Bucket Wheel for Excavator (BWE)          Real-time 3D Dynamic Simulations
NASA’s return to the Moon by 2020 calls for sustainable human presence, suggesting that crew will make use of local resources for mission consumables. Generally referred to as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), lunar regolith may be mined for small scale production of hydrogen, oxygen, water and volatiles. The Colorado School of Mines constructed and tested a prototype Bucket Wheel Excavator (BWE) in 2003. This vehicle is an early prototype of a common mining vehicle adapted for lunar size and power. Under SBIR program support, DigitalSpace created a virtual model of this vehicle, placing it in a simplified simulated regolith environment to prove that a physics-based, force feedback joystick driven virtual vehicle simulation could be delivered to consumer personal computers via the internet.

Movies of the Simulation

Click on the links below to view movies of the BWE:

Click here for the Movie of the BWE Simulation (or QuickTime version) Download WMV - Download MOV

Files for the Simulation

Click here to download the whole package including everything below:

Click here to view the Readme file.

Click here to download BWE Space.

Click here to download DSS for this sim.

Click here to download pdf version of the guide for this sim.

Click here for a quick guide to installing and operating the simulation.

Click here to view the Album of still images of the Simulation

Still Images of BWE

Click here to download the zip of full size photos.