I'm more than a bit of a space freak, and I've always loved the crawler transports

[thewayne]

They recently celebrated 40 years of service (there's only two of them) and got a press day to theirselves. One thing that I found particularly cool is that they keep their payload level, even while climbing a hill to the launch pads. "...[the] leveling system keeps the shuttle from deviating, only allowing the top of the orbiter to move in an arc about the diameter of a basketball during its journey -- even as the crawler climbs the short hill to the launch pad."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/crawlers.html

Comments

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

Very cool, thanks for the link. Those have always fascinated me. To think that they weigh 5.5 million pounds without a Saturn V or Shuttle on them. That's some kind of heavy.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

They didn't mention one thing that I've always found quite interesting. Basically the thing is so frickin' heavy that it takes a different path every time it travels because it reduces the rock bed of the path used to sand.

IIRC, they have to be refueled twice during a run, and it just keeps on driving while the fuel truck tops it off.

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

Simply amazing. In a way they feel more amazing than the spacecraft, but perhaps just because it's more approachable to my earthbound self.