Lunar Surface Mobility Studies Past and Future
Abstract
WES efforts contributed to selection of the metal-elastic wheels successfully used on the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) and produced a quantitative description of the high-level mobility capabilities of a concept tracked running gear proposed for future US lunar surface applications (the Elastic Loop Mobility System, or ELMS). This paper reviews highlights of those Apollo-era studies--first, the determination and quantitative characterization of two terrestrial soils each successfully processed to provide a lunar soil simulant (LSS); then, the analysis of results from mobility tests conducted in LSS with several candidate LRV wheels and with several versions of the ELMS. The paper then describes capabilities developed since Apollo for use today in analyzing the mobility and soil-working potential of future US LRV's. These capabilities include judicious application of soil-running gear dimensional analysis relations, plus the use of computerized models to be modified from terrestrial to lunar applications for predicting vehicle mobility and bulldozer working capability (e.g., the Army Mobility Model and the Push-It Model, respectively). Future studies of lunar surface vehicle mobility capabilities must profit from two major lessons learned from Apollo--i.e., how to process and quantitatively describe LSS, and to appreciate that physical testing in LSS of proposed running gears and vehicles is a necessary part of lunar vehicle mobility studies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA216451
Entities
People
- Don C. Banks
- Gerald W. Turnage