Worms on the Moon

In the mid-1960s, before anything had soft-landed on the Moon but well into Apollo’s development towards the lunar landing, NASA engineers started figuring out what a roving vehicle for extended surface exploration might look like. As engineers are wont to do, a team looked to nature for inspiration and found an unlikely muse in the mighty worm and centipede.

Aeronutronic

Learning the Moon

In the early days of the space age, no one knew what the lunar environment was like, and that was a problem when it came to planning for astronauts to land on and explore the surface. Planners only knew the basics — that the Moon’s environment includes reduced gravity, a vacuum, extreme temperatures, and hazards like radiation and meteorites. But the surface itself was a mystery. No one knew whether the regolith was a thin layer or so thick it would be impossible to land without being buried in the dust. Or whether the surface would be strong enough to wear the weight of a rover like a traditional, Earth-like car, or even the lunar lander. The texture of regolith was another potential problem; it might be too hard to walk on. Some even wondered if the surface would be so uneven that no lunar rover would be able to traverse the surface.

This last point became important when planning for extended surface operations. If a crew were able to land on the Moon, NASA would eventually…