Why NASA provided it is unknown, whats interesting is the illustration of the Buggy unloading. It seems it was attached to the outside and then lowered like a Drawbridge.
The LRV sure has some bizarre design features like 4 wheel steering which is very handy in thigh cornering, but on the lunar surface?
Another is the added complexity to have electric power steering. Power steering is very handy on heavy vehicles but the LRV only weight 210 kg/ 463 pounds and additionally is only a sixth of gravity. On a single use battery using 4 motors just for steering 100 pound heavy vehicle?, odd.
It wasn't a Sunday trip to the mountains, there were many unknown unknowns. In the end many of those design constraints were moot, but what would you expect from the first trip to the Moon? It was mostly guesswork and the other part is that it was funded by the government, do you know what that means? When the Space Shuttle was designed there were also many other ridiculous constraints because the military wanted to be able go to space and steal a satellite and go back home in less than a day. It was never used but it impacted the Space Shuttle design.
People doubting going to the Moon in '69 should stop with the fake conspiracies and should put things into context. It wasn't that there were aliens, it wasn't that it was all fake. It was that the funding came from the military and you add government red tape bureaucracy and politicians bs and you get something ridiculously expensive and with some doubtful design decisions. It wasn't perfect, it was human but it worked alright.
And then funding was cut so we've had to wait more than 50 years till someone gets to do it in an economically sensible way.
Thats the whole point 4 wheel steering is expensive, complex and higher chance of failure as a straight rear axel. Budget is key word.
Power steering on a mission critical mission on something weighting 100 - 166 lb is strange. Much cheaper more relay-able options available.
Another strange engineering choice is the use of high rpm low torque motor driving low speed on uneven terrain.
6 Motors totaling almost 1KW (932.12 Watts)
Each wheel had its own electric drive, a DC series wound 0.25 hp motor capable of 10,000 rpm, attached to the wheel via an 80:1 harmonic drive, and a mechanical brake unit. Maneuvering capability was provided through the use of front and rear steering motors. Each series wound DC steering motor was capable of 0.1 hp
There was already some knowledge as LRV was used on Apollo 15,16,17
Apollo 11, Launched 16 July 1969, Landed on Moon 20 July 1969, Sea of Tranquility, Returned to Earth 24 July 1969
Apollo 12, Launched 14 November 1969, Landed on Moon 19 November 1969, Ocean of Storms, Returned to Earth 24 November 1969
Apollo 13, Launched 11 April 1970, Lunar Flyby and Return, Malfunction forced cancellation of lunar landing, Returned to Earth 17 April 1970
Apollo 14, Launched 31 January 1971, Landed on Moon 5 February 1971, Fra Mauro, Returned to Earth 9 February 1971
Apollo 15, Launched 26 July 1971, Landed on Moon 30 July 1971, Hadley Rille, Returned to Earth 7 August 1971
Apollo 16, Launched 16 April 1972, Landed on Moon 20 April 1972, Descartes, Returned to Earth 27 April 1972
Apollo 17, Launched 07 December 1972, Landed on Moon 11 December 1972, Taurus-Littrow, Returned to Earth 19 December 1972
Would a
medal engineering company not be a better choice to provide steel mesh tires as Goodyear, a Rubber Company?
(81.8 cm diameter, 23 cm wide tire)
