Date: July 3, 2011
Title: Apollo 11 Preparations
Podcaster: Thomas Hofstätter and Leon Dombroski
Organization: :: The Hidden Space Project ::
Link: http://hidden-space.at.tf
Description: This is the second audio of five articles about the mission of Apollo 11. In this audio, the preparations for the mission are described in examples. starting with the general investigation of the moon using the Pinoeer probes, over the helicopter training to the simulations of the landing, the astronauts had to fulfill a number of training lessons, also including special science training, which was necessary for their outisde activity. Although Apollo missions were mostly for presenting advantage over the USSR, the astronauts, also performed science experiments and brought back several pounds of sample rocks, which are examined until now.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions to the podcast, feel free to write me an email to hidden-space (at) gmx (dot) at or visit me at my website at www.hidden-space.at.tf!
Bio: Born in 1993 near Vienna, Austria, Europe. Upper High School with focus on Computer Science.Interested in extreme small and extreme big, devious and uninvestigated things. My main aim is to bring astronomy to public and to establish secular interest in astronomy, physics and mathematics. Host of :: The Hidden Space Project :: at http://hidden-space.at.tf.
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Transcript:
Hello and welcome to this episode of 365 Days of Astronomy. My name is Thomas Hofstätter and I am the hoster of :: The Hidden Space Project :: at www.hidden-space.at.tf.
[Leon:] And I’m Leon Dombroski from the state of Connecticut in the United States.
[Leon:] The first pictures of the back site of the moon were delivered to earth in October 1959 by a Soviet space probe. NASA began research on the Lunar surface in December 1959 by initializing the Ranger project. Their aim was to document the surface and do “hard landings”. That means, the probe hit the surface undecelerated and sent as much images as possible back to earth before bursting. The first Ranger probes failed, but later, several high definition images were recorded.
The next step was the Lunar Orbiter project founded in August 1963. The aim was to modify Ranger probes for orbiting the moon and to investigate the surface. The orbiters mapped all possible landing sites in the Apollo landing zone in high definition.
[Leon:] To test the “soft landing”, NASA engaged the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to produce Lunar landers. Starting 1966, different probes equipped with cameras landed on the moon. There were less problems with launching and landing than with the Ranger probes. Finally Mare Tranquilitatis (engl.: Sea of Tranquility) was chosen as landing site for Apollo 11.
Preparation for the Apollo missions also included computer flight simulations. Because radio signals need about 1.3 seconds from earth to the moon, the possibility of commanding the capsule or orbiter from earth were narrow. On their first day of simulation, the crew of Apollo 11 suffered several crashes. Later, Flight Director Gene Kranz wrote:
[Leon:] We were learning the hard way about the ‘dead man’s box’, the second–critical relationship of velocity, time and altitude where the spacecraft will always hit the surface before Mission Control can react, and call an abort.
[Leon:] Another importance of these simulations was that the situations had to be gaged exactly. An abort would have meant that the mission had been useless and probably the Soviets would have been the first on the moon. Because the simulation facility was not huge enough for all upcoming astronauts, simulations were also planned for nighttime. The Apollo 11 crew usually spent 14 hours a day for simulations because of the time pressure.
A sensitive part of the mission was the touchdown of the Lunar Module (LM). To provide a soft landing on the moon, 16 thrusters were added to the LM which was produced by Bell Aerosystems. It was decided to integrate four legs to provide a solid stay.
[Leon:] Because the LM was primarily developed for vertical movement, the astronauts had to pass through 200 hours of helicopter flight training. On May 6, 1968, Armstrong came in trouble in about 61m of height and he had to eject the vehicle because the two abort systems failed. But Armstrong did not mind and according to his colleagues went back to his office and did some paperwork. He later said about the final seconds of his ejection:
The ejection system threw me somewhat east of the crash, but the wind was from the east and at the time my chute opened I was a bit concerned that I might be drifting down into the fire, but the wind was strong and I actually missed the flames by several hundred feet. After I landed, I got up and walked away. The only damage to me was that I bit my tongue.
[Leon:] Although the Apollo missions were primarily to demonstrate advantage over the USSR due to the Cold War, also science activities were planned to do – especially geology – during the outside activities. For this account, the astronauts had to pass through science lectures in 1964. Also laboratory lessons and excursions to among others the Grand Canyon and the Meteor crater in Arizona were included.
Special outside training took place in Arizona where the astronauts trained under realistic conditions including earing space suits and usage of the later instruments for rock probes.
(Note: An area near Cinder Lake was chosen because of the similarity to the images of the lunar surface. Today’s astronauts’ training e.g. for future Mars missions also takes place in Arizona.)
[Leon:] Indoor training including the LM took place in Building 9 at the Manned Spacecraft Center or Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. At this training, all necessary processes were dealt with. A complete “walk through” took place on June 18, 1969 under full earth gravity. Due to the difficulties of moving with the space suits and collecting samples appeared to be quite complex, another focus was led on the camera equipment. Because the Hasselblad 500C camera was proved on a Mercury mission, NASA asked the Victor Hasselblad Company to modify this camera for lunar missions. The new Hasselblad 500EL was first tested by Gemini astronauts and later integrated into the Apollo space suits.
Among others these procedures needed for outside activity were tested and trained on earth:
- collecting rock samples and stowing them away into sample bags
- documenting the surface via photographs
- positioning the television camera and the high–gain antenna for transmission
- establishing the solar wind collector (SWC)
- arranging other science experiments
[Leon:] An important final step for the mission was to give the Command and Service Modules (CSM) and the Lunar Module (LM) their mission names. Requirement was that the names had to represent the US and be quite easy to identify also with bad radio signals. Finally Julian Scheer, Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, suggested the name “Columbia” for the CSM. The LM was named “Eagle”. To avoid difficulties during the communication between Charlie Duke, who became Capsule Communicator, and the crew the landing site name was determined “Tranquility Base”.
This was indeed an unofficial name which was not mentioned at the final press conference given by Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. It took place on July 5, 1969 under isolation to beware the crew of diseases. At it the astronauts described the mission and reinforced that the mission was for all mankind and the US would not make claims of the territory as well as that the main aim was to show the possibility of bringing a man on the moon and safely back as announced by former President Kennedy.
[Leon:] The rest of the time was used to continue training and go through the mission plan. Moreover the crew trained in zero–gravity to avoid space sickness, an effect of zero– or minimal–gravity on the vestibular mechanism. Therefore they flew airplanes in high altitudes and undertook parable flights in which gravity decreases for up to a few minutes.
Shocking news for the crew and officials at the JSC came on July 15, 1969 when it was released that the USSR had launched a lunar probe – Luna 15 – to take samples back to earth before Apollo 11. Moreover there was apprehension that Luna 15 could come in conflict with the US mission. This apprehensions were objected by the Soviet officials. The Soviet probe though was not able to return lunar samples.
That’s it for today. I hope, you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, write me an email to hidden-space (at) gmx (dot) at or visit me at my website at www.hidden-space.at.tf.
Thanks for listening and clear-skies!
[Leon:] Good bye for now!
New stories are to come soon!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
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