Apollo 11 . . . first lunar landing mission . . . leaves the launch pad. GM’s MARK ON THE MOON When the Apollo 15 astronauts applied power to the Lunar Roving Vehicle to begin man’s first “moon drive,” the impressions the LRV’s unique wire mesh wheels left in the lunar dust became “GM’s Mark on the Moon.” The entire LRV mobility system ~ virtually every- thing that moves on the lunar vehicle - was supplied by GM's Delco Electronics Division-Santa Barbara Operations. Included in the mobility system are: the wire mesh wheels with their chevron-shaped titanium tread strips, the traction drive at each wheel, the suspension, the steering system, the brakes, the hand controller, and the drive control electronics. Using the LRV, the Apollo 15 astronauts were able to travel many times the distance covered by the Apollo 14 astronauts on foot, and gather far more scientific samples. Delco Electronics is mobility systems subcon- tractor to The Boeing Company, the prime contractor for the LRV to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. But lunar mobility is just a part of GM’s contri- bution to the Apollo program. Guiding the astronauts to the moon, to the lunar landing, to the lunar rendezvous, and back to earth through the narrow entry window to splashdown are guidance and navi- gation systems for both the Command Module and Lunar Module, built by GM’s Delco Electronics Division-Milwaukee Operations. These systems are supplied under prime contract to NASA. AC Spark Plug Division igniters spark the ignition of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel of the Apollo rocket’s second and third stage engines which propel the spacecraft into earth orbit and then on to the moon, Detroit. Diesel Allison Division manufactured propellant tanks for the Lunar and Service Modules for the Apollo 7 through 14 missions. New Departure-Hyatt Bearings Division produced some of the high precision bearings used in the guidance and navigation system gyroscopes and in the harmonic drive speed reduction system connected to the LRV wheels. GM’s transportation technology is not earth- bound, but has, in fact, been out of this world.MOON MOBILITY... As mobility system subcontractor for the Roving Vehicle, Delco Electronics supplies the special wire mesh wheels, traction drive systems at each wheel, suspension, steering and brakes, hand controller and drive control electronics. It’s the mobility of the LRV which enables the astronauts to cover considerably greater area than on landing missions without it. They are able to travel over the lunar surface faster and easier, carry heavy and bulky experiments to precise locations, and return with more sam- ples. Riding rather than walking also conserves the astronauts’ energy and thus valuable oxygen supplies, The flight LRV shown above is cradled on a stand, since it is not designed to be operated in earth gravity. The vehicle is 10 feet two inches long, six feet nine inches wide and has a seven foot five inch wheelbase. The four wheels are individu- ally powered by electric motors and driven through novel harmonic drives. Both the front and the rear wheels are steerable, and normal steering uses both sets of wheels, The LRV has a top speed of 8.7 mph, a turning radius of 10 feet two inches using both sets of wheels to steer, ground clearance of about 14 inches, and pitch and roll stability of at least 45 degrees with a full load. Total earth weight of the LRV is about 460 pounds. The two astronauts and their equip- ment add 400 pounds each, and 220 pounds of equipment and experiments and 60 pounds of samples bring fully loaded weight to 1,540 pounds — about 255 pounds in the moon’s 1/6 gravity. The lunar vehicle is delivered to the moon in a storage bay of the descent stage of the Lunar Module. To save space the vehicle’s frame is hinged so the forward and rear sections fold over the center section. Then the four wheels fold over the chassis. One astronaut, such as Apollo 15 Commander David Scott, shown be- low, must be able quickly and easily to deploy, activate, check and operate the vehicle.A “T” handle hand controller, like the one shown below, is used to control the LRV. It operates through the electronic drive control unit which provides steering and speed control to the wheels without any direct mechanical linkage. The controller is pivoted left to turn left, right, to turn right, energizing two separate steering motors for the front and rear wheels. Direction of travel and speed are controlled by pitching the controller forward for forward drive and rearward for reverse. A reverse lock- out switch on the controller must be moved up for operation in reverse. The controller returns to a neutral position when released from a steering command, drive commands are main- tained when the “T” handle is released. To brake the vehicle, the controller is moved rearward about a lower pivot point than that used for speed control and steering. The braking action deactivates the drive motors and forces hinged shoes against a drum, which stops the rotation of the wheel hub about the drive system. A parking brake is engaged if the con- troller is pulled all the way to the rear. For nearly a decade engineers at the Delco Electronics Santa Barbara plant have carried out extensive lunar mobility research and pro- duced hardware to test their concepts. While the LRV program officially took only 17 months from contract award to first delivery, such a schedule wouldn’t have been possible without the extensive research ba ground — much of it involving NASA funding. The early vehicle shown at top is a mobile geological laboratory that was used to plan geological missions for future lunar roving vehicles. It was built by GM at Santa Barbara for the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. The other vehicle shown here was one of the first GM lunar roving vehicle concepts. Design- ed in 1960, the vehicle was built to prove the feasibility of its unusual features on rugged terrain and loose soil. It featured a flexible frame and hub-mounted electric motors driving six specially designed wheels.GM engineers settled on the wheel as the best method of locomotion on the moon, after extensive research with vehicles that walk, tumble, roll and crawl. The wire mesh design proved to be the closest thing to a pneumatic tire in perform- ance, using metal. Considerations pointing to the mesh design included a need for extremely light weight without sacrificing dynamic strength, low rolling resistance (to reduce power needs), good flotation in soft soils, good traction, and imperviousness to the severe lunat environment (+250 degrees F in a vacuum). The LRV’s wire tire combines the best soft soil and dynamic characteristics at minimum weight, and is unaffected by the lunar environ- ment. Its static load is distributed over nearly 180 degrees around the tire, compared to a 360 degree load distribution in a pneumatic tire The mesh is 0.033 inch diameter steel music spring wire, crimped at 3/16 inch intervals, cut into 800 32-inch strands, and then woven by hand (as shown above) forming some 64,000 intersections of wire, and shaped to form a tire body. The body of the tire is mounted to a spun aluminum wheel disc. A special machine had to be developed to crimp the wire at just the right angle without changing its “cross-section” — squashing it. Titanium tread strips are riveted to the mesh in a herringbone pattern, covering about 50% of the surface contact area, The strips provide g00d flotation in soft soil (so the wheel won’t sink in and push the soil ahead of it), are an aid in good traction, and give abrasion resistance. Inside the tire is a lightweight titanium bumper or bump stop, supported by springy titanium rings. The bumper limits deflection of the wheel as it hits bumps on the lunar surface The bumper connects to the wheel disc, provid- i further support for the wheel, and the wheel disc connects to the drive system by means of a titanium hub. The LRV’s wheel, drive and suspension system are shown below, Steering is a modified automotive Ackermann geometry system which prevents wheel scuffing in turns by turn- ing the inner wheel at a greater angle than the outer wheel. Though all four wheels are used for tuming, either set (front or rear) can be manually decoupled so they go only straight ahead while the remaining set provides the steering. Lock-to-lock steering takes about six seconds, somewhat longer than standard auto- motive steering actuation time. The suspension is a parallel arm double tor- sion bar system. The upper torsion bar (not shown) is used primarily as an aid in deployingthe vehicle from its folded position, while the thicker and longer lower torsion bar actually provides vehicle springing. The hydraulic dampers or shock absorbers are specially de. signed to allow the vehicle to be folded for stowage in the Lunar Module The LRV's harmonic drive systems at each wheel are powered by 1/4 hp brush-type DC elec: tric motors. The motor turns a “wave genera- tor” (a set of rollers slightly outof-round) inside a splined tube called a flexspline. The tube has a thin wall so that it actually flexes as the wave generator spins inside of it. The flex- ing action turns an outer ring gear which is connected to the wheel itself The unique advantage of a harmonic drive is its ability to achieve an 80 to 1 gear reduction in one step —for a big weight savings. Using a standard gear box, three sets of planetary gears would be needed to achieve the same gear re- duction, The harmonic drive also allows power to be transmitted to the wheels with the motors and drive systems lubricated and vacuum sealed so they can operate in their own “protected” environment while on the moon. GUIDANCE and NAVIGATION Heart of the Apollo Guidance and Navi gation (G&N) system is the inertial measure. ment unit (shown above), which consists of a gyroscopically stabilized platform mounted within gimbals which allow the spacecraft to move in any direction while the platform remains fixed in inertial space. Accelerometers, which measure changes in velocity, also are mounted on this platform. Signals from the stable platform allow the system’s computer to measure and accumulate changes in the space. craft’s attitude, speed and direction The computer can tell the astronauts at a given time — through a display and keyboard called a DSKY — where they are in space, their present speed, how far they have travelled, the distance to their destination, and what course changes might be necessary to get them there. The computer controls the overall G&N system operation and issues guidance commands to the engines based in part on information from the inertial measurement unit (IMU).Key to the precision of the Apollo guidance and navigation systems are the gyroscopes in the inertial measurement unit. Spinning at 24,000 rpm, the gyros stabilize the inertial plat- form (shown below in schematic form) to a known, fixed reference, such as the center of the earth, or certain stars. Any movement of the spacecraft which results in motion of the platform causes one or more of the gyros to give an error signal. The signal is amplified through a servo assembly to drive motors on the gimbals, which torque the platform back — in microseconds — to its fixed inertial orientation. Jems The gyros, like the one held in the hand of the Delco Electronics technician at left, are as- sembled in super clean rooms where female workers, for instance, may wear lipstick, but no nail polish or face powder. One speck of dust would be enough to unbalance the delicate instrument. A typical Apollo gyro is capable of measuring movement of a wheel rotating at a rate of one revolution per year Temperature, humidity and air pressure in the clean rooms are closely controlled. There is even a slight overpressure in the rooms, so that when a door is opened any tiny dust particles blow out, rather than in. Each person entering the clean room is “vacuumed” in a special entrance corridor. He or she then dons dacron smocks and head covers, and lintless nylon shoe AG&N MISSION On a typical Apollo lunar mission, the GM Guidance and Navigation system in the Command Module is powered up two days before launch and operates continuously until just before splashdown some 12 days after launch. The G&N system in the Lunar Module is not turned on until the spacecraft are in lunar orbit. During launch and earth orbit insertion, the G&N system monitors the performance of the launch vehicle guidance system and provides abort takeover capability for the astronauts, In the second earth orbit, the maneuver called translunar insertion is performed. Under com- mand of the launch guidance system, the third stage rocket is restarted, thrusting the docked spacecraft on a trajectory that will intercept the moon two days and 240,000 miles later. Following this engine firing, the GM Guid- ance and Navigation system takes over. The astronauts uncouple their mother craft, turn around, and extract the Lunar Module from its protective adapter. The third stage rocket thenvents its remaining fuel and heads on a trajec- tory of its own to crash into the moon. The Command Module G&N system carries CEAIT ENTER an optical subsystem consisting of a one-power telescope and 28-power sextant, which are very precise refinements of seafaring navigation in- struments. In the LM, only a one-power tele- scope is provided. The optical systems permit the astronauts to find their position in space relative to the moon and the planets, and make star sightings to realign their gyro-stabilized inertial platform and verify spacecraft attitude, Position and velocity at a given time is called the “state vector” of the spacecraft, shown in the diagram top right. The state vector is updated in the G&N com- puter via radio from mission control periodical- ly throughout the mission. In addition, the astronauts can use the optical subsystem to take navigation “fixes” on stars and earth or moon horizon as shown in the center drawing. In translunar space the stars appear never to change position, but as a spacecraft travels along, the angle between a fixed star and the relatively close planets changes, Precise meas- urement of this changing angle provides a posi- tion fix, and a succession of fixes provide “4 velocity. This onboard navigation capability Y would become critica if communications failed with mission control. The astronauts periodically realign the stable oo platform — to compensate for gyro drift that occurs even in the most precise gyroscopes over a period of time, and to position the acceler- ometers for the most precise measurement of velocity change during thrusting maneuvers, The computer's memory contains the locations of 37 stars and can automatically direct the optical instruments to point at the location where it believes the star to be. The astronaut then adjusts the sextant’s cross-hairs exactly on the star and presses a mark button to enter the sighting into the computer. Two star sightings are required for platform alignment, as shown here at lower right. TMID-COURSE INERTIAL PLATFORM ALIGNMENTDuring the two-day coasting flight to the moon, the GM Guidance and Navigation system may control up to four midcourse corrections. If such corrections are necessary, the G&N system controls the firing of the service propul- sion system (SPS) engine in the Service Module attached to the command ship. When the spacecraft reach the moon, the G&N system controls the SPS engine firing and lunar orbit insertion (LOI), which brakes the spacecraft, allowing them to be captured in a 60 by 170 mile lunar orbit, Then, three orbits later, another G&N-controlled engine bum takes place, Called descent orbit insertion (DOI), it lowers the docked craft into a 10 by 60 mile orbit from which the Lunar Module later will descend to the surface Both the LOI and DOI engine firings are controlled by the GM systems behind the moon (as illustrated above), out of touch with radio or radar contact with earth, so the precision G&N equipment must perform “on its own. The descent orbit firing is so exacting that even a one second overbum would cause lunar im- pact if not corrected. In the 10th lunar orbit, the mission com: mander and the LM pilot enter the landing craft and ready it for the descent. In the 12th orbit, the LM and the Command Service Module will undock and separate, and later in that revolu- tion, the CSM will perform a G&N-controlled engine firing to circularize its orbit at about 60 by 60 miles. Then in the 14th revolution, the GM Gu ance and Navigation system will control the firing of the throttleable descent engine on the LM, braking the landing craft toward the land- ing site. Seconds before this engine burn, called powered descent initiation (PDI), the computer display and keyboard (DSKY) will flash a verb-noun combination, asking the astronauts if they agree the engine should be fired as planned. They acknowledge the query by push- ing the DSKY’s “Proceed” button, and the 12 minute descent begins. At the time of PDI ignition, the LM is travel- ling at about 3,800 statute mph at about 60,000 feet altitude. At about 7,000 feet, the speed has been reduced to about 330 mph, and the G&N system automatically pitches the spacecraft up, so the astronauts can see where they are going. At about 6,000 feet, they can redesignate the landing site by sighting through a grid on the LM window and punching new coordinates into the guidance computer. At about 500 feet altitude, the astronauts can take over semiautomatic control of the descent, using a hand controller. At any time on the way down, they can return complete control of the spacecraft to the G&N computer, or they can take partial or complete control themselves. For the last 120 feet, the spacecraft descends almost vertically, to a gentle touch- down at about three mph, After a two and a half day lunar stay and one 6 hour and two 7 hour traverses on the lunar surface using the Lunar Roving Vehicle. the astronauts prepare to leave the moon. The LM’s G&N system controls the ascent engine firing automatically to insert the ascent stage into lunar orbit. The GM system controls engine firings and displays rendezvous radardata during the rendezvous with the waiting CSM. The photo below shows the LM ascent stage as it closes in for docking with the CSM. When the astronautshave returned with their samples to the mother ship, the LM is jettison- ed. The crew spends another two days in lunar orbit, performing scientific experiments and doing extensive photography of the lunar sur face. Then, nine days after leaving earth, they head home. The G&N system controls trans- earth injection (TEI), another engine firing behind the moon, which replaces the velocity taken out in the lunar orbit insertion bum, and aims the craft toward a rendezvous with earth During a three day trip home, the astronauts may make up to three midcourse corrections, though on most missions, the TEI engine burn was so accurate, only minor corrections were needed. During entry into the earth’s atmos- phere, the GM Guidance and Navigation equip- ment controls speed and attitude by rotating the Command Module about its offset center of gravity to change the direction of aerodynami lift, The system calculates how much and in which direction the spacecraft should be rolled to achieve the desired parachute deployment point, and also displays for the crew their probable splashdown location. Earth entry guidance has been so accurate on many missions, that millions could watch on televi sion as the spacecraft floated under its par chutes to splashdownThe carth-weight version of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) below was built by Delco Electronics for use by NASA astronauts in training exercises. Called the “1-G” trainer because it operates exclusively in the earth’s gravity, the vehicle weighs 950 pounds, more than twice as much as the flight model. Added strength in the frame, wheels, drive motors and suspension system is necessary because on earth the astronauts and their scientific pay-load are six times heavier than their weight on the moon. Because of the added weight and for extend- ed use in training, automobile-type tires. are used for many training operations instead of the wire mesh wheels shown here and used on the flight vehicle. All astronaut interfaces with the vehicle and overall system performance are either dupli- cated or simulated for lunar conditions Switches, controls and systems operate or appear to operate in the same way they would on the moon, and the LRV operates about the way it would on the “lurain.” Some lunar characteristics of a wheeled vehicle, such as overall vehicle dynamics and operating behavior, are difficult to simulate on earth, however. Lunar stopping distance, for example, must be simulated in 1-G, by slightly “degrading” braking performance. GM-built guidance and navigation systems control all major firings of the main engine in the Apollo Service Module and the ascent and descent engines in the Lunar Module, and serve as the astronauts’ only onboard position and nce. These systems have performed with precision on all manned Apotlo missions. Their performance was vital to the deep space rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts whose space- craft was crippled by an oxygen tank explosion. Above, a Deleo Electronics technician per- forms a systems test on an Apollo guidance and navigation system — in a configuration for the Command Module mother ship. Major subsys- tems for the LM system are similar, Key com- ponents of the system are exhaustively tested after manufacture, and then tested as a com- plete unit, After they are installed in a spacecraft, the systems undergo testing in the mated condition at the spacecraft manufacturer's facility, and at Cape Kennedy both before and after the Saturn Five launch vehicle is moved to the pad.For Man there is no rest and no ending. He must go on — conquest beyond conquest. This little planet and its winds and ways, and all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him, Then the planets about him, and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time — still he will be but beginning. H.G, Wells, 1935 “HELP YOURSELF” BOOKLET offered to GM Men and Women Cor