It's not yet clear when, if ever, the Artemis 2 crew will take off – the mission that will return humanity to the moon for the first time in decades – but it was very important for NASA to unveil the vehicle that will bring astronauts to the launch pad from which they will take off from Earth toward our giant natural satellite in space. We used ChatGPT to describe the car.
As part of last weekend's Formula 1 race in Austin, Texas, NASA unveiled the vehicle that will bring astronauts to its launch pad on future missions. This is an electric vehicle from the American company Canoo, which was founded in 2017 and since then has repeatedly presented the same minivan intended mainly for vehicle fleets (rentals, taxis, etc.).
The vehicle, which does not even have a model name, is somewhat reminiscent of Volkswagen's old transporter, although it is smaller and more transparent, with glass almost its entire length and width above a certain height. Up front there's a steering wheel that looks like it's out of a Logitech game kit, in front of a chair that's also designed more like a gamer's chair than a driver's seat. From behind, it looks like astronauts will enjoy enormous legroom — though they'll probably have to squeeze in a bit, as just three vehicles are supposed to carry up to eight astronauts for about 14 miles at Kennedy Space Center en route to launch.
Artemis 2 crew members, including Reed Weisman and Jeremy Hansen, will don their spacesuits at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Check-out Building, board the canoes for the short ride to Launch Pad 39B, and there, in the same place from which the Space Shuttle and Apollo rockets were launched, board the rocket that will bring them to the moon.
The @Canoo Crew Transport Vehicle at the 2023 USA Formula 1 GP in Austin. Loved seeing it on display at the NASA stage during F1 race weekend!#Canoo #CTV #NASA #CanooToMoon #AustinF1 #Austin2023 #USGP23 pic.twitter.com/OzBs2YFULr
— Canoo (@canoo) October 23, 2023
It should be noted that Canoe's vehicles will not be the only ones transporting astronauts. SpaceX uses Tesla vehicles for Crew Dragon missions to the International Space Station, and Boeing has plans for a modified Airstream Atlas Touring Coach bus, known as the Astrovan II, for its commercial crew flights (though in its case, it hasn't even finished building its spacecraft yet).
Artemis 2 astronauts are now in their sixth month of training, with a simulated recovery exercise with NASA and the U.S. Navy on the horizon. The crew was originally scheduled to take off around this month, but the plan has already been postponed several times and currently the launch will not happen before 2024 at the earliest.
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