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THE CRAWLER-TRANSPORTER

The Crawler-Transporter is a massive, larger than life mega-machine that has enormous responsibilities and capabilities in helping us explore space and beyond. But few are aware that the Crawler-Transporter had a long and spectacular history in shaping the world as we know it today . . .

The first mention of the Crawler-Transporter in history takes place in Egypt. The Great Sphinx is a marvel of modern man, and rightly so, but the actual construction and erection of the colossal monument is widely misrepresented. It turns out that the Sphinx was erected in an air conditioned warehouse about 900 miles off the Sahara where the completed project was then loaded on to the Crawler-Transporter.

The crawler’s precision laser and leveling system proved to be the ultimate negotiator for such an important and delicate maneuver. The Crawler-Transporter carefully traversed the great distance at a top speed of one mile per hour. Needless to say, this took a great deal of time, and this is where some scholars believe the phrase 40 days and 40 nights may have originated. The truth may be a riddle for the ages. After successfully delivering and meticulously unloading The Great Sphinx using the separate laser docking system, the operators were pleased to find that the return speed increased to 2 miles/hour and that air conditioning was less than a month away.

The next place the crawler popped up to influence history was in a famous battle between the Romans and Hannibal’s army. While it was widely believed that Hannibal used elephants to cross the Alps- this is only part of the truth. His army didn’t ride elephants over the gargantuan snow caps, but used them as fuel for his Crawler-Transporter. Nothing beats a 131 ft by 114 ft platform to hold your entire army and conquer in style, and Hannibal knew he was on to something when he realized it ran on an economical 125 elephants/mile. Hannibal would be pleased to know that today’s Crawler has been streamlined even further down to 150 gallons of gas per mile, which equates to only 50 elephants or so.

It was centuries before a Crawler-Transporter was seen again. Then in the 1840’s some gold seekers were able to wrangle up a Crawler-Transporter for the long journey west to California. Sure beats covered wagons and gettin’ ambushed by Indians, they thought. Things were going wonderfully in their cross-country trek until they happened upon some unstable areas near Colorado. The enormous 5.4 million pound machine began to generate unimaginable cracks in the ground all around them, and the 49’ers aboard believed they were being taken to the center of the earth. In some ways they were. They were found years later at the bottom of a great gap in the earth, begging to be let off that darned contraption. They never got their gold, but thanks to the Crawler-Transporter, we did get one of the spectacular sights on the planet: the Grand Canyon.

The Crawler-Transporter had assisted in and created some of the world’s most awe-inspiring events and phenomenon- but the great minds of the day realized that it was too awesome a machine for this world. The armies couldn’t fight it, every major monument in the world wanted to use it for relocation, and how many Grand Canyons did we really need?

The best idea was to put it to rest- to rewrite history so that no one knew its overwhelming powers and wait until one day when perhaps its remarkable abilities could be put to use for good again. It was too powerful to be roaming around this frontier, but maybe it could someday help us reach bold new ones, they thought. There were obviously some very prophetic thinkers in the Wild West.

So there it sat until 1965. And just as NASA began exploring those new frontiers, the Crawler-Transporter finally found its calling and took on the invaluable job it has today. The new machine was pretty much built from the ground up and designed by Bucyrus International and built by the Marion Power Shovel Co. at a cost of $14 million each. They still built it to the specs of 2400 tons total weight, 131 ft by 114 ft, with eight tracks, two on each corner. Each track has 57 shoes, and each shoe weighs approximately 1,984 pounds.

The present-day crawler has 16 traction motors, powered by four 1,341 horsepower generators, in turn driven by two 2,750 horsepower Alco diesel engines. Two 1,006 horsepower generators, driven by two 1,065 horsepower engines, are used for jacking, steering, lighting, and ventilating. Two 201 horsepower generators are also available to power the Mobile Launcher Platform. Hannibal would have been jealous- a mobile launcher would have made it an even bigger surprise attack.

The crawler’s tanks hold 5,000 US gallons of diesel fuel, and it burns 150 gal/mi. The top engineer must have driven a 65’ Ford Galaxie to think that these were efficient fuel standards. The crawler is controlled from two control cabs located at either end of the vehicle, and rides at a maximum speed of 1 mile per hour loaded, or 2 miles per hour unloaded, just like it did in ancient Egypt (allegedly).

Kennedy Space Center has been using the same two crawlers since their initial delivery in 1965. In their lifetime, they have traveled more than 2,500 miles. Try getting that kind of longevity from a Chevy Corvair.

NASA will continue to use crawlers when the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010 and the Ares I and Ares V take its place. Due to their age and need to support the heavier Ares V (with its launch umbilical tower), NASA will modify the crawler’s engines in order to have the ability to carry the heavier loads envisioned for the Ares V for both its lunar and, later, planetary roles. That’s exactly what the Wild West prophets were thinking, as well.

NASA quickly figured out that this two ton (plus) Tessie needed its own special road. The Crawlerway is a 130-foot-wide roadway -- almost as broad as an eight-lane freeway. It consists of two 40-foot wide lanes, separated by a 50-foot wide median strip. The Crawlerway has four layers. The Crawler, Mobile Launcher Platform and Space Shuttle with empty external tank weigh about 17 million pounds. The Crawlerway is composed of a top layer of 4-8 inches of river gravel, 4 feet of graded, crushed stone, 2.5 feet of select fill, and 1 foot of compact fill. It needs every bit of it to support that huge weight.

Just ask the 49ers at the bottom of the Grand Canyon . . . .

And so ends the story of the Great Big Machine with the little known history. Our crawler once created eternal mysteries, weakened global empires, and unearthed natural wonders. Now it has the all-important duty of transporting vessels to reach new heights and find great adventures in the uncharted territory of space. But while the rockets and space shuttles claim all the glory and headlines these days, the Crawler-Transporter knows it once was and always will be, as Roger Miller crooned in 1965, “King of the Road.”