# @nasaartemis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BKiZyRNhQG9
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/15346501-nasaartemis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/2a844838af.jpg
- **Posted:** 2016-09-19T12:29:41.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA Artemis (@nasaartemis) — https://gondola.cc/nasaartemis

## Caption

Any fitness expert will say it is important to take care of your body’s core. Any engineer will say the same about rockets.

Before NASA’s Space Launch System – the most powerful rocket in the world – can exercise its core “muscles” and climb off the launch pad, its core stage and test articles have to be moved to various NASA centers for testing, assembly with other components and eventually launch. That's where the agency’s newest transporters enter the picture.

These are no ordinary trucks. An #American company designed and built the highly specialized, mobile platforms specifically to transport the 212-foot SLS core stage, the largest part of the 322-foot SLS rocket. Each transporter is over 33 feet long and 12 feet wide and can carry 75 tons each, the equivalent to 14 fully-grown elephants. On each transporter, the 12 independent, electric wheel modules are powered by a propane-driven #Chevy 350 cubic inch small block engine. The transporters can position the cargo to within 5 one-thousandths of an inch – that’s less than the size of a grain of sand. In addition to being strong and very agile, each transporter is safe; they contain systems to monitor and control the forces imparted into the delicate hardware and a fire suppression system in the event of emergencies.

Pictured above: at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, engineers took the four self-propelled modular transporters out for a test drive. The transporters are controlled by an operator using a joy stick controller. 
Credits: NASA/MSFC Michoud Image: Steven Seipel #michoud #sls #nasa #rocket #cooltechnology #transporters

## Stats

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- **Likes:** 6,349
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## Tags

american, nasa, cooltechnology, chevy, rocket, transporters, michoud, sls

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