NASA Lunar Walker

[flateric]

A remotely controlled vehicle was developed as a proposal to NASA for use as a potential instrument carrier for an unmanned moon landing. The technology also has application as a people carrier, providing an alternative to the wheelchair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C9nXYOFvmo&feature=sub

 

[Michel Van]

oh that's a old program !

was consider for the 1960's Prospector Proposal by JPL
for a automatic roving vehicle weighing 680 kg on Moon
(has Nothing to do with 1998 Lunar Prospector Orbiter)

on Beginn of program was only surface exporation
then came the plan to land on future Apollo landing site
explore it and wait until LM lands on site
and give support to astronauts

the Program was chancel for several reason
lack of Money.
technology problems.
and why to land Astronauts on site that allready explored by a robot ?
so the NASA HQ consider Prospector as threat to Apollo

links
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/proector.htm

 

[HeavyG]

I would say that the number one problem for this lunar walker was technical. Technology that would enable this successfully "walk" was barely in its infancy at the time. I don't think this would have been a threat to the Apollo program, in fact, my guess is had this actually worked, it probably would have carried the astronauts instead of the moon buggy!

 

[Michel Van]

yes thats true

one proposal was to use a Robot rover as manned rover for Apollo Mission
or as Support cargo carrier - like Benbix R0CE to R0DE study

and also other way around
to used manned rover after Apollo mission as robot Rover
like Grunmman "Dual LRV" but that was 50 pounds overweigth as Boeing Lunar Rover

source
Lunar exploration scrapbook by robert godwin
ISBN-9781894959698

 

[OM]

...And then there's the *real* space crawler us 1st gen Astrobuffs grew up with while trying to figure out how it would fit on a Saturn V:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ma-BxGA52I

 

[Michel Van]

here about final version of Lunar Walker
if hab program go on

Moonmobile, a roving lunar vehicle. This robot will carry 26 lbs. of instrumentation to investigate the surface of the moon at a crawling gate of 3 mph. Solar cells will supply the power (cells are shown extended) and stereo TV will control communications and motion. Robot was built by Space General Corp.

source: Science and Mechanics Magazine, February 1963

 

[flateric]

...And then there's the *real* space crawler

Damn, I had something like this in USSR childhood - but it was yellow, and had six legs on every wheel!

 

[Jemiba]

"I had something like this in USSR childhood "

Then you had relatives in the west, or was there a close counterpart in the "socialist
play world" ? I had exactly those astronauts, but never the walker. Too expensive for
those days and "Boy, you don't need that !". :-\
Those toys achieve quite high prices on peddlars markets today ...

 

[OM]

"I had something like this in USSR childhood "

Then you had relatives in the west, or was there a close counterpart in the "socialist
play world" ?

...Americans had GI Joe, Captain Action and Johnny West. The Soviets had...nothing! All good Soviet children worked instead of play, all for the glory of the Rodina!!

 

[flateric]

Then you had relatives in the west, or was there a close counterpart in the "socialist
play world" ?

second - soviet toy industry sometimes was inspired by western stuff
yellow-colored 1 kg crawler with remote wire control, powered by one square 4.5 V battery, was priced for 6 roubles (that was USD $10 with official exchange rate, and US $3 according to black market rate)

 

[Hammer Birchgrove]

OT: DDR had a privately owned (and IIRC a reasonably successful) toy industry until the 1970's, which is when it got nationalized. During the 1980's, DDR's electronics industry made arcade video games similar to those in the West, only you didn't need to pay (with coins) to use them.

 

[Michel Van]

OT: DDR had a privately owned (and IIRC a reasonably successful) toy industry until the 1970's, which is when it got nationalized. During the 1980's, DDR's electronics industry made arcade video games similar to those in the West, only you didn't need to pay (with coins) to use them.

Similar to west ?!
the DDR's electronics industry just copycat all West Computer Hardware, wat had fall in there hands !
like VEB Robotron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotron

note
DDR = Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or former German Democratic Republic, GDR

 

[martinbayer]

Back in the good old days, when East was East and West was West, a joke made the rounds in West Germany that the electronics industry in the DDR had achieved a triumphant technological breakthrough by successfully developing the world's largest microchip...

Martin

 

[OM]

Back in the good old days, when East was East and West was West, a joke made the rounds in West Germany that the electronics industry in the DDR had achieved a triumphant technological breakthrough by successfully developing the world's largest microchip...

...Heh, hadn't heard that joke in about 25 years. The punch line was usually followed with one of our NOIs making the stoid comment about how Soviet military equipment would survive the EMP effect because it's all vacuum tubes and bulky transistors.

 

[Avimimus]

OT: DDR had a privately owned (and IIRC a reasonably successful) toy industry until the 1970's, which is when it got nationalized. During the 1980's, DDR's electronics industry made arcade video games similar to those in the West, only you didn't need to pay (with coins) to use them.

...And people say it was all bad.

 

[Michel Van]

Thx to The Artist for picture

So far i know was that RCA proposal for Prospector project by JPL

 

[Graham1973]

Thanks,

I've been looking for pictures of Prospector hardware for ages, but there's one thing I can't resist adding, those things look so...cute

 

[Stargazer]

Add two eyes and a tail and it definitely looks like Robbie the Robot's personal dog...

 

[OM]

Add two eyes and a tail and it definitely looks like Robbie the Robot's personal dog...

...And one well-placed bolt. But hold the nuts, for as Bob Barker always says, have your pets spayed and neutered

 

[TsrJoe]

LG846 1960 Original Photo TELESCOPING STILTS FOR ROUGH TERRAIN Space Concept | eBay

Any green line seen passing through the photo is an error with the scanner and not on the actual photo. They could have bent corners, tears or light stains.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[publiusr]

A Walker concept in that lower gravity is not a bad concept….though I can almost see spent Falcon cores up there as com towers with zip lines…to lesson dust. Adam Savage was doing work on that foil balloon dangling like Tom Cruise a large enough spider Walker might suspend an astronaut in a harness to keep him from being filthy and/or a Waldo operated by telepresence—-feet and arms widely separated so dust doesn’t get on tools held right above the surface…

 

[Byeman]

A Walker concept in that lower gravity is not a bad concept….though I can almost see spent Falcon cores up there as com towers with zip lines…to lesson dust. Adam Savage was doing work on that foil balloon dangling like Tom Cruise a large enough spider Walker might suspend an astronaut in a harness to keep him from being filthy and/or a Waldo operated by telepresence—-feet and arms widely separated so dust doesn’t get on tools held right above the surface…

How would a Falcon core reach the moon?

 

[Arjen]

Drain it. Stick it on top of SLS.

 

[Byeman]

Drain it. Stick it on top of SLS.

Why? What would be the point of it?

 

[Arjen]

Why? What would be the point of it?

Ask publiusr - I haven't a clue