Modular Equipment Transporter

Alan Shepard stands next to the Modular Equipment Transporter.

Line drawing of the Modular Equipment Transporter.

The Modular Equipment Transporter (MET) was a wheeled cart used for transporting equipment and rock samples on the surface of the moon. The MET also functioned as a portable workbench. The MET was used only during Apollo 14.

Astronauts named the MET "the rickshaw". It was pulled by hand using a handle in the front. The performance of the MET was described as "adequate".^[1] In fact, astronauts Alan Shepard and Joe Engle were disappointed by the MET's performance. During one of the traverses they had to carry the MET together because it was too difficult to pull the MET through the rough lunar terrain.

The MET weighed 18 pounds (8.2 kilograms) and could carry 360 pounds (163-kilograms). It had two rubber tires.^[2]

References

1. ^ Lunar surface experimants, Houston, Texas: NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, April, 1971, http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/a14mr03.htm 
2. ^ Compton, William David (1989), Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions, Houston, Texas: NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4214/ch12-3.html