Saturn V anecdote

[Eric Mc]

Wrong gas.

I knew it was one of them.

Clever stuff all the same.

[MartG]

Yup

Regenerative cooling as it is known is quite remarkable - in this video of an RS-25 being tested you can see frost formed on the outside of the nozzle while the engine is firing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsMfjFg-Zj0

[Gary C]

Those turbo pumps are amazing, we have 8 Gas circulators to cool our reactor, but even all 8 use less power than one pump.

[jmorgan]

Found this web site to be quite handy, bit deep on the technical side at times but I can gleam enough from it.
http://www.braeunig.us/space/index.htm

Go to "Rocket Propulsion" then "Engine cooling"

Tried to link to the page but it is using frames.

Edited by jmorgan on Tuesday 28th November 09:48

[MartG]

First I've heard of this - a proposal for a version of the Apollo spacecraft to rescue astronauts stranded in Lunar orbit

https://www.wired.com/2012/06/apollo-lunar-orbit-r...

[Eric Mc]

Interesting stuff. It's amazing how many ancilliary mini-programmes were mooted alongside the main Apollo programme.

[jmorgan]

Including a Venus flyby. Manned.

[Beati Dogu]

It's 45 years to the day since Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, blasted off from Pad 39A.

[lost in espace]

Can't recommend Michael Annis' Space Rocket History podcasts enough, he has just finished Apollo 11.

[Eric Mc]

lost in espace said:

Can't recommend Michael Annis' Space Rocket History podcasts enough, he has just finished Apollo 11.

Any link?

[MartG]

Nothing like re-inventing an old concept - this idea has been around since the early '60s

https://www.space.com/39024-study-validates-nanora...

[Eric Mc]

MartG said:

Nothing like re-inventing an old concept - this idea has been around since the early '60s

https://www.space.com/39024-study-validates-nanora...

And not proceeded with at the time because it was considered technically too difficult.

The difference now is that they seem to think that it would be doable with modern engineering, materials and robotics.

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

MartG said:

Nothing like re-inventing an old concept - this idea has been around since the early '60s

https://www.space.com/39024-study-validates-nanora...

And not proceeded with at the time because it was considered technically too difficult.

The difference now is that they seem to think that it would be doable with modern engineering, materials and robotics.

Yup - imagine the size of station they could have had if they hadn't ditched 135 Shuttle tanks into the Indian Ocean

[lost in espace]

Eric Mc said:

lost in espace said:

Can't recommend Michael Annis' Space Rocket History podcasts enough, he has just finished Apollo 11.

Any link?

http://spacerockethistory.com/

It is also on most podcast platforms, itunes.

[Eric Mc]

lost in espace said:

http://spacerockethistory.com/

Thanks.

[MartG]

Stephen Coester...

Before AS-505 Apollo 10 which was the only Apollo to launch from LC-39B we were filling the Pad B 850,000 gallon LH2 tank for the very first time from empty. You can see the fill manifold in the foreground to the right. I was the engineer in charge. This involved offloading an endless stream of 5000 gallon or 10000 gallon tanker trucks. The smaller ones looked like any cylindrical tanker you would see on the road. The big ones were rectangular looking more like a regular trailer. We had five ports so could hook up five tankers at a time. We started flowing through the fill manifold by opening the main LH2 tank valve and the five individual manifold valves and by pressurizing the tankers which forced the LH2 out. We had done this dozens of times on Pad a and had the procedure down pat. I was standing by the long 4" vacuum jacketed manifold when suddenly I hear a pop and saw the line start bending upward about six inches. I immediately had the tankers vent their pressure, closed the main LH2 tank valve and initiated a helium purge into the line to get rid of the flammable hydrogen gas and warm up the line. so much for filling up the LH2 tank. I went back to the engineering trailer and pulled out the manifold drawings for Pad B. They were identical to Pad A except for one seemingly insignificant difference. The designer had changed the material of the pressure carrier or inner pipe of the vacuum jacketed lines from Inconel 718 to 316 stainless steel. Inconel has almost negligible shrinkage at -423 degree temperature while stainless steel can shrink two inches over a forty foot section (if I remember correctly). They had used the same outer jacket bellows that they had used on Pad A and they just weren't adequate on Pad B. So as the inner line shrank the bellows compressed until they got squeezed so much they cracked. This caused air to be sucked into the vacuum jacket and freezing against to cold inner pipe. As the pipes warmed up from the helium purge the solid frozen air expanded rapidly causing big clouds of vapor around the broken pipe. Pretty dramatic and frightening to me standing there with a broken system. The system was down for several weeks while the pipe was cut apart and much larger outer line bellows were installed. Finally with much trepidation I tried again and successfully filled the LH2 tank. It successfully supported AS-505, Skylab 2, 3 and 4 and Apollo Soyez and many Space shuttle launches.

[MartG]

Wow !

[Beati Dogu]

I bought the NASA Saturn V Haynes manual the other day. Honestly, it exits. Only £6 in The Works it was too.

It's actually really interesting and shows the development and construction of the rocket. Highly recommended.

https://haynes.com/en-gb/nasa-saturn-v-owners-work...

[MartG]

Beati Dogu said:

I bought the NASA Saturn V Haynes manual the other day. Honestly, it exits. Only £6 in The Works it was too.

It's actually really interesting and shows the development and construction of the rocket. Highly recommended.

https://haynes.com/en-gb/nasa-saturn-v-owners-work...

It is an excellent book - I hope the same author writes one about the Saturn 1 and 1B

[MartG]

Heads up - a Haynes manual for Skylab has recently been released

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skylab-Owners-Workshop-Ma...