Flying a single unit for the Apollo missions to the Moon: The Story of a Project
That's look first controlled rover mission Apollo 15. And could have wings of a jet engine. I>
From the beginning, "Lunar Project" at NASA planned several stages of development of the moon man so to speak. The first step - it's just a flight there and back of the spacecraft with a man on board. To test the technical capabilities of this journey.
Then, subject to the successful completion of the first phase, already planned and scientific expeditions, with the landing of man on the moon, and the subsequent examination of the region landing. Needless to say, the legs pass would come out a little, so the use of the vehicle was planned from the very beginning of the project.
In NASA tried to provide a lot, and therefore parallel to the designed several options rovers. At the same time involved and outside organizations, for example, Bell Aerosystems. This company and created a lunar rover project flying jet engine (of course, not the most powerful, otherwise we could fly away in an unknown direction).
Early concepts of lunar vehicles h4>
From the beginning, some experts suggested to create a platform for one person, with a reactive principle of movement (the engine would run on compressed air). The key point of the whole system had to be a balance, it would not be very good, if in the first test flight on such a vehicle cosmonaut would fly upside down.
In general, all of this has been developed, starting from 1951, and projects of different types (not just flying machines) offers quite often. So, the engineers from Flight Center Marshall offer mobile laboratory, known as MOLAB, in 1964.
In addition, engineers Ford NASA immediately offered a range of wormlike rovers. True, these rovers would be ideal for long hours on the moon, and not for a single job. Therefore, the project failed.
Well, for the average duration missions Bell Aerosystems offered a flying machine, which was discussed above. It was a minimalist apparatus which, in pintsipe, excellent for covering large distances with minimal resources.
By the way, at first assumed that the astronaut will be in a sitting position, but then it was decided that the best way to create a "stand-up" machine. A resource such device - 30 operations, with a total distance (for all routes in general) 20-30 kilometers. Balance, as mentioned above, had to be perfect, and the astronaut could control the movement of the machine in all axes.
So could soar researchers moon, if the project would have gone flying machine. I>
Flying vehicle was well as the fact that in the event of unforeseen circumstances the astronauts could quickly return to the lander.
The final draft of the flying unit was rated as very reliable, its reliability was assessed as "three nines" on a scale of NASA. This is - a very high score, which says that 99.9% of the total operating time the device works perfectly.
The device has been designed taking into account the fact that people will collect it in uncomfortable suits, with a thick gloves on his hands. Among other things, the machine had to be folded so that during transport to occupy the minimum amount of space vehicle.
It was kind of like a perfect, and after the Apollo 11 expedition experts have confirmed that the flying machine is ideal for lunar conditions.
Rovers and not "Flyers» h4>
But things did not go as planned. The fact that three months before the completion of the research Bell Aerosystems (project was proposed by April 7, 1969) Wernher von Braun founded team for designing the rover. Von Braun believed that the rover, more traditional model of the vehicle, it is better suited to the moon than a flying device.
And almost immediately after the start of work on the construction of the rover was contracted with Boeing to build such a device. As is known, the first of three lunar rovers reached the moon with Apollo 15 in 1971. Field tests showed that the rover - a successful project, and continue to use it is this concept.
So, unfortunately, the astronauts could not fly alone on the moon. And it would be interesting, history of lunar research might be a little different.
