Believe it or not, the last time we set foot on the Moon was almost half a century ago. The NASA Space Program might not be what it once was, but with an increased focus on travel to the Red Planet, there’s also renewed interest in using the Moon as a pit-stop of sorts along the way. If all the technological and training advances go according to plan, setting foot on the Moon won’t be entirely necessary in the grand scheme of the voyage, but that hasn’t stopped a few enterprising designers and engineers from dreaming up some ways the far-from-home astronauts could enjoy their “lunar shore leave.” Andrew Fabishevskiy drew up plans for a NASA motorcycle built around the idea of a simple electric bike.
How did the stars align for this otherworldly project to begin?
On November 1, 2020, Russian designer Andrew Fabishevskiy published renderings of his NASA lunar motorcycle. Andrew’s renderings weren’t detailed and true to scale, so the design process began using Autodesk Fusion 360, and we engineered the whole Tardigrade from scratch.”
Hookie reworked, rethought, and developed every part on the bike from the ground up. It was the German company’s first project where they designed everything in-house. Overall, it took Hookie nine months from a sketch to the finished bike.
Müller and his team partnered with the Swedish electric brand CAKE on a previous project based on the Ösa+ and Ösa Lite, called the Hookie ANT. They decided to keep the partnership flowing by incorporating CAKE’s drivetrain, wiring loop, battery, and two hubs for the Tardigrade’s wheels.
Hookie ran several tests until they landed on a functional solution, but intend to dedicate more time toward fine-tuning the setup for optimal lunar travel conditions.
Despite the fully functional setup, Hookie has yet to put the Tardigrade through rigorous human testing yet.
Tardigrade will soon be on display as part of the ADV:Overland exhibit, curated by Paul d’Orléans, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA.
