired the Valigursky Moonbase.
Another interesting image is the Boeing concept vehicle shown below being driven by Von Braun, possibly as a press exercise. The shape is very reminiscent of the Prospector, having a roughly trinagular aspect and large antenna on top. Seeing all these wonderful designs for rovers and Molabs makes me feel a little shortchanged when I look at the eventual vehicle which made it to the moon - a glorified electric go cart with wire mesh wheels!
This reminds me of something I've been meaning to mention before: in the '60s, there was a series of bubble-gum cards about space, called "Race to the Moon" or something like that, which were a rather mixed lot as regards space-travel concepts; spacesuits were, on one card at least, the "not-Mercury" design, the moonship was a von Braun-esque "assembled in orbit" concept, with a "scout ship" descending to the surface, there was a Matt Mason-type "moon suit" (the can-shape, with the big number "3" on it!), and there was a version of the Scramble Bug, in red, with independantly sprung wheels - anyone else remember these?
ReplyDeleteGrif
sounds like a job for the Toad!
ReplyDeleteToad Shrugs, puzzled.
ReplyDeleteNo, this rings no bells with me. The bubblegum cards i recall all seemed to have been television-series-based (Thunderbirds, Batman, Land of the Giants, etc.).
Hmm, my curiosity is piqued now. Hope someone can say what these were.