How to transport 3000 tons of rockets?

NASA hired a group of miners to help launch rockets, which sounds like a joke, but when Americans tried to land on the moon in the mid-Kloc-0/960s, they did it with the help of coal miners and mining industrial machinery. At that time, NASA had just completed the design of Saturn 5 rocket, which weighed 3,000 tons and would help people realize their dream of landing on the moon for the first time, but they had not figured out a way to transport this huge rocket from the assembly workshop to the launch pad.

It seems that the best choice is railway, or digging canals and transporting heavy rockets by barge. However, barges involve many engineering challenges, such as which propulsion and steering methods to use, and how to ensure the stable platform of the rocket during the movement. After an in-depth study of elevators used in offshore oil drilling platforms along the Gulf of Mexico, these ideas were completely rejected.

American Mechanical Foundry Company is one of the largest manufacturers of mechanical equipment in the United States, and its products cover everything from gardening equipment to atomic reactors to yachts. 1 June, 9621put forward a scheme, which involves the use of railway barge combination, in which the weight of the rocket is supported by the barge, but propelled by the rail, which can greatly improve the stability during transportation.

While NASA was preparing to further study the details of this plan, the deputy director of the Future Launch System Research Office received a phone call from Barry Schlenk, a representative of Celos-Yili, a mining equipment manufacturer (the company still holds the record of "the best earthmoving machinery"-a giant excavator with a self-weight of 65,438+02,000 tons and a shovel capable of digging hundreds of tons of earth and stone, which was built at 65,438+090. Schlenk heard about NASA's traffic problems and offered to help. He sent a photo of the giant excavator made by NASA, which seemed to meet their needs.

In late February of the same year, a group of engineers from the Launch Operation Bureau went to an open-pit coal mine in Mullenberg County, Kentucky, to watch the operation of the crawler steam-powered excavator. Engineers watched in awe as the 2,700-ton crawler scooped up dozens of tons of coal and rocks and carried them away easily. The working platform is stabilized by four-corner hydraulic cylinders, and there is almost no shaking. Nearby, they saw another crawler-type steam-powered excavator built for Peabody Coal Company, whose load-bearing capacity exceeded the overall expected weight of Saturn V launch vehicle, space shuttle and its supporting equipment.

In the 1960 s, giant crawler-type steam-powered excavators were widely used in American open-pit coal mines.

Representatives of the Launch Operations Bureau were impressed by the potential of crawler excavators, but when NASA planned to make a deal with Bucyros-Erie, a company that manufactures tracked rocket transport vehicles, Marion Power Shovel Co., Ltd. of Ohio protested. They urged NASA to use competitive bidding to award the contract to the lowest bidder. Twenty-two industrial companies sent representatives to attend a procurement meeting, but only two companies submitted proposals-Marion bid $8 million, Bicyrus-Yili bid 1 1 ten thousand dollars.