Crazy Lander Concept Would Have Carried Moon Astronauts on the Outside

But the reality is that the design of hardware for space exploration is, like most other things in life, subject to pressing needs and available resources, and that means we could have ended up (and we still can) with some very crazy ideas on our hands.

Take the lunar lander NASA used for the Apollo missions. It consisted of a descent and an ascent stage, with the latter being home to the crew compartment, the place where astronauts would be housed. This compartment was pressurized, allowing it to act as a base of operation when on the surface of the Moon.

But lunar landers (and for that matter all kinds of landers) can be unpressurized as well. In fact, they could lack a crew compartment altogether, simply carrying astronauts to their destination through the cold vacuum of space, while they sit inside their suits.

Such ideas are constantly being born in the minds of rocket scientists, especially those working over at the NASA Langley Research Center. And it's from there that the idea of the so-called unpressurized crew transport system you can see in the video below comes from.

What you're looking at is an animation put together by a specialist called Hazegrayart, and it shows the final few moments of the lander before it touches down on the surface of the Moon.

Transported on location by means of a regular spacecraft, the two-stage lander detaches from the ship and begins its descent. It's shaped like you'd expect from a lander, with an ascent and a descent stage, three engines drawing fuel from liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks, but also a rather strange-looking exterior structure.

The platform is meant to support the astronauts traveling down. They would climb inside their dockable spacesuits and be moved to the surface with nothing else separating them from the vacuum of space.

The astronauts would not be left sitting in their suits for the duration of their mission (estimated at seven days with this design), but would work from inside a surface habitat provided by the lander. When going back up to their spaceship, though, they would have to once again make the trip sitting outside, in their suits.

It's not clear what happened with this lander design, but giving the upcoming flood of crewed Moon missions don't be surprised if we do get to see such a contraption in action as well at some point. Have a look at the video below for a taste of what that means.