LUCAS@SAGE.PSY.CMU.EDU (08/29/88)
I have a question concerning what seems to have been a missed opportunity in the Apollo program. The "moon buggy" lunar rover vehicle used on the last few Apollo flights was, as I recall, used to take those nice videos of the lunar module liftoffs. Further, the camera was controlled from the ground (I remember discussions of the fact that, when tracking the rising LM, the earth-bound operator had to anticipate the camera motion to account for the propogation delay). These facts seem to imply that (a) there was a direct video downlink from the rover to earth and (b) there was at least some kind of data uplink for the camera controls. Given this, it would seem that it would have been a small matter to also permit ground control of the rover itself. This would have permitted the abandoned rover to be sent out on a one-way camera safari over the hills and far away. Why wasn't this done? I can think of several possible reasons: 1) Nobody thought of it (hard to believe). 2) There wouldn't have been enough battery power left to get very far (but surely they must have planned a healthy reserve when the buggy was occupied). 3) There might have been difficulties tracking the earth with the dish on the back of the buggy (How was this handled during the normal use of the vehicle?). 4) Insufficient time/funds (I seem to remember that the whole rover vehicle project was something of an afterthought). Anybody know the facts? -pete lucas (lucas@psy.cmu.edu)