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Saturday, June 20, 2020

Triang SpaceX Prospector

The Prospector is essentially an early lunar rover design. With no guns or firing projectiles, it doesn't look very exciting - being essentially a roving satellite dish - but its original concept was to map the lunar surface and take samples much like the various Mars rovers have been doing for years (see the origins here at SpaceX Central). The Prospector desihgn however, has clean lines around the hull or body - no protruding arms for taking samples, no apparent cameras - which leads me to assume all of those were stowed inside the body of the vehicle and deployed as needed via doors that opened along the sides or bottom. The conical hull could be one big solar panel used for recharging the electric motors that propel the vehicle as well as power the satellite and all the other experiments this may house. The toy itself is simply a selectively compressed version of the original concept being essentially a satellite dish on a wheeled chassis. In any case, I can imagine fleet of these being deployed on the lunar surface, mapping, photographing, and carrying out soil collection experiments. The kid in me can also imagine a scenario wherein the Prospector unwittingly comes across an alien base or landing field and reports its findings, let's say, to the Moon Base HQ which has already been established at another location on the Moon. Yeah, you can still have fun with this :-) The Prospector measures 4" (10.16cm) L (small wheel-to-small wheel) x 3" (7.62cm) W (large wheel-to-large wheel) x 2" (5.08cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz












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