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A review by socraticgadfly
Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings by Earl Swift
5.0
Fascinating book!
I didn’t know about all the different companies who bid on the final lunar rover project, and on all the prototypes they had done over the years up to that point, including bigger split devices, like a semi with two bobtail-type trailers. Grumman, with its nautilus shell type wheel spokes, also interesting, and for making them from fiberglass and epoxy, not metal.
Nor was I aware of any of the names involved, other than von Braun, whether at NASA, such as Ferenc Pavlics, or the guy who had the soil engineering background mandating how traction would work, the Polish-Canadian-American Mieczyslaw Gregory Bekker.
Next? After Boeing/GM won the contract, NASA started cheating on it, and offloading weight from elsewhere on the Version 2.0 Lunar Module in general to the rover, a physics accounting cheat. It also, from Huntsville not HQ, started dumping other post-contract requests.
That said, all of this was against a backdrop of Congress continuing to slash NASA’s budget, which led to eliminations of missions, which forced it to speed up the timetable for a contract and construction of a rover if there was going to be one.
Finally, after many, many snafus, and Sonny Morea from Huntsville running roughshod on the Boeing and GM folks, there was one. The USGS, in a sidebar, constructed a “Grover” from an old vehicle it had, to give astronauts something to train on. Much of this was done near Sunset Crater in Arizona; other major portions along the Rio Grande Gorge in northern New Mexico. I’ve visited both places more than once, though was unaware of the fake moon field NASA created near Sunset Crater.
And, then, there WAS a rover. Finally.
And, three missions that showed every cost overrun on construction was more than worth it. The problems with lunar depth perception are illustrated by some of the photos.
Side note: I have a personal connection of sorts to this part of the tale. When I was a kid, I met Jack Schmitt. I still have an autographed business card of his and an Apollo 17 mission glossy.
In a nice epilogue, Swift talks about the robotic rovers NASA has put on Mars, and how they were inspired by some of the early designs inspired by Bekker, and as articulated by Grumman and Bendix on their lunar rover designs. From there, he talks about NASA plans past and present to contract with private agencies to put a robotic rover on the Moon, whether at the lunar South Pole or elsewhere.
As for Jack Schmitt’s words just before the epilogue? I would be surprised if there’s a man on the Moon before 2030. Going beyond him, I’d be hugely surprised if there’s a man on Mars before 2040. I think Musk, Bezos, et al will realize just how much that costs, even if they want to cut massive corners on crew safety that could either leave someone dying in mission or else dying years early from cancer due to interplanetary radiation. But, that’s another story.
I didn’t know about all the different companies who bid on the final lunar rover project, and on all the prototypes they had done over the years up to that point, including bigger split devices, like a semi with two bobtail-type trailers. Grumman, with its nautilus shell type wheel spokes, also interesting, and for making them from fiberglass and epoxy, not metal.
Nor was I aware of any of the names involved, other than von Braun, whether at NASA, such as Ferenc Pavlics, or the guy who had the soil engineering background mandating how traction would work, the Polish-Canadian-American Mieczyslaw Gregory Bekker.
Next? After Boeing/GM won the contract, NASA started cheating on it, and offloading weight from elsewhere on the Version 2.0 Lunar Module in general to the rover, a physics accounting cheat. It also, from Huntsville not HQ, started dumping other post-contract requests.
That said, all of this was against a backdrop of Congress continuing to slash NASA’s budget, which led to eliminations of missions, which forced it to speed up the timetable for a contract and construction of a rover if there was going to be one.
Finally, after many, many snafus, and Sonny Morea from Huntsville running roughshod on the Boeing and GM folks, there was one. The USGS, in a sidebar, constructed a “Grover” from an old vehicle it had, to give astronauts something to train on. Much of this was done near Sunset Crater in Arizona; other major portions along the Rio Grande Gorge in northern New Mexico. I’ve visited both places more than once, though was unaware of the fake moon field NASA created near Sunset Crater.
And, then, there WAS a rover. Finally.
And, three missions that showed every cost overrun on construction was more than worth it. The problems with lunar depth perception are illustrated by some of the photos.
Side note: I have a personal connection of sorts to this part of the tale. When I was a kid, I met Jack Schmitt. I still have an autographed business card of his and an Apollo 17 mission glossy.
In a nice epilogue, Swift talks about the robotic rovers NASA has put on Mars, and how they were inspired by some of the early designs inspired by Bekker, and as articulated by Grumman and Bendix on their lunar rover designs. From there, he talks about NASA plans past and present to contract with private agencies to put a robotic rover on the Moon, whether at the lunar South Pole or elsewhere.
As for Jack Schmitt’s words just before the epilogue? I would be surprised if there’s a man on the Moon before 2030. Going beyond him, I’d be hugely surprised if there’s a man on Mars before 2040. I think Musk, Bezos, et al will realize just how much that costs, even if they want to cut massive corners on crew safety that could either leave someone dying in mission or else dying years early from cancer due to interplanetary radiation. But, that’s another story.