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Moon Machines...

Sandy G

Sandy G

Retired Member
There's been a series on Discovery Science channel today that's looked at the aspects of the Apollo Moon shots, the engines, the LEM, the Command Module, the software, all of it. I never realized how much of a leap into the unknown this was, how much of it they pretty much made up as they went along, how PRIMITIVE the computers were they used-An Ipod has about 50 TIMES the computing memory the Apollo computer had, f'r instance. They basically did this w/slide rules, brainpower, & "Flying By the Seat of their Pants"....I really wonder if we could do it again today starting from scratch, in our risk-adverse society..Even the Apollo 13 was a triumph, because nobody died, & the machinery was asked to do, & DID, stuff that was totally out of line than what it had been designed for..The LEM was designed to keep 2 guys alive for 50 hours, tops, & the LEM on 13 kept 3 guys alive for 100 hours...A bunch of guys in buzzcuts & skinny ties made it happen...
 
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On Apollo 14 they had to "patch" the software manually. Each "word" was read over the radio and written down and then hand keyed into the computer by Spaceman Mitchell

One error and they would land on the moon at 100 mph
 
The Chicoms say they're gonna go to the Moon. I wish 'em luck. That its been done before is encouraging, but despite the fact we kinda made it up as we went along, we also did it in "Baby Steps", crawled before we walked, & walked before we ran, w/the Mercury & Gemini programs. I think they're wanting to chew it up in one big bite, so to speak. Maybe they CAN pull it off, but I kinda prefer our "Go It Slow" program that emphasized, as much as possible, the safety of the astronauts..
 
I remember going outside in '69 and looking up at the moon while those brave cats were walking around and being amazed, I was only 12. I thought we would be living up there by now.

I also remember those brave souls who gave all they had to get us there.

Gus Grissom, Ed White and Robert Chaffee. <salute>
 
I remember going to the cafeteria at school to watch the 69 landing. I think I was 12 too.

Mark
 
I remember listening to Alan Shepard's flight in grammar school, seemed like it lasted for a long time, but it was only minutes. I was in the Navy when they landed on the moon. The computer couldn't handle it, Armstrong had to take control. The first i phone had more power than those computers, a truly amazing accomplishment. Do you remember they left a car up there?
 
Yep. The Lunar Rover. From some of the films from up there, they must have had a WONDERFUL time..
 
The series is really worth watching!

After seeing the accomplishments of the engineers, weren't many were out of work after the Apollo program ended?
 
An ex-boss of mine was a sub contractor's engineer, the laser reflector thingie? or was it the ? It had something to do with bearings... He was incredibly young to get onto the project. I was reading some old pulp sci-fi (Analog) magazines recently from the 60's, that had a lot of FACT articles on the space program.. The editor was an Engineer by training, and some of the problems encountered in hard vacuum were counter-intuitive, things like vacuum welding of surfaces, galling, and HOW the %^$^%$ do you LUBRICATE something. No less some of the fun that resulted in on-pad explosions... There was a whole ISSUE devoted to just that.

Some of that has to be relearned...

They were baby steps for a reason, one never heard of all the hitches and nasty discoveries they had to conquer by the next flight. A lot of it was: well - we made these assumptions, now lets see if the damn thing REALLY works. Aw shiiiite, it didn't... WHY NOT??? OHHHHHHHH!!!! (crap!!!)

The Chinese, doing an all in one shot, may get some nasty surprises from mother nature...
 
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Thanks for sharing Sandy, a tribute to all the different companies working on a common project, and pushing the literal state of the art and then some. Can do generation indeed.
 
I heard there was a Russian moon rover up there, They sent it up to get there first on the moon but after it landed or crashed comumications failed.. It is a brand new in the box vintage moon machine:D
 
10 myself. I was sick (the flu or something, I still remember the headache). While the amazing thing about it isn't lost on me today, back then I have to say I didn't appreciate it at all. Too young to understand how amazing it was.
 
Sandy G said:
There's been a series on Discovery Science channel today that's looked at the aspects of the Apollo Moon shots, the engines, the LEM, the Command Module, the software, all of it. I never realized how much of a leap into the unknown this was, how much of it they pretty much made up as they went along, how PRIMITIVE the computers were they used-An Ipod has about 50 TIMES the computing memory the Apollo computer had, f'r instance. They basically did this w/slide rules, brainpower, & "Flying By the Seat of their Pants"....I really wonder if we could do it again today starting from scratch, in our risk-adverse society..Even the Apollo 13 was a triumph, because nobody died, & the machinery was asked to do, & DID, stuff that was totally out of line than what it had been designed for..The LEM was designed to keep 2 guys alive for 50 hours, tops, & the LEM on 13 kept 3 guys alive for 100 hours...A bunch of guys in buzzcuts & skinny ties made it happen...
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This wasn't lost on me either- only being nine at the time (well, three days from being nine). To answer your question, Sandy- No. To many OSHA and compliance issues any more. This is a shame- it is extremely difficult for there to be revolutionary progress without substantial risks. I still like the "look" that Gene Krantz had though. The look of a serious-minded and disciplined '60's guy.
 
The spirit of "make it so", to borrow an under-rated phrase from a sci-fi series.

Alas, I can't see it happening today. Too many regulations. OSHA stuff would require a huge bureaucracy, lots of impact studies and stuff that NASA never had to even consider... speaking of which, what about environmental regulations? Wouldn't all those exhaust fumes in the upper atmosphere doom the planet or something? (Of course not, but you'd have to prove they wouldn't. Simply pointing out that they didn't before, would be irrelevant. Don't confuse the issue with facts!)

And then, you couldn't use the old names any more; Apollo is male, and therefore sexist. I'm afraid the culture that put men on the moon is not dead, but it lurks too far away from the realms of government regulators and powers-that-be, to make a moon shot practical. All the excess dross of all the studies and such would drive the cost to levels that the essentially bankrupt USA could never sustain.

As for the Chinese making it, they may well. After all, the US did it before them, so all the Chinese really need to do is ferret out everything left of the blueprint already developed. Throw in modern computing and materials sciences and all the other technology that has already been transferred to them (along with the manufacturing facilities), and yes, no doubt they'll have a few catastrophes along the way, but they'l cover them up until one succeeds, and then trumpet it until the rest of the world is sick of hearing about it. At least they can still afford to try, thanks to the US's insatiable appetite for Made in China junk!
 
tybrad said:
This wasn't lost on me either- only being nine at the time (well, three days from being nine). To answer your question, Sandy- No. To many OSHA and compliance issues any more. This is a shame- it is extremely difficult for there to be revolutionary progress without substantial risks. I still like the "look" that Gene Krantz had though. The look of a serious-minded and disciplined '60's guy.
Click to expand...

Yep. To me, maybe because I grew up then-I was 12 in the summer of '69-the sight of a mature guy w/a flattop buzzcut is very reassuring...Gene had an aura of "I KNOW what I'm doing, don't worry..." that I think was in no small way, a part of the Apollo mission's success...Unflappable, professional, grace under fire, however you wanna say it..
 
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