NASA's Apollo-era crawler, upgraded for Artemis, sets Guinness world record

[Admin]

It's taken seven years, but now it's official: one of NASA's Apollo-era rocket movers is the heaviest self-powered vehicle. Guinness World Records confirmed Crawler-Transporter 2 tipped the scale.

NASA's Apollo-era crawler, upgraded for Artemis, sets Guinness world record : Read more

 

[Helio]

And for the journalist/photographers out there....

The original crawler track was invented by Benjamin Holt. He got with the Best tractor company to install it on one of their tractors. The goal was to give farmers working on boggy ground a way to not, well, get bogged down. Tractor tires could not be made large enough to allow them to work the farm.

A photographer/journalist was present for the demonstration and asked them what they called this thing. That had no answer, but the photographer/journalist responded with, "It looks like a caterpillar." Thus, the Caterpillar company was born, and had a name.

 

[Nighthawke]

From MOONPORT, NASA's journal on how the Kennedy Space Center was Made. The Crawler-Transporter was never considered during the initial studies. The Debus-Davis report concentrated on the rail concept, but the stresses and cost of building the route to be excessive. There was consideration of building a canal system to barge the launch vehicle (The actual LV was still under design) which also had its risks.

It was not until 1962, Albert Zeiler pegged on a proposal by Bucyrus-Erie for a Crawler-Transporter concept. At the time, the rail transport as well as the barge proposals were on the ropes due to major engineering problems.

23 March, B-E contacted the LOD and gave a cost estimate. Thomas Learmont, Bucyrus-Erie's chief design engineer, provided tentative estimates: the crawler, jacks, hydraulic system, and steering mechanisms would cost $3,650,000, the umbilical tower $1,500,000, the box structure (launch platform) $800,000.

On 12-13 June, a LOD conference with industry execs and NASA officials, the Crawler-Transporter was approved for production. B-E was up to their eyeballs in building the worlds largest tracked vehicle.