The books provided much of the theoretical basis for future lunar vehicle development. Army Tank-Automotive Command's Land Locomotion Laboratory.
At the time, Bekker was a University of Michigan professor and a consultant to the U.S. Bekker published two books on land locomotion. The concept of a lunar rover predated Apollo, with a 1952–1954 series in Collier's Weekly magazine by Wernher von Braun and others, ' Man Will Conquer Space Soon!' In this, von Braun described a six-week stay on the Moon, featuring 10-ton tractor trailers for moving supplies. After being unpacked, each was driven an average of 30 km, without major incident. It could carry a maximum payload of 970 pounds (440 kg), including two astronauts, equipment, and cargo such as lunar samples, and was designed for a top speed of 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h), although it achieved a top speed of 11.2 miles per hour (18.0 km/h) on its last mission, Apollo 17.Įach LRV was carried to the Moon folded up in the Lunar Module's Quadrant 1 Bay.
It is popularly called the Moon buggy, a play on the term dune buggy.īuilt by Boeing, each LRV has a mass of 462 pounds (210 kg) without payload. The Lunar Roving Vehicle ( LRV) is a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program ( 15, 16, and 17) during 19.
