Question: The Modular Equipment Transporter was designed due to difficulties had by an American NASA astronaut who was awarded what in 1978?

Context articles: Andy Thomas
George D. Zamka
Yvonne Cagle
Shipyard transporter
Pete Conrad
Robert F. Overmyer
Joseph R. Tanner
Joseph M. Acaba
C. Gordon Fullerton
Modular Equipment Transporter

Andrew "Andy" Sydney Withiel Thomas, AO (born 18 December 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian-born American aerospace engineer and a NASA astronaut.
 He became a U.S. citizen in December 1986, hoping to gain entry to NASA's astronaut program.
 He is married to fellow NASA astronaut Shannon Walker.
George David "Zambo" Zamka (born June 29, 1962) is an American NASA astronaut and United States Marine Corps pilot with over 3500 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
 Zamka piloted the Space Shuttle "Discovery" in its October 2007 mission to the International Space Station and served as the commander of mission STS-130 in February 2010.
Yvonne Darlene Cagle (born April 24, 1959) is an American NASA astronaut.
A Shipyard transporter is a heavy equipment transporter or heavy trailer and is often used in shipyards but is not limited to them.
 As its name implies, a shipyard transporter is often used in transporting ship sections from the shipbuilder workshop to the dock to assemble a whole vessel.
Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. (June 2, 1930 – July 8, 1999), (Captain, USN), was an American NASA astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and during the Apollo 12 mission became the third man to walk on the Moon.
 He set an eight-day space endurance record along with his Command Pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission, and commanded the Gemini 11 mission.
 After Apollo, he commanded the Skylab 2 mission (the first manned one), on which he and his crewmates repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab space station.
 For this, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978.
Robert Franklyn "Bob" Overmyer (July 14, 1936 – March 22, 1996), (Col, USMC), was an American test pilot, naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, physicist, United States Marine Corps officer, and USAF/NASA astronaut.
 He was born in Lorain, Ohio, but considered Westlake, Ohio his hometown.
 Overmyer was selected by the United States Air Force as an astronaut for its Manned Orbiting Laboratory in 1966.
 Upon cancellation of this program in 1969, he became a NASA astronaut and served support crew duties for the Skylab program and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
 In 1976, he was assigned to the Space Shuttle program, and flew as pilot on STS-5 in 1982, and as commander on STS-51-B in 1985.
 He was selected as a lead investigator into the Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster, and retired from NASA in 1986.
 Ten years later, Overmyer died in Duluth, Minnesota while testing the Cirrus VK-30 composite homebuilt aircraft.
Joseph Richard "Joe" Tanner (born January 21, 1950) is an American instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, mechanical engineer, a former naval officer and aviator, and a former NASA astronaut.
 He was born in Danville, Illinois.
 He is unusual among astronauts as he did not have a background in flight test nor did he earn any advanced academic degrees.
 Typically those who did not do military flight test have an M.D. or Ph.D., if not a master's, whereas Tanner's path to becoming an astronaut followed operational military flying and then into NASA for operational jet training before being selected into the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1992, following an unsuccessful application in 1987.
Joseph Michael "Joe" Acaba (born May 17, 1967) is an educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut.
 In May 2004 he became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut candidate, when he was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Training Group 19.
 He completed his training on February 10, 2006 and was assigned to STS-119, which flew from March 15 to March 28, 2009 to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the International Space Station.
 Acaba served as a Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station, having launched on May 15, 2012.
 He arrived at the space station on May 17 and returned to Earth on September 17, 2012 at 6:53am Moscow Standard Time when touchdown was officially recorded by the Russian Federal Space Agency.
 Acaba returned to the International Space Station in 2017 as a member of Expedition 53/54.
Charles Gordon Fullerton (October 11, 1936 – August 21, 2013) was a United States Air Force colonel, a USAF and NASA astronaut, and a research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California.
 His assignments included a variety of flight research and support activities piloting NASA's B-52 launch aircraft, the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), and other multi-engine and high performance aircraft.
 Fullerton, who logged more than 380 hours in space flight, was a NASA astronaut from September 1969 until November 1986 when he joined the research pilot office at Dryden.
 In July 1988, he completed a 30-year career with the U.S. Air Force and retired as a colonel.
 He continued in his position of NASA research pilot as a civilian.
 Fullerton and his wife and their two children lived in Lancaster, California.
The Modular Equipment Transporter (MET) was a two-wheeled, hand-pulled vehicle that was used as an equipment hauling device on traverses across the lunar surface.
 Designed after Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean had difficulties lugging their equipment significant distances to and from their Lunar Module, the MET primarily functioned as a portable workbench with a place for hand tools and their carrier, cameras, spare camera magazines, rock sample bags, environmental sample containers, and the portable magnetometer with its sensor and tripod.
 It was carried on Apollo 14 and planned to be used on Apollo 15, but was used only on Apollo 14, since Apollo 15's mission was changed to be the first to employ the motorized Lunar Roving Vehicle, which transported both astronauts and equipment.