Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell Dies at 85

 

For those of you who live under a rock (that includes me...!) We have suffered a tragic loss of a precious and irreplaceable commodity.

Apollo 14 crew member Edgar Mitchell has died at 85, one of only 12 men to walked on the surface of the Moon.

The Apollo 14 Luna mission set records almost from the moment the L.E.M.'s pads touched the powdery surface.

The team of Edgar Mitchell and Alan B. Shepard Jr. set mission records for the time of the longest distance traversed on the lunar surface; the largest payload returned from lunar surface (94 pounds of lunar rock and soil), the longest lunar stay time (33 hours). They were also the first to transmit color TV from the lunar surface.

Apollo 11 Astronauts Wore Bras?!

Well not exactly bras but according to THIS Boing Boing article, the Moon surface going suits of Apollo 11 were engineered by International Latex Corporation in Dover, Delaware.  The specs for the suits were a bit daunting.  They had to maintain an oxygen  pressure of about 3.75 pounds per square inch, and still have enough flexibility to move and carry out the work that they needed to do while on the moon's surface.

ILC it seems was no stranger to rubber garments.  They designed and manufactured Playtex bras and girdles.  Even the joints needed at the shoulders, elbows, knees, hips and ankles were designed with bellows type design that allowed the astronauts to move with relatively little effort.

Also from the article:

•  Steel aircraft cables were used throughout the suit to absorb tension forces and help maintain its shape under pressure.  

All in all, a truly advanced design even by today's standards. Check out the pic of Neil Armstrong's suit.

RIP:Frederick J. Doyle, photographic mapping specialist for NASA

I will have to admit that I knew very little about Frederick Doyle past the point of doing high resolution space/luna mapping for NASA / Apollo. As well as helping develop some very sophisticated and advanced spysat photographic equipment.

  From the Washington Post article  

• In 1969, Mr. Doyle became chairman of NASA’s Apollo Orbital Science Photographic Team, and he planned the camera systems and directed orbital science photography for Apollo lunar missions 13 through 17. 

• In 1971, Mr. Doyle received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for development of the Apollo orbital photographic system. He later directed photography projects on Mariner and Viking missions to Mars, Venus and Mercury

Mr Doyle died at 93 April 17th.

May 14th - Skylab Anniversary

May 14  of this year 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of America's first space station.  massing 169,950 pounds, Skylab was launched atop a modified Saturn V rocket. 

Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979.  Due to a constantly descending orbit, Skylab entered the atmosphere and crashed over parts of Australia.  

The space station almost didn't make it.  During launch, a micro-meteor shield detached and  damaged one of the large solar arrays.  The shield also helped maintain temps inside the lab and without most of its power systems  could not maintain comfortable living conditions or electrical systems for life support and to run experiments.  

Skylab hosted three crewed missions during it's active career. 

The first manned mission was Skylab 2 SL-2 (SLM-1). The crew arrived on station at 5/25/73. This mission lasted 28 days. On board were Pete Conrad,  Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin.    

The second mission was Skylab 3 SL-3.  The crew was aboard 7/28/73 and the mission ran for  59 days.  Skylab mission 3's crew was  Alan Bean,  Jack Lousma and  Owen Garriott.  

The final manned mission was Skylab 4 on 11/16/73.  This was the longest running mission lasting     84 days.  4's crew was Gerald Carr, William Pogue and  Edward Gibson.  

Plans were to continue manned mission to Skylab, using the new Shuttle to move the crippled station to a higher orbit and repair the launch damage.  However due to delays, the Shuttle was not available at the needed time and Skylab entered the atmosphere, crashing many parts on Australia.     

May 5th 1961 Alan B. Shepard - First Man From U.S. In Space

Alan Shepard became the first American in space when the Freedom 7 spacecraft lifted off from Florida on May 5, 1961. Not to be one to set on his laurels, Shepard continued with the program and 12 years later, he become the fifth man to walk on the moon.

Now for the nit pickers out there, yes I know -  sub orbital and ballistic, but give it a rest! After all these years, give the man his due.  When he was taken off active flight status, missing his chance at the first Gemini, he continued on in a planning and advisory position.  After surgery to correct an inner ear problem he ones again gained a seat on Apollo 14.   Yeah, I think he had the right stuff. 

Click HERE for the Space.com article

Apollo Era Engines Recovered from the Depths?

From the Miami Herald via Xnewsman and others, is word that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has made good on his promise and has raised an engine thought to be from the Apollo Saturn rocket that launched American astronauts towards the moon. Bezos and NASA on Wednesday that the rusty relics fished from the bottom of the Atlantic may well be parts to two Saturn V F-1 engines of which the Saturn main stage had 5. Bezos says it is difficult to determine which mission they came from, as the serial numbers have corroded off most of the exposed surfaces. NASA is helping track down the information on the engines.

 NASA's Saturn V still holds the record for the only rocket to take humans beyond earth orbit as well as holding the record for largest payload. Fully fueled, the Saturn tipped the scale a 6.5 million pounds. It could loft 260,000 pounds to low Earth orbit (leo) of which 90,000 could be delivered to Moon orbit.

Read more at the WIKI site here And the Miami Herald here

Thanks to Xnewsman for the info

Water On Young Moon Rivaled That of Earth

A study of Luna material brought back to Earth during the 1972 Apollo mission shows evidence that the moon, may contain as much subterranean water as the Earth.  

Estimates have it that Luna's mantle may contain 100 times more water than was previously thought. 

This could be more troublesome than anything however.  The present convention has the moon formed by collision with a Mars sized object and ejecting the moon as part of the collision.  If this is the case though, the the intense heat of the impact would have vaporized on the primordial moon.  

Read more here on Mail Online 

RIP: Dyer Brainerd Holmes

Dyer Brainerd Holmes, director of NASA's manned spaceflight and crucial  advocate for later Apollo program has died at 91 of complications from pneumonia, said a family member.  

Mr. Holmes only spend a couple of years with NASA.  During that time however,  Holmes oversaw the the formation of the original “Mercury Seven”, which included John Glenn who became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth,  plus seeing the formation of the follow on projects Gemini and Apollo. 

Holmes abruptly resigned his position in 1963, reportedly because of meddling by NASA administrator James E. Webb.

Read the complete Washington Post article HERE

Well We Ever Return to the Moon?

Here we have an excellent and very personal short from Andrew Chaikin. Mr. Chaikin witnessed the last Apollo launch and on the anniversary of Apollo 17's mission he makes a good case for returning. His reasoning is that here is another world for all respects and only 3 days away! What better place to train to work and survive on other planets (if we are to go there)than our own back door! Plus it goes without saying that Apollo only scratched the surface in it's exploration of the Moon, there is so much left to be studied in a place that is for all intents from the beginning of our solar system. It's a good vid, check it out!

The Flags Remain!

NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera captured the shadowed side of the flag planted at the Apollo 16 site.

Each of the six Apollo missions to the Moon's surface left a patriotic reminder of the mission - The Stars & Stripes, stiffened by flexible metal strips, standing proudly on the landing site.

In a conversation with a listener, he recalls that Armstrong reported that he observed the Apollo 11's flag being blown over by the blast from Eagle's LAM as it lifted off.

This started some speculation that persisted to today, wondering if Armstrong indeed saw their flag topple and furthermore what fate did the other 5 flags come too.

Well according to my friend and backed up with an article from the NY Daily News, sent in by Xnewsman,

The most recent photos taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera show that all 5 flags do indeed still stand — except the one placed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin July 20, 1969.

As you can see in this amazing photo: Not only is the decent module clearly visible but the shadow of the flag, this one from the Apollo 16 & 17 missions.  Of course if you look closely you can see the LRV or "rover".

Now I can not add any validity to this statement, but it was mentioned that further pictures from the cameras aboard the LRV show some of the other discarded   hardware, not confined to just the PLISS backpacks.  I can not imagine why they would discard helmets, gloves and boots considering that these would almost be safety related items, however it WAS mentioned that these items were also jettisoned.  Someone want to correct me on this statement?!

Oh and before I forget, the complete article is linked to this article's title.
Also check out nasa.gov and the WIKI on the LRO here

Mysteries of Moon Dust...Finally Solved?

Kallamis sent in an interesting note that I found facinating reading, so appologies K. I think others might enjoy the article as well.



From 69 - 72 our astronauts were bringing home cool things from the moon for study. But even before this, they noticed after landing how strange the dust acted on the moon. It seemed to hang too long above the surface after being disturbed, it got into everything and stuck there like it was sticking to tape, and was filled with super fine green and orange glass beads formed from the super heating and cooling following impacts.

Houston discovered that the dust was unusually chemically reactive for what is essentially a hunk of rock. They also found that it was lousy at conducting heat. So bad that the surface on the sun side could be at the boiling water level, and only a few feet below be far below freezing.

Thanks to new technology Geologist Marek Zbik of Queensland university may have figured out what gives the moon dust it's so called pixie dust like qualities. And now it gets good again. He wanted to look closely at the glass beads. These should have been filled with gas or vapor as any other bubble is.

"Instead of gas or vapor," says Zbik, "the lunar bubbles were filled with a highly porous network of alien-looking glassy particles that span the bubbles' interior."
Since nano particles can become statically charged, that would also explain the clinging effect of the dust.

Really interesting reading article.

Now I say we need to go back, and do some drilling. Lets just see what else we don't know yet.

Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2117143,00.html#ixzz1yGpGgNpc

Also check out the WIKI article on Luna regolith and collection here  (editor)

Apollo 11's Saturn V F1 Engine(s) Found!

The F-1 rocket engine designed in the 60s is still able to amaze and out perform engines far far younger. Consider it could produce one and a half million pounds of thrust, 32 million horsepower, and it was capable of gulping down 6,000 pounds of rocket fuel consisting of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second. The huge Saturn V launcher fielded five of these behemoths! What many have forgotten is that the Saturn V was ONLY the first stage! On launch, the Saturn Vs main engines fired all at once, burned for about 2 minutes and 41 seconds. This would lift the whole stack to an altitude of 42 miles. The first stage was then jettisoned, where it fell back to Earth into the ocean.

Amazon founder and space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has announced that the Apollo 11 rocket engines have been found on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. They are now lying laying in water 14,000 feet deep.

Bezos says:

• we're making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them from the ocean floor. We don't know yet what condition these engines might be in - they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see

Bezos points out that the engines are still the property of NASA and they will make the final decision as to where the recovered engines go, however he hopes that if there is more than one recovered, NASA would be gracious enough to allow one to go to the Seattle Museum of Flight.

Saturn V wiki  

Bezos Expeditions

March 13, Anniversary of Apollo 9's Test of LEM Technology

From Time/Life we are treated to a series of images celebrating the various LEMs that NASA built through the years. From wood models to scaled up mock-ups that allowed engineers and astronauts to test full sized machines.

Apollo 8 took men to the moon, orbited and returned. The next target was to put men on the Moon and the mission was moved up to 11. That meant that the LEM has to be engineered from mock ups to a functioning spacecraft. A herculean task under normal conditions, supernatural with the time Grumman and NASA had to work with. Apollo 9 flew a LEM that provided the astronauts a platform to practice rendezvousing with the Lunar Module setting atop the S4-b. Nine's LEM was not meant to fly outside Earth orbit, but was a test bed for many of the procedures and equipment. 10s LEM was fully functional and did fly to Lunar orbit and performed all of the maneuvers that 11s lander was being prepared for. A little known fact is that 10s lander was fully capable of landing, but in a move that many felt was dangerous and put the 10 lander crew in danger, NASA did not fuel the assent module with enough fuel to make orbit, preventing 10's crew being first on the moon. Also 10 was the last Apollo mission with real time audio being fed to the networks. 10's LEM worked very well, but either the assent engines glitched or as in the "official" version, a switch was in the wrong position. The glitch manifested itself as a violent vibration. In truth the accent module maneuvered violently for almost a minute. Mitchell, while regaining control of the craft described to NASA mission control the manner of the malfunction. Being a VERY stress few seconds, Mitchell interjected several rather colorful and extremely descriptive words, much to NASA's chagrin.


Checkout the Time page and photos here

Should the Moon Be Protected Like a National Park?

Now here is something I have really thought a lot about in the past: What steps should the US take to preserve it's Apollo sites on the Moon? There is a fascinating discussion in this Dvice blog article. Here is the way they posit the question:

• the six Apollo landing sites with their landing stages and leftover equipment and astronaut footprints may be hallowed ground to NASA and the U.S., but other moon-bound visitors may not feel the same.

I mean I flinched even when Apollo astronauts cut stuff off the old Surveyor landers and that had only been there for less than what 2 years or so before they got there?  So you can understand that I start getting nervous when considering so old grey hair humpin around on 11's site picking up mementos to take home.....ewwwwwwwwww!

As it was pointed out:

• Does it makes sense to be so sentimental when all we've taken is one small step toward the rest of the stars?

Via The New York Times

Sometimes NASA Can Be One Big Dick!

Hey, check this out! Jim Lovell, yep THAT Jim Lovell has some stuff left over from that flight. You know the one. The something in question is a single notebook page with a checklist on it plus some calculations that were used to save battery life among other things that were instrumental in saving ship and crew. Now after all these years NASA has never professed any interest in this page. So Mr. Lovell sells it. NOW NASA say no. WTF!? I love this line from the Gizmodo article:

• The reality is that NASA has lost or destroyed countless data reels and documents from the Apollo years. Gone, forfuckingever!

Matter of fact NASA has a policy of systematic distruction of watches, gloves and different pieces of hardware!  They still can't find all of the Apollo 8 tapes and the ones they DO have they can't read anymore because they junked the players for those tapes!!!  The last Saturn 5 is laying where they dropped it rusting right into the ground!  So don't give me the bs line that they are worried about posterity, ain't gonna work.   So what line ARE they using?  NASA says there's "nothing to indicate" that the ownership of the page was transferred to Lovell.  How damn insulting is that?!!!  What Lovell is selling stolen notebook pages?!!!

 Mz Shafer, please get your head  out of your deep dark smelly and formulate a sane policy huh? 

The Luna Rover Manual?!

What's 221 pages of geekie reading nirvana? The Apollo Luna Rover Manual that's what! And now, what's even better....you can down load it as a pdf! The pdf not only shows an exploded view of the remarkable battery driven vehicle, but also how to unload it from the LEM and unfold it and plug the sub assemblies together in order to a working ride.

The PDF can be downloaded as a single file or an eight part booklet, all from the NASA site here

The Rover was included as part of the last three Moon 15, 16 and 17. The vehicle was stowed in the decent module of the L.E.M. and each one was abandoned in place at the end of each mission.

Four rovers were built for the last 4 missions. Since the program was canceled before Apollo 18 flew, the final rover was used for spare parts.

Apollo 17's rover traveled a total of 22.30 miles, its' longest single trip was 12.50 miles. Total operating time was 4 hours and 26 minutes and traveled a maximum distance from the LM of 4.7 miles.

Most Detailed Photos of Apollo Landing Sites Taken

Photos taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of Apollo 12, 14 and 17 have proved to be some of the sharpest ever taken of the landing sites.

Photos taken of the Apollo LEM's landing sites, from an altitude as high as 15 miles, clearly show the astronaut's paths as well as the tracks of the Luna "buggy". Experts in Apollo hardware can even identify the PLISS (portable life support system) backpack worn by every astronaut who ventured onto the Luna surface. (due to weight restrictions of the accent module, the packs could not be recovered)

NASA site

Thanks to Dan for the heads up.

Was There Every an Apollo 18?

No you say? Just some science fiction movie maker's fever dream! Well as Xnewsman points out that if we want to get very literal there was indeed an Apollo 18 flight.

In July 1975 there was indeed an Apollo mission. It was the last Apollo mission and the last manned US space mission until the first Space Shuttle flight in April 1981.

This last mission was called the ASTP and it was the first joint U.S./Soviet space flight.

From the WIKI

• The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments (including an engineered eclipse of the Sun by Apollo to allow Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona) and provided useful engineering experience for future joint US/Russian space flights, such as the Shuttle–Mir Program and the International Space Station.

Ultimately though it's main purpose was symbolic; the ASTP was a symbol of that the two superpowers were trying to get along. But it did prove useful to understanding how the two very dissimilar systems could be harnessed to work together.

It was also the only space flight taken by one of the original Mercury 7 astronaut candidates. Deke Slaton was removed from consideration early in the Mercury selection due to a heart irregularity. Not to say that there still wasn't some politics going on. Jack Swigert was removed as a crew member for just such political reasons. I would suggest looking up the Apollo 15 stamp scandal.

Apollo's Edgar Mitchell on Politics

I was reading through Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing today and came across this quote from Apollo 14's Edgar Mitchell commenting on the pettiness of global politics. I could comment or expound, but why bother?

Lost Lunar Orbiter 2 Crash Site Found

The Daily Galaxy has posted an article, that details a Luna orbiter NASA lost in 1967. Well lost is a bit strong. In 1967 Lunar Orbiter 2 was launched with a mission to help with selection of landing sites for the Apollo moon missions. Once the mission was finished (a matter of a few months) NASA ordered the orbiter to crash on the far side of the Moon.

Its landing site was never know however. From the article:

• but now the operators of the LROC have found what they believe is a tell-tale impact site just at the coordinates where the Orbiter should have come down. The Luna Reconnaissance Orbiter scientists are working on confirmation.