Request Surveyor Lunar Rover

[Graham2001]

I've known for some time that amongst NASA's original plans for lunar exploration was the intention to send unmanned rovers to the moon to survey potential landing sites before sending men to the Moon. The Russians had a similar program, their site verification rovers became Lunokhod's 1 & 2.

The US plan involved a small rover weighing around 100lb (45kg) mounted on the side of a modified Surveyor spacecraft.

There is already a version of [ame=http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=859]Surveyor created for Orbiter 2005[/ame], though that might not be usable.

The details of the proposed vehicle and some (but not all of the changes to the baseline Surveyor) can be found in the report linked to below. The attached thumbnails show what the craft would have looked like and include an optional extra considered for it in the form of a set of mortars firing circular target markers.

1. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 1, Summary Report

2. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 2, Mission and System Studies

3. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 3, Preliminary System Description, Book 1, System Description

4. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 3, Preliminary System Description, Book 2, Validation of Preliminary Design

5. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 4, Reliability

6. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 5, System Evaluation

 

[sputnik]

Hmm. I'd heard of Prospector, but not a post-Surveyor conversion to add a rover. Cute!

 

[Graham2001]

Hmm. I'd heard of Prospector, but not a post-Surveyor conversion to add a rover. Cute!

Same here, there were actually two reports online but this one was more complete. I also spotted something that discussed mounting a Surveyor on wheels and using it as a rover.

 

[garyw]

I'd love to see a follow up mission to one of the landing sites just to see what's left, the condition of the descent stage and so on. I think we could learn a lot from such a rover.

 

[Graham2001]

I'd love to see a follow up mission to one of the landing sites just to see what's left, the condition of the descent stage and so on. I think we could learn a lot from such a rover.

We can but dream...

 

[4throck]

From the images, parts of it look like the Apollo Moon Rover, specially the camera and dish antenna. The wheels look somewhat like Pathfinder. Interesting!

 

[Graham2001]

From the images, parts of it look like the Apollo Moon Rover, specially the camera and dish antenna. The wheels look somewhat like Pathfinder. Interesting!

Actually the 'wheels' are tractor treads, but there was a competing wheeled design, which via a process I'm not entirely sure of evolved into the LRV that actually flew.

The Surveyor based rover program produced a prototype rover that was later used in development of the guidance software for the Pathfinder rover.

I'm also going to add a link to what appears to be the only document on the NTRS discussing the Block II Surveyor's. I'm not saying that this is the vehicle intended to carry the rovers, quite simply the evidence is not there, but it is also worth looking into.

Block II Surveyor Study Report

 

[Graham2001]

NASA has recently uploaded the complete set of appendices to Volume 2 of the General Motors version of the SLRV. The report in the OV is for an alternate design by Bendix.

I've linked to all the appendixes for the GM report below:

1. Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 2, Mission and System Studies, Appendix, Section I, Concept evaluation and analysis

2.Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 2, Mission and System Studies, Appendix, Section II, Electronic subsystems

3.Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 2, Mission and System Studies, Appendix, Section III, Mechanical subsystems

4.Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 2, Mission and System Studies, Appendix, Section IV, Reliability

5.Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Report, Vol. 2, Mission and System Studies, Appendix, Section V, Additional information on RTE

 

[Graham2001]

I have located further information on the Bendix Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, the document covers later testing of the prototype, but has some useful information on just what the vehicle was intended to achieve.

See:

Interim Study for a Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, Final Technical Report

 

[Donamy]

I may need one of those, for my Jason lander. :hmm:

 

[Graham2001]

I may need one of those, for my Jason lander. :hmm:

Check out the documents in the OP, as I said back then the report is (as far as I can tell) complete as to the Rover side of things. Not as much information on just what was going to be done to the Surveyor, but there are some chopped up fold-outs showing the attachment/release mechanism.

 

[Keatah]

I built a nearly full-size model surveyor in my garage when I was a kid. I learned metalworking and welding that way.

 

[gattispilot]

What would you do with it? Doesn't like it would hard to build/make

 

[Tycho]

What would you do with it? Doesn't like it would hard to build/make

One could re-enact Apollo 12, assuming the model was life-size :lol:

 

[Keatah]

It was life-size give or take some small measurement tolerances. I don't know, I thought it was cool. I had grand visions of turning it into a helicopter, but it eventually got moved to the backyard and served as a jungle-gym and prop for playing apollo hide and seek games.

More fun than orbiter!

 

[Tycho]

More fun than orbiter!

Come on now! Let's not be ridiculous! :lol:

 

[gattispilot]

What would you do with one in orbiter?

 

[gattispilot]

There is the Luna 17 driveable rover. I was working on it.

rather than ramps use attachment points

 

[Scruce]

 

[gattispilot]

Neat. is that the Luna 17 on the Moon?