Yes, We Did Go to the Moon - 20100505 sample draft

Paolo Attivissimo –1 ba1200 YES, WE DID GO TO THE MOON Finally, a no-nonsense, fact-ﬁlled debunking of ”moon hoax” claims – for doubters and enthusiasts alike!

–1 Paolo Attivissimo YES, WE DID GO TO THE MOON The no-nonsense guide to debunking “moon hoax” claims VERSION 2010/05/05 The up-to-date digital version of this book can be downloaded for free from http://yeswedidgotothemoon.com On the front cover: Gene Cernan during his third moonwalk, Apollo 17, December 1972. NASA image AS17-140-21391. The image has been cropped and the sky has been extended digitally for page layout purposes. Credit: NASA. Back cover: the author with Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two moonwalkers. Credit: Studio Fotografico Andrea Tedeschi. Moon image courtesy of Fabrizio Mele.

2 – Yes, We Went to the Moon Copyright notice The original text of this book is © 2010 by Paolo Attivissimo. Some rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-557-40481-0 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://cre- ativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. In summary, you are free to share this work by copying, distributing and transmitting it, under the following conditions: Attribution — You must attribute the work to Paolo Attivissimo and you must indicate the site http://yeswedidgotothemoon.com as the source of this work, but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work. Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Un- less you have explicit written permission from the author, you may not sell this work or be paid to print it, duplicate it or distributed. However, you are free to print it, duplicate it or distribute it free of charge. No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. and with the understanding that: Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Other Rights — In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license: Your fair dealing or fair use rights; The author's moral rights; Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights. Notice — For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. This work makes quotations from literary and artistic works of other authors that are be- lieved to be within the limits of fair practice as defined by Article 10 of the Berne Conven- tion for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Photo credits: All photographs of Apollo hardware and missions are courtesy of NASA unless otherwise noted. Cartoons are © Moise and are used with permission.

Foreword – 1 Foreword It is now forty years since man first set foot on the Moon. Many of us, in- cluding myself, lived that extraordinary moment as news that filled the papers and magazines and gave us an unforgettable sleepless night spent gazing at the ghostly, grainy pictures that were coming into our homes from outer space through the hazy glow of the television screen. Today, however, for a growing number of people that memorable event is literally history: blurred, distant, known only through second-hand stories and reported tiredly and superficially by mainstream media. And if going to the Moon is already an incredible, mythical and unreal feat, the idea that we did it in the 1960s – and never did it again – is, for many, understandably difficult to accept. This book is for those who seek to understand what really happened and want answers to their doubts, fueled often by the claims of people who are trying to make a quick buck or are eager to cut down the greatness of other people and thus compensate for their own feelings of inad- equacy by rabidly alleging that it was all a hoax. For hoax believers, for those who are impervious to any argument and think that they have it all figured out, I offer only my pity. They are un- able to enjoy this amazing adventure, which is one of the few peaceful endeavors for which the twentieth century might be remembered as something more than a heartbreaking series of wars, devastations and genocides. But don't get me wrong. This book is not just a pedantic refutation of a bunch of eccentric claims. It is a celebration of a moment in time that can never be equaled or repeated. Yes, there will be other destinations, other missions, other landing on distant worlds, but the Moon landing of July 1969 will be forever mankind's first contact with another world. It will always be the first time that humanity proved, albeit for a brief moment, that it was capable of crawling out of its fragile cradle. What an incredible privilege it is to be alive in that unique, minuscule slice of history in which all this happened. To be able to say thanks and

2 – Yes, We Went to the Moon shake the hand of those who accomplished a voyage that for countless centuries was merely a dream beyond the power of even the mightiest king, emperor or pharaoh. To walk on the Moon. This book is my small homage to the courage and ingenuity of all those who contributed to turning that dream into reality. For all mankind. Acknowledgments I'd like to thank all the people who patiently read and checked the drafts of this book and massively debugged them as they grew online. I am es- pecially indebted to Hammer, Trystero, Papageno, Tukler and Luigi for their tireless fact-checking and proofreading. Any remaining mistakes are solely my responsibility. I am also grateful to Eric Jones of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal and to the members of the Project Apollo online forum for helping me through the maze of acronyms and jargon and technical minutiae and for unerr- ingly answering the bizarre questions of a fellow space geek. Last but not least, I'd also like to acknowledge Nicola Colotti's encouragement and brilliant diplomacy in securing me an amazing interview with Buzz Aldrin. This book is dedicated to my parents, who woke me up when I was six years old so that I could watch in groggy amazement the Moon landing live on TV (it was night in Europe), and to my aunt Iris, who in the early 1970s gave me a copy of Peter Ryan's enthralling account of the first Apollo missions, The Invasion of the Moon 1957-70. I never recovered from this double bite of the space bug. That dog-eared paperback is still here with me as I write these words. Its pages are fading, but the passion they fed for all these years certainly is not. Free distribution You may freely copy and distribute the digital edition of this book, provided that you don't alter it, pass it off as yours or print it for sale. I didn't write this book to become rich and famous, but to allow as many

Foreword – 3 people as possible to get the facts they need so that they can counter the arguments of conspiracy theorists. Just don't mess with my rights. Writing a technical book takes time and hard work; buying manuals and DVDs and documents takes money. So if you like what you read and you feel like lending me a hand on this project, you're welcome. Point out er- rors or unclear language, help me with research or buy me something from my Amazon wishlist or just donate the equivalent of a pizza and a good beer via my Paypal account as an incentive for me to keep on writing. The details are on the Yeswedidgotothemoon.com website. Internet addresses shortened with Tinyurl Whenever possible, most of the Internet addresses of the sources refer- enced in this book are given in the shorter, more human-readable version provided by Tinyurl.com. This also makes the links easier to type for those who are reading the non-digital (i.e., paperback) edition of this book.. Comments, corrections and updates This book is a work in progress. Conspiracy theorists concoct new "evidence” and claims every day, so you might find that a specific claim has not been debunked, or you might find a mistake or a typo. If so, please e- mail me at contacts@yeswedidgotothemoon.com. Additional photographs, videos and documents Some of the technical explanations given here become clearer with the aid of high-resolution photographs and samples of footage from the Apollo TV broadcasts and 16-mm color films. So I've prepared a set of scanned photos and digitized videos as a supplement to this book. De- tails on how to download this material are available at http://www.yeswedidgotothemoon.com.

4 – Yes, We Went to the Moon In memoriam This book wishes to honor those who paid the highest price in order to reach the new frontier, sometimes in secret and often without being remembered even in a footnote of history. Let's not ever forget that anyone who denies the Moon landings is sullying the memory of these people, of their families and of everyone who worked hard for the exploration of space. Michael J. Adams Michael P. Anderson Charles A. Bassett II Valentin Bondarenko David M. Brown Roger Chaffee Kalpana Chawla Laurel B. Clark Georgi Dobrovolski Theodore C. Freeman Edward G. Givens, Jr. Virgil "Gus" Grissom Rick D. Husband Gregory Jarvis Vladimir Komarov Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. Christa McAuliffe William C. McCool Ronald McNair Ellison Onizuka Viktor Patsayev Ilan Ramon Judith Resnick Francis "Dick" Scobee Elliot McKay See, Jr. Michael J. Smith Vladislav Volkov Ed White Clifton C. Williams, Jr. Per aspera ad astra.

Race for the Moon – 5 Race for the Moon The time is the 1950s. The United States and the Soviet Union1 are intently play- ing history's most dangerous game of chicken, aiming thousands of nuclear bombs at each other's cities, according to a doctrine aptly named MAD (Mutu- al Assured Destruction). These two military superpowers are vy- ing for control of the ultimate high ground: space. They both view spaceflight as an opportunity to lob atomic annihilation more efficiently and to prove to the world their technological prowess and the superiority of their so- cial system. Space is propaganda. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union stuns the world by launching, as an- nounced, the world's first artificial satellite, lo Sputnik 1. The fact that Sputnik overflies the US and the rest of the world with absolute impunity and has been hurled into the sky on one of the Figure 1. The Soviet Union and the intercontinental missiles that Russia is United States. building to deliver nuclear warheads in mere minutes is not exactly lost on Western public opinion. 1 At the time, the Soviet Union was a secretive behemoth that included all the states now known as Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, covering 22.4 million square kilometers (8.6 million square miles) against the United States' 9.8 million square kilometers (3.8 million square miles). The Soviet Union broke up in 1991. Image source: Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maps_of_the_world_indica- ting_one_country).

6 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The Unites States launches a crash federal program to recover from the political humiliation of being beaten by what was considered a back- ward country. It belatedly speeds up its fledgling space program, which had already achieved some remarkable results, such as the first ever photographs taken from space.2 The program also seeks to close the aca- demic, military and technological gap that the Sputnik had eloquently exposed. But at first the only result of this effort is further embarrassment. One month later, on November 3, 1957, the Soviets set another record with Sputnik 2: the first animal launched into orbit around the Earth, the dog Laika, before the United States has placed anything at all in orbit. Laika dies a few hours later from overheating and stress, but this is kept secret. The flight was planned as a one-way mission anyway. Finally, on December 6, the US makes its first orbital launch attempt. The Navy's Vanguard TV3 rocket rises all of four feet and then explodes disheart- eningly on the pad, in front of a television audience of millions (Figure 2). The Unites States managed to place a satellite in orbit on 31 January 1958. Ex- plorer 1 was launched on a US Army Redstone rocket designed and modified by Wernher Von Braun, creator of the infamous Nazi V-2 rockets that had been used to bomb London and other cities during the Second World War. Von Braun had defected in 1945 and Figure 2. Kaboom. was now working for the US military. Nevertheless, the measly 14 kilograms (31 pounds) of Explorer 1 are nothing compared to the 500 kilos (1,120 pounds) of Sputnik 2 and the 1,300 kilos (2,925 pounds) carried into space by Sputnik 3 on May 15. 2 Towards the end of the 1940s, the United States had modified German V-2 rockets to perform brief vertical flights to altitudes of 160 kilometers (100 miles), carrying scientific instruments and cameras into space. In the early 1950s, the US, like the Soviet Union, had developed intercontinental missiles to deliver nuclear warheads, but US rockets were not as powerful as Soviet ones because American nukes were lighter. The Soviets, saddled with heavier warheads, had simply built a bigger rocket, which came in handy for spaceflight. Ironically, part of the Soviets' space success was due to their inferior technology.

Race for the Moon – 7 The Soviet lead In August 1958, the United States tries to get ahead of the Russians with an attempt to reach the Moon with an automatic probe, Able 1. The launch fails 77 seconds after liftoff. The next three attempts (Pioneer 1, 2 e 3) suffer the same failure. On January 2, 1959, the Soviets launch the Lunik 1 probe, which two days later achieves the first lunar flyby, missing the Moon by 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles3), and becomes the first vehicle to go into orbit around the Sun. America's fifth lunar attempt, Pi- oneer 4, achieves solar orbit but fails to get any closer than 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles) to the Moon on March 4. The Soviets achieve another first on September 13, 1959: the Lunik 2 probe crash-lands on the Moon. And less than a month later, Lunik 3 re- veals to the world the very first pictures of the far side of the Moon. It will take the US five more years, and nine more attempts, to reach the Moon with a space probe. For the time being, America has to make do with science missions in Earth orbit, such as Explorer 6, which provides an almost complete map of the Van Allen radiation belts that encircle our planet and returns the first television pictures of Earth from space. But the headline-grabbing space launches are all Soviet. The US catches up In 1960 the United States achieves a few records: first imaging weather satellite (TIROS-1, April 1), first electronic intelligence satellite (GRAB-1, July 5), first recovery of a satellite after reentry from Earth orbit (Discover- er 13, August 11) and first imaging spy satellite (Discoverer 14, August 18). These are mostly military achievements, prompted by the need to re- place urgently with satellites the top-secret U-2 spy planes that had been conducting vital covert reconnaissance flights over Soviet territory. On May 1, 1960, one of the planes was shot down and the pilot captured, causing huge diplomatic embarrassment to the United States. Once again the Soviet Union got the space headlines: in August, Sputnik 5 carries into Earth orbit plants and animals (two dogs, forty mice and two rats) and for the first time returns them safely. 3 Throughout this book, distances and altitudes are given in kilometers and statute miles unless otherwise specified.

8 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The first man in space 1961 sees another Soviet shocker: on April 12, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space. He orbits once around the world in a 108- minute flight aboard Vostok 1. Americans are stunned (Figure 3) and beaten to the draw once again. The best they can do is a fifteen- minute suborbital hop with Alan Shepard in a Mercury spacecraft on Figure 3. Shock in the USA. May 5, because US rockets powerful enough to carry an astronaut into Earth orbit have the nasty habit of exploding during test launches, while Russian ones appear to be outstand- ingly reliable. So with a grand total of fifteen minutes of human spaceflight on its track record and a bunch of exploding rockets as its future assets, the United States throws down a daring gauntlet: on May 25, 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy challenges the Soviet Union to a race to the Moon. “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 project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” Kennedy's strategy is as simple as it is ambitious: set a grandiose goal that will impress the world, boost America's morale and is far enough in the future to give the US aerospace industry the time to get its act together, close the rocket reliability gap and do better than the Russians. Kennedy, however, will not live to see the outcome of his challenge. He will be shot in Dallas two years later, on November 22, 1963. Meanwhile the Russians march on relentlessly. Before America manages to achieve a human orbital flight, Gherman Titov repeats and extends Gagarin's mission, performing 17 Earth orbits in early August 1961 aboard Vostok 2. Finally, on February 20, 1962, nearly one year after the Russians, John Glenn becomes the first American to fly in orbit around the world

Race for the Moon – 9 aboard Friendship 7. So the Soviet Union ups the ante: in August, two spacecraft (Vostoks 3 and 4) fly simultaneously and cosmonauts Nikolayev and Popovich are briefly less than 5 km (3 miles) apart. Nikolayev also sets a new endurance record: four days in space. Two television cameras broadcast pictures of the cosmonaut to Russian viewers. In June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space, aboard Vostok 6. She is also the first civilian spacefarer, since all previous astronauts and cosmonauts had been members of the US or Soviet military. Her 48-orbit flight lasts longer than the combined times of all the American astronauts that had flown until then. No other woman will fly in space for the next 19 years. On October 12, 1964, the Soviet Union accomplishes the first multiman mission: Voskhod 1 carries into orbit three men before the US is able to fly even two. The flight is essentially a propaganda stunt: in order to squeeze three astronauts into a vehicle designed for two, they are reck- lessly forced to fly without spacesuits. The first spacewalk is also a Russian record, set on March 18, 1965 by Alexei Leonov aboard Voskhod 2. All the US can do is send the first suc- cessful probe to Mars (Mariner 4). The first soft landing of a space probe and the first pictures from the surface of the Moon are also a Soviet achievement, with Luna 9 in February 1966. But in the meantime the US space program has been acquiring experience with human spaceflight and with the tech- niques required for a Moon landing. Between 1965 and 1966, the spacecraft of the Gemini program (Figure 4) carry two- man crews that achieve orbit changes, long-duration flights (up to 14 days), spacewalks and rendezvous with docking, set the human altitude record (Gemini 11, Figure 4. The Gemini 7 spacecraft. 1374 kilometers or 853 miles). Moreover, the Lunar Orbiter robot probes take detailed photographic surveys of the Moon and the Surveyor vehicles land on it, testing the nature and consistency of the lunar surface. The US has caught up with the Russians.

10 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The Apollo program, meant to put an American on the Moon, is instead in deep trouble. On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee die in the fire of their Apollo 1 capsule during a routine test on the launch pad (Figure 5). The na- tionwide shock prompts a drastic re- design of the ill-conceived spacecraft. 1967 is a tragic year for Russian space endeavors as well. On April 24, Vladimir Ko- marov became the first person to die during a space flight.4 His Soyuz 1, prepared hastily to appease the Soviet government's craving for propaganda coups, crashes to the ground during reentry. Figure 5. The charred Apollo 1 crew capsule. Apollo gets up to speed The massive US investments in space begin to bear fruit. The huge Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral has risen from the Floridian swamps in record time. A series of unmanned flights allows to test the Apollo spacecraft, the giant Saturn V Moon rocket designed by Wernher Von Braun and the ground support hardware. Meanwhile the Soviet space program nets another first: on September 18, 1968, the Zond 5 probe takes the first living beings around the Moon. Turtles, wine flies, meal worms, plants, seeds and bacteria return safely to the Earth. And the spacecraft is clearly big enough to carry a man. Figure 6. Time, December 6, 1968. 4 Some researchers (such as the Judica Cordiglia brothers) claim that they intercepted radio signals from other Soviet manned flights that ended tragically and were kept secret. However, so far the cross-checks of spaceflight historians (James Oberg and others) have not found evidence to support these claims and have pointed out several inconsistencies.

Race for the Moon – 11 On October 11, Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham take Apollo 7 into Earth orbit for eleven days on the first manned test of the redesigned Apollo hardware, the first American three-person mission and the first manned test of the Saturn IB rocket, Saturn V's smaller brother. There's no time to waste: the CIA has evidence that the Soviets are secretly getting ready to beat America to the Moon. So two months later, Apollo 8 is the first manned flight of a Saturn V. The colossal booster has only flown three times, yet the goal is already tre- mendously bold: to fly three hundred times farther than anyone has ever done and go around the Moon, a quarter of a million miles away. On December 24, 1968, for the first time in history, human beings view the Moon with their own eyes from as little as 110 kilometers (70 miles). Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders orbit the Moon ten times, taking unforgettable photographs of their destination and, most importantly, of our home planet as a distant, delicate blue marble sus- pended in the blackness of the cosmos. The contrast with the harsh, life- less lunar horizon could not be more eloquent and striking in its message to mankind (Figure 7). The worldwide emotional impact of this mission is huge. The live TV broadcast from Moon orbit on Christmas eve is the most watched event up to that time. The astronauts read verses from the Book of Genesis as the onboard camera shows the cratered surface of the Moon rolling past. At least in the eyes of public opinion, this is an unmitigated American media triumph that marks the defeat of the Soviet space propaganda machine. Little Figure 7. Us. NASA photograph AS8-14-2383. is said, at the time, about the dis- astrous conditions aboard the spacecraft: vomiting and diarrhea caused by space sickness, outgassing of sealant that fogged up the windows and hindered navigation by star sighting, and water pooling dangerously in the crew cabin. But the race to the Moon is not over yet.

12 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The real conspiracy: secret Soviet moonshots The Soviet Union has secretly been de- veloping the N1-L3 system: a giant rocket, the N1 (Figure 8), as big as a Saturn V and capable of sending two cosmonauts towards the Moon in a vehicle, known as L3, that includes a lunar lander to carry one Russian to the surface of the Moon. None of this will be known to the public for more than twenty years, but the Figure 8. Preparing the N1 rocket. US government is well aware of the Soviet attempt thanks to spy satellite photographs of the massive rocket and of its launch facilities (Figure 9). The N1, however, is underfunded and plagued by interpersonal rivalries between top Soviet rocket engineers. Its thirty-engine first stage is a night- mare to coordinate and control. The Soviet military oppose the project because they see it as an expensive propaganda gimmick with no practical military use, differently from all the previous missiles. The giant rocket flies for the first time Figure 9. An N1 on its launch pad, in February 1969 for an unmanned test caught by a KH-4 Corona spy satellite. and explodes 66 seconds after liftoff. In May, the Soviet Union publicly states that it has never intended to send cosmonauts to the Moon because it will not risk men's lives in such an endeavor. Robot probes will be used instead. The second launch is an even worse disaster. On July 3, just before the American moon landing, an unmanned N1 falls back onto the launch pad moments after ignition. The simultaneous explosion of its 2600 tons of fuel is the most violent in the history of rocketry. US spy satellites take photos of the launch pad, destroyed by the blast along with Russian hopes to be the first to walk on the Moon.

Race for the Moon – 13 Officially, the N1-L3 project never existed. It will continue in total secrecy for a few more years, testing the lunar lander (Figure 10) in Earth orbit, but after two more catastrophic launches the N1 will be abandoned. No So- viet cosmonaut will ever walk on the Moon. The US government knows that the Soviet Union is out of the race, but can't tell the public because this would reveal the cap- abilities of its spy satellites and the political grounds for the Moon shots would vanish. Secretly, there's no more rush to beat the Soviets in space, but there's still a murdered Figure 10. The Soviet lunar president's pledge to be kept. And for pub- module. lic opinion, unaware of the N1 disaster, the race is still on. Dress rehearsals, then the real thing Kennedy's deadline is looming and the Apollo project advances at full speed. In March 1969, Apollo 9 tests in Earth orbit the lunar module, the navigation systems, the lunar spacesuits and the docking maneuvers. In May, Apollo 10 flies to the Moon and tests every step of a Moon landing mission except for the touchdown itself. Apollo 10's lunar module un- docks from the spacecraft and carries Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan to within 14.4 kilometers (47,400 feet) of the lunar surface. The next mission is the real thing. Apollo 11 takes mankind to the Moon, live on worldwide TV, on July 20, 1969. Commander Neil Armstrong gingerly sets his left foot on the surface of the Moon at 10:56 EDT (2:56 UTC). Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Aldrin then joins him (Figure 11), and together they plant the US flag on the surface, conduct scientific esperiments, collect Moon rock samples and take historic photographs Figure 11. Buzz Aldrin.

14 – Yes, We Went to the Moon while the third crewmember, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, waits in lunar orbit to take them home. The Soviets make one last attempt to steal the show by trying to retrieve a lunar soil sample with the Luna 15 unmanned probe before the American astronauts get home. But the probe5 crashes on the Moon while Arm- strong and Aldrin are getting ready to return with 21.5 kilograms (47.5 pounds) of Moon rocks. Figure 12. The Apollo 11 crew: Neil Between 1969 and 1972, the Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. United States lands on the Moon Official NASA photo, March marzo 1969. six times, with increasingly advanced and complex missions. Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 carry twelve men to the Moon and return over 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of carefully selected Moon rocks and a wealth of scientific data that is still being analyzed today. Apollo 13, too, is planned as a lunar landing mission but has to be aborted due to an oxygen tank rupture on the way to the Moon. The crew narrowly escapes death and their drama captures the world's attention, highlight- ing the perils of space travel. Since December 1972, when Eu- gene Cernan climbed back up Figure 13. Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins in the ladder of Apollo 17's lunar 2009, during a visit to the Smithsonian. module and closed the hatch behind him, no human being has set foot on the Moon. 5 The Luna 1969B and 1969C missions, in April and June 1969, may have been failed attempts to retrieve lunar soil samples (Tentatively Identified Missions and Launch Failures, NASA, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/tent_launch.html).

How we went to the Moon – 15 How we went to the Moon To understand the claims of moon-hoax theorists and their debunking, you need to have at least a smattering of knowledge of the jargon, technology and stages of an Apollo moonshot. This chapter is mostly based on the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing. The Saturn V rocket The Saturn V-Apollo stack (Figure 14) stands 111 meters (363 feet) tall and weighs about 3,000 tons (6.7 million pounds). Even today it is still the most powerful rocket ever built. The Saturn V consists of three stages, topped by the Apollo spacecraft, which contains three astronauts. The very tip of the stack is the Launch Es- cape System, a high-acceleration rocket designed to whisk the capsule with the astronauts to safety in case of an emergency during liftoff. The first stage, known as S-IC, has a diameter of 10 meters (33 feet) and five enormous F-I engines that gulp 13.3 tons (29,360 pounds) of ker- osene and liquid oxygen per second, lifting the rocket to an altitude of about 68 kilometers (220,000 feet) and a speed of approximately 9,900 Figure 14. Apollo 11's Saturn V on the km/h (6,150 mph) in a little over two pad. Detail of NASA photo S69-38660. minutes. The S-IC is then jettisoned and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean.

16 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The S-II second stage uses liquid hydrogen and oxygen to fuel its five J-2 engines and continue the climb to space, reaching a speed of almost 25,000 km/h (15,500 mph) and an altitude of approximately 182 kilometers (600,000 feet) nine minutes after liftoff. It is then jettisoned like the previous stage. Together, these stages constitute nine tenths of the total weight of the Saturn V. To reach the speed of 28,000 km/h (17,400 mph) required to stay in orbit at an altitude of 188 kilometers (617,000 feet), the Saturn V needs the extra kick of its third stage, the S-IVB, which has a re- startable single J-2 engine. Less than twelve minutes after launch, the astronauts are already in a parking orbit around the Earth, where they check the onboard systems. After one orbit and a half, less than three hours after liftoff from Florida, the third-stage engine is restarted and burns for almost six minutes, accelerating the spacecraft to 39,000 km/h (24,200 mph) towards the Moon, which at that time is 403,000 kilometers (250,400 miles) away. Meas- ured center to center, the Earth-Moon distance varies monthly from 363,100 to 405,700 kilometers (225,600 to 252,000 miles). The spacecraft now has the configuration shown in Figure 16 e continues by inertia, with its engines off, toward its destination, gradually slowing down due to the Earth's gravitational attraction and then accelerating as it approaches the Moon and is attracted by its gravity. During the three-day voyage, the three astronauts, with the assistance of the onboard computers and of the observations and measurements made from Earth, correct their course and perform a crucial and delicate undocking, rotation and redocking to prepare the spacecraft for the Moon landing and abandon the third stage of the Saturn V. Figure 15. The Saturn V.

How we went to the Moon – 17 The Apollo spacecraft The crew travels in the pressurized cone- shaped Command Module (CM), shown at the top in Figure 16. The CM is 4 meters (13 feet) wide at the base and 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) tall, with a total cabin volume equal to the cargo body of a small van – and no toilet (bags are used for solids; liquids are dumped overboard through a tube). It is the only part of the giant rocket that returns to Earth. Behind them there's the Service Module (SM), the cylindrical part towards the top in Figure 16, which holds the fuel for the main rocket engine and for the sixteen maneuvering rockets (arranged in four cross-like clusters of four) and most of the oxygen, water, electric power and communication systems required for the mission. An aerodynamic fairing (shown in phantom lines in Figure 16) connects the command and service modules to the third stage of the Saturn rocket (S-IVB) and encloses the Lunar Module (LM), the spider-like spacecraft that will be used by two of the three astronauts to land on the Moon while the third one waits for them in the Command Module. Since the Lunar Module is used only in the vacuum of space, it doesn't need to be streamlined and instead has to be as light- weight as possible in order to reduce the fuel requirements. Accordingly, it has been stripped down to the absolute minimum: even the seats have been sacrificed, so the astronauts fly the LM while standing. Figure 16. From the top: The LM is 7 meters (23 feet) tall, weighs ap- Command Module, Service proximately 15 tons and is divided into two Module, Lunar Module and S- IVB stage. stages, shown separately in Figure 17.

18 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The descent stage is the lower oc- tagonal part, which has a single engine to brake the descent to the Moon, four shock-absorbing landing legs and compartments for scientific equipment, water, fuel and (from Apollo 15 onwards) an electric moon buggy. The top part, known as ascent stage, contains the cramped crew cabin, some oxygen, food and water supplies, the onboard computers, the radio and transverse equipment, the single rocket engine used to climb back to orbit from the Moon, and sixteen thrusters (in clusters of four, as in Figure 17. Cutout view of the lunar module. the Service Module) with their propellant tanks. The astronauts view the lunar surface during landing through two sloping triangular windows at the front of the ascent stage and exit the vehicle by crawling backwards in their bulky spacesuits through a square hatch. They then climb down along a ladder attached to one of the legs of the descent stage, as shown by the LM on dis- play at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. (Fig- ure 18), and begin their exploration of the Moon. At the end of their stay on the Moon, the astronauts lift off in the ascent stage and use the descent stage as a launch pad. Figure 18. An unused LM.

How we went to the Moon – 19 Crucial maneuvers Success of the mission and survival of the astronauts depend on some very tricky undocking and redocking maneuvers during the outbound journey and on a vital rendezvous while in orbit around the Moon. Three hours after liftoff, the Com- mand and Service modules (CSM) separate from the rest of the spacecraft by using the maneuvering thrusters. The four panels of the fairing are released, exposing the lunar module. The astronauts then turn the CSM around, dock with the LM and extract it from the S-IVB, the third stage of the Saturn V rocket (Figure 19). The CSM and the LM then continue their flight towards lunar orbit, while the S-IVB is restarted to nudge it away into an orbit around the Sun or, from Apollo 13 onwards, to crash Figure 19. Extraction of the Lunar into the Moon and produce a man- Module. made moonquake, which is picked up by the seismometers placed on the lunar surface by previous missions, allowing to probe the interior structure of the Moon. The docked Lunar Module is linked to the CSM by a tunnel, through which the astronauts crawl (or rather glide, since they're weightless) to power up and check the vehicle and prepare it for descent to the Moon. As the spacecraft approaches the Moon, the slowing drag of Earth's gravity begins to fade and Apollo's speed increases due to the pull of lunar gravity. The astronauts turn the spacecraft around so that the Ser- vice Module's powerful main engine is pointing forwards. They have to achieve multiple carefully timed burns of this engine, as they swing re- peatedly around the far side of the Moon, out of radio contact with Earth, in order to slow down and gradually achieve a stable, almost circu- lar orbit around their destination, at an altitude of 114 to 138 kilometers (374,000 to 453,000 feet or 62 to 75 nautical miles) and a speed of 5,900 km/h (3,700 mph).

20 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The two astronauts that will walk on the Moon transfer into the lunar module, while their colleague stays in the command module. The two vehicles undock. After flying together to visually inspect each other and run a final check of all onboard systems, the LM points its descent engine forward and fires it to begin descent. On the Moon there's no atmosphere to glide through with wings or parachutes. Descent depends entirely on the single rocket engine, which must reduce the spacecraft's speed from 5,900 km/h (3,700 mph) to zero in twelve minutes and then allow the LM to hover just above the lunar surface long enough to find a safe landing spot. Fuel reserves are tight and leave little margin for error. After landing, the astronauts perform one or more moonwalks (Extravehicular Activities or EVAs) to gather science data and samples under the watchful eye of a television camera that broadcasts their activities live to Mis- sion Control and a worldwide audience back on Earth. They have autonomous suits, with oxygen, cooling systems and radio links in their backpacks. The more advanced missions also use an electric vehicle to travel long dis- Figure 20. Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. NASA tances. Apollo 17 sets the EVA photo AS11-40-5872 (cropped). duration record, with over 22 hours in three moonwalks. Once their lunar excursion is complete, the LM astronauts LM throw out all unnecessary weights and lift off in the ascent stage. The timing and execution of this liftoff must be very accurate in order to rendezvous with the CSM in lunar orbit. If the single ascent engine doesn't fire, and doesn't do so at exactly the right time, they'll be trapped on the Moon. If the engine doesn't deliver enough thrust or the trajectory is incorrect, they won't rendezvous with the third astronaut and will perish in orbit or crash back onto the Moon. Their colleague will have to abandon them and return to Earth alone.

How we went to the Moon – 21 With the LM and CSM safely docked together, the moonwalkers return to the Command Mod- ule with their priceless cargo of moon rocks, photographs and film footage. The ascent stage of the LM is jettisoned and crashes onto the Moon, while the sci- entfic instruments placed on the lunar surface radio back their data to scientists back on Earth. The astronauts then rest, check all the spacecraft's systems, and fire the Service Module's main engine to accelerate and leave lunar orbit, heading home to Earth. The return journey lasts approximately three days. Fiery return Shortly before contact with the Earth's atmosphere, the Service Module is also jettisoned. Of the Figure 21. The LM climbs back from the 111 meter (363-foot) behemoth Moon. NASA photo AS11-44-6643 (cropped). that left Earth a few days earlier, only the small conical Command Module is left. It hurtles into the atmosphere at about 38,000 km/h (23,600 mph), with its heat shield facing forwards to dissipate the tremendous heat (up to 2,700 °C or 5,000 °F) produced by friction and compression of the surrounding air, which brakes its speed. The tiny spacecraft has to reenter the the atmosphere at a very precise angle, between 5.5 and 7.5 degrees. If the reentry angle is too shallow, it will literally bounce off the atmosphere back into space. If it is too steep, the heat shield will fail and the spacecraft and its occupants will not sur- vive.

22 – Yes, We Went to the Moon The astronauts also have to deal with violent deceleration (up to 7 g, which is like having seven times one's own weight). The heat of high-speed reentry also produces a wall of ionized air, which blocks radio communications. The people in Mission Control, who have guided and supported the entire flight with their vast technical skills and resources, have no way to know the outcome of this maneuver until the spacecraft slows sufficiently to resume radio contact. Drogue parachutes open at an altitude of 7,000 meters (23,000 feet), followed by the main chutes at 3,000 Figure 22. Splashdown. Detail of meters (10,000 feet). NASA photo AP16-S72-36293. The capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean (Figure 22), where it is reached by a recovery helicopter, which hoists up the astronauts on a winch and flies them to a nearby aircraft carrier. Another chopper recov- ers the spacecraft and its precious cargo. For the initial Moon landings, the astronauts don airtight suits when they exit the capsule and are quarantined in sealed quar- ters to guard against the remote chance of Moon germs (Figure 23). From Apollo 15 onwards, this precaution is dropped and the astronauts are free to join the cel- ebrations for their safe return from a fantastic voyage. Figure 23. Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin with US President Richard Nixon. This, in summary, is how a Moon mission was accomplished with 1960s-era technology: enormous costs, minimal margins for error, high chances of failure, no rescue options, with the whole world watching and a nation's prestige at stake. No wonder nobody has gone back to the Moon since.

Yes, We Did Go to the Moon - 20100505 sample draft

by Paolo Attivissimo

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Yes, We Did Go to the Moon - 20100505 sample draft Document Transcript