Project Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV)

[francisdrake]

As the Light Weight Lunar Lander is much fun to fly, I revisited another light Lunar lander concept from 2019.
This concept was proposed by Robert Zubrin in the article Moon Direct on The New Atlantis.

He proposed an LH2/LOX vessel to pick up the crew in low Earth orbit, ferry them directly to the Moon, and return them to LEO later.
The vessel should be small enough to fit on a FalconHeavy, while the crew would follow in Dragon spacecraft.

Later - when water and fuel production would be available on the Moon - the LEV could be used to explore the Lunar surface at a much wider range than a wheeled rover.
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To achieve this dual use, the Orbiter vessel can be switched between the classical tailsitter mode for deep-space maneuvers, and hover mode to fly around the Lunar surface by pressing the [M] key. When inside the cockpit, you will notice a 90° change of the viewing direction. The modes use their respective engine configurations (main and hover engine). Switch modes only in free flight, not when docked or main engines firing.

A special thanks to BrianJ, who provided me with the code to rotate the vesselstate for the Mars Ascent Vehicle, years ago.

 

[gattispilot]

Now 2 LEV'S. My Lunar Electric Vehicle and now your yours.

 

[francisdrake]

Now 2 LEV'S. My Lunar Electric Vehicle and now your yours.

Ah, right! Those 3-letter abbreviations seem to be quite popular for spacecrafts.
I will mention the 'excursion' when referencing to it.

If it is too confusing for the users, maybe I add a nickname to it.
'Snoopy' comes to my mind. This is from a time when spacecraft names were less prestigious, more easy and fun!

 

[DaveS]

Ah, right! Those 3-letter abbreviations seem to be quite popular for spacecrafts.
I will mention the 'excursion' when referencing to it.

If it is too confusing for the users, maybe I add a nickname to it.
'Snoopy' comes to my mind. This is from a time when spacecraft names were less prestigious, more easy and fun!

Already taken by the Apollo 10 LM. CM was Charlie Brown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_call_signs

 

[barrygolden]

HEY DID YOU GUYS LEAVE OUT THE GOLD FOIL FROM YOUR DOWN LOAD

 

[gattispilot]

Looks like all Textures were not added in the zip

 

[francisdrake]

Hi guys! Sorry, the 'Texture' folder was missing in the zip-file.
Updated the zip-file to 'LEV-01.zip', which now includes the textures.

No other changes were made.

 

[gattispilot]

Thanks. What moves the gear?

 

[francisdrake]

'G' changes the flight mode, which also extends the gear.
Mode 0 is the launch configuration with the gear retracted, 1 is the upward looking tailsitter, 2 is the forward looking hover craft.
After the inital gear deploy, the 'G' key toggles between 1 and 2.

 

[francisdrake]

Attached is a new version of the Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV). It contains launching, docking and Moon-landing scenarios.

This vessel can switch between tailsitter mode for deep space maneuvers,
and hover mode for Lunar surface operations, using the [G] key.

A HUD indicator shows the vessel mode [ HOVER ] or [ TAILSITTER ]
______

Key Commands​

[C] Show the Crew inside the cockpit.
[G] Extend Gear if first used. Toggle between tailsitter and hover mode every time after.
[E] VIEW: Look back in tailsitter mode. Look down 45° in hover mode, for a better landing view.
[Ctrl] - [F] Fill Fuel tanks with 12.500 kg of LOX / LH2. This is to simulate ‘wilderness refueling’ from a pre-deployed cargo lander.
[F8] A very crude virtual cockpit view.

I would like to get some feedback before publishing this as an official addon.

 

[barrygolden]

NASA is looking into quicker ways to get to the Moon and cheaper as well this is a great alterative
you might think about a platform like the LEM had on the deck before climbing down the ladder and see if there is a way to carry the FLEX rover and or some surface equipment .
you might look to get some EVA guys to deploy and I know Space X has looked at these suits they would be good for about 5 hrs but could be recharged while out on the surface and the back pack could be removed to fly the LEV
you might think about some EVA lights

 

[francisdrake]

Thanks for the pictures!
Indeed I have an astronaut figure in a SpaceX EVA suit, but it is in a weightless-posture, and I needed a guy standing up, so I grabbed what was available.
Still, the cockpit and astronauts are in a very early stage.
The landing lights are a good idea. Will have look how to implement them.

 

[barrygolden]

gattis did the LM red Lander and he has done some XEMU guys I like this suit because it is a little tighter fit and could be used for both EVA and IVA. you might think about a more red foil as with the LM lander really looks way cool..
there have been some deep space Dragons done as well and would make a nice idea to use one of those to fly home from the Moon

 

[francisdrake]

Version 04 of the LEV.

New commands:
[M] Switch on Landing Lights
[V] A very(!) experimental EVA

 

[barrygolden]

this is really cool can it be launch on the Vulcan/Centaur VC6 L but might need the smaller Centaur as well to do the TLI and LOI burns so both would be inside the longer fairing.. NASAs plans look like they will need a space tug for a lot of their Artemis missions for cargo or refueling tanks
I like the idea of the EVA suits you have and with a little work could be really cool to use

 

[barrygolden]

I do like your EVA guys but I was unable to call them up and then walk around . your helmets are pretty close but you might think about the one used in the "Martian " movie

I know NASA is scrapping this but I wonder what an SLS 1B with this LEV in the cargo area and orion on top would look like