Project Apollo - 50 years

[Eric Mc]

gl20 said:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6UuRCwsGugg

Found this on my suggested YouTube videos (amongst lots of other Apollo Concorde stuff!). What makes this different is it’s a documentary made before rather than after the event. Filmed just 3 years before Apollo 11 when there was clearly so much to still work out (And so much to change, like having just one astronaut walk on the moon (3:30)) that it makes it seem all the more incredible than the many retrospective documentaries. You can imagine watching it at the time and feeling sceptical about them hitting the ‘end of the decade’ target.

Off to watch some of the others now.

The idea of having one astronaut out on the surface whilst the other kept watch inside the Lunar Module was considered an essential safety aspect of the original mission plan. Once NASA began to be put under pressure by the scientific community that Apollo should carry out extensive science work on the moon - and later carry a rover and stay more than a few hours on the moon, the notion that only one astronaut should leave the LM at a time was abandoned.

[SCEtoAUX]

Incredible times, brave men, and nothing annoys me more than the idiots who don't believe it happened.

I was born in 1963, and whilst I don't remember Apollo 11, I remember Apollo 13 vividly. Me and my Mum watching TV and desperately hoping they'd make it home.

I also remember when Charlie Duke and John Young of Apollo 16 found what looked like to be rust on a rock, and therefore raising the possibility of water on the moon. I wrote about it next day in school and can picture myself in the exact classroom to this day.

Another fond memory is when my Dad brought me home a model of the Saturn V from when he was in London at the Motor Show.

Back to Apollo 8 though, and I've just watched a documentary on the mission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_RDqPQ-qg - The bit that really stuck with me was Frank Borman's wife, Susan, at 40:10 telling how she asked Chris Craft what the chances were of her husband coming home... Well worth watching that little bit if nothing else.

[Eric Mc]

I'm a few years older and I remember ALL the Apollo missions. In fact, one of my first clear "news headline" memories is that of the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967.

So I was following Apollo even before they had flown any missions.

In Christmas 1967, I was given this annual -



I've still got it.

[Hereward]

Sorry if it’s already been covered but any talk of a rover visiting an Apollo landing site?

I would die a happy man to see HD images from a lunar rover as it approached, say, Apollo 11’s site, seeing a bleached US flag and the hardware remnants and human footprints. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

[Gameface]

Eric Mc said:

I'm a few years older and I remember ALL the Apollo missions. In fact, one of my first clear "news headline" memories is that of the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967.

So I was following Apollo even before they had flown any missions.

In Christmas 1967, I was given this annual -



I've still got it.

Have you finished it yet?

[gl20]

Hereward said:

Sorry if it’s already been covered but any talk of a rover visiting an Apollo landing site?

I would die a happy man to see HD images from a lunar rover as it approached, say, Apollo 11’s site, seeing a bleached US flag and the hardware remnants and human footprints. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Real coincidence as I was just wondering the exact same and did a bit of googling.

Firstly if you’re thinking of doing it yourself then you need to read this NASA document first. They’ve gone to some lengths to provide guidelines on how to preserve these sites (even though all the landings were faked )

https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/617743main_NASA-USG_LUNAR...

Then it seems at least one privateer was looking to do this fairly recently but assume it’s still on the drawing board

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/...

[Eric Mc]

Gameface said:

Have you finished it yet?

Hee hee. I think I finished it the day I took it from under the Christmas tree.

I still dig into it from time to time (the book - not the Christmas tree).

[Hereward]

gl20 said:

Hereward said:

Sorry if it’s already been covered but any talk of a rover visiting an Apollo landing site?

I would die a happy man to see HD images from a lunar rover as it approached, say, Apollo 11’s site, seeing a bleached US flag and the hardware remnants and human footprints. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Real coincidence as I was just wondering the exact same and did a bit of googling.

Firstly if you’re thinking of doing it yourself then you need to read this NASA document first. They’ve gone to some lengths to provide guidelines on how to preserve these sites (even though all the landings were faked )

https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/617743main_NASA-USG_LUNAR...

Then it seems at least one privateer was looking to do this fairly recently but assume it’s still on the drawing board

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/...

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing.

Due to the lack of fresh scientific value it would yield I can't see this being done by a nation, other than USA for nostalgia's sake. Let's just hope someone like Bezos chucks some money at a vanity project like this.

[Beati Dogu]

Depends on his divorce settlement.

[kuro]

For those who haven't seen it, I watched The Last Man on The Moon on Netflix last night. Excellent film on Gene Cernan's recollections of the Gemini and Apollo projects.

[Eric Mc]

The book is good too. I've read it numerous times.

[kuro]

Eric, maybe you can answer this.

I've seen a lot of conspiracy loons picking up on the photos of the LEM looking like it was knocked up in someones shed. They conveniently overlook the photos of the internal construction but why was the exterior panelling so poorly finished?

[MartG]

The ascent stage exterior was made up of very thin panels, which crinkled very easily - the pic below shows damage to the rear panel caused by blast from the ascent engine



The descent stage was covered in mylar film insulation, which again wrinkled very easily during assembly

[Eric Mc]

kuro said:

Eric, maybe you can answer this.

I've seen a lot of conspiracy loons picking up on the photos of the LEM looking like it was knocked up in someones shed. They conveniently overlook the photos of the internal construction but why was the exterior panelling so poorly finished?

What is your definition of "poorly finished"?

It was not designed to look good. It was a piece of technology of which the shape, structure and appearance was 100% based around what it was designed to do. One of the main considerations was weight so nothing was put into the design that added unnecessary weight and every component, including the external aluminium, was pared to the absolute minimum. That is why the ascent section has a slightly buckled look to it - the aluminium was so thin it wasn't much more than heavy duty foil.

[Krikkit]

I'm glad there's a thread on this, I started again with my Apollo obsession over xmas.

I found this on amazon and it's excellent, although it's just a professional print of a document which is available from NASA anyway, it's nice to have it bound.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1935700707/ref...

[RizzoTheRat]

kuro said:

For those who haven't seen it, I watched The Last Man on The Moon on Netflix last night. Excellent film on Gene Cernan's recollections of the Gemini and Apollo projects.

Bugger, I don't have Netflix. Agree with Eric that the book is excellent.

SCEtoAUX said:

Back to Apollo 8 though, and I've just watched a documentary on the mission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_RDqPQ-qg - The bit that really stuck with me was Frank Borman's wife, Susan, at 40:10 telling how she asked Chris Craft what the chances were of her husband coming home... Well worth watching that little bit if nothing else.

Quite a few years later, but Chris Hadfields Astronauts Guide To Life On Earth is a very good read. Interesting they wargamed various scenarios and brought his wife in on the one where they looked at how they'd deal with serious injury or death during his ISS mission. She had originally planned to go off on a long holiday while he was up there but ended up changing plans based on this so she would be available to break the news to their kids if anything happened.

[Eric Mc]

They called it the "Death Watch" and was very much part of NASA's planning during the Shuttle Era.

Airfix are -re-releasing their Saturn V, Lunar Module and astronaut kits/sets for 2019.

[kuro]

Eric Mc said:

kuro said:

Eric, maybe you can answer this.

I've seen a lot of conspiracy loons picking up on the photos of the LEM looking like it was knocked up in someones shed. They conveniently overlook the photos of the internal construction but why was the exterior panelling so poorly finished?

What is your definition of "poorly finished"?

It was not designed to look good. It was a piece of technology of which the shape, structure and appearance was 100% based around what it was designed to do. One of the main considerations was weight so nothing was put into the design that added unnecessary weight and every component, including the external aluminium, was pared to the absolute minimum. That is why the ascent section has a slightly buckled look to it - the aluminium was so thin it wasn't much more than heavy duty foil.

I must admit, I had never looked at the LEM that closely before and it's a bit of an eye opener. The photo of the Apollo 16 ascent stage above is a good illustration as are the ones below.

Conspiracists will of course look at these and try to convince us all that the LEM was made of cardboard and fail to mention the internal structure.

[Krikkit]

The LEM is a beautiful example of design for a function above anything else - no aerodynamics to contend with, so make it as light and functional as needed.

[MartG]

Naked LM

Ascent stage



Descent stage



Note the tank ( red ) in the centre of the panel which is covered by the bump in the previous post