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Forum: Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
Topic: How did they pack the Apollo lunar rover?

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Message to Edit: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	Originally posted by mikej on 03-04-2007 08:38 AM [QUOTE]Originally posted by stsmithva: [b]So just to double-check: the rover was always part of the plan and all the Lunar Modules were designed to carry them...[/b][/QUOTE] No the LRV was basically an afterthought; its development wasn't approved until May 1969 (either May 23, according to [URL=https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/MSFC-LRV.pdf]A Brief History of the Lunar Roving Vehicle[/URL] or May 27, according to [URL=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4009/contents.htm]The Apollo Spacecraft - A Chronology[/URL]). The LRV was actually developed in about 17 months. The earlier lunar modules weren't specifically designed to carry an LRV; they were relatively short-duration stay LMs. All of the early development was focused on "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth" — long duration stays weren't yet a priority. (Of course, there were many who had dreams or proposals for this sort of thing — both extended stays and some sort of lunar roving vehicle — but such things couldn't be realized until we'd landed a man on the moon — or were pretty confident we could. By early 1968 there were [URL=https://solarviews.com/history/SP-4214/ch8-8.html]serious discussions of extending lunar stays[/URL], but nothing was actually authorized.) A quick search of "Chronology" didn't find anything regarding when the extended-stay missions were authorized, but I did find the following in [URL=https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sp-4214.pdf?emrc=ee908e]Where No Man has Gone Before[/URL]: <BLOCKQUOTE>[i]Equally high on the priority list for exploration missions was extending the time astronauts could stay on the moon. Grumman Aircraft Engineering Company, the lunar module contractor, had made some preliminary studies on modification of the lander for that purpose in 1967. Life-support systems and electrical power were enough for only 36 hours on the surface; longer stays would require hardware changes. Propulsion systems would have to be upgraded to carry the scientific equipment and mobility module to be taken on exploration missions. In March 1969, MSC directed Grumman to define the changes necessary to allow the lunar module to stay three to six days on the moon, with their cost and schedule impacts.[/i]</BLOCKQUOTE> It was eventually decided that Apollos 16-20 would be extended-stay missions. When it was decided that Apollo 20 would not be flown, they actually cut Apollo 15 (which would have been a two-EVA mission like Apollos 12-14) and slid the remaining missions down one number. Thus, Apollo 15 became the first three-EVA J mission, and the first one to have the LRV. Apollo 15 was originally slated to fly LM-9, but once the mission was upgraded to extended-stay, it was assigned LM-10. Page 154 in the [URL=https://www.nasa.gov/history/alsj/a15/a15prskit.html]Apollo 15 Press Kit[/URL] has an overview of the changes to the LM. (LM-9 today hangs in the Apollo/Saturn V center at Kennedy.) As for testing, I'll refer you to the NASA Technical Reports Server (you can also search for LRV). There were many proposals for various "lunar roving" vehicles, but a quick perusal of the results showed various "proposals," "system comparisons," "models," and "evaluations" which refer to the final Apollo LRV. There's one in particular that has a discussion about the selection of motors.
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