Increased  mobility in rural Africa is possible - press release Karlsruhe/Cape Canaveral

Originally built to be used on the moon, mars and further planets Afriwheels/Germany in a joint venture with the NASA enters the African market with a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) intended to be carried by Apollo 16, 17, 18 and 19.

The LRV has woven-wire wheels driven independently by separate electric motors, and can cross 28in . crevasses and climb slopes of up to 25° with a full load. The robot arms originally meant to collect stones are ideal to pick maize from the fields.

An Afrwiheels speaker at Karlsruhe: "Indeed it wasn't that easy to convince the NASA to send their vehicles to that continent - emotionally they are much more connected to other planets but from the economical point of view in the long run it's 99.88 % cheaper to transport them in space shuttles to Africa instead of mars."

In rural Africa the lunar vehicles are warmly welcomed. African peasants feel so tired of moving around on old-fashioned black roadster bicycles and  the astronaut costumes and helmets seem very trendy even to young urban modern Africans who spend several hours a day in developing ideas how to escape from the poor traditional African life.

The Afriwheels spokesperson: "This time America will be not left alone to carry the high costs of the Afriwheels/NASA African Mobility Program. We convinced the "Medecins sans Frontieres" from France to guarantee free treatment to all accident victims and the German organisation "Muesli for the World" to send appropriate astronauts food to be distributed to the vehicles drivers.

read more about mobilty projects in Africa