NASA will launch lunar vehicle to Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE -- Central Washington might not seem like a lunar landscape to some people, but NASA sees enough similarities with the moon that it plans to test a prototype of a lunar vehicle there this summer.

NASA is preparing to send astronauts to the moon by 2020 to build a lunar outpost. As part of that preparation, it's testing a prototype of a 1 ton lunar truck called the Chariot.

NASA expects to begin testing the vehicle near the Grant County ORV Park on June 2 or 3 and finish about two weeks later, said Lucien Junkin, a robotics engineer and the design lead with the Johnson Space Center.

A dry run of the Chariot is being conducted this week at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, an area that isn't considered as harsh an environment as Moses Lake, Junkin said.

NASA scouted several sites around the country before deciding on Moses Lake.

The city was finally selected as a testing site because of the room it offered and because the sandy surface in Grant County is somewhat like the lunar surface, Junkin said.

"We just want to stress that hey, this is America's vehicle," he said. "We thank everyone in Moses Lake. They need to come out and see what we're doing and ask questions."

A NASA crew will be testing vehicle operations while in Moses Lake, and at times spacesuited crew members will be walking around conducting mock science experiments.

They also will run tests on leveling ground with the Chariot, which will have a bulldozer blade attached to it.