:Space Exploration Vehicle

{{short description|Conceptual design for pressurized spacecraft}}

{{Infobox automobile

| name = Space Exploration Vehicle

| image = Artist Concept — SEV Use Comparison.jpg

| caption = Artist's concept of the Space Exploration Vehicle as a wheeled rover on the Moon (left) and as a free-flying spacecraft hovering over an asteroid's surface (circa 2011 design)

| manufacturer = NASA

| aka = Lunar Electric Rover

| class = Rover

| range = {{Convert|125|km|abbr=on}}

| doors = 4

| wheelbase = {{Convert|4|m|in|abbr=on}}

| length = {{Convert|4.5|m|in|abbr=on}}

| height = {{Convert|3|m|in|1|abbr=on}}

| weight = {{Convert|4000|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}

}}

File:Space Electric Vehicles and Habitat Demonstration Unit.jpg

The Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV) is a modular vehicle concept developed by NASA from 2008 to 2015. It would have consisted of a pressurized cabin that could be mated either with a wheeled chassis to form a rover for planetary surface exploration (on the Moon and elsewhere) or to a flying platform for open space missions such as servicing satellites and missions to near-Earth asteroids.[http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/SEV.html NASA's Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV)]. The concept evolved from the Lunar Electric Rover (LER) concept, which in turn was a development of the Small Pressurized Rover (SPR) concept.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desert_rats_2008.html |title=Three Days in the Desert Tests Lunar "RV" |publisher=NASA |date=December 3, 2008}}

Concept vehicles of the Lunar Electric Rover (and later, the SEV) were tested during the Desert Research and Technology Studies in 2008, 2009,{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desert_rats_2009.html |title=Desert RATS 2009 14-Day Analog Mission |publisher=NASA |date=November 8, 2010}} 2010{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/desert_rats_2010.html |title=Desert RATS 2010 Complete 13th Annual Field Test |publisher=NASA |date=April 8, 2011}} and 2011.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/desert_rats_2011.html |title=Desert RATS 2011 |publisher=NASA |date=July 8, 2011}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/drats2011_wrapup-report.html |title=Desert RATS 2011: Wrap-up Report |publisher=NASA |date=September 26, 2011}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/dratskennedy.html |title=D-RATS Set Sights on Asteroid |publisher=NASA |date=September 30, 2011}} One of the LER concept vehicles took part in the presidential inauguration parade of Barack Obama in 2009. The chassis and structural elements of these concept vehicles were fabricated by Off-Road International.{{cite news |url=http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/ntb/features/application-briefs/23331 |title=Steel Chassis Lets Space Vehicles Traverse Grueling Terrain |work=Tech Briefs |date=1 November 2015 |accessdate=30 June 2017}} Research and testing continued in 2012 in the Johnson Space Center with a mock-up of a free-flying SEV simulating a mission to an asteroid.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/ratsjsc.html |title=2012 Research and Technology Studies Resume at JSC |publisher=NASA |date=January 18, 2012}}

Development of the SEV continued, producing variants called the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) and in 2013 a cabin for a possible lunar lander called the Alternate MMSEV (AMMSEV).{{cite web |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20140004223.pdf |title=An Alternate Configuration of the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle |publisher=NASA |first=Robert L. |last=Howard, Jr. |date=January 22, 2014 |id=JSC-CN-30087}}

The SEV was developed together with other projects under the Advanced Explorations Systems Program. The program's budget for FY 2010 was $152.9 million.{{Cite web |url=http://www.govbudgets.com/Program/Exploration_Systems/Exploration_Research_and_Development/Advanced_Explorations_Systems/ |title=NASA's Budget: Advanced Explorations Systems Program|date=20 January 2024 }}