The Year of Apollo

[thefinalfrontier]

I have been thinking about doing a thread for the apollo one tragedy, Of course I was very young during that era but those men died in the name of science and Nasa got better after that accident, Anyways MID you have done a wonderful job presenting the true history of mans quest to explore the cosmos, Again thanks for that, Very good reading indeed,

[Waspie_Dwarf]

We all owe it to ourselves to continue what we started back then…

Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

[MID]

Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

That's what the man said, Waspie...yes indeed!

[MID]

I have been thinking about doing a thread for the apollo one tragedy, Of course I was very young during that era but those men died in the name of science and Nasa got better after that accident, Anyways MID you have done a wonderful job presenting the true history of mans quest to explore the cosmos, Again thanks for that, Very good reading indeed,

[Waspie_Dwarf]

That's what the man said, Waspie...yes indeed!

That late president of yours sure had a way with words, never more so than on 25th May 1961. The words he spoke that day, when the USA had just 15 minutes of manned space flight under its belt, would lead directly to the "Year of Apollo," 8 years later and will ring down through the pages of history for as long as human civilisation remains,

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be so impressive to Mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. And none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

[MID]

That late president of yours sure had a way with words, never more so than on 25th May 1961.

He sure did.

The words he spoke that day, when the USA had just 15 minutes of manned space flight under its belt, would lead directly to the "Year of Apollo," 8 years later and will ring down through the pages of history for as long as human civilisation remains,

It sure will...

And, as pertains to it being hard....

[MID]

Postscript To An Amazing Year.

As 1970 began, and public interest (as well as political interest) waned, one found oneself still gazing heavenward in wonder. Holy crap...what we did...

Certainly, some people, probably most in the general public, had this notion--a notion even seen on certain threads on this board--that NASA made Apollo look easy. Everything worked ! The flights were perfect!

As we all know, and have read herein, the flights were far from perfect, and if anything, NASA made them look exactly as they were: difficult. Surely, a lot of people missed that...they missed the tension, the moments of well--terror--the pounding hearts, the strained voices, the glitches that tried flight crews and control teams over and over again. What they perceived was the drama portrayed by the media, and of course, the success.

Guarded humble was a healthy way to be. You had incredible success, but you fully realized that you were dealing with an incredibly complex system, a dangerous, risky mission, and that errors were something that simply cropped up no matter how good you thought you were; no matter how much you'd thought of, and planned for, and trained for. You remained guarded, and humble about what you had accomplished, because if you knew anything about spaceflight, you knew it was that thing you simply didn't see, that thing you didn't anticipate, that could come up and bite you in the rear end at any moment.

One didn't let euphoria over amazing success get in the way of the realization that there simply had to be some luck involved here as well.

Think about it, the Saturn V/Apollo package was the most power, largest machine ever built. The thing had a mass at liftoff that was equivalent to a stack of automobiles piled on top of each other to an altitude of a mile and a half. It consisted of somewhere in excess of 2,000,000 functional parts,

2 million...a 99.9% operational success meant that 2,000 parts would've failed.

Being humble, and guarded, was indeed a wise position to take when dealing with such massive complexity.

At Pad 39-A, in January of 1970, another Apollo / Saturn V package stood ready for testing and preparation for the next lunar landing mission, Apollo 13.

Aboard her service module, just like every other SM that had flown (there had been six to-date) were two spherical oxygen tanks that were a little under 2 1/2 feet in diameter. Fragile, thin walled pressure vessels which held pressurized cryogenic oxygen.

3 of those 2 million parts were electrical circuits inside those tanks. Those circuits were designed to operate at 28 volts. The spacecraft power and the power at the launch complex was 56 volts. In 1965, the Apollo circuitry was redesigned to accommodate a 56 volt power requirement. Thousands of components were re-designed for this load. Well, all except these circuits inside those oxygen tanks. Those three circuits ran a fan which stirred the cryogenic oxygen slush in the tank to distribute it evenly, a heater, and a temperature sensitive circuit which was designed to open if the temperature inside the tank reached approximately 80 degrees F.

Twelve of these tanks had flown and functioned perfectly, despite the fact that they ran with 56 volts coursing through circuits that were only designed to operate at half that power.

And, no one knew it. These circuits, the fan and heater, only ran for short periods of time, and that 56 volts never caused a problem, and no one ever saw any signs of anything irregular in the tank circuits. The temperature sensitive switch had never operated to shut down a system, as temperatures had never reached its limit.

But running a circuit designed for 28 volts at 56 volts isn't exactly healthy. Enough current at such a load, and you fry things. We never saw enough current applied to fry anything. But the fact was, the reconfiguration of the electrical circuits on those tanks was simply missed during the electrical reconfiguration.

Three of 2 million parts were not properly configured.

Like I said, it's what you missed that can bite your butt.

The fact is, if not for something that occurred on the pad in the early months of 1970, something associated with one of those oxygen tanks, we might have flown the entire Apollo program with faulty tank circuits and never had a problem. That would be the epitome of luck. And indeed, up until this point, we'd been very lucky, and didn't even realize it.

Guarded humble...an appropriate attitude. Keeps you on your toes. Keeps you alert and ready for the unexpected.

A complex set of circumstances, which wouldn't be fully understood until June of 1970, was about to give up a huge wakeup call.

Apollo was in no way easy.

It was about to get a lot harder than anyone imagined.

[Hazzard]

I just saw that Life After People "documentary"... about what will happen if all people would vanish. The special assumes that humanity disappears suddenly and immediately, but does not speculate as to what would cause such an event. Below is a list of some of the highlighted events that could theoretically take place once humans are gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People

In the very end.... evidence left by Moon exploration missions will survive intact for not only thousands, but millions of years after mankind has vanished.

They will be the last legacy of the human race.

Edited January 2, 2010 by Hazzard

[DONTEATUS]

I just saw that Life After People "documentary"... about what will happen if all people would vanish. The special assumes that humanity disappears suddenly and immediately, but does not speculate as to what would cause such an event. Below is a list of some of the highlighted events that could theoretically take place once humans are gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People

In the very end.... evidence left by Moon exploration missions will survive intact for not only thousands, but millions of years after mankind has vanished.

They will be the last legacy of the human race.

Too true there Hazzard! But we have sent a Few toys outta this area to See what picks them up and maybe they will trip a new Search?

[TSS]

I've only just had chance to catch up this thread, since I last read it sometime in November. I know it's all been said before, but juts wanted to thank you MID. I learnt more from this thread then any book I've read on the subject, due to the way it was written, and unfolded. So sorry to drag up an old thread - but thanks for the effort of doing it.

[MID]

I've only just had chance to catch up this thread, since I last read it sometime in November. I know it's all been said before, but juts wanted to thank you MID. I learnt more from this thread then any book I've read on the subject, due to the way it was written, and unfolded. So sorry to drag up an old thread - but thanks for the effort of doing it.

Thanks, Scanner.

I really appreciate it.

I've been inspired to continue the process with "the year after" Apollo thread, 1970.

I'm going to try to paint Apollo 13 in similar fashion.

Stay tuned...