Prior to, during and shortly after the United States Apollo missions of some twenty years ago, Waterways Experiments Station, Corps of Engineers, was heavily involved under contract to NASA in conducting laboratory tests and analytical studies to define the mobility capabilities of proposed lunar surface vehicle concepts. Those WES efforts contributed to selection of the metal-elastic wheels successfully used on the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) and, in association with efforts by the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), produced a quantitative description of the high-level mobility capabilities of a concept tracked running gear proposed for future US lunar surface applications (the Elastic Loop Mobility System, or ELMS). This paper reviews highlights of those Apollo-era studies--first, the determination and quantitative characterization of two terrestrial soils each successfully processed to provide a lunar soil simulant (LSS); then, the analysis of results from mobility tests conducted in LSS with several candidate LRV wheels and with several versions of ELMS. The paper then describes capabilities developed since Apollo for use today in analyzing the mobility and soil-working potential of future US LRV's. (kr)


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