1965 - Hypothesized the topography of the moon surface for an unmanned Rover

* Buwalda Riggle was working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they were designing an unmanned moon rover that would carry out survey work ahead of the first moon landing. * The project was led by scientist Phyllis Buwalda, who had been homeschooled on a ranch in Colorado and had a tough, practical intellect. * Her team came to her with a problem. We’ve got absolutely no idea what the surface of the moon is like, they said. Is it going to be sandy? Will there be sharp stones? Will it be hilly? We can’t design a vehicle until we know what it’s like. * Phyllis had a brilliant answer. She said: It’s like the desert in the Southwest. Off you go. People asked her afterwards – how did you know? * She said: I didn’t. But if I didn’t take away the uncertainty, my team couldn’t do anything, and there wouldn’t be a moon rover. * So I just picked out something that I thought was the best bet. And I ruled out things which my team simply couldn’t build for anyway.

None

Category:
Engineering Design

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
N/A

Co-Inventor:
None