50 Years Ago on the Moon Behind the Flight of Apollo 11
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SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication Volume 61 No.7 July 2019 £5.25 50 years ago on the Moon Behind the flight of Apollo 11 Subscriber copy 07> Engineering challenges Landing dramas 634089 The shadow of JFK 770038 9 Subscriber copy CONTENTS Features 12 Engineering the first Lunar Landing The challenges facing NASA in the week up to the first landing centred on getting to the surface. All other phases had already been rehearsed on earlier flights. 12 20 Flight of the Eagle Letter from the Editor Even as Apollo 11’s Lunar Module descended to the Moon, computer readouts and fuel quantity The 50th anniversary of the first levels revealed a vulnerability discovered only humans to land on the Moon is minutes from touchdown. being celebrated in many ways. Here at SpaceFlight we know you want inside stories, anecdotes, 24 So what went wrong? personal reflections and deeper Just how close did Armstrong and Aldrin come insights behind the scenes. In this to crashing on the Moon – not nearly as close as issue and the next we do just that. believed at the time but it was a near thing. I am particularly delighted to 20 include the outstanding 27 Unsung hero contribution of a key figure in the Space professional Fabrizio Bernardini FBIS Apollo engineering fraternity and reflects on the lasting contribution of Howard play the “what if” game regarding Tindall Jr, to the success of Apollo. President Kennedy’s flagging interest in Space. Would he have 30 What if JFK had lived? abandoned the effort if he had lived? Dwayne Day looks at President Kennedy’s record Issues over the Apollo 11 on Space and muses over the possibility that the Apollo programme may have been cancelled had EAGLE mission itself occupy fifteen pages of this magazine and provide JFK not been assassinated. insight to some of the near misses, 24 all caused by imperfect . understanding of the software and of the way the propellant gauging system was configured. Scares at the time which turned out not to Regulars be so terrifying after all. Up and down the UK there will be many events taking place to 2 Behind the news remember Apollo 11 and next Bezos’ Blue Moon – Suits you sir! month, in our second celebratory issue, we will tell you about some 4 Opinion of those as well as completing the 27 story of the flight and recalling the 6 ISS Report experiencesSubscriber of British citizens copy involved in humankind’s greatest 11 April – 8 May 2019 adventure – so far! 36 Multi-media The latest space-related books, games, videos 40 Satellite Digest 558 – April 2019 David Baker [email protected] 44 Society news / Diary 30 COVER: A COMPOSITE IMAGE CREATED BY ED HENGEVELD SHOWING BUZZ ALDRIN LEAVING ALDRIN LEAVING BUZZ ED HENGEVELD SHOWING BY CREATED IMAGE A COMPOSITE COVER: What’s happened/ What’s coming up OUR MISSION STATEMENT Editor David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub Editor Ann Page Creative Consultant Andrée Wilson Design & Production MP3 Media Promotion Gillian Norman Advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] The British Interplanetary Society Distribution Warners Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England Tel: +44 (0)1778 promotes the exploration and 391 000 Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ, use of space for the benefit England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] www.bis-space.com Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society, SpaceFlight is a publication that promotes the mission of the British of humanity, connecting people Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of to create, educate and inspire, the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered charity No: and advance knowledge in 250556. The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. Printed in England by Latimer Trend & Co. © 2019 British Interplanetary Society 2017 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced all aspects of astronautics. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. SpaceFlight Vol 61 July 2019 1 BEHIND THE NEWS The Blue Moon lunar lander (above). The basic layout of the spacecraft allows for 3.6 tonnes of payload in its uncrewed configuration. BEZOS’ BLUE MOON SubscriberNASA is charged with getting Americans back on thecopy lunar surface. But it BLUE ORIGIN IMAGES: may be an entrepreneur who puts them there. ELECTRIFIED BY THE INSPIRATION that drove for permanent habitation. A test for future colonies. humans to the Moon in 1969, at the 50th anniversary of that seminal event in exploration, corporate REUSABILITY AND COMMONALITY industry and commercial companies are lining up to Since the days of Apollo five decades ago, NASA has have a chunk of that business. Latest to showcase sought to develop hardware that can be used many its design for this renaissance in human space flight times over utilising a minimum set of elements, each is Jeff Bezos and his Blue Moon lander, a spacecraft capable of achieving more than one objective. capable of placing experiments, cargo or humans Supporting that goal, commercial providers are back on the lunar surface – and, he claims, by 2024!. designing equipment that can do just that and this During a choreographed presentation in was the continuing theme of Bezos’ presentation. Washington DC on 9 May, Bezos took his audience Affordable landers that can be adapted and through a debate about the future of humankind, reconfigured according to purpose. addressing environmental pressures, climate change Bezos claims Blue Moon has been evolving over and the escalating over-population of Earth. He went the last three years and signals the shift in pace that on to foretell a world where, if unchecked, there could see the first crewed flight of New Shepard could be insufficient space and resources to contain before the end of this year and New Glenn in 2021. both human expansion and economic growth. His With a desire to compete for a strong place in the solution: leave the planet and provide a habitable new architecture supporting a semi-permanent space for a trillion humans of the future across the presence on the Moon, Blue Origin is a company solar system, beginning with a return to the Moon accelerating its pace and upping its game. Some say, 2 Vol 61 July 2019 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS potentially to outpace SpaceX and the mainstream corporate providers such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The majority view of Apollo-era astronauts is to put money on Bezos, whose measured, step-by- step approach contrasts with the media-savvy, public-relations focused approach of Elon Musk and Richard Branson. While Musk is all about style, Bezos is about substance, they say. And there is much in the record to support that. With an increasing number of failures plaguing the bid to get Americans back in space from US soil, the boast from both SpaceX and Boeing to achieve that this year may be premature. The Blue Moon lander aims to fill the requirement presented by NASA to provide a means to get a wide range of payloads on the lunar Jeff Bezos: a firm believer in substance over style. surface as fast as possible. It is the second such proposal after that from Lockheed Martin and appears to be a more flexible and sequenced version could carry a crew module with astronauts, programme. Using cryogenic liquid hydrogen/liquid satisfying NASA’s requirement. This version could oxygen propulsion it adopts high-energy also be used to transport roving vehicles, habitation propellants for an integrated system using the fuel modules or logistical supplies before or after a crew to conduct parallel functions. lands on the Moon. Significant steps have been Producing 44.48 kN of thrust and with a specific taken since Apollo. The Lunar Module used oversized impulse of 435 sec with deep-throttle capability, footpads due to uncertainties about the surface the BE-7 cryogenic descent engine will be hot-fired bearing strength. Now they can be much smaller due this summer. Liquid hydrogen boil-off would be to better information. used to maintain a chill on the liquid oxygen tank Bezos is convinced that a first landing with the and from there would be diverted for use as a initial, uncrewed spacecraft could be flown to the reactant with oxygen in fuel cells. This provides a lunar surface in 2023, with the stretch version taking full electrical production system throughout lunar astronauts down a year later. Synergistically, New day/night cycles. Large splayed landing legs permit Shepard, New Glenn and Blue Moon could work landings on surfaces of up to 15º of inclination. collectively to develop the hardware, evaluate the Terrain mapping would be made through LIDAR techniques and demonstrate a reliable system for The Blue Moon lunar lander (above). The basic layout of the spacecraft allows for 3.6 tonnes of payload in its uncrewed configuration. navigation pulses based on existing lunar mapping launching astronauts to the Moon. The only big, of selected surface features. The initial powered unanswered question, is: can he do it by 2024? SF descent burn lasts six minutes, going to a vertical descent 1 km above the surface with an accuracy BELOW at touchdown of 75 m from the designated spot.