What are the groundbreaking technologies used by the American astronauts during the first landing in human history on the moon in 1969? Which of them are still used today.
Note: These days the summer course of the International Space University is being held at the Technion. The knowledge website will bring interviews and a summary of lectures that were held and will be held during the summer. One of the articles will deal with the issue of the character of the American space program as first established by President Kennedy, and changed forever by President Nixon's decision, even before the last astronauts set foot on the moon.
Today, July 20, will be the 47th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. 9 days of travel, 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon, of which 31 hours and 1969 minutes on the surface of the moon for the purpose of collecting findings - this is the time that the first trip in the history of the three astronauts - Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins - took to The moon and back. The journey may seem short, but in order to carry it out successfully, the most advanced technologies known to man were needed in XNUMX. Fortunately for all involved, such technologies were developed specifically for the purpose of the journey by a talented and skilled team. And not for nothing.
There is no doubt that the first landing on the moon will forever be remembered as one of the most significant and groundbreaking historical events known to mankind and as one that placed the United States at the head of the space race and thus left the Soviet Union behind. The groundbreaking technologies used by the astronauts when they landed on the moon 47 years ago laid the foundations for new and exciting discoveries and the development of even more advanced technologies. So what are those technologies that have brought the human race to the point where we are able to explore what is around us in a thorough way, when we reach other planets of yours like Mars and Jupiter, and the arm is still tilted.
The computers that made history
The Apollo 11 mission used the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), which was designed at MIT and built by Raytheon. The computer used a real-time operating system, which allowed the astronauts to enter simple commands by typing verbs and nouns to control the spacecraft. The computer had a memory of 64 KB and operated at 0.043 MHz. The software the computer used was called MAC (MIT Algebraic Compiler), which was manually converted into machine language that the computer could understand. The AGC computer is designed to be fault tolerant and run multiple sub-programs in order of priority. During the Apollo 11 mission, the computer was overloaded and triggered alarm code 1202. Armstrong reported the malfunction to the control room, who reassured him and said that it could be ignored and the mission could continue as usual. After a few seconds, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the moon.
In addition to the AGC computer, IBM computers also contributed to the success of the Apollo 11 mission. 3,500 IBM employees were involved in the mission and the model used to communicate between NASA and the astronauts was the 75s from the IBM System/360 series. The launch computer for the Saturn V rocket will also be operated by IBM and astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin used these computers to calculate the takeoff data necessary to launch the LM vehicle from the surface of the Moon and interface with the rocket on its journey back to Earth.
Even in space you have to drive
The Lunar Module (LM) was the first manned vehicle to land on the moon. It was used by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to travel between the spacecraft and the surface of the moon and back. The LM was equipped with several scientific experiments that were left on the surface of the moon and other instruments that were used by the astronauts to collect samples from the moon. The LM was the first spacecraft designed specifically for missions near or on the Moon. The weight of the LM alone was 2,180 kilograms and the total weight together with the astronauts, fuel and related equipment was 15,065 kilograms.
Its unique design - and some would say strange - stemmed from the need to adapt to the surface of the moon and was designed after careful investigation. The most important point that the engineers had to take into account is that space has no atmosphere, therefore, the design has to adapt to these conditions. Lowering the aerodynamic features that were suitable for vehicles that were designed to operate in the atmosphere helped to reduce unnecessary weight from the spacecraft and make it lighter and save the costs of launching a spacecraft all the way to the moon. The LM that was used in the Apollo 11 mission was called "Eagle" and another famous phrase was coined by astronaut Neil Armstrong, who informed NASA that "The Eagle has landed", when the spacecraft landed in Sea of Tranquility" Good luck.
Source for the section on the lunar rover
- The vehicles in space - the Lunar Module
Custom made suits
Each of the three members of the Apollo 11 crew received 3 space suits that were adjusted according to their measurements: one for flight, one for training and one for backup - in case something happens to the flight suit. The suits were designed to operate in the vacuum of space and to be able to move in them on the moon itself. The suits were constructed of several layers, with the inner side made of Gatex fabric which included cooling water pipes that were sewn into the fabric. The goal was to keep the astronauts so that their body temperature would not rise above the desired temperature. Each suit was composed of several layers of nylon; Kapton - adhesive paper designed for high heat; fiberglass cloth; Mailer; and Teflon, designed to maintain the pressure inside the suit and protect the astronauts from radiation and tiny meteorites. The gloves and boots were also adapted for walking on the surface of the moon and collecting rocks. In order to help the astronauts feel the things they lifted, an addition of silicone was installed on the fingers of the gloves.
The astronauts' helmet was made of polycarbonate and was connected to the space suit by means of a neck ring that remained in place even when the astronaut moved his head. A necessary addition to the suit was the portable oxygen system, which actually looked like a backpack that allowed the astronauts to breathe and maintain pressure in the suit for up to seven hours while on the surface. Above the helmet was a system called The Lunar Extravehicular Visor Assembly (LEVA), and it was designed so that it could be worn over the helmet and locked in place. The LEVA provided visual, thermal and mechanical protection to the astronaut's helmet and head. The design included a heat-resistant cover, 2 sun shields and 3 eye shields. The two sun shields were placed on top of each other, while the inner shield was made of ultraviolet polycarbonate plastic, which filtered the ultraviolet rays, rejected infrared radiation and, combined with the sun shield and the pressure helmet, created an effective thermal barrier. The outer shield was made of high temperature polysulfone plastic and was used to filter the light and most of the ultraviolet and infrared rays.
source for the helmets issue
The first headphones in space
There is no one who does not know the famous words "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind", which were spoken by the astronaut Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon. What made the actual transmission of these words possible were the Plantronics MS50 headsets, which were the first headsets used in outer space and in particular during the moon landing. The collaboration between NASA and Plantronics began several years before the historic event, but it was astronaut Walter Shira, who helped the headphone company take part in the Apollo 11 mission and other NASA missions and make them the preferred headphones of the astronauts. Shira noticed the MS50 headphones, which were part of NASA's Kellorad communication system, and contacted them to examine the possibility of fitting the headphones into his astronaut's helmet. What drew his attention were the comfort and lightness of the headphones. NASA approved the idea and a special department was established in Plantronics for the purpose of carrying out the mission.
Together with NASA, the Plantronics team decided to focus on designing a noise-canceling microphone, which used a tiny dual transducer, and a helmet receiver, which also used the same transducer. The modified microphone was developed in just 11 days and Shira was the first to test it in the field on the Gemini mission. The initial examination showed that another round of improvements had to be made, during which a double tube and a noise canceling device were added to the headset's microphone. The MS50s were then ready for their first trip to the moon.
And thanks to Till for bringing me this far
The Saturn V rocket (the V stands for the number 5) was built by NASA specifically to send astronauts to the moon. The missile was tested in the Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 missions and its first manned launch was conducted during the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. After the mission was successful, the rocket was chosen as the vehicle that would fly the astronauts to the moon in the Apollo 11 mission and the missions that followed. The weight of the missile was 2.8 million kilograms and its length was 111 meters, thus it qualified even for the Statue of Liberty, which is 93 meters long.
The launch of the rocket to the moon consisted of three stages, where at each stage the engines were burned until all the fuel ran out of them and they would detach from the rocket. The engines in the next step would be ignited and the rocket would be launched into space. The first stage was the most challenging and powerful, since it was the one whose job it was to lift the entire missile off the ground. After the missile was launched to a distance of 68 kilometers, the second step was to steer the missile to the correct trajectory. Then, in the third stage, the goal was to place the remaining spacecraft in orbit towards the moon. After the separation of the first two stages, their remains fell into the ocean. The third stage is believed to have either remained in space or crashed into the moon. The man behind the Saturn V concept was John Heuboldt and thanks to the approach he devised, the mission could be accomplished with just one rocket instead of two.
A source for materials on the technologies - the rocket, the vehicles and the astronauts' suits
The suit and the helmet
The suit, helmet and all the related equipment used by the astronauts in the Apollo 11 mission were the first and most basic versions and underwent changes and improvements in the various Apollo missions in the following years. Over time and hand in hand with the development of technology, the helmet became more sophisticated, more powerful sun visors were added to the LEVA system, the thermal protection against the heat became more effective and more. But it was precisely these technologies that made it possible to invent, perfect and equip the astronauts with the best tools to go out into the unknown and explore it. These technologies were of course the catalyst for the development of advanced technologies in a variety of fields and are the basis for many technologies that are around us today.
A man on the moon - the story of the Apollo 11 mission
Neil Armstrong for children at the Science Museum in Haifa: Invest in science and technology studies
One response
a question
Why don't you see any crater under the spaceship or dust around or on it?
If she landed on a rock, why do you see quite clearly the marks of the crew's boots?