| abstract | - An evolution of both the Carrier Pallets and RocShaw Personal Mobility Units, the Pallet Truck may be the largest of vehicles developed for interior free-space microgravity transport and is likely to be employed in only the largest of microgravity habitats ultimately created. Essentially a Carrier Pallet chassis of a maximum size comparable to the length and width of a small terrestrial cargo van, the Pallet Truck would feature operator seating in an edge-mounted roll-cage enclosed unit that can be switched to suit a number of different facing positions. Like the conventional Carrier Pallet, secondary pallet modules could also be attached to the main pallet chassis on stand-off struts via the normal tie-down grid to provide additional stability and more tie-down connection points. An additional form based on a short three or four sided open space frame enclosed in cargo pallet panels and with corner-mounted thruster units may also be employed, these alternately being able to carry goods inside or outside the frame structure. Cargo would be attached to the pallets by quick-connect containers and by tie-down strapping and cargo nets. Active devices would be attached by quick-connect interface with bus cabling linking to modular panel ports in the main pallet chassis, thus making for a very freely reconfigurable system platform. Just like Carrier Pallets and RocShaws, the Pallet Truck would be operable both by a pilot, by teleoperation, and by remote computer control. The primary job of the Pallet Truck would, of course, be the same as the Carrier Pallet; to safely move high mass objects and collections of cargo around a habitat, though in this case limited to the larger span areas of a very large habitat. But it would also suit a variety of other uses based on equipment plugged into the pallet chassis. These may include some very large machine tools and portable work facilities, Inchworm robots, fleets of smaller Remotes, and arrays of lounge seating within an open safety cage that let the vehicle be used as a kind of taxi cab or small bus. As with the RocShaws, EVA variants of the Pallet Truck are also likely, with both open and pressurized cockpit modules (based on hatch-as-cockpit-shell configurations) and affording the same uses, though the need for more propellant capacity and possibly some life support systems would likely see these employing the three and four sided space frame configurations –allowing the internal frame space to be used for this added hardware– and their own Inchworm robot as a cargo handling assistant.
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