A while back, I wrote about what spaceship would be best to convert into a car. Somehow, we’ve never managed to bring up the equally-important inverse of that question: what car would make the best spaceship?
I bet you may have imagined this very scenario as a kid, perhaps on a late-night leg of a road trip, where you’ve angled your head in just the right way that the view out the window affords only an unobstructed view of the passing stars in a coal-black sky.
In that moment, as you watch the field of stars slowly drift in your window, it’s remarkably easy to pretend the car you’re in is, in fact, your spaceship.
Picking the right car for this job is trickier than it seems. Sure, you may be inclined to pick some sleek sports car as a spaceship, something like a Lotus Elite maybe, because it just sort of looks the part right?
See, you’d be wrong to do so. Sleek is fun, sure, but in space, sleek doesn’t matter all that much – just when you enter an atmosphere to land or launch. And, I think internal volume is much more important here. A spaceship is for long journeys where you can’t just pull over to take a leak; you’re going to want much more room inside for your car-spaceship.
Personally, I’d go for one of the Dustbuster-era GM minivans: the Pontiac Grand Sport, the Chevy Lumina APV, or the Oldsmobile Silhouette. They already have that spaceship-like look and feel, plus with much more usable volume inside. Enough, even, I bet for a small waste-management system and some racks for food storage, and even should be able to manage a decent sleeping bunk.
But I want to hear what you think! I’ll be sure to forward your suggestions to NASA and get them started with the conversion process, post-haste.