Egressing the LM Hatch

[jrkeller]

On Sunday I went to Space Center Houston with my kids. While I was there I saw the LM made famous by the HB's who "measured its hatch" to prove that it was impossible for the astronauts wearing their back packs to get out of. I took about 15 pictures of the thing, including the plaque that states "This is LTA-8, a Lunar Module Test Article used for astronaut training"

Oh, I forgot to mention that this test article is suspended from the ceiling and the hatch is at least 20 feet off the ground. I wonder how they measured that.

Does anyone have a link to a site that gives the actual dimensions of the hatch and the LM that the HBs won't work? Our buddy Cosmic Dave just states that it won't fit.

BTW the way I'm heading off the bed now. I'm still perplexed as to how I'm going to get through my bedroom door. I'm almost 5' 10" and the door is only 2 1/2 feet wide. Don't get me started about getting into the car in the morning.

[JayUtah]

Our buddy "Cosmic" Dave also says the 19-inch wide PLSS was 36 inches wide.

[kucharek]

I just learnt from reading Hall/Shayler's "Soyuz", that a "hatch too small"-problem actually existed some time, but not on the LM.
During Sojuz 4/5, part of the crews were tp be exchanged by EVA (no docking mechanism/tunnel in this early Sojuz). They figured out the hatch was too small for a cosmonaut with a backpack, so the life support stuff was fixed to their legs. Later, the hatch was made a few centimeters wider.
When I'm at home, I can give the exact words. Maybe it's fun for Jay to add it somewhere at Clavius.

Harald

PS: LM hatch size

http://www.apollosaturn.com/Lmnr/ascent.htm 32 inch square
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/apollo.engin.html 42 inch square

8-[

[jrkeller]

Our buddy "Cosmic" Dave also says the 19-inch wide PLSS was 36 inches wide.

Do you have a link to that?

BTW, I was in the Crew and Thermal System Division Building yesterday. This Division handles everything related to heat and breathing. They are in charge of thermal systems, environmental and life support systems, space suits and EVA tools. They also have at least one suit from every major manned program: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle on display. While they are in display cases, it is quite easy to get a decent measurement of the PLSS dimensions, because I could see where the suit was mounted on the backside of the display case which is easy to get to.

I'd say the measurements are about 36 inches tall, 22 inches wide and 24 in depth. The depth is the thicknesses of the PLSS, plus the suit thicknesses. In other words, the total thickness that would have to get out of the door.

I know the new chief of the division and maybe I'll ask him to let get in there and actually measure the PLSS directly.

[JayUtah]

Dave said it in the latest round of ramblings on the Apollo-hoax Yahoo group. Are those web-archived somewhere? I don't have the original message anymore.

I'm reading my measurements off the dimensioned Hamilton Standard drawings for the PLSS outer case. This excludes the thermal fabric cover, but that is at most 0.125 inch thick on either side.