Oscar Mayer gives NASA a Wienermobile to transport astronauts to the moon

Someday, in the hopefully not too distant future, the next NASA astronauts to the moon will be heading to the launch pad to board their Orion spacecraft on top of a massive SLS rocket. Oscar Mayer, the food company known for hot dogs, would like to offer a bold and dignified vehicle to take them there. A Wienermobile.

NASA is actually looking for a new form of ground transportation for astronauts. He appealed last week to commercial vendors to sound out about possible replacements for the brilliant Astrovan that once moved shuttle astronauts all nine miles from their crew quarters to the launch pad.

NASA is preparing for its crewed Artemis missions, with the intention of bringing humans back to the moon. “Proposals must be unique, embrace new technology and visually embody Artemis for the public,” NASA said.

I’m not sure a Wienermobile quite embodies the spirit of Moon exploration of Artemis, full of courage and space adventure. He embodies a hot dog, full of beef.

NASA Vehicle Request caught the attention of Oscar Mayer, who tweeted “Hey, NASA, we’ve got you” Friday with a picture of a Wienermobile.

The Wienermobile is likely to face some competition. In recent years, Airstream has equipped a tourist coach for use with Boeing delayed Starliner missions and SpaceX Dragon astronauts have been fortunate to enjoy an elevator in a Tesla Model X.

This isn’t Oscar Mayer’s first attempt to step into the space game. He jumped on the Blue Origin “dong rocket” even running when Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos flew to suborbital space in July through tweeting a picture of the Wienermobile flying off that rock.

Even though I know that an astro-hot-dog-mobile would be so wrong, I still want it to happen. A Wienermobile, rolling boldly toward the launch pad, the astronauts settled safely into its tubular hull, with nothing but space and the moon’s luminous lantern in front of them. Epic.