Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

[cjforumadmin]

http://www.bangshift.com/blog/Motorized-Freak-of-the-Week-NASA-s-Crawler-Transporter.html

[squirrel]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

Definitely a purpose built machine!

sometime you could do a story on the mars rovers, still going strong after what, 3 years? one of the guys who works on setting up the robot competitons that my kids are into, works at NASA...his sig on the robotics forum includes the saying "my other car is STILL on Mars"

[Leon]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

They did a show on that thing on Dirty Jobs back in 2007 where they showed Mike Rowe cleaning the grease from the tracks and then regreasing them. He got to drive on end of it, I believe it takes two operators to run the thing.

[Schtauffer]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

And I thought the 80-ton CAT haul truck I used to drive at the quarry was big...

Heck, it only had four steps to get up in it!

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

Having formely transported construction eqipment and heavy machinery, I can say without reservation...

That's one big ass machine right there.

Hell, you could put the Titanic on that beast, and walk it right out of the ocean....if it weren't for all of that pesky water and silty muddy ocean floor.

Would be GREAT for tug-of-war competitions....no way in hell you'd lose.


In all seriousness, that is a good feature for the week. Definitely something that's earned its keep, and will be soon serving the next-gen spacecraft.

[JasonQuartermile]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

I did an article a while ago on the crawlers for Diesel Power magazine. More info and pics here:

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/features/trucks/0705dp_nasa_diesel_shuttle_crawler/index.html

a worthwhile read....has cool facts like the payload capacity of the crawlers.....12.6 MILLION pounds!!

[krusty]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

Somewhat in the same vein, check out this thread: OVERSIZED LOAD ON I-80??? in the LSR Forums on landracing.com vic

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

Woah!
That's one hell of a trailer and I'm guessing that Peterbuilt pulling the whole mess is pretty stout.

I've got a local oddity come next week that's along these lines.

Brian

[AllenK]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

I wonder how much the guys who maintain that thing make? You know they're meticulous!

[chrriff]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

I have a brother in law that works for NASA in Florida. All the time I was growing up,I never exactly knew what he did. I recently asked my brother,who also lives in Fl,what my Brother in laws job was for NASA. Wouldnt ya know it,hes a generator repair specialist on that crawler??!!

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

Woah!
That's one hell of a trailer and I'm guessing that Peterbuilt pulling the whole mess is pretty stout.

I've got a local oddity come next week that's along these lines.

Brian

Yeah, that Pete is powered by at least a 600hp Caterpillar...maybe a Cummins, possibly a "K"-model.....you should know what I mean, Brian.

Having those 2 KW's behind pushing it helps, too.

Those huge, heavy loads are work....but they're FUN.

Pay pretty damn good, too.

[IndyShiftman]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

I wonder what it would bring on ebay? Or Barrett Jackson? ;D

[tomscj6]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

a former driver of this rig is a member of the Bonneville 200 MPH club--- Ken Kelly, he drives a Blown Fuel Modified Roadster now.
Tom

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Motorized Freak of the Week: NASA's Crawler-Transporter

Cool, perhaps he'll find his way over and weigh in on this?

BTW, nice to see another Stewart around these parts.... ;D