Inside the NASA Crawler Transporter - PART 3 of 3
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- This is a guided tour I was given by KSC's Crawler Transporter manager, back in 2000. We go throughout the interior and up on the top where the Mobile Launch platform for Apollo Saturn V and later the Space Shuttle stacks are mounted and taken out to the launch pad.
You can learn more about these amazing machines at: www.nasa.gov/mi...
With special thanks for the kind assistance of Kennedy Space Center PAO
you really come away from this footage with a far better appreciation for the crawler. I've seen it many times in person however this was the first comprehensive video treatment of it I've seen.
Enjoyed the video, found it entertaining that you took so much interest in exhaust tip hahaha
Amazing equipment built for an amazing Saturn V rocket.
@crazyeyedew
NASA site says: 16 traction motors, powered by four 1,341 horsepower (1,000 kW) generators, in turn driven by two 2,750 horsepower (2,050 kW) Alco diesel engines.
Mind boggling stuff from when America was truly great. A giant vehicle built solely to move a 35 story, 1,000,000 horsepower building.
62 feet per gallon. About the same as a 1970 Linclon.
Essentially an Alco diesel electric locomotive with crawler tracks instead of steel wheels. This crawler has the same 5500 total horsepower as the Ill fated Alco Century 855 Union Pacific locomotive.
There were two build back in the mid 60's for Apollo and both are in use today for shuttle duties. What will be their fate with Constellation cancelation is unknown
62 feet/gallon? With that monstrocity? That's pretty good!
The NASA crawler transporters are derivatives of a stripping shovel base. If you want to see what they were originally designed for, then search for videos of the Silver Spade.
They were originally powered by electric motors on the stripping shovels and connected to the power grid by an extension cord that was the diameter of your thigh, but NASA wanted their crawlers to be diesel-electric for obvious reasons.
Great series.
Thanks.
Great vids. I still want to know how they get the launch vehicle from the crawler/transporter MLP onto the launch pad. Or is the MLP the actual pad it launches from? I would think the heat damage would be too great for repeated use of the MLP. If someone knows the details of how that was done I'd appreciate you posting it. Thanks.
+SkyWardDude You've pretty much got the concept. The launch vehicle is built up (stacked) on the Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) in the VAB, the Crawler-Transporter (CT) moves under the MLP, picks it up, and carries it all to the pad. At the pad, the MLP is lowered onto a series of supporting pins and sockets, and the CT slips out from under the MLP. Yes, the MLP has been getting blasted repeatedly since its initial construction. The water cooled, inch-thick deck plates have proven their durability over time, and have protected the two mainframe computers inside the MLP which monitor and control the launch vehicle from initial stacking and checkout through launch. This is a key component of the MLP system. The technology of the 60s didn't permit long distance monitoring of small-signal launch vehicle parameters, so the decision was made to have these computers connect to the launch vehicle through relatively short connections on the MLP, and then transmit the equivalent data to and from computers in the Launch Control Center (LCC), next to the VAB. In addition, the MLP was modified from its initial design with a single large exhaust passage for Apollo, to having 3 smaller openings to match the Shuttle main engines in one opening, and one for each SRB. Tail Service Masts were also added to the decks of the MLPs to support Shuttle launches.
@stoneill1
Wow, had not heard that! Imagine that happening with a 365 foot Saturn V rocket on top!
Sorry about the messed up title at the start, this is 3 of 3.
haha its got an all american alco i wonder if it still smokes like one or did they fix that. thx for the tour
Alcos are supposed to smoke. It's their trademark. They are reliable and robust machines.
@bestamerica i think they are using 2 transporters
The horse power on these is ungodly...something like a million.
I want to know about the wheeled vehicle.
They're called Crawler Transporters. There are two and were built for the Apollo program, then used to move Shuttles to the pad, now being updated to the SLS. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter
The wheeled ones. Not the tracked ones. I saw the video!
how many crawler transporter use now
gamerown,
okay thank
oh if only I had 2500 gal of diesel
9:55... another example of how management likes to supersede the engineers... and of course this is pre-columbia time.
62 feet per gallon! Lol
85.2 gallons per mile, or 4.73 gallons per mile per 1 million pounds gross weight. A car gets about 7.81 gallons per mile per 1 million pounds (that is, a car is much less, about half, as efficient [4000 pound loaded car getting 32 mpg]).