50 lat księżycowego samochodu – historia i konstrukcja Lunar Roving Vehicle

W artykule przybliżono powstanie konceptu pojazdów księżycowych, przebieg badań nad ich konstruowaniem w latach 60. XX wieku oraz rezultat tych prac w postaci stworzenia Lunar Roving Vehicle, który został użyty w trzech ostatnich misjach Programu Apollo. Opisano proces budowy oraz konstrukcję LRV, a także jego znaczący wpływ na przebieg misji w których został użyty.

This article presents a history of Lunar Roving Vehicle which has been used in three final missions of Apollo Program. Article describes the beginning of lunar vehicle concepts in the early 1960s starting from Project Horizon and continued in further NASA projects and individual work of American companies, like e.g. Boeing Corporation or Benidx Corporation. It also describes methods of designing first lunar vehicle prototypes for space programs like e.g. Lunar Logistics Systems, Mobility Laboratory and Mobility Test Articles. In addition there is discussed process of defining requirements which will become a Lunar Roving Vehicle. The article also describes a designing process and problems that Rover met during creation. It contains a description of LRV various systems like mobility, electrical power supply and navigation subsytems. In the end of the paper there is a short summary of impact that LRV made for final Apollo missions in terms of travelled distance and amount of collected lunar samples. The article has been illustrated with various drawings and photos of early lunar vehicle concepts and LRV itself.