Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

I wonder if this might be a contingency that Lunar explorers may adopt?

I understand that those astronuats
on the final three lunar Apollo missions weren't allowed by the mission planners
to drive their lunar-vehicles more than
15 miles[24km] from their LEM, give or take a mile or two.
The reason being? If the astronauts
"lunar-buggy" broke down, 15 miles from the LEM, halfway through their EVA,
they would still have about 3-4 hours
of oxygen in their tanks to make a
quick-trot on their own two feet back to the LEM and reach it before their air-supply was gone.

That's gonna create problems for
future manned lunar-exploration planners; you don't want to be limited
to a distance of 15 miles[24km] from your LEM or "basecamp". You want a range
of 150 miles or more. Lots more, not fifteen!

How's this for a possible solution?...
Just as campers here on Earth strap down bicycles onto their Airstream trailers when they go on vacation to a spot maybe "miles from nowhere", maybe a future manned lunar-surface-transport [undoubtedly with a pressurized cabin] could carry strapped-on, lightweight folding/collapsible, "adult-sized" TRICYCLES.

(1) Each such lunar tricycle could be designed to carry an "emergency" 24-hour
duration" oxygen-pack.
(2) Each tricycle would also carry a lightweight lunar-earth comlink and bottles of beverage that can be screwed [airtight] into an astronaut's helmet in the lunar vacuum.
(3) And finally, each tricycle would have chain-transmission and gearing allowing it to be pedaled upto average-speeds of maybe a leisurely 8.O mph on relatively flat lunar surfaces [lunar seas].

So, if the pressurized lunar-surface-transport [lunar truck?] were to breakdown or suffer severe damage, with no hope of repair at it's location, maybe 250 miles [400km] from the "basecamp", the two astronauts
onboard could get into their suits with
the standard "eight-hour"[give or take a few minutes] supply of oxygen strapped to their backs.
They could deploy their tricycles, fit their "24 hour" emergency oxygen supply packs into the back of their 3-wheeled transports, and pedal
their way back to "basecamp".
They could either follow the tracks left by their LST back, or by following as nearly a straight line as possible on the moon, back to camp, aided by a gyrocompass.

Their "eight-hour" air supply, supplemented by the 24-hour auxilliary air supply, means they have 32 hours
to make it back to "basecamp", 250 miles
away. That works out to roughly an average of 8.0 mph.
They'll suffer sleep depravation, hunger, and foul-smelling suits [forced to defecate and urinate in them] , but they should survive.

Jacob

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