Originally Posted by
what next
Some things are simple, even when building spacecraft. Add a hinge at the base of each leg and a simple mechanism, in zero gravity rubber bands would be sufficient, to extend them once on the way to the moon. Worked perfectly well 58 years ago with Surveyor 1 (
https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/oth...ay_26_1966.pdf). Even the Chinese patent, and they seem to be the only ones remaining who still master the art of landing things on the Moon successfully, has expired, so could have been used (
https://patents.google.com/patent/CN102092484B/en).
But of course, if you want to reinvent the wheel by building a spacecraft with a very high centre of gravity and a narrow landing gear, spaceflight suddenly becomes difficult again.
Does this rubber remain flexible at absolute zero temp? How does it react in direct sunlight? Like I said it all needs testing and it needs to fit in the budget. Any extra mass it adds will either mean more propellant is required or more performance from the engines. Or you ditch some of the science payload, which then means you've lost income from the payload customer, more budget constraints.
There is a very good reason whu Surveyor and Odyseus are different shapes, Surveyor didn't need to collect sunlight from a very high/low polar attitude, Odyseus did/does. A tall design allowed the solar panels to be mounted vertically, orientated in the best position to catch the most sunlight. No extending solar panels with complex unreeling or deployment required. Very simple just stick em on the side of the spacecraft.
All spacecraft are a compromise.
Edit, thanks for the link to the Surveyor mission. I couldn't find any references to rubber bands, only pyrotechnics and aircraft style shock absorbers, no wonder it was so expensive. 😁