Nasan ritsa

Kuumoduuli oli Apollo-ohjelmassa yhdessä Apollo-avaruusaluksen kanssa käytetty kaksiosainen avaruusalus. Lennon kolmihenkisestä miehistöstä kaksi laskeutui sillä Kuun pinnalle. —Wikipedia

Alla olevat kuvat ovat ensimmäisenä Kuuhun vuonna 1969 laskeutuneesta Apollo 11 -kuumoduulista, joka lähti kuvissa näkyvässä kunnossa Nasan tehtaalta Maasta kohti Kuuta.

AS11-40-5893

Irtopalat, lommot, hitsaukset ja viimeistelyn jäljet alleviivaavat kuumoduulin alaluokkaista suunnittelustandardia. Toisin sanoin, kipsilevyä ja pläkkipeltiä.

AS11-40-5927

Avaruusalus vai pienoismalli?

AS11-40-5924

Paneelit repsottavat sekä tulvivat yli teippi- ja foliorakennelmasta.

AS11-40-5922

Kuumoduulin pohjaa on paikattu teipillä ja foliolla.

AS11-40-5922 ja AS14-66-9254

Valokuviin Nasa käytti yhtä ja samaa kuumoduulia kaikissa Apollo-tehtävissä, joka oli kaiken lisäksi pienoismalli. Kuvassa Apollo 11 ja Apollo 14 -kuumoduulit. Folionumero "5" oli Nasan kuudynamiikan suunnittelutuotannon merkittävin kehitysaskel.

Nasan mukaan ilmailu-, avaruus- ja puolustusvälineteollisuusyritys Grumman (nykyään Northrop Grumman) valmisti Nasalle nykyrahassa 20,000,000,000€ hintaan kaikkiaan 13 kuumoduulia Apollo-ohjelmaan (1968-1972).

Jokaisella kuukäynnillä käytettiin uutta kuumoduulia, koska edellinen oli hylätty avaruuteen Maahan paluun yhteydessä. Apollo-ohjelman jälkeen Grumman tuhosi kuumoduulien pohjapiirustukset.

Northrop Grummanin suurin osakkeenomistaja on The Vanguard Group -sijoitusrahastoyhtiö, jonka omistaa Rothschild-suku.

Massimo Mazzucco, American Moon, (2017), 1:15:00.

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"Kuumoduulin seinät olivat niin ohuita, että pystyit helposti tökkäämään minkä tahansa objektin niiden läpi saaden aikaan nopean paineen menetyksen. Paineen menetys olisi välittömästi tappanut miehistön, mikäli heillä ei olisi ollut avaruuspuvut päällä. Toisin sanoin kaikki mikä erotti kaksi kuumoduulissa ollutta astronauttia avaruuden tyhjiöltä olivat hytin seinät, jotka paksuudeltaan vastasivat kolmea kerrosta keittöfoliota." —Randy Walsh, Apollo Moon Missions: Hiding a Hoax in Plain Sight - Part I, (2018), s. 162-163; Kuumoduulista ksm. Bill Kaysing, We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle!, Desert Publications, Arizona, (1981), s. 169-171.

But as it turns out, America kicked ass back then and those lunar modules performed like champions every single time! They didn’t even need any modifications! Despite the completely foreign environment, they worked perfectly the very first time and every time thereafter! On Earth, it took many long years of trial and error, many failed test flights, many unfortunate accidents, and many, many trips back to the drawing board before we could safely and reliably launch men into low-Earth orbit. But on the Moon? We nailed that shit the very first time. Today, of course, we can’t even launch a space shuttle from right here on planet Earth without occasionally blowing one up, even though we have lowered our sights considerably. After all, sending spacecraft into low-Earth orbit is considerably easier than sending spacecraft all the way to the friggin’ Moon and back. It would appear then that we can draw the following conclusion: although technology has advanced immeasurably since the first Apollo Moon landing and we have significantly downgraded our goals in space, we can’t come close to matching the kick-ass safety record we had in the Apollo days. —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part II, The Center for an Informed America, (Oct 1, 2009).

"The LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) was coated in Mylar. To many engineers, the final vehicle was an insult to every notion of what a spacecraft should look like [...] It was one of the weirdest and most improbable flying machines ever conceived." —Moon Machines: The Lunar Module, Science Channel, 2008, Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 21, 2009).

The man whose name is most commonly referenced when discussing the lunar module, by the way, is a gent by the name of Thomas Kelly, who served as the project manager for the design, construction and testing of the LEM. Kelly happened to be a member of the Quill and Dagger Society, Cornell University’s answer to Yale University’s notorious Skull and Bones. I just thought maybe I should mention that. —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 21, 2009).

In November of 1962, Grumman was awarded the contract to build what [NASA documentary] Moon Machines [2008] described as "the most complicated and sophisticated spacecraft ever conceived." Soon after, we are also informed that the LEM was "what many regarded as the first true spaceship." In other words, America's "first true spaceship" was also America's "most complicated and sophisticated spacecraft." To this day, no other spacecraft has been built that is capable of landing men on a planetary body. To this day, no other spacecraft has been built that is capable of taking off from and flying home from a planetary body. To this day, no other spacecraft has been built that is capable of performing rendezvous and docking maneuvers in lunar orbit. To this day, no spacecraft has been built that can protect astronauts from the hazards of flying through space outside of the Van Allen belts. When you think about it, of course, it makes perfect sense that America’s first true spacecraft, coming as it did during the infancy of the Space Age, would also stand to this day as the most complicated and sophisticated spacecraft "ever conceived." After all, didn't Henry Ford build the most complicated and sophisticated automobile ever conceived? And didn’t Orville and Wilbur build the most complicated and sophisticated aircraft ever conceived? And didn’t Alexander Graham Bell invent the IPhone? —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 21, 2009).

"Whenever I saw a model of the lunar module, it had these rigid sides and [it] really looked strong. Turns out that external portions of the lunar module are made up of Mylar and cellophane and it’s put together with Scotch tape and staples. We had to have pads on the floor 'cause if you dropped a screwdriver, it would go right through the floor." —Jim Lovell, Astronaut (Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, Apollo 13), Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VIII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 22, 2009).

To keep the operation of the engine as simple as possible, so-called hypergolic propellants were used – which is to say, a fuel and an oxidizer that explode on contact. That simplicity though came at a price: "the fuels were extremely toxic." What most concerned Grumman's engineers was "that the fuel was so corrosive that at the end of a test, each engine had to be rebuilt. It meant the final assembly of an engine could never be tested!" "Unbelievably," explains [NASA's Lynn] Radcliffe, "the first time these engines would ever have been fired, ever – no check-out at the factory – the first time would be when they were fired on their mission." As Dunne noted, "I don't think that anyone could, at that time, tell you 100% that it was gonna work." Seeing as how the engines were completely untested – both in terms of being able to operate within the environment of the Moon and in terms of the individual engines being factory tested to see if they worked at all – Dunne's evaluation would seem to be a bit of an understatement. Luckily though, none of the landers actually made it to the Moon, so whether the engines worked or not is a bit of a moot point. —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VIII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 22, 2009).

Since weight was an issue, heavy heat shields could not be used. Luckily though, "Dupont had developed this new material – it was aluminized Mylar. It was a gold color, and they found if you built it up to perhaps twenty-five layers, it's an excellent insulator." Dupont's space-age material, as we all know, can be obtained pretty inexpensively these days. And it’s still a very lightweight material. I wonder why it is then that you rarely see spaceships wrapped in it anymore? —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VIII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 22, 2009).

Another curious fact that [documentary] First on the Moon [2005] made note of was that, according to Harold Loden, Apollo 11 mission controller, "The skin on the crew cabin [of the lunar module] was very thin, and that was all done because of weight savings." Another talking-head added that, "If you really took your finger and poked hard at it, you could poke right through the outer skin of the spacecraft. It was about the thickness of two layers of aluminum foil." Project Manager Thomas Kelly concurred, noting that "the skin, the aluminum alloy skin of the crew compartment was about 12/1000s of an inch thick. That’s equivalent to about three layers of Reynold’s Wrap that you would use in the kitchen." —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VIII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 22, 2009).

As the narrator informs us during [the documentary] When We Left Earth [2008], "If the flight suit fails or even tears a little, the difference in pressure will cause the astronaut's blood to boil, killing him instantly." The same would be true, of course, about the skin of the spacecraft: the smallest tear would mean instant death for all three. Of course, their suits would have allegedly provide a second line of defense, except that, as can be seen in one of the handful of Apollo 13 mission photos released by NASA, the astronauts weren't bothering to wear their suits as they cheerfully went about the business of MacGyvering their spaceship. —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VIII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 22, 2009).

No fewer than eight lunar modules allegedly made the hazardous voyage to the Moon, and all of them arrived in immaculate condition. The Apollo 13 lunar module was exposed throughout virtually the entire mission – all the way to the Moon and all the way back. In all, the eight LEMS allegedly logged some 2,000,000 miles of unprotected space flight and not one of them suffered so much as a scratch. That, my friends, is 1960's technology at its finest. —Dave McGowan, Wagging the Moondoggie: Part VIII, The Center for an Informed America, (Nov 22, 2009).