The Lunar Flyer
After his journey to the moon on Apollo 12, Pete Conrad had every intention of going back on another mission. When he returned from the Ocean of Storms in November of 1969 it was expected there would be another 8 flights to the moon. By the time Apollo 19 or 20 rolled around he fully expected to be the Commander. Whenever he talked about this with fellow astronauts he dreamt that after he landed on the moon he would assemble a small rocket craft and fly in it above lunar craters and rilles. However, by 1970 Conrad knew that he would never return; the program would end with Apollo 17. Furthermore, the four –wheeled lunar rover would be the only vehicle used to traverse the moon’s landscape.
Conrad wasn’t just crazy in imagining that he would fly across the moon’s surface. A device called the Lunar Flying Vehicle (LFV) had been in development for almost five years before Conrad went to the moon. In 1965 Bell Aerosystems had completed a yearlong study to determine if astronauts, once on the moon, could use a small rocket powered craft to quickly go to other points of interest.
You may ask why the need for such a dangerous vehicle? A major problem during lunar landing preparations was the mobility of the astronauts on the surface. A vehicle that could transport an astronaut several miles from the Lunar Module would be considered an extremely effective way to increase the operational parameters of each lunar mission. Simply put, NASA wanted astronauts to see more than the immediate area around the Lunar Module.
One answer to this problem was the lunar rover, a two-man buggy that allowed astronauts to travel several miles from base. Another solution was to give the astronaut a bird’s eye view with the LFV. The LFV would also allow an astronaut to travel a greater distance than the Lunar Rover in less time. This flying marvel would increase the area that an astronaut could explore ten fold and allow astronauts to travel to alternate landing sites that the LM could not safely land at; such as the bottom of craters or rocky plateaus. Furthermore, the LFV would permit flexibility. If the astronauts missed their landing site within a reasonable distance, the LFV would allow a second chance to reach their target.
But clearly the most desirous aspect of using the LFV is that it would have allowed an astronaut to collect a greater variety of samples. It would have also permitted the transport of a scientific experiment in a place where it would be more effective than in the proximity of the LM. The Flyer was most desirable for Geochemists because they could gain long sweeping looks at the terrain. However, Geologists preferred the Lunar Rover because it allowed very close looks at the ground.
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