I mentioned on an earlier post that I have a moon vehicle. Yes, I really do. You may recall the post here:
Well, since that post I now have driven past the moon as I have posted 252,222 miles on this beast. Who knew a Hyundai could go that far?
But, a funny thing happened today in outer space. I was operating my moon vehicle in my lane when suddenly, THUMP! And I mean a loud one. It really got my attention.
But I did’t know what caused it. I was temporarily distracted (cell phones can cause such havoc), that I didn’t see what occurred. I quickly looked out the rear view and saw a tire going merrily on its way alone, rolling along.
I was in a lot of traffic too! The vehicles behind me parted like the Red Sea as if Moses himself was coming through. I was stunned.
My initial reaction was that I had entered an asteroid belt on my way to the moon (technically just past the moon). But I was unaware they existed so close to earth.
Did I run over that thing in my distraction causing it to upright and drive itself through traffic? I really didn’t have a clue. But my moon vehicle was operating fine so I just continued on.
Fifteen minutes later I arrived at my destination. I exit the moon vehicle in my space suit inspecting any potential damage. Surely the asteroid had caused considerable damage. Any breach to the vessel could lead to loss of pressure and certain death.
But…nothing. Not a scratch. How can that be? But then I had a thought. Could that asteroid have come from my vessel? I obviously had my four tires to maneuver through space, but what of the fifth one?
I inspected beneath the moon vehicle and there it wasn’t. No spare. The cable that tethered the spare to the moon vehicle had snapped. The tire had broken free from the moon vehicle and had drifted off into space wreaking havoc on all things in its path. Unbelievable!
It’s amazing this 13 year old moon vehicle has never had any major mechanical failures that prohibits its free movement through space and time. It still has the original transmission even though I’ve never changed the transmission fluid. No slippage either. I change the motor oil every 15,000 miles only, and it still has the original spark plugs. Nothing stops this beast.
But now other type failures are showing up. All the batteries that you don’t know exist are dead. The dashboard is a Christmas tree because all the batteries that supply power to indicators are long gone. But the vehicle is not worth the 100’s of dollars to replace them.
I’m not sure I will make it to Mars in this vehicle. I‘m really not confident I can even return from the moon. But it’s been a great ride!
Comments