Extreme conditions require Extreme!™ simulations

You’d never guess what this contraption was if you didn’t know already, or the title of the post didn’t give you an inkling. It’s not the newest wackyboard. Take your best shot and get the answer after the jump.

[Source: AL.com] – Thanks to Eric Cherry (again) for the tip.

NASA is developing small, relatively cheap robotic landers for use on moons and asteroids. As part of one part of the testing process they needed a track that restricted movement of of the prototype to a two dimensions. Scientists took a garage/ DIY approach and rigged up a money saving system using slightly modified off the shelf skateboards.

At first I was cracking up over all the hair nets in the testing facility, until I realized it was probably to protect their scalps from the melamine leaching out of the cheap Chinese skateboards they probably used when something else might have been more appropriate. You can tell they are dimestore boards because they are the kind with the shrinkwrap applied before the trucks are mounted.