Analysis of Brief

My personal analysis of the brief is as follows:  Design a model of a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV)

The Lunar Roving Vehicle should have the following specifications:     Have propulsion units to provide individual drives for both front wheels. Incorporate a central switching console to operate the front wheels. Include a steering mechanism for both front wheels. Have seating capacity for one driver only.

Furthermore:    All main operating features are clearly visible without dismantling. The longest dimension of the LRV cannot exceed 350MM. I believe this shouldnt be a problem as 350mm is quite large in size. Electric power must not exceed 9 volts. This could be a problem depending on the mechanism I choose to use. I will have to use one that doesnt require too much power.

To analyse the project I need to look at the following:

y y y y What materials will be most suitable for my project? What type of design should be used for this project? What type of steering mechanism should I use ? What motors should I use ?

What materials will be most suitable for my project?

The materials I use have to be strong and durable because of the stresses it will experience in outer space. The material must also be very light as it costs a huge amount of money to transport things to space. The material must also be appealing to the eye. Some of these materials would include acrylic, brass and copper etc.

What type of design should be used for this project?

As it is going into space the design needs to be very light and strong. Also as the brief states it needs to be able to turn the front wheels while they are being driven by separate motors. It also needs to be pleasing to the eye as the LRV will be seen by many.

What type of steering mechanism should I use?

The steering mechanism should be very simple. It should also have very few parts as it will be far away from any mechanic or service station. It should also be unique from other people to stand out.

What motors should I use ?

The motors I use should be as small and as light as possible as to not take up much space. They should also use as little electricity as possible as to stay under the 9v limit. They should have high torque as the wheels I am using are quite big and will require a lot of driving. This means my motors may also have to have some sort of gearbox attached to it.

Introduction

Space travel has been one of the most exciting challenges to scientific discovery and technological innervations in recent years. One safe manned space travel had been achieved the focus then centred on moon landing. Central to exploration of the moon was the design and construction of the lunar roving vehicle (LRV), which could be operated by the astronaut. Two of the key considerations in the design of the vehicle were weight and mobility. The desired mobility was achieved through individual wheel motors. Three consecutive models of LRVs were deployed on the moon during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions and at the present Chinese space programme also includes the construction and testing of a new LRV for future journeys and scientific discovery.

History of the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

The concept of a lunar rover predated Apollo, with a 1952-1954 series in Collier's Weekly magazine by Wernher von Braun and others, "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" In this, von Braun, who had come to America from Germany under Operation Paperclip and was a leader at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, described a six-week stay on the Moon, featuring 10-ton tractor trailers for moving supplies.In 1956, Mieczyslaw G. Bekker, a native of Poland and then a professor at the University of Michigan and a consultant to the Land Locomotion Laboratory at the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command, published two books on land locomotion. These books provided much of the theoretical base for future lunar vehicle development.The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle was an electric-powered vehicle designed to operate in the low-gravity vacuum of the Moon and to be capable of traversing the lunar surface, allowing the Apollo astronauts to extend the range of their surface extravehicular activities. Three LRVs were used on the Moon, one on Apollo 15 by astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin, one on Apollo 16 by John Young and Charles Duke, and one on Apollo 17 by Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. The mission Commanders served as the drivers, occupying the left-hand seats of LRVs. The Lunar Roving Vehicle had a mass of 210 kg, which resulted in a lunar weight of 35.0 kg and was designed to hold a payload of an additional 490 kg on the lunar surface. The frame was 3 m long with a wheelbase of 2.3 m. The height of the vehicle was 1.1 m. The frame was made of aluminum alloy tubing welded assemblies and consisted of a three-part chassis that was hinged in the center so it could be folded up and hung in the Lunar Module quad 1 bay. It had two side-by-side foldable seats made of tubular aluminum with nylon webbing and aluminum floor panels. An armrest was mounted between the seats, and each seat had adjustable footrests and a Velcro seat belt. A large mesh dish antenna was mounted on a mast on the front center of the rover. The suspension consisted of a double horizontal wishbone with upper and lower torsion bars and a damper unit between the chassis and upper wishbone. Fully loaded, the LRV had a ground clearance of 35 cm. A T-shaped hand controller situated between the two seats controlled the four drive motors, two steering motors, and brakes. Moving the stick forward powered the LRV forward, left and right turned the vehicle left or right, and pulling backwards activated the brakes. Activating a switch on the handle before pulling back would put the LRV into reverse. Pulling the handle all the way back activated a parking brake. The control and display modules were situated in front of the handle and gave information on the speed, heading, pitch, and power and temperature levels. Navigation was based on continuously recording direction and distance through use of a directional gyro and odometer and feeding this data to a computer that would keep track of the overall direction and distance back to the LM. There was also a Sun-shadow device that could give a manual heading based on the direction of the Sun.

Investigation of solutions
For my research I mostly browsed the internet searching for solutions that would satisfy the brief. I also read through my engineering notes and discussed the project with my teacher. The following are the individual headings that I investigated:

Function The LRV must have propulsion units to provide individual drives for both front wheels. Firstly I had to think of a way to cause this turning motion. There were certain consideration I had to keep in mind while thinking of one such as the fact that it must operate on a 9v battery. I came across some interesting solutions:

Rack and pinion mechanism: To make the steering rotate this method uses a series of gears. This would be a simple solution as it is not very complicated.

Rack and pinion mechanism

The next mechanism I came across was similar to the type of set up you would find in a car. However I found this to be quite complicated and that it would take a lot of time to get right.

Chosen solution.

Solution number 3 is the lunar roving steering mechanism I have chosen. I choose this type of steering mechanism because it is very simple. It also has a large area on the back of it that I could add implements to such as cranes and satellites. This leaves my design very open and gives me a lot of freedom in my design. This project also brings in a lot of engineering skills. e.g. Drilling.

I have chosen this solution because:

y The design has a lot of taught in it and it is pleasing to the eye. y I will use a lot of my engineering skills and I will also learn new ones. y Simple engineering can also be used here because of shaping and fitting like wiring and electronics. y It is a very different design to the other students. y It meets all the criteria required for this project.

List of skills. y Precise marking out y Drilling y Riveting y Soldering y Metal bending y Tapping y Assembly y Design skills y Shaping y Computer skills y Shaping y Finishing e.g. polishing y Lathe work y wiring