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Author
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Topic: [Photo] Apollo astronaut riding lunar minibike
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Dirk
Member Posts: 943
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 12-09-2014 03:59 PM
   
Who has information about this photo? Who is the "astronaut" and why this test? |
randy
Member Posts: 2231
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-09-2014 04:28 PM
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
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-09-2014 04:37 PM
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
Member Posts: 4208
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 12-09-2014 04:43 PM
Looks like Story Musgrave to me. If it isn't Story I suspect it is not an astronaut, rather a test subject. |
David Carey
Member Posts: 802
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 12-09-2014 06:25 PM
Mini-bikes on the moon ... that would have taken care of two childhood fantasies! |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-09-2014 09:13 PM
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
Member Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 12-09-2014 11:35 PM
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
Member Posts: 943
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 12-10-2014 10:13 AM
An additional publication:  |
Apolloman
Member Posts: 152
From: Ledignan, Gard (30), France
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 12-10-2014 04:40 PM
Enjoy: May 1972 American Motorcyclist |
chet
Member Posts: 1506
From: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 12-10-2014 10:49 PM
Guess it was a little before Segways' time. |
J.L
Member Posts: 681
From: Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Registered: May 2005
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posted 12-10-2014 11:01 PM
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
Member Posts: 943
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 12-11-2014 04:02 AM
Does this scooter still exists? |
Paul78zephyr
Member Posts: 678
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 12-11-2014 05:10 PM
Born to be wild... It does seem like it would have been a Pete Conrad idea or one he would have embraced.  |
dabolton
Member Posts: 419
From: Seneca, IL, US
Registered: Jan 2009
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posted 12-13-2014 05:50 PM
I find the Conrad references a little off-putting since he ultimately succumbed to motorcycle crash injuries. |
David C
Member Posts: 1039
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 12-14-2014 12:34 AM
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
Member Posts: 678
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 12-15-2014 01:34 PM
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
Member Posts: 396
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted 12-16-2014 05:07 AM
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
Member Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 12-16-2014 01:40 PM
I think that the bikes were discarded because too much dangerous. Imagines a fall from a bike on the moon... |
Jonnyed
Member Posts: 408
From: Dumfries, VA, USA
Registered: Aug 2014
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posted 12-19-2014 09:43 PM
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
Member Posts: 260
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 05-28-2015 06:23 PM
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