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 ten-ton tractor-trailers for moving supplies. In 1956,
Mieczysław G. Bekker published two books on land locomotion while he was a
University of Michigan professor and a consultant to the
U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command's Land Locomotion Laboratory. The books provided much of the theoretical basis for future lunar vehicle development. In 1959,
Georg von Tiesenhausen conceived the lunar rover as a
four-wheel-drive vehicle with
noninflated, flexible wheels.
Early lunar mobility studies In the February 1964 issue of
Popular Science, von Braun, then director of
NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), discussed the need for a lunar surface vehicle, and revealed that studies had been underway at Marshall in conjunction with Lockheed, Bendix, Boeing, General Motors, Brown Engineering, Grumman, and Bell Aerospace.
Saverio Morea was named LRV Manager at MSFC in 1961. Grumman and Northrop, in late 1962, began to design pressurized-cabin vehicles, with electric motors for each wheel. At about this same time, Bendix and Boeing started their internal studies on lunar transportation systems.
Mieczysław Bekker, now with General Motors Defense Research Laboratories at
Santa Barbara, California, was completing a study for NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a small, uncrewed lunar roving vehicle for the
Surveyor program.
Ferenc Pavlics, originally from
Hungary, used a wire-mesh design for "resilient wheels," a design that would be followed in future small rovers. In early 1963, NASA selected Marshall for studies in an Apollo Logistics Support System (ALSS). Following reviews of all earlier efforts, this resulted in a 10-volume report. Included was the need for a pressurized vehicle in the weight range, accommodating two men with their expendables and instruments for traverses up to two weeks in duration. In June 1964, Marshall awarded contracts to Bendix and Boeing, with GM's lab designated as the vehicle technology subcontractor. Bell Aerospace was already under contract for studies of Lunar Flying Vehicles. Even as the Bendix and Boeing studies were underway, Marshall was examining a less ambitious surface exploration activity, the LSSM. This would be composed of a fixed, habitable shelter–laboratory with a small lunar-traversing vehicle that could either carry one man or be remotely controlled. This mission would still require a dual launch with the moon vehicle carried on the "lunar truck". Marshall's Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering (P&VE) lab contracted with Hayes International to make a preliminary study of the shelter and its related vehicle. Because of the potential need for an enclosed vehicle for enlarged future lunar explorations, those design efforts continued for some time and resulted in several full-scale test vehicles. With pressure from Congress to hold down Apollo costs, Saturn V production was reduced, allowing only a single launch per mission. Any roving vehicle would have to fit on the same lunar module as the astronauts. In November 1964, two-rocket models were put on indefinite hold, but Bendix and Boeing were given study contracts for small rovers. The name of the lunar excursion module was changed to simply the
Lunar Module, indicating that the capability for powered "excursions" away from a lunar-lander base did not yet exist. There could be no mobile lab—the astronauts would work out of the LM. Marshall also continued to examine uncrewed robotic rovers that could be controlled from the Earth. From the beginnings at Marshall, the Brown Engineering Company of
Huntsville, Alabama, had participated in all of the lunar mobility efforts. In 1965, Brown became the prime support contractor for Marshall's P&VE Laboratory. With an urgent need to determine the feasibility of a two-man self-contained lander, von Braun bypassed the usual procurement process and had P&VE's Advanced Studies Office directly task Brown to design, build, and test a prototype vehicle. While Bendix and Boeing would continue to refine concepts and designs for a lander, test model rovers were vital for Marshall human factors studies involving spacesuit-clad astronauts interfacing with power, telemetry, navigation, and life-support rover equipment. Brown's team made full use of the earlier small-rover studies, and commercially available components were incorporated wherever possible. The selection of wheels was of great importance, and almost nothing was known at that time about the lunar surface. The Marshall Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) was responsible for predicting surface properties, and Brown was also prime support contractor for this lab; Brown set up a test area to examine a wide variety of wheel-surface conditions. To simulate Pavlics's "resilient wheel," a four-foot-diameter inner tube wrapped with nylon ski rope was used. On the small test rover, each wheel had a small electric motor, with overall power provided by standard truck batteries. A
roll bar gave protection from overturning accidents. In early 1966, Brown's vehicle became available for examining human factors and other testing. Marshall built a small test track with craters and rock debris where several different mock-ups were compared; it became obvious that a small rover would be best for the proposed missions. The test vehicle was also operated in remote mode to determine characteristics that might be dangerous to the driver, such as acceleration, bounce-height, and turn-over tendency as it traveled at higher speeds and over simulated obstacles. The test rover's performance under one-sixth gravity was obtained through flights on a KC-135A aircraft in a
Reduced Gravity parabolic maneuver; among other things, the need for a very soft wheel and suspension combination was shown. Although Pavlics' wire-mesh wheels were not initially available for the reduced gravity tests, the mesh wheels were tested on various soils at the
Waterways Experiment Station of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at
Vicksburg, Mississippi. Later, when wire-mesh wheels were tested on low-g flights, the need for wheel fenders to reduce dust contamination was found. The model was also extensively tested at the U.S. Army's
Yuma Proving Ground in
Arizona, as well as the Army's
Aberdeen Proving Ground in
Maryland.
Lunar Roving Vehicle Project astronauts in the 1-g trainer During 1965 and 1967, the Summer Conference on Lunar Exploration and Science brought together leading scientists to assess NASA's planning for exploring the Moon and to make recommendations. One of their findings was that the LSSM was critical to a successful program and should be given major attention. At Marshall, von Braun established a Lunar Roving Task Team, and in May 1969, NASA approved the Manned Lunar Rover Vehicle Program as a Marshall hardware development. The project was led by
Eberhard Rees, Director of Research and Development at Marshall, who oversaw the design and construction of the rover, with
Saverio Morea acting as project manager.
Ferenc Pavlics. Boeing in
Seattle, Washington, would furnish the electronics and navigation system. Vehicle testing would take place at the Boeing facility in
Kent, Washington, and the chassis manufacturing and overall assembly would be completed at the Boeing facility in Huntsville. – Commander
David Scott drives the Rover near the LM
Falcon The first cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to Boeing was for $19 million and called for delivery of the first LRV by 1 April 1971. Cost overruns, however, led to a final cost of $38 million (equal to $ million today), which was about the same as NASA's original estimate. Four lunar rovers were built, one each for Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17; and one used for spare parts after the
cancellation of further Apollo missions. Other LRV models were built: a static model to assist with
human factors design; an engineering model to design and integrate the subsystems; two one-sixth gravity models for testing the deployment mechanism; a one-gravity trainer to give the astronauts instruction in the operation of the rover and allow them to practice driving it; a mass model to test the effect of the rover on the LM structure, balance, and handling; a vibration test unit to study the LRV's durability and handling of launch stresses; and a qualification test unit to study integration of all LRV subsystems. A paper by Saverio Morea gives details of the LRV system and its development. works at the LRV near the
LM Orion on
Apollo 16 in April 1972.LRVs were used for greater surface mobility during the Apollo
J-class missions,
Apollo 15,
Apollo 16, and
Apollo 17. The rover was first used on 31 July 1971, during the Apollo 15 mission. This greatly expanded the range of the lunar explorers. Previous teams of astronauts were restricted to short walking distances around the landing site due to the bulky space suit equipment required to sustain life in the lunar environment. The range, however, was operationally restricted to remain within walking distance of the lunar module, in case the rover broke down at any point. The rovers were designed with a top speed of about , although
Eugene Cernan recorded a maximum speed of , giving him the (unofficial) lunar land-speed record. The LRV was developed in only 17 months and performed all its functions on the Moon with no major anomalies. Scientist-astronaut
Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 said, "The Lunar Rover proved to be the reliable, safe and flexible lunar exploration vehicle we expected it to be. Without it, the major scientific discoveries of Apollo 15, 16, and 17 would not have been possible; and our current understanding of lunar evolution would not have been possible." The
color TV camera mounted on the front of the LRV could be remotely operated by
Mission Control in pan and tilt axes as well as zoom. This allowed far better television coverage of the EVA than the earlier missions. On each mission, at the conclusion of the astronauts' stay on the surface, the commander drove the LRV to a position away from the Lunar Module so that the camera could record the ascent stage launch. The camera operator in Mission Control experienced difficulty in timing the various delays so that the LM ascent stage was in frame through the launch. On the third and final attempt (Apollo 17), the launch and ascent were successfully tracked. NASA's rovers, left behind, are among the
artificial objects on the Moon, as are the
Soviet Union's uncrewed rovers,
Lunokhod 1 and
Lunokhod 2. and
Mars == Features and specifications ==