Posts: 335
From: USA
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 12-25-2007 01:50 PM            

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I was once told that the landing gear of the Apollo LM was grossly over engineered due to uncertainties about the surface conditions of the moon in the early 1960’s. The large landing plates, huge shock absorbers and fold out legs were all unnecessarily complex and heave. Landing skids similar to those seen on Huey helicopters would have been sufficient, or so I was told.

But when we see drawings of the Altair the landing gear looks identical to the Apollo LM only scaled up. Is there any reason for Altair’s landing gear to be quite so big?

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posted 12-25-2007 02:16 PM               

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Much was learned from the LM design and is being applied to Altair. The landing gear were necessarily complex and keep in mind that the mass/size of Altair will be significantly greater then the LM. Recommend review of the following which will give you some good insight into how engineers are attacking Altair:

See: Apollo Experience Report - Lunar Module Landing Gear System

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Scott Schneeweis
http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/