Internet The first men on the moon !
- Thread starter dumbo2007
- Start date
Andy44
owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
Watching that Apollo 15 lunar launch video makes me seasick as the vehicle rotates one way under main engine torque and the RCS jets force it back into line.
I think it was quite scary to fly the Lunar Module. Seems that it wasn't the most stable flying machine. Certainly required some skills and lots of traning.
Today nobody would ride something like that for sure...
FordPrefect
Addon Developer
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Hey FADEC, I'd volunteer immediately for an LM ride down to the lunar surface anytime!
I noticed that 11 Landing website few days ago, cool effort!
and to add to FADEC's video links, here's the first 6 min. of the beautiful lunar liftoff of Apollo 17 onboard video (00:00-01:33 is playing at half of realtime speed)
http://www.footagevault.com/clip/FTV-0002409/Apollo+17/all
and here's the Apollo 16 lunar liftoff onboard footage
http://www.footagevault.com/clip/FTV-0002369/Apollo+16/all
and Apollo 15 lunar liftoff in better quality
http://www.footagevault.com/clip/FTV-0002335/Apollo+15+lunar/all
I noticed that 11 Landing website few days ago, cool effort!
and to add to FADEC's video links, here's the first 6 min. of the beautiful lunar liftoff of Apollo 17 onboard video (00:00-01:33 is playing at half of realtime speed)
http://www.footagevault.com/clip/FTV-0002409/Apollo+17/all
and here's the Apollo 16 lunar liftoff onboard footage
http://www.footagevault.com/clip/FTV-0002369/Apollo+16/all
and Apollo 15 lunar liftoff in better quality
http://www.footagevault.com/clip/FTV-0002335/Apollo+15+lunar/all
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RisingFury
OBSP developer
Today they'd equip it with an autopilot far more capable of flying it than any human.
Andy44
owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
Wasn't it being flown by an autopilot even then? And even with a modern autopilot, the system would still work in the same manner: torque caused by main engine misalignment with the center of mass rotates the vehicle, and RCS jets have to shove it back to keep on course.
From an engineering standpoint the LM was a very well-designed and safe vehicle. The fact that it had so many single-point failures is what would scare me the most; there are many parts on it of which the failure of any one doomed the crew, starting with the main engine, but that was also going to be true of Orion-Altair and every other space vehicle that's flown. The cost of keeping things lightweight.
That said, safe and well-built are not the same thing as "comfortable". The oscillations of the Falcon in that video were likely unpleasant but certainly not unbearable.
From an engineering standpoint the LM was a very well-designed and safe vehicle. The fact that it had so many single-point failures is what would scare me the most; there are many parts on it of which the failure of any one doomed the crew, starting with the main engine, but that was also going to be true of Orion-Altair and every other space vehicle that's flown. The cost of keeping things lightweight.
That said, safe and well-built are not the same thing as "comfortable". The oscillations of the Falcon in that video were likely unpleasant but certainly not unbearable.
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