LEAP - Lunar Escape Ambulance and close orbit Pickup design. 8,425 bytes. 167 x 338 pixels.

LEAP was an early 1960's British design for getting disabled astronauts on the lunar surface quickly to lunar orbit for ferrying home. The disabled crew member would be laid horizontally in a cylindrical pressurized capsule. Guidance was by a simple timer.At the necessary moment before the rescue craft passed overhead, the engine on the litter would ignite and send it straight up for 56 seconds, attaining a velocity sufficient to reach the fixed 61 km altitude of the rescue craft orbit. The nozzle would then swivel and fire along the long axis of the litter, accelerating it to the 1570 m/s orbital velocity of the rescue craft. Rendezvous operations and transfer of the crew were up to the rescue craft.

Craft.Crew Size: 1. Total Length: 2.8 m. Maximum Diameter: 0.5 m. Total Habitable Volume: 0.50 m3. Total Mass: 292 kg. Total Payload: 98 kg. Total Propellants: 170 kg. Primary Engine Thrust: 294 kgf. Main Engine Propellants: N2O4/UDMH. Main Engine Isp: 249 sec. Total spacecraft delta v: 2,130 m/s.

• 420 - Carton, D S, Technology of Lunar Exploration, "LEAP", 1961.

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LEAP Profile - Lunar Escape Ambulance and Pickup mission profile. 19,316 bytes. 382 x 218 pixels.

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