Saru Posted July 24, 2012 #1 Share Posted July 24, 2012 What would have happened if the Apollo 11 crew had been unable to take off from the lunar surface ? Ascending from the lunar surface was one of the most important maneuvers on the mission; any problems could leave Aldrin and Armstrong stranded on the moon with no way home. It was a gruesome scenario, but not impossible. In the unlikely event this lunar disaster did happen, NASA had a plan in place. Read more... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted July 24, 2012 #2 Share Posted July 24, 2012 What would have happened if the Apollo 11 crew had been unable to take off from the lunar surface ? The Cold War would have ended, cos everyone in the Soviet Union and Red China would have died laughing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habitat Posted July 24, 2012 #3 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Awww.....lemme think....the CT's would have been suspecting Aldrin and Armstrong of being spirited off to an undisclosed country, with new identities, even before the air ran out on the moon lander ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZaraKitty Posted July 24, 2012 #4 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Couldn't michael collins pick them up? They should have packed cyanide pills. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habitat Posted July 24, 2012 #5 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Couldn't michael collins pick them up? They should have packed cyanide pills. They would have had something of the kind, I suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super-Fly Posted July 24, 2012 #6 Share Posted July 24, 2012 No way to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Fluffs Posted July 24, 2012 #7 Share Posted July 24, 2012 If it had been stranded Michael Bay would have made a movie about it that contains explosions every 5 and a half seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d e v i c e Posted July 24, 2012 #8 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Gloomy stuff. But, people put their faith in machines everyday. Airplanes, for example. Still, it would have been a big blow for the U.S and the world. For manned space flight. Oh, well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Majikwayz Posted July 24, 2012 #9 Share Posted July 24, 2012 I want to see us go back and setup a some kind of functioning robotic moonbase/observatory. I know we just sent up new satelittes and china is planning a manned mission ....(http://io9.com/5872662/china-is-sending-an-astronaut-to-the-moon) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iluthradanar Posted July 24, 2012 #10 Share Posted July 24, 2012 No contingency plan? How about some sort of package dropped off prior to astronaut arrival, with some sort of emergency shelter, food and water. of course, that might just prolong the inevitable since they had no ability to pick them up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbondo Posted July 24, 2012 #11 Share Posted July 24, 2012 The risks they took during Apollo 11 would be unheard of today. In the same scenario today, they would have never left the earth, let alone land on the moon. Just goes to show you the pressure felt to beat the Russians and the overwhelming bravery of those astronauts. In those days, Aldrin and Armstrong were rock stars! Today, hero worship involves Kardashians or some guy with the word "ice" in his name. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted July 24, 2012 #12 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Great article. I did not know Nixon had a prepared speech. Also, the very last part of the article is someting I was wondering about from the beginning. Should they have been stranded and died, it would be somewhat odd to look up at the moon, even today, and not think about 2 dead men there. Well, at least for me anyway... I was around during the Apollo launches. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushymopman Posted July 24, 2012 #13 Share Posted July 24, 2012 did you not see capricorn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Greenman Posted July 24, 2012 #14 Share Posted July 24, 2012 It was in the back of my young mind they might be on a one way trip. Nobody ever said space is safe. Future space tourists should keep that in mind. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafterman Posted July 24, 2012 #15 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Wow, pretty heavy stuff to think about, but that's what going into space was/is all about - even today. And again, stuff like this continues to blow holes in the idiocy of the moon conspiracists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted July 24, 2012 #16 Share Posted July 24, 2012 It is amazing that we made it to the moon and back, I remember watching it live on TV, sadly this generation has never seen it's equal yet. One of the very real dangers would have been a solar flare's radiation hitting the spacecraft. Once outside the earth's protective magnetic field that blocks the solar wind, the ship could have been subjected to lethal levels of radiation. Somewhere I remember hearing that you would need lead shielding several feet thick to provide adequate protection in such an event, but thankfully the sun was relatively quiet during those missions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d e v i c e Posted July 24, 2012 #17 Share Posted July 24, 2012 What they should've done is had another Apollo mission standing by as the contingency plan. Surely they could've spent that sort of cash for three human lives. And think of all that prestige they might have saved if things went wrong. But they didn't. Hmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted July 24, 2012 #18 Share Posted July 24, 2012 It is amazing that we made it to the moon and back, I remember watching it live on TV, sadly this generation has never seen it's equal yet. One of the very real dangers would have been a solar flare's radiation hitting the spacecraft. Once outside the earth's protective magnetic field that blocks the solar wind, the ship could have been subjected to lethal levels of radiation. Somewhere I remember hearing that you would need lead shielding several feet thick to provide adequate protection in such an event, but thankfully the sun was relatively quiet during those missions. Stop already! We're not going through that again. There are other threads which address that issue. This isn't one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior Chubb Posted July 24, 2012 #19 Share Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) The Lunar missions that followed may not have taken place. They would still be there now. The 3 astronauts would all have been as famous as each other. The 'Fake moon landing' conspiracy would still be with us. Their last moments in the Lunar Module would have been portrayed in a Hollywood film. Great but morbid article, thanks for posting Edited July 25, 2012 by Junior Chubb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MID Posted July 25, 2012 #20 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) Great article. I did not know Nixon had a prepared speech. Yes, he had an eloquent address prepared, and a plan for what to say to the wives of each crew member. There were no suicide pills, and no Apollo crew member would've accepted any, as they were not on a suicide mission and had the utmost trust in their machinery and the people who designed and built it. No pills, no suicide plans. They'd simply work the problem with Mission Control until they passed out from hypoxia, and died silently while no one listened. These things were planned. The President's speech, and Mission Control procedures, but ione thing is certain. No one woul've taken a pill to off themselves, and no one was going to hear any communications between the MOCR and the crew. There was also no possibility of Mike Collins, or Dick Gordon, or Stu Roosa, or Ken Mattingly, or Ron Evans, of rescuing a stranded crew on the surface of the Moon. Also, the very last part of the article is someting I was wondering about from the beginning. Should they have been stranded and died, it would be somewhat odd to look up at the moon, even today, and not think about 2 dead men there.Well, at least for me anyway... I was around during the Apollo launches. Yes, me too...I was around some... It would be odd, and realizing that the LRO photos, now shwoing an entire LM, would be showing a tomb, and a monument to the first, and only tragedy in space. Not worth contemplating... . Edited July 25, 2012 by MID Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MID Posted July 25, 2012 #21 Share Posted July 25, 2012 It is amazing that we made it to the moon and back, I remember watching it live on TV, sadly this generation has never seen it's equal yet. One of the very real dangers would have been a solar flare's radiation hitting the spacecraft. Once outside the earth's protective magnetic field that blocks the solar wind, the ship could have been subjected to lethal levels of radiation. Somewhere I remember hearing that you would need lead shielding several feet thick to provide adequate protection in such an event, but thankfully the sun was relatively quiet during those missions. You heard wrong. That several-feet-thick-Pb shielding busines is the product of people who knew nothing--an "old wives tale", as it were, a product of alarmism in the 1940s and 1950s. Oddly enough, fibrous materials and plastic are (and were) the best insulators against the typical radiation presented in a lunar mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csspwns Posted July 25, 2012 #22 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Great article. I did not know Nixon had a prepared speech. Also, the very last part of the article is someting I was wondering about from the beginning. Should they have been stranded and died, it would be somewhat odd to look up at the moon, even today, and not think about 2 dead men there. Well, at least for me anyway... I was around during the Apollo launches. i would be disturbing if their corpses floated down to earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MID Posted July 25, 2012 #23 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) No contingency plan? How about some sort of package dropped off prior to astronaut arrival, with some sort of emergency shelter, food and water. of course, that might just prolong the inevitable since they had no ability to pick them up. OK, survival package. With enough oxygen to pressurize the LM cabin for how long, and to provide for repressurizations for how long, and food for how long? Just drop it off? Tjhere were no such things, no such plans, and everyone fully understoof that unless the ascent engine fired...they were both dead. The odds were in favor of a hypergolic engine firing, ertainly, but it was a bit of a risk. Mike Collins, would eventually have had to come back home and leave them on the surface...but again, We're speculating on nonsensical things here. Edited July 25, 2012 by MID Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MID Posted July 25, 2012 #24 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) i would be disturbing if their corpses floated down to earth Jesus...WHAT??? It might make an interesting, and educational discussion to learn what in hades you mean by that and how it could happen....but really. Last time I checked, Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin were alive and kicking as they hit the 80 year marks in their lives. When has their ever been a corpse in space, let alone a floating one? How does a corpse "float" out of a gravirty field of 5.3FPS2,, sealed in a derelict spacecraft, and manage to "float down to Earth"...??? Hmmmmm??? Edited July 25, 2012 by MID Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lnzar7 Posted July 25, 2012 #25 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) They were not worried because they did not have far to go! only out the back door of the studio set.... Edited July 25, 2012 by Lnzar7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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