Author Topic: The Crawler-Transporter thread  (Read 279915 times)

Offline Jester

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The Crawler-Transporter thread
« on: 05/17/2006 01:02 pm »
I'm starting this thread as questions were raised in another thread.

So, first some general info about these Crawlers:

A total of 2 were built by the Marion Power Shovel Co. in the 1960s and used to Transport the mighty Saturn V Rocket, and now used to Transport the Space Shuttle from the VAB to the Launchpad.

KSC Has named them Hans and Franz

They are powered by 16 traction motors, powered by four 1,000 kW generators, driven by two 2,750 hp (2050 kW) diesel engines.
Two 750 kW generators, driven by two 1,065 hp (794 kW) engines, are used for jacking, steering, lighting, and ventilating.
Two 150 kW generators are also available to power the Mobile Launcher Platform.

The crawler consumes 150 US gallons of diesel fuel per mile (350 L/km); its tanks hold 5,000 US gallons (19 m³).

The maximum speed of the Crawler-Transporter is about one mile per hour (1.6 km/h) loaded, or two miles per hour (3 km/h) unloaded

The height of the crawler is 6 meters (20ft) to 8 meters (26 feet) adjustable. The top deck is flat and square, about the size of a baseball infield, 27 meters (90 feet) on a side.

Two operator control cabs, one at each end of the chassis, are used to control all crawler systems.











Offline Jester

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #1 on: 05/17/2006 01:20 pm »
To come back to the bearing overheating problem mentioned in another thread...

The bearing was re-designed during testing at KSC.

During the test runs in the 1960s, while the crawler was making its run, members of the launch team found pieces of bronze and steel on the crawlerway.

A reexamination of Marion's design calculation indicated some other significant facts. The designers had assumed an equal load distribution on all traction support rollers; perfect thrust distribution over the entire bearing, i.e., an axial thrust equivalent to the radial load; and a coefficient of sliding friction of 0.4 (meaning it would take four million pounds of force to move a ten-million-pound object). During the early crawler runs, KSC engineers discovered an unequal load distribution on the traction support rollers. At times as many as four of the eleven rollers on one truck were bearing no load. The thrust, or side load, proved greater than expected. Finally, the crawler tests revealed that the estimated coefficient of sliding friction was far below the actual resistance experienced on the crawlerway. At a crawlerway conference on 27 June 1963, NASA engineers had insisted on a minimum design coefficient of 0.6. In the first runs on the crawlerway's macadam surface, the coefficient reached nearly 1.0.27

A fix for this was to develop a new bearing, a hydraulically lubricated sleeve bearing made of Bearium B-10.
KSC selected the bronze alloy after testing a half-dozen materials at Huntsville.
The new design provided separate bearings for axial thrust and radial loads.
KSC retained in the design the original supporting shafts that housed the bearings.
Although the sleeve bearings would not reduce the amount of friction, they would eliminate the possibility of a sudden, catastrophic failure.
Periodic inspection could determine the rate of wear and need for replacement.
The disadvantages of the sleeve bearings-lubrication difficulties, the inability to predetermine useful life, and a need for more propulsive power because of increased friction - were acceptable.


Offline collectSPACE

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #2 on: 05/17/2006 01:29 pm »
Quote
KSC Has named them Hans and Franz
When the press toured one of the two crawlers in January as part of its 40th anniversary commemoration, we were told that the crawlers did not have names and were referred simply as Transporter Crawler 1 and Transporter Crawler 2. Hans and Franz were described as casual nicknames used by early space program workers that were generally not in use today.

Offline Jester

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #3 on: 05/17/2006 01:31 pm »
Also for the STS-112 Mission, during routine maintenance inspections, cracks were found on four bearings in two JEL (Jacking, Equalization and Leveling) cylinders. Further eddy current inspections indicated that cracks were present on 15 bearings. There are 16 cylinders and 32 bearings per crawler. CT-2 was repaired in order to enable Atlantis' rollout for mission STS-112

Offline Zpoxy

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #4 on: 05/17/2006 10:24 pm »
Quote
collectspace - 17/5/2006  8:16 AM

Quote
KSC Has named them Hans and Franz
Hans and Franz were described as casual nicknames used by early space program workers that were generally not in use today.

That's not quite right either. The names Hans and Franz came from the mid 90's Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name. So it couldn't have been early space program workers that coined the names. And I've never heard anyone from the crawler crews refer to them that way either.

Offline Rocket Guy

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #5 on: 05/17/2006 10:31 pm »
No, he's right. They were called Hans and Franz in the 60s. They talked about it a bit at the anniversary Jan 13th.

Today they are just 1 and 2 as far as I know.

Offline astrobrian

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #6 on: 05/17/2006 11:04 pm »
I would say they need to reinstate the names, nicknames like that are always great to have in my opinion. Fitting names at that for the heavy lifters :)

Offline Chris Bergin

Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #7 on: 05/18/2006 12:55 am »
Quote
collectspace - 17/5/2006  2:16 PM

Hans and Franz were described as casual nicknames used by early space program workers that were generally not in use today.

Didn't know that....and a shame it didn't stick as that's an amusing story.
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Offline Zpoxy

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #8 on: 05/18/2006 01:54 am »
Quote
Ben - 17/5/2006  5:18 PM

No, he's right. They were called Hans and Franz in the 60s. They talked about it a bit at the anniversary Jan 13th.

Today they are just 1 and 2 as far as I know.

I stand corrected. I was working from memory from a Spaceport News article from a few years ago. You learn something new every day.  :)

Offline Flightstar

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #9 on: 05/18/2006 02:02 am »
Legend has it they are named after two dogs owned by one of the German scientists that came over pre-Apollo.

Offline Rocket Guy

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #10 on: 05/18/2006 04:39 am »
:-D


Offline Chris Bergin

Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #11 on: 05/18/2006 10:36 am »
Awwww, I wanna go have a picture taken with a crawler now ;)

What's going on at the side of the VAB Ben? Looks like some sort of tent and construction area?
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Offline zerm

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #12 on: 05/18/2006 05:27 pm »
I recently got a book from off of e-bay that was published by the MSFC Retiree's Assn. and in it there are a large number of "I remember" personal accounts. One recounts how the idea to use the crawler actually came about.

Garland D. Johnson wrote (starting on p122): "...One Monday, when we didn't go to the Cape, I went to my office. In the middle of signing timecards, Bobby Erwin walked into my office with a cup of coffee in his hand. Bobby, a native of Kentucky, was a PFC in the Army on loan to us from the days of ABMA. The week prior to this Monday, Bobby had taken his new bride to Paradise KY to meet his mother and father. As he stood there he said "Garland, you won't believe what I saw last week when I was up at my daddy's farm. Bucyrus-Erie shipped in a strip mining shovel down to my daddy's farm in pieces and put it together there." "It has tracks eight feet high with diesel engines in each track. The platform has no vibration on the table and it maintains the table flat within one quarter of an arc-second." "As soon as Bobby said - "a platform as big as a football field" I made the connection with launching the Saturn V."

Up to that time they'd been wresteling with concepts from water floats to railroad tracks (none of which were workable), and in comes an Army PFC on-loan to MSFC with the answer that was one of the keys to the Apollo program and every other project that uses the mobile launch concept. So, don't thank von Braun or Debus or anyone else who you've ever heard of- the crawler in the mobile launch concept had its seed planted by someone you've probably never heard of. Intresting trivia... eh?

Offline Jim

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #13 on: 05/18/2006 05:32 pm »
Quote
Chris Bergin - 18/5/2006  6:23 AM

Awwww, I wanna go have a picture taken with a crawler now ;)

What's going on at the side of the VAB Ben? Looks like some sort of tent and construction area?

That is the prep area for the materials used in repairing the VAB

Offline sprtnsky

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #14 on: 05/21/2006 06:35 pm »
I'm glad that there is a Crawler-Transporter thread.

While Bucyrus-Erie was the one that designed the CT,, NASA put the project out for bids and Marion won it, from what I rememebr that it still cost 11 million to build, the same as what Bucyrus-Erie first told NASA it would cost..funny how things go around..the new cleats almost cost much alone.

any hints on how to post pic's??

The rock used for the crawlerways is from Alabama, I think from the southern end of the State.




Offline eeergo

Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #15 on: 05/21/2006 07:30 pm »
Quote
sprtnsky - 21/5/2006  8:22 PM


any hints on how to post pic's??




Just click the "reply" button on the bottom right of the screen, and then a box where you can write will appear. Under that box is a button that says "attach a file after posting"... and that's it! :)
-DaviD-

Offline sprtnsky

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #16 on: 05/21/2006 08:09 pm »
construction photo's

Offline Avron

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #17 on: 05/21/2006 11:41 pm »
Cool pic.. looks like a number of generators are installed, but only one of one track unit is on

Offline Bruhn

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #18 on: 05/22/2006 12:13 am »
Quote
sprtnsky - 21/5/2006  1:22 PM

I'm glad that there is a Crawler-Transporter thread.

While Bucyrus-Erie was the one that designed the CT,, NASA put the project out for bids and Marion won it, from what I rememebr that it still cost 11 million to build, the same as what Bucyrus-Erie first told NASA it would cost..funny how things go around..the new cleats almost cost much alone.

any hints on how to post pic's??

The rock used for the crawlerways is from Alabama, I think from the southern end of the State.

Actually, the rocks are taken from the Tennessee river in Alabama which is in the northern part of the state.  At least thats what the tour guide said.  These rocks are used because they are smooth, round, and very hard so they don't crush very easily.

Offline sprtnsky

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Re: The Crawler-Transporter thread
« Reply #19 on: 05/22/2006 02:58 am »
here's a site that someone has taken some time on

http://www.microartwork.com/News/NewsIndex.htm

Tags: CT 
 

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