Oh
July twentieth marks the 25th
anniversary of the first time a human
stepped upon the moment historians call
the event the most significant science
achievement of all time to prepare for
the Apollo flights astronaut training
included flights and many types of
vehicles including a very unusual one
developed by NASA's Dryden Flight
Research Center in California Dryden
engineers created a vehicle that allowed
astronauts to develop techniques for an
actual landing on the lunar surface this
vehicle was called the lunar landing
research vehicle or ll RV to simulate
conditions on the moon where there's
practically no atmosphere and the
gravity is 116 out of the earth the
vehicle utilized a very efficient
tubular steel construction and an
automatically control jet engine the
counterbalance 56 of the vehicles wait
NASA pilot Joe Walker was the first to
fly in the LRV in October 1964 after the
first LRV concept was thoroughly tested
by Dryden and accepted as a training
device three modified versions were
built these were the lunar landing
training vehicle zor-el TVs like the
earlier ll RVs they were also built by
bell aerosystems of Buffalo New York a
conventional jet engine producing 4,200
pounds of thrust was used for takeoff
then the pilot switch to hydrogen
peroxide thrusters to control the rate
of descent while simulating a moon
landing because of the lack of lunar
atmosphere steep angles were required to
turn the vehicle here with the vehicle
operating on our lunar conditions NASA
pilot Joe Walker regulates the lift
Rockets too so the rate of descent and
make a soft landing
he also had eight small rocket motors
mounted on the side of the craft that
maneuvered the vehicle in flight this
movement allowed the pilot to move
horizontally and simulate the selection
of possible landing sites you can also
simulate the initial portion on the
lunar takeoff
drains lunar landing research vehicles
may have looked more like giant insects
then device style moon flight and
landing techniques but their
contributions the Apollo program were
extremely significant the first person
to walk on the moon Apollo of an
astronaut Neil Armstrong said later the
project would not have been successful
without the type of training and
simulation developed on drains lunar
landing research vehicles tank or tee
days here the eagle has landed