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| - The crew of the Jupiter 2 have a few options if shank’s pony doesn’t answer their travel needs. Even leaving out maser transporters, one-off vehicles like the eponymous “Rocket to Earth,” assorted alien craft and cosmic storms opening up inter-dimensional portals, the Robinsons have a number of pieces of equipment at their disposal for getting around. First and foremost, of course, is the Jupiter 2 itself. A fine craft from the start, if given to frequent break-downs and prone to damage from the slightest meteoroid strike, the Jupiter 2 itself grows throughout the series. It has been calculated that by season three, the ship would have had to double in size to accommodate all the areas it had come to contain. Whether or not we are supposed to notice this is open to question. In the earliest episodes we see Professor Robinson using a propellant gun to manoeuver on a space walk. He also uses parajets mounted on his arms to travel down to the surface of Priplanus. The parajets are later included in the memorabilia to be cached away in the Robinson’s time capsule in “The Space Croppers.” The jet pack and chariot both appear early as well. Like the propellant gun and parajets, the jet pack was based on real, functioning technology (however, unlike the jet pack and propellant gun, the parajets never got off the drawing board). The chariot itself was a fairly sturdy looking vehicle, although, like the mother ship, it seemed to break down with alarming frequency. Unlike any other means of transportation (other than the Jupiter 2, of course) the chariot was used regularly throughout the series; the parajets appeared just the twice, and the jet pack was used only a handful of times. I always thought the space pod, a third season addition (didn’t anyone notice what was behind that hatch over there during the first two seasons?) was the coolest set of wheels the Robinsons had. It proved pivotal to the plots of several episodes, usually because it was accidentally launched by Dr. Smith with one or more crew members aboard. The best part of the space pod, apparently, was that anyone (except Dr. Smith, naturally) could run it. The rare glimpses of the control panel and the odd reference to different controls in the dialogue seem to support this… once you got it going, all you did was steer it with a joystick. And there is one more mode of transportation, entirely unique, which makes just one appearance in the entire series: the Robot himself. In “His Majesty Smith,” when the Robot and Smith are hurrying to the Jupiter 2 before it lifts off without them, Dr. Smith gives up all hope of reaching it in time. The Robot then tells him to ride piggy-back the rest of the way; after some complaining, the Doctor does. Can you beat that? Riding the Robot!
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