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Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

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  • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

    All of the recordings of data, conversations, course corrections, system and equipment tests, etc. It's so impressive how expansive it all is and very impressing to think they had the foresight, ability, storage, coordination that massive to preserve it all.

    When I see things like this makes me depressed to think of everything that was lost when the library at Alexandria burned to the ground.

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    • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

      This was probably the "best worst case scenario" for this situation:

      112:56:30 Aldrin Hous - Houston, Tranquility. Do you have a way of showing the configuration of the engine arm circuit breaker? Over. The reason I'm asking is because the end of it appears to be broken off. I think we can push it back in again. I'm not sure we could pull it out if we pushed it in, though. Over.
      112:56:57 Mission Control Roger. We copy. Stand by please.
      112:57:23 Mission Control Tranquility Base, this is Houston. Our telemetry shows the engine arm circuit breaker in the OPEN position at the present time. We want you to leave it open until it is nominally scheduled to be pushed in, which is later on. Over.

      What a thing to find just before your sleep period. Combined with the cramped quarters, no wonder Neil didn't sleep well overnight.
      “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

      Live Radio from 100.3

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      • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

        I somehow forgot it was built into the flight plan for them to do a second depress and throw their life support packs onto the surface around 114:11:00.

        114:18:33 Mission Control Roger, Tranquility. We observed your equipment jettison on the TV, and the passive seismic experiment recorded shocks when each PLSS hit the surface. Over.
        114:18:49 Armstrong You can't get away with anything anymore, can you?
        “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

        Live Radio from 100.3

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        • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

          1:45 from lunar ascent
          Cornell University
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          • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

            Buzz and Houston back and forth about using Alpharetz (α Andromedae) rather than Capella to orient the inertial guidance has this interesting comment:

            "At this point, Buzz is performing an alignment of the LM's inertial platform. Rather than the traditional Program 52, which requires sighting two stars through the AOT, Program 57 is used. All platform alignments require determining the exact position of two references is space, which is all that is necessary to determine the platforms orientation to any reference. Normally, stars are used as the references, as they combine the necessary quality of being in fixed, well-defined locations in the sky. Program 57 does use one star for its orientation, but the fact the LM is on the surface allows the platform to use another well understood reference: the gravity field of the moon. Thus, performing a fix on a star, and sensing the gravity vector for its second directional reference supplies all the information necessary for the computer to align the platform to a known orientation."

            Nice, highly simplified diagram of LM control:

            Last edited by Kepler; 07-21-2019, 11:21 AM.
            Cornell University
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            • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

              Originally posted by Kepler View Post
              Gene Kranz was 35 as Flight Director.



              He is still alive.
              Flight controllers, as a whole, are pretty young. The stress is pretty crazy, and the home life is hard. I work ISS, which has been 24/7 since 2000. I worked 11p-7a on my first Christmas as a married man. My wife was ... not happy but very understanding. I'm almost 41 and am easily in the oldest 25% of the ISS flight controller cadre in Huntsville. (I'm probably also older than half of the ISS flight directors.)

              My favorite are the two ETHOS flight controllers in Houston who're married to each other. They often hand the console over to each other, which I'm guessing is the kindness of their flight lead to assign them a time every day for a week where they'll see each other.

              GFM
              Geof F. Morris
              UAH BSE MAE 2002
              UAHHockey.com

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              • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                I skimmed the audio transcript coming up, but couldn't find the exact moment they got to arming the engine circuit (that snapped off last night) during the LM ascent startup, but there was this exchange that it didn't concern them activating the circuit:

                123:20:47 Mission Control Tranquility, Houston. For your information, the circuitry looks real fine on that ascent engine arm circuit breaker.
                123:20:58 Aldrin Roger. I don't think I could get it out now if I wanted to.
                Last edited by aparch; 07-21-2019, 12:47 PM.
                “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                Live Radio from 100.3

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                • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                  Also, not only were there teams of people calculating their exact positioning with slide rules, maps, and arithmetic, but even minute details were so well planned out ahead of time:

                  123:05:45 Mission Control Columbia, Houston. About 3 minutes to LOS, and I have your consumables update.
                  123:05:54 Collins Ready to copy.
                  123:05:55 Mission Control Roger. At 123 plus 00, RCS total minus 7 percent, Alfa minus 12 percent, Bravo plus 4.5, Charlie minus 7, Delta minus 6.5. Your hydrogen total minus 1.4 pounds, oxygen - oxygen plus 1.7. Over.
                  123:06:41 Collins Whoever figured those hydrogens and oxygens out a couple of days ago must have known what he was doing.
                  123:06:47 Mission Control Okay. I think I read that oxygen - it's a plus 17 pounds.
                  123:06:55 Collins Roger. Still close.
                  “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                  Live Radio from 100.3

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                  • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                    More Dad jokes from Aldrin:

                    124:04:45 Mission Control Tranquility Base, Houston.
                    124:04:51 Aldrin Roger. Go ahead.
                    124:04:52 Mission Control Roger. Our guidance recommendation is PGNS, and you're cleared for takeoff.
                    124:05:02 Aldrin Roger. Understand. We're number 1 on the runway.
                    124:05:06 Mission Control Roger.
                    “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                    Live Radio from 100.3

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                    • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                      Number one on the runway...HA!
                      That's fantastic.

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                      • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                        125:46:55 Armstrong ... Got that cockpit all cleaned up so that we got places for all our trash, Mike?
                        125:47:06 Collins ...
                        125:47:26 Armstrong Yes, we got them all over us - look like chimney sweeps.
                        “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                        Live Radio from 100.3

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                        • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                          You can tell the crew is tired as the jokes are getting better/worse:

                          127:21:35 Aldrin Oh, I've got him.
                          127:21:50 Aldrin ...
                          127:21:58 Armstrong I've got him now, too.
                          127:22:07 Aldrin Sure enough.
                          127:22:17 Collins Well, I see you don't have any landing gear.
                          127:22:21 Armstrong That's good.
                          127:22:25 Collins ...
                          127:22:34 Collins You're not confused on which end to dock with, are you?



                          127:25:38 Armstrong One of those two bright spots is bound to be Mike.
                          127:25:43 Aldrin How about picking the closest one?
                          127:25:51 Armstrong Good idea.
                          “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                          Live Radio from 100.3

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                          • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                            It's truly impressive that they pulled off that mission without any real sleep. Could you nap on the moon? I could not.

                            GFM
                            Geof F. Morris
                            UAH BSE MAE 2002
                            UAHHockey.com

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                            • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                              Originally posted by gfmorris View Post
                              It's truly impressive that they pulled off that mission without any real sleep. Could you nap on the moon? I could not.

                              GFM
                              I don't think I could either; and to think that the 15, 16, and 17 missions spent three days on the moon.

                              Looking through the audio transcript this morning during their night on the Moon, and there was a note from the Apollo Public Relations audio that Neil's heart rate kept dipping into the 50's like he was falling asleep, but it wouldn't stay there long as he must have kept waking up. And Buzz didn't have his heart monitors attached (for likely the same reason).
                              “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                              Live Radio from 100.3

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                              • Re: Apollo 11 - 50 years on.

                                Some more audio gems from this afternoon's rendezvous.

                                [Some housekeeping/toilet humor]

                                128:40:11 Aldrin Houston, Eagle. Over.
                                128:40:14 Mission Control Eagle, Houston. Go.
                                128:40:20 Aldrin Roger. It doesn't appear as though the red hose is going to be much of a competitor to the leading vacuum cleaner brands. Over.


                                And then apparently one (or both) forgot to stop at a gas station before docking with the CM. While they were moving items from the LM into the CM, I think they pranked Michael Collins.
                                129:04:08 Aldrin Now, here are a couple of bags - and I think it's self-explanatory what goes in them.
                                129:04:15 Armstrong Yes.
                                129:04:18 Aldrin ... water.
                                129:04:41 Aldrin Now, where are those things?
                                129:04:44 Armstrong They're at the over ...
                                129:04:55 Aldrin Maybe I could slide out of here ...
                                129:05:20 Aldrin Hey, Michelle, you all tied up there?
                                129:05:25 Collins ...
                                129:05:27 Aldrin Get ready for those million-dollar boxes. Got a lot of weight; now, watch it.
                                ...
                                129:07:19 Aldrin ...
                                129:07:20 Armstrong What?
                                129:07:21 Aldrin ...
                                129:07:24 Armstrong Get some tape.
                                129:07:26 Aldrin Yes.
                                129:07:29 Armstrong Still got some here?
                                129:07:31 Aldrin Yes.
                                129:07:31 Collins ...
                                129:07:35 Armstrong Okay.
                                129:08:54 Armstrong Do you want to vacuum off any of those – those ... spills or anything?
                                129:09:07 Aldrin Well, that's ...
                                129:09:22 Armstrong Oh, the tape, I guess.
                                129:09:25 Aldrin Want tape?
                                129:09:26 Armstrong Yes, please.
                                129:09:27 Aldrin Here you are.
                                ...
                                129:11:42 Aldrin Say, you did get a couple of hard ones in there, didn't you?
                                129:11:46 Armstrong Yes.
                                129:12:16 Aldrin I guess we leave this here or do you want to take it up?
                                129:12:19 Armstrong I'd leave that here.
                                129:12:22 Aldrin That might be a little hard to explain.
                                129:12:24 Armstrong Yes.
                                129:12:42 Collins Hey, Neil?
                                129:12:43 Armstrong Yes?
                                129:12:44 Collins ...
                                129:12:53 Armstrong Okay.
                                129:12:54 Collins ... get rid of this ...
                                129:12:58 Armstrong Okay. If you want to have a look at what the moon looks like, you can open that up and look. Don't open the bag, though.
                                129:13:26 Collins ...
                                129:13:29 Armstrong You'd never have guessed, huh? (Laughter)
                                Last edited by aparch; 07-21-2019, 08:30 PM.
                                “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

                                Live Radio from 100.3

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