








Tremulis and von Braun would both correspond to one another throughout the 1960's, each one encouraging the other to look past the moon towards the stars and other galaxies - both true visionaries!







Alex Tremulis (in black) with his wife Chrissie on his left. Mrs. Tom Summers is on the far right. Left to right: Tom Summers, Alex Tremulis, (?), Mrs. Summers, Chrissie Tremulis in front of the Apollo 7 rocket. Alex Tremulis (left) engages in some serious discussion with astronaut Tom Stafford. But then again, as Tremulis would often gleefully recount of these discussions with the astronauts, the topic of discussion often strayed to the effects of zero-gravity on a flatulence-propelled astronaut. | Backup Apollo 7 Lunar Module Pilot, astronaut Eugene Cernan (right), at cocktail hour. Cernan would eventually be the last man to walk on the moon four years later. Described by Tremulis as a "demo engine", it's not clear whether this is an engine brought with the GyroDynamics group or if it's a NASA engine used in missions. Tom Summers (right) and an unidentified member of the GyroDynamics crew pose with the Apollo 7 sculpture in front of the launch pad. |

Tremulis' scale drawings for the existing lunar lander and his folding Gyronaut lander illustrates the compactness of its design. In automobile design, he had often showed his lowered designs next to the profile of the existing cars, a technique that exemplified the sleekness of his new concepts. This technique worked well in selling radical styling to his superiors back then, and he used it once again to get the point across with his folding rover concept.




It would be Alan Bean who would choose a combination of the three Tremulis proposals and had the paintwork carried out by Jim Rathmann, the 1960 Indy 500 winner and a Chevrolet dealer in Melbourne, Florida. The cars were delivered on time and painted up as proposed, including the red, white and blue logos for each of the drivers. Bean's was blue with the initials LMP signifying his capacity as the Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 12 mission.
