Northrop LSS Lunar Rover RV-1A

American manned lunar rover. Study 1963. The Northrop Lunar Logistic System RV-1A crewed rover of January 1963 had 4 tracks and a range of 2900 km on a 27 day traverse.

The rover was designed to perform scientific missions, and functioned as a tractor with a separate mobile shelter unit.

Four variants were studied. The RV-1A was powered by a lox/lh2 "external combustion engine", providing a range of 2900 km. The RV-1B, RB-2, and RB-3 variants used a 24 kW fuel cell, with ranges of 2000 to 2900 km depending on the design details. The RV-1B was as the RV-1A but with the fuel cell power supply. The RB-2 functioned as a tractor with a separate mobile shelter unit. It could park the mobile shelter and than rove locally or perform scientific missions. In the RB-3 concept, a powered vehicle, a shelter unit, and fuel unit were each separate. Each unit was powered separately to allow split-unit operations. All units could be remote controlled.

Crew Size: 1.