Did you Know? GM was instrumental in the 1971 Lunar Rover

Did you Know? GM was instrumental in the 1971 Lunar Rover

Growing up in Merritt Island, Florida, I was able to witness many rockets take off from Cape Canaveral, including many of the apollos and especially the moon shots. Many of us classic car enthusiasts marvel at our earthbound classics, but never think of what went into the development of the Lunar Rover. With President Trump and NASA jointly announcing that we’re on our way back to the moon in order to build an orbiting craft that will excel humans to Mars, worldwide interest in the space program has been regenerated.

As a major subcontractor, the General Motors’ Defense Research Laboratories in Santa Barbara, California, furnished the mobility system (wheels, motors, and suspension) and this effort was led by GM Program Manager Samuel Romano and Ferenc Pavlics. Boeing in Seattle, Washington, would furnish the electronics and navigation system. Vehicle testing took place at the Boeing facility in Kent, Washington, and the chassis manufacturing and overall assembly would be at the Boeing facility in Huntsville.

Deployment of the LRV from the Lunar Module’s open bay was achieved with a system of pulleys and braked reels using ropes and cloth tapes. The rover was folded and stored in the bay with the underside of the chassis facing out. One astronaut would climb the ladder on the Lunar Module and release the rover, which would then be slowly tilted out by the second astronaut on the ground through the use of reels and tapes. As the rover was let down from the bay, most of the deployment was automatic. The rear wheels folded out and locked in place. When they touched the ground, the front of the rover could be unfolded, the wheels deployed, and the entire frame let down to the surface by pulleys.

The LRV was developed in only 17 months and performed all its functions on the Moon with no major anomalies. Scientist and astronaut Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 said, “The Lunar Rover proved to be the reliable, safe and flexible lunar exploration vehicle we expected it to be. Without it, the major scientific discoveries of Apollo 15, 16, and 17 would not have been possible; and our current understanding of lunar evolution would not have been possible.

And to think, this was almost 50 years ago.

Photo Credit: All photos herein are the property of General Motors and were published by MyclassicNEWS with their permission and consent. All content herein, other than property published by permission, is the property of myclassicnews.com and any reproduction, other than normal social media sharing, is strictly prohibited. Copyright ©, myclassicnews.com. For reprint permission contact us at rick@tessarect.com