Next Moon explorers may drive mini RVs

NASA's next generation of Moon explorers may live in mobile habitats that can be driven around for a week or more at a time like mini-RVs. The rovers would be about the same size as the dune buggies driven during the last three Apollo moon landings in the early '70s. But the new vehicles would be enclosed and pressurized so that astronauts would be better protected from radiation, extreme temperatures and other hazards.

The astronauts would also be able to dress normally inside in regular clothes, not bulky spacesuits like the Apollo astronauts had to wear when driving their rovers. For off-vehicle excursions, the new vehicles would have spacesuits fully assembled and attached to the rover so that astronauts could slip into them by opening a hatch and climbing inside. The target date for missions that might use such vehicles would by before 2020. Illustration courtesy NASA.