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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  Apollo Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV) engineering

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Author Topic:   Apollo Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV) engineering
Jay Gallentine
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Posts: 287
From: Shorewood, MN, USA
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 01-04-2012 08:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Gallentine   Click Here to Email Jay Gallentine     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Last week, a man who worked on the Soviet Lunokhod rover was lamenting to me that he knew almost nothing about the Apollo Rover. In particular, he was wondering how engineers overcame the problem of lubricating friction pairs in a vacuum.

Perchance, is there any source of information out there on details like these?

sts205cdr
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Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 01-04-2012 09:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Dr. Georg von Tiesenhausen may be able to answer your question. I don't have his e-mail address, but you might be able to get it through the U.S. Space Camp.

Strange as it may seem, I've heard that Sperm Whale oil may have been used for some U.S. spacecraft.

Jay Gallentine
Member

Posts: 287
From: Shorewood, MN, USA
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 01-07-2012 01:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Gallentine   Click Here to Email Jay Gallentine     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That is a great tip; thank you!

wickball
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Posts: 107
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted 01-07-2012 04:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for wickball   Click Here to Email wickball     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What are friction pairs?

ilbasso
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Posts: 1522
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 01-07-2012 05:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ilbasso   Click Here to Email ilbasso     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, etc.

Jay Gallentine
Member

Posts: 287
From: Shorewood, MN, USA
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 01-08-2012 12:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Gallentine   Click Here to Email Jay Gallentine     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A friction pair is two pieces of metal that rub against each other - pistons in a cylinder, as just one example. In a vacuum, they can fuse together.

nasamad
Member

Posts: 2141
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 01-08-2012 03:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for nasamad   Click Here to Email nasamad     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This question got me thinking about that problem, and I'm wondering given the intended operating life of the rovers, would they have needed to overcome that problem?

The Lunokhod missions were way longer than the lunar rovers so would have needed greased bearings etc, especially as they had sampling arms.

space1
Member

Posts: 861
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 01-08-2012 05:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for space1   Click Here to Email space1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Any spacecraft documentation I have seen refers to a dry film lube. But I don't have details handy that would describe it in greater detail.

GACspaceguy
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Posts: 2516
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 01-08-2012 05:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for GACspaceguy   Click Here to Email GACspaceguy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Typical aerospace dry film lub is Molybdenum Disulfide. You can read more about it here.

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