T O P I C R E V I E W |
Dirk | Who has information about this photo? Who is the "astronaut" and why this test? |
randy | After close up examination, from what I can see of the face, it looks like the astronaut might be Pete Conrad. As for the bike, I have no idea. |
Robert Pearlman | From How NASA Didn't Drive on the Moon: It turns out that NASA did briefly consider sending its astronauts to the Moon with bicycles, electric mini-bikes to be exact. Information on these one-man vehicles is scarce, but a prototype was under development in 1969 for use on Apollo 15. It was a backup method in case the Lunar Roving Vehicle, the LRV colloquially known as the Moon Buggy, wasn’t ready in time for the mission’s launch. There was some talk about the mini bikes incorporated into later Apollo missions as well. But the LRV was ready and made its lunar debut carrying Dave Scott and Jim Irwin around the Hadley-Apennine region in 1971 and the last Apollo missions were cancelled. The closest the mini-bike ever got to space was prototype tests in a 1/6th gravity environment in 1969 in NASA’s Vomit Comet. |
Rick Mulheirn | Looks like Story Musgrave to me. If it isn't Story I suspect it is not an astronaut, rather a test subject. |
David Carey | Mini-bikes on the moon ... that would have taken care of two childhood fantasies! |
LM-12 | The Apollo Image Gallery has the same photo. It is dated August 1969 with this caption: John B. Slight of the MSC Flight Support Division rides an original prototype of a lunar cycle under 1/6 gravity conditions aboard a KC-135 aircraft |
sts205cdr | Is it true that Dr. von Thiesenhausen was one of the designers of this Lunar dirt bike? I recall our group asking him about this one year at Space Camp. |
Dirk | An additional publication: |
Apolloman | Enjoy: May 1972 American Motorcyclist |
chet | Guess it was a little before Segways' time. |
J.L | quote: Originally posted by Rick Mulheirn: Looks like Story Musgrave to me. If it isn't Story I suspect it is not an astronaut, rather a test subject.
I showed it to Story. He agrees that it looks a bit like him, bit he says it is not. Must indeed be Jack Slight. |
Dirk | Does this scooter still exists? |
Paul78zephyr | Born to be wild... It does seem like it would have been a Pete Conrad idea or one he would have embraced. |
dabolton | I find the Conrad references a little off-putting since he ultimately succumbed to motorcycle crash injuries. |
David C | I liked seeing a good memory of Conrad with bikes to offset the obvious bad one. If a guy dies in an airplane crash do we stop talking about aircraft? Part of life. |
Paul78zephyr | quote: Originally posted by dabolton: I find the Conrad references a little off-putting since he ultimately succumbed to motorcycle crash injuries.
Im sorry you feel this way - it was not meant to offend. Have you read 'Rocketman'? Pete Conrad owned/loved motorcycles from his earliest days as a boy. |
schnappsicle | I can't imagine anyone surviving a trip across the lunar landscape on a 2-wheeler. The LRVs had problems keeping one tire in contact with the surface. Something as light as that mini-motorcycle would never stay on the ground unless it was traveling at a walking pace. In that case, what's the point? |
carmelo | I think that the bikes were discarded because too much dangerous. Imagines a fall from a bike on the moon... |
Jonnyed | The topic gave me the image of Evel Knievel as an astronaut trying to jump huge craters! I'm probably letting my imagination get away from me. |
Captain Apollo | |