FACT SHEET ON
CRAWLER/TRANSPORTER
CAPE KENNEDY -- The two mammoth Crawler/transporters at the Kennedy Space Center have driven a total of 473 miles in 66 operational moves since the roll-out of Apollo/Saturn 501 in late summer of 1967, including the rol1-out of the moonship, Apollo//Saturn 506.
Transporter No. 1 has driven 244 miles while its sister, Crawler No. 2, has rolled up a total of 229 miles.
The two 6-million-pound tractor-like crawlers have carried a total of 367,000 tons, or three-quarters of a billion pounds in those 66 moves, and have carried heights totaling 23,650 feet, or just under 4-1/2 miles high, an average of 425 feet high per mission.
The Mobile Launcher, carried from the VAB to the pad, a distance of 3-1/2 miles, is 447 feet high and the Mobile Service Structure, transported from its park site to the pad and back by the Transporter, is 402 feet high.
The Mobile Launcher with the empty Saturn 5 weighs approximately 12.6 million pounds at roll-out, and the Mobile Service Structure weighs approximately 11.6 million pounds.
Gas, Oil and Water, Ect!
Normal maintenance of the family car calls for changing oil and lubrication every 2,000 miles or thereabouts The Crawler must change a 400-pound grease drum approximately every 11-1/2 miles (based on usage of 125 pounds each 3-1/2 mile trip from the VAB to the pad.)
Where the family car uses less than five gallons of water in its radiator (unless it's air-cooled), the Crawler needs 500 gallons of water in its six radiators. On the large radiator, a 75-horsepower motor is used to pump water through cooling systems.
The family bus has one engine, with an average horsepower of 150 to 200 horsepower. The Crawler has six diesel engines turning generators that power 16 electric motors, putting out 6,000 horsepower to move the monster.
The Transporter weighs 6 million pound. The family car averages 3,000 pound. So the ratio is a mere 2,000-to-1.
One or two mufflers are sufficient on most cars, but the Transporter has six mufflers, the largest weighing 3,000 pounds and over nine feet long.
The Transporter cannot have a flat tire, but when one of the shoes on the giant caterpillar-like tracks becomes worn it is replaced with a 2,000-pound new shoe, secured with a 100-pound pin.
The Transporter's six diesel engines burn approximately 150 gallons of fuel each hour, and the monster moves at approximately one half to three quarters of a mile per hour. It takes approximately 825 to 1,000 gallons for a 3-1/2-mile trip from the VAB to the Pad.
Autos speed along the highway at rates of 50 to 75 miles per hour, depending on local speed laws, but the Transporter will never go faster than one mile per hour no matter what the local speed laws allow.
Most trucks have a load limit of approximately 36,000 pounds. The Transporter, with the Mobile Launcher and the Saturn on its back, carries a weight of over 12 million pounds, reaching a height of as much as 40 stories.
The Transporter travels on a "Crawlerway" that's as wide as the New Jersey Turnpike.
Copyright 1997-2005 by John
Duncan |