Gadgetory

we may have seen the last of the modern manned space flight missions but that doesn't mean we're giving up on sending astronauts to space NASA is hard at work right now on missions to the moon by 2020 asteroids by 2025 and Mars by 2030 this is NASA's Space Exploration vehicle weighing 6,600 pounds it's a futuristic concept designed by engineers to explore the surface of the Moon and Mars let's take a look the goal of this vehicle is to be able to explore the surface of Mars the moon or any other plants and make observations through the front of it right so you can be scouting out different parts of the brain and looking for you know either geological things or signs of life or whatever the science happens to be and you pull up to something you say that's interesting I want to get out and explore it further which is easy to do when you consider all the tech built into this vehicle first its all-electric with a lithium ion battery the power zinc and it's controlled with this steering stick there's also a dozen cameras attached to the exterior and the 12 wheels can each pivot 360 degrees so can drive up and down most slopes so can we take it for a ride absolutely all right let's do it I'll give you a ride and I'll turn it over to you and you can drive I can drive you can write I could drive I'm so excited next stop oh my god oh my god that's amazing what we call the crab mode so we're actually blending a wide command with a little bit of yaw and it allows you to go around and keep your optimal window of you for what you're trying to look at all right moving to Mars we're going up we're just rotating like it's nothing it's so fast NASA has also designed the vehicle so astronauts can venture outside there's a space suit port integrated into the back hatch that makes it possible to step into the suit right from the cabin and go for a spacewalk but if astronauts just want to explore from inside there's also a specially designed window for better viewing this bubble who has made for astronauts to be able to actually stick their face in and observe rocks up close while staying inside the SAV he can actually pitch it down so that we can look right up close next to the rock how cool is that pilot select okay you have gotten vehicle all right here we go oh my god I'm going into the crater oh my god it's amazing it's the coolest video game you've ever played in your life all right I'm gonna try to crab okay now start twisting this stick there we go you've actually gonna point it thank you I played my fair share of sticky this is insanely steep faith in the vehicle incredible I'm driving the space vehicle I'm driving a space vehicle on the simulated lunar surface right now ten year old me eat your heart out nASA has also developed this prototype for deep space exploration it's for missions that can one day explore near-earth asteroids this vehicle lets astronauts check out the surface of those asteroids surveying and collecting geological samples to study later so where is all of this headed are we going to be mining asteroids the more we know about asteroids the better position we'll be in to deflect them because someday maybe a hundred years from now or 100 million years from now a big asteroid is gonna hit the earth so we want to find out how to make that not happen exactly and as some people have said if the dinosaurs had a space program they wouldn't be extinct alright so I got to drive the wheeled one right give this one a spin yeah let's go inside alright I'm gonna follow my commander and go towards where the laser pointer is pointed on the asteroid it's just like the video game asteroids there's momentum I mean I have a lot of experiences but all joking aside this is no video game and NASA is serious about using vehicles like these for future space missions whether it's to the moon Mars and yes even near-earth asteroids you