Apollo Lunar Module Tour 1966 (video)

[Winston]

Great video.

"This 1966 MIT Science Reporter television program details the development and construction of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), the only vehicle of the three Apollo spacecraft modules that actually lands on the moon. Project engineer Thomas Kelly gives a tour of the LEM at Grumman Aircraft in Long Island, NY, and demonstrates the LEM Automatic Checkout System, while test pilot Robert Smyth demonstrates the lunar landing simulator via an electronic computer-controlled model of the Moon. The program is presented by MIT in association with WGBH-TV Boston, and hosted by MIT reporter John Fitch; it was produced for NASA. MIT Museum Collections."

[video=youtube;ikYHsXF_k0Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikYHsXF_k0Q[/video]

 

[Winston]

 

[mpitfield]

Wow so crude compared to today's design tools. It really puts perspective on the complexity of the task back in the day.

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[XolveJohn]

My favorite LM story came from Neil Armstrong. It seems they could not calculate how much the LM would settle down on the landing gear shocks. The last rung of the ladder could not be too high from the surface.

Even in 1/6 gravity, they could not pull themselves up the ladder with their arms, then HAD TO get a foot on the ladder.

If you watch them coming down, they never just jump off onto the moon. They gingerly put one foot on the moon, then go back up the ladder a ways, to test getting back up.

Would have been a real bummer to walk around the moon, then find out you could not get back in. Maybe rip off the back pack and scramble up holding your breath. :clap:

[video=youtube;GuwyY2DzO2I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuwyY2DzO2I[/video]