kwarks
Although they are technical marvels why don't they just use rails? I don't mean your standard 2 pair rails but maybe 10 spread out or whatever is required to carry the load. I'm not a big fan of threaded vehicles because of their high price and maintenance costs.
thk
I was hoping the replacement engines would be green electric or fuel cell engines. Space travel has always served as the springboard for cutting edge technology.
Adrien
that thing is a LONG way short of being the heaviest self-propelled vehicle.
the Krupp earth mover is 45,000 Tons (so 20 times as heavy).
kuzao
"World’s largest self-powered land vehicle" ? at measly 2500 tons ;) ? Bucket-wheel excavator reach around 14000 tons, or to be precise in the case of the Bagger 293, 14200 tons.
Wes Black
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_293
Doug Doyle
thk, The power necessary to move the weight of a fully loaded cargo freighter can not be met at this time with a fuel cell or a straight battery powered motor. If you had really read the article you would have found that they use electric motors to move the tracks. Anything other than a diesel generator will have to produce kilowatts of power. Short of putting a nuclear reactor in the crawlers we have nothing today that will supply that amount of power.
Chris Maresca
@thk
They are electric. The crawler is a series hybrid, like a Chevy Volt. The engines are just generators....
Rt1583
@thk - Space travel hasn't been the springboard for cutting edge technology for about 30 years.
Why else do you think that the latest, greatest phone is simply a redesigned case with more off the shelf components crammed into it and more software written to take advantage of existing technology?
The unfortunate truth is that people (in general) no longer care about the space program nor look to it for any kind of inspiration.
Allen Clarke
This needs a HHO kit to get better fuel usage
Edgar Castelo
"-You didn't built that!" Roads and bridges built that thing, not NASA...