Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer over
Speaker 1: at how Stuff Works in a love all things tech,
Speaker 1: and in our last couple of episodes, I looked at
Speaker 1: the earliest spacecraft used by the Soviet Union and the
Speaker 1: United States during the Space Race. I talked about the
Speaker 1: first people in space, the first spacewalk, and the development
Speaker 1: of spacecraft like the Gemini or Jiminy if you prefer,
Speaker 1: which could hold more than one astronaut at a time.
Speaker 1: We're going to continue today by looking to the successor
Speaker 1: to the Gemini program, that would be the Apollo program.
Speaker 1: But before I can do that, I'm going to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about Gemini because there's some points
Speaker 1: that I kind of covered at the end of the
Speaker 1: last episode, but I feel we need to go into
Speaker 1: more detailed to understand why they were so warnant. In
Speaker 1: the next episode, I will actually finish up about the
Speaker 1: Apollo program because it turns out a lot happened during that,
Speaker 1: and then we're going to transition to talk about the
Speaker 1: Soyuz spacecraft that would be the Russian successor in the
Speaker 1: Soviet program, and it's a spacecraft that is still being
Speaker 1: used today decades later. So we'll get into that in
Speaker 1: the next episode. Now, part of the reason I had
Speaker 1: to cover the whole space race in this way and
Speaker 1: this kind of jumping around way, is that these various
Speaker 1: projects were not all linear. It's not like Mercury was planned,
Speaker 1: started and ended, and then Jim and I began, and
Speaker 1: then Jim and I went through and ended, and then
Speaker 1: Apollo began. In fact, technically the Apollo mission began before
Speaker 1: GEM and I did. GEM and I ended up being
Speaker 1: necessary in order to test certain technologies and procedures and
Speaker 1: processes that would make Apollo possible. It was a a
Speaker 1: bridge between en Mercury and Apollo. It was decided after
Speaker 1: the fact that we had made this commitment that we
Speaker 1: were going to send astronauts to the Moon now. Project
Speaker 1: Mercury's research and development phase started back in nineteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: and the operational phase didn't begin until nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: and the project essentially concluded in nineteen sixty three. Before
Speaker 1: the first Mercury spacecraft had even launched, NASA was already
Speaker 1: talking about what it would take to design, build, and
Speaker 1: launch spacecraft capable of holding three astronauts and sending them
Speaker 1: to the Moon and bringing them back. This hypothetical craft
Speaker 1: would need to be able to do lots of different stuff,
Speaker 1: and it would become the Apollo program. That enormous leap
Speaker 1: would be a huge, huge jump off of the Mercury spacecraft.
Speaker 1: Remember that was a one astronauts spacecraft. It was really
Speaker 1: just designed for orbital flights around the Earth, and it
Speaker 1: was largely a testing ground for technologies and also just
Speaker 1: to to see what we could learn based upon that
Speaker 1: sort of limited use of space travel to go around
Speaker 1: the Earth. Not like that wasn't a difficult enough thing
Speaker 1: to do already, but it was still a small step
Speaker 1: toward what people had eventually planned for the United States
Speaker 1: space program. So the Mercury was a phenomenal achievement. I
Speaker 1: don't want to downplay that. It was amazing that we
Speaker 1: could build a spacecraft that could withstand the rigors of space,
Speaker 1: send someone up there and bring that person back down safely.
Speaker 1: And also there was no need for the astronaut to
Speaker 1: eject from the Mercury capsule. Remember the Soviet cosmonauts on
Speaker 1: the Vostok spacecraft in the Soviet program, they had to
Speaker 1: eject on re entry. They could not just ride the
Speaker 1: vast stalk down to the surface. They would have probably
Speaker 1: been rattled to death if they had done that. But
Speaker 1: the mercury was also extremely limited right it had at
Speaker 1: orbital limitation. It wasn't meant to do anything beyond orbit
Speaker 1: the Earth, and it lacked the capabilities to do the
Speaker 1: stuff the Apollo spacecraft would have to do in order
Speaker 1: to have a successful mission. So that's why the Gemini
Speaker 1: program would slip in between the two. And it also
Speaker 1: provided a training ground for astronauts to learn how to
Speaker 1: endure longer space flights, because that was gonna be an issue.
Speaker 1: If you wanted to go all the way to the
Speaker 1: Moon and back, it was going to take several days,
Speaker 1: not just a few hours or maybe one day of orbit.
Speaker 1: They also learned how to conduct spacewalks, how to navigate
Speaker 1: and pilot a spacecraft in space. That was a big deal,
Speaker 1: and also they needed to learn how to rendezvous and
Speaker 1: doc with other spacecraft. Now I mentioned in the previous
Speaker 1: episode that the first mission to have two spacecraft dock
Speaker 1: in orbit was in a Gemini mission. It was Gemini eight,
Speaker 1: which was piloted by Neil Armstrong and David Scott, and
Speaker 1: I also mentioned that there was an emergency in that
Speaker 1: particular mission and where after the two spacecraft had docked
Speaker 1: there was a problem. But I wanted to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the actual docking process, just to
Speaker 1: kind of give across how complicated this is and how
Speaker 1: much precision is required to make it work. So the
Speaker 1: Gemini spacecraft docked with a vehicle that existed only for
Speaker 1: the purpose of testing the docking technology and the procedures.
Speaker 1: It was called an a Gina Target vehicle, and the
Speaker 1: official designation was g A t V five zero zero
Speaker 1: three for for the Gemini eight. This spacecraft was seven
Speaker 1: point nine three ms long that's about twenty six ft,
Speaker 1: and had a diameter of one point five two ms
Speaker 1: or just a hair under five feet in diameter, and
Speaker 1: had its own flight control electronics at its own guidance systems,
Speaker 1: propulsion system, electrical power. All of this was necessary so
Speaker 1: NASA can make certain the spacecraft was in the proper
Speaker 1: orbit and orientation for a rendezvous and docking mission. On
Speaker 1: one end of this target vehicle there was a cone
Speaker 1: shaped section, so this was the part where the Gemini
Speaker 1: spacecraft would dock into. It's kind of a a cone
Speaker 1: area and it conformed to the shape of the nose
Speaker 1: of the Gemini spacecraft. So you bring the Gemini spacecraft
Speaker 1: in nose first, and it would dock into this cone
Speaker 1: shaped section of the target vehicle. And then once you're
Speaker 1: in place, docking latches would close to secure the two
Speaker 1: spacecraft together. The target vehicle could then engage its propulsion
Speaker 1: systems after it docked, and that would mean that NASA
Speaker 1: back on ground could change the orbit of the pair
Speaker 1: of docked spacecraft using the target vehicle's engines. So imagine
Speaker 1: for a moment how monumentally challenging this is to do.
Speaker 1: And this is going to require us to talk about
Speaker 1: some math. Now, it's pretty simple math when you get
Speaker 1: down to it. The formula is not terribly complicated, but
Speaker 1: it is mass that has to do with some pretty
Speaker 1: wicked numbers. First, the two spacecraft are in orbit around
Speaker 1: the Earth. So to stay in orbit, to to get
Speaker 1: into an orbit around a celestial body, that satellite, that
Speaker 1: spacecraft has to maintain orbital velocity. This is the velocity
Speaker 1: required to keep a steady orbit at a specific distance
Speaker 1: away from a celestial body and that amount that that's
Speaker 1: that velocity, that speed if you prefer which is less precise,
Speaker 1: but we'll go with speed. It's very common term. The
Speaker 1: speed depends upon the mass of the body you're orbiting,
Speaker 1: so in this case it would be the Earth uh.
Speaker 1: And also the radius that or the distance between you
Speaker 1: and the center of that mass. There's also a gravitational
Speaker 1: constant that you have to factor into this, that's universal.
Speaker 1: The universal gravitational constant is the same number wherever you are. UH.
Speaker 1: In case you're curious, the universal constant gravitational constant is
Speaker 1: six point six seven three times ten to the power
Speaker 1: of negative eleven Newton meter squared per kilogram squared. And
Speaker 1: that number is what you would multiply by the mass
Speaker 1: of the body you're orbiting, so the mass of the Earth.
Speaker 1: Then you would divide that product. You know, you multiply
Speaker 1: those two numbers together, you get a product. You divide
Speaker 1: that by the distance between you and the center of
Speaker 1: the Earth. Then once you take that solution, you would
Speaker 1: take the square root of that and that would give
Speaker 1: you your orbital velocity, how fast you need to go
Speaker 1: in order to maintain your orbit. So if you were
Speaker 1: trying to orbit the Earth at four kilometers above the surface,
Speaker 1: how fast would you need to go? What would your
Speaker 1: orbital speed need to be so that you would maintain
Speaker 1: that orbital distance from the Earth. Well, the Earth has
Speaker 1: a mass of five point nine eight times ten to
Speaker 1: the twenty four power rams and the gravitational constant, as
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, is that six point six seven three
Speaker 1: times ten to the power of minus eleven. So if
Speaker 1: we multiply both of those together, that gives us the
Speaker 1: product of three point nine nine zero four five four
Speaker 1: times ten to the four power. That's our product. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's the top of our fraction. Right, let's talk
Speaker 1: about distance. That's the bottom of our fraction. The Earth's
Speaker 1: radius is six thousand, three kilometers and your four hundred
Speaker 1: kilometers higher than that because you're four kilometers above the surface.
Speaker 1: So you have to take both of those numbers and
Speaker 1: add them together. Let's also convert it to meters. It
Speaker 1: will make life easier for us in the long run.
Speaker 1: That would give us six million, seven hundred eighty thousand meters.
Speaker 1: That's the distance between you and the center of the Earth.
Speaker 1: So that's the bottom of our fraction. We divide our
Speaker 1: earlier product by this number six million, seven hundred eighty thousand.
Speaker 1: That gives us the very easy to describe number fifty
Speaker 1: eight million, eight hundred fifty six thousand, two hundred fifty
Speaker 1: three point six eight seven three. So that's our our
Speaker 1: answer there. Then we have to take the square root
Speaker 1: of that. Taking the square root of that will give
Speaker 1: us our velocity. If you take the square root and
Speaker 1: then you have to round up a little bit, it
Speaker 1: is approximately seven thousand, six hundred seventy two meters per second,
Speaker 1: So that's the speed you have to maintain to stay
Speaker 1: in orbit. That's about four point seven seven miles per second,
Speaker 1: or seventeen thousand, one hundred seventy two miles per hour.
Speaker 1: So you've got these two spacecraft traveling at four hundred
Speaker 1: kilometers above the surface of the Earth. They're traveling at
Speaker 1: seventeen thousand, one seventy two miles per hour each. Then
Speaker 1: you want the two of them to meet up in
Speaker 1: space and dock with one another, which is terrifying. Right. Also,
Speaker 1: because you're in space, you're in an environment where if
Speaker 1: you damage your spacecraft it was it's gonna lead to
Speaker 1: catastrophic decompression. And you're going to have a really bad
Speaker 1: time of it. You can't afford to make any mistakes.
Speaker 1: You have to have this be very, very precise. The
Speaker 1: equation also tells us by the way that the closer
Speaker 1: you are to the Earth, the faster you have to
Speaker 1: travel in order to maintain orbital velocity. That also means
Speaker 1: that you'll make several full orbits around the Earth within
Speaker 1: a single Earth day. You're actually you're going around the
Speaker 1: Earth faster than the Earth's rotation. But the further out
Speaker 1: you go, the less velocity you need to maintain your orbit.
Speaker 1: So if you're pretty far out there, and we're talking
Speaker 1: miles above the Earth, your orbital speed only needs to
Speaker 1: be about six thousand eighty miles per hour, significantly less
Speaker 1: than that seventeen thousand I was talking about earlier. If
Speaker 1: it's at that speed, you will make one full orbit
Speaker 1: of the Earth every twenty four hours, which means that
Speaker 1: if you are located above the equator, you'll essentially be
Speaker 1: in a locked position relative to the Earth. You will
Speaker 1: stay above that that point on the Earth, and you
Speaker 1: will maintain your position relative to the Earth because the
Speaker 1: Earth and you are traveling at a way where the
Speaker 1: Earth's rotation and your orbit are staying in alignment the
Speaker 1: entire time. That's where you get into that geo stationary orbit.
Speaker 1: If you have a satellite geo stationary orbit, it is
Speaker 1: at this very high orbit and it's essentially somewhere near
Speaker 1: the equator, so it can maintain its relative position above
Speaker 1: the Earth. By the way, you need that velocity to
Speaker 1: be right, because if you go slower than orbital velocity,
Speaker 1: your orbit will gradually decay and you will get drawn
Speaker 1: towards the planet, which will ultimately mean re entering the
Speaker 1: Art's atmosphere and landing or burning up. If you're going
Speaker 1: faster than orbital velocity, you will gradually move further out
Speaker 1: from the planet, assuming that you are capable of keeping
Speaker 1: that that speed, and if you're going fast enough, you'll
Speaker 1: attain escape velocity from the planet's gravitational pull and you'll
Speaker 1: just go off into space somewhere. Now, the reason I
Speaker 1: even cover this so thoroughly is that the Apollo missions
Speaker 1: and the soil Use spacecraft both have docking capabilities. In fact,
Speaker 1: for Apollo's lunar missions, docking was absolutely necessary, as it
Speaker 1: was how the lunar landing module was able to rendezvous
Speaker 1: and reconnect with the rest of the spacecraft, which would
Speaker 1: remain in lunar orbit. Now, when I come back, i'll
Speaker 1: talk more about the Apollo program and the amazing achievement
Speaker 1: of putting astronauts on the Moon. But first let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break and thank our sponsor. The Apollo spacecraft,
Speaker 1: when you're looking at the actual lunar missions, was essentially
Speaker 1: a three part craft. Only one of those parts, called
Speaker 1: the Command module, was designed to land back on Earth
Speaker 1: in a retrievable fashion. The three parts were the Command
Speaker 1: module that was the section with all the flight controls.
Speaker 1: That's where the crew would sit during takeoff and normal
Speaker 1: operations and landing. Then there was the Service module. This
Speaker 1: was kind of like the the big container that had
Speaker 1: all the propulsion systems and spacecraft support systems, had an
Speaker 1: engine on it for firing. Those two parts of the
Speaker 1: spacecraft would remain together for most of the mission, and
Speaker 1: the third segment was the lunar module, which would have
Speaker 1: to dock with the Command Service Module or cs UM.
Speaker 1: They would often group these two modules together and just
Speaker 1: call them CSM. The lunar module would have to dock
Speaker 1: with CSM in space, then separate once it was in
Speaker 1: lunar orbit land on the Moon, lift off from the Moon,
Speaker 1: rendezvous with the CSM REDOC, and then the astronauts would
Speaker 1: move back over to the c s M, whereupon they
Speaker 1: would jettison the lunar module and travel back home. Thus,
Speaker 1: that's why that's why the Gemini docking procedure was so important.
Speaker 1: It was sort of a proof that this strategy was
Speaker 1: going to work because the strategy of getting astronauts on
Speaker 1: and off the Moon depended upon that capability. The Command
Speaker 1: Service Module UH would pretty much stay connected up until
Speaker 1: you get to where it was time to re enter
Speaker 1: the r atmosphere, whereupon the command module would jettison the
Speaker 1: service module and it would just become that sort of
Speaker 1: cone shaped spacecraft that we're all familiar with. The heat
Speaker 1: shield was on the bottom of that section, and that's
Speaker 1: what would point toward the Earth while the spacecraft would
Speaker 1: reenter Ther's atmosphere. Now, the three modules attached to an
Speaker 1: upper stage of a rocket in a special housing. The
Speaker 1: stage was called the S four B. The CSM would
Speaker 1: separate from this special casing that was attached to the
Speaker 1: S four B, and the lunar module would still be
Speaker 1: inside that casing, which then would kind of have the
Speaker 1: walls flange outward. People referred to it as looking like
Speaker 1: an angry alligator, although it was an angry alligator with
Speaker 1: four jaws, not too which is really terrifying. And then
Speaker 1: the CSM, the Command Service module, could dock with a
Speaker 1: lunar module which would then detach from the S four B,
Speaker 1: and then you would have your Apollos spacecraft that could
Speaker 1: continue on toward the Moon, whereas the S four B
Speaker 1: would then inject itself into a trajectory, either a solar
Speaker 1: trajectory for the early missions or later on a lunar
Speaker 1: trajectory where the Annassa was really testing impact spacecraft impact
Speaker 1: with the Moon. They had a lot of UH sensors
Speaker 1: aboard the S four B that would give them data
Speaker 1: about impacting it with the Moon. They just made sure
Speaker 1: that obviously that the S four B was going to
Speaker 1: hit a part of the Moon that was nowhere close
Speaker 1: to where the astronauts were going to be. Before there
Speaker 1: were any astronauts in any Apollo spacecraft, NASA held a
Speaker 1: series of unscrewed missions. They were called the Apollo Saturn
Speaker 1: uncrewed missions. The first three of these carried a designation
Speaker 1: that began with a S. So the first of those
Speaker 1: was the A S two oh one, the second was
Speaker 1: called A S two o two, and the third a
Speaker 1: S two oh three, although I should point out A
Speaker 1: S two oh three launched before a S two oh two. Uh,
Speaker 1: they were close together in launch, but two or three
Speaker 1: technically went up first. They also were meant to test
Speaker 1: different things. It wasn't like NASA was just repeating the
Speaker 1: same test over and over. Each test had its own
Speaker 1: mission objectives. They were designed to test the operation of
Speaker 1: the launch vehicles and make sure that they could launch
Speaker 1: the load of an Apollo spacecraft into orbit. You know,
Speaker 1: make sure that the thing you have, the rocket you
Speaker 1: have built, can actually carry the payloads safely up into space.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal. And in an upcoming episode, I'm
Speaker 1: going to focus more on rockets and launch vehicles and
Speaker 1: talk about the science and technology behind those, So we'll
Speaker 1: save all of that discussion for later. The mission objective
Speaker 1: for the first of these, the A S two oh one,
Speaker 1: is described by NASA like this. This is a quote
Speaker 1: from their website. Achieved structural integrity and compatibility of launch
Speaker 1: vehicle as well as launch loads demonstrated separation of first
Speaker 1: and second stages of Saturn l e S and boost
Speaker 1: protective cover from the Command and Service Module or CSM.
Speaker 1: Demonstrated separation of CSM from Instrument Unit, spacecraft and Lunar
Speaker 1: Module adapter, as well as CM separation from the s M.
Speaker 1: Verified operations of Saturn propulsion guidance and control and electrical
Speaker 1: subsystems partially achieved verification of spacecraft subsystems and heat shield
Speaker 1: for re entry from Low Earth orbit due to loss
Speaker 1: of data during maximum heating. Demonstrated operation of mission support facilities.
Speaker 1: So what does that mean, Well, it meant that they
Speaker 1: were testing the launch vehicle making sure that the rocket
Speaker 1: was separating properly in order to get the spacecraft into space.
Speaker 1: So the rocket had several sections and each section needed
Speaker 1: to separate cleanly from the others in order for this
Speaker 1: process to work. They also made sure that the command
Speaker 1: module and the service module would separate properly because the
Speaker 1: command module had to be on its own in order
Speaker 1: for re entry that happened safely. And then they were
Speaker 1: testing out some of the spacecraft subsystems. But as they
Speaker 1: mentioned in the mission over objective and mission Briefing, UH
Speaker 1: This did not go without a hitch. There was a
Speaker 1: loss of some data due to heating, so they didn't
Speaker 1: It's it's not necessarily the case that the systems didn't work,
Speaker 1: but we didn't have the data to know one way
Speaker 1: or the other because of this heating issue. AS two
Speaker 1: A one launched on February nineteen sixty six, and it
Speaker 1: was a short mission. It lasted only thirty seven minutes
Speaker 1: from liftoff to touchdown. The mission had several technical malfunctions,
Speaker 1: including three serious ones, which is why engineers do unmanned
Speaker 1: tests in the first place, to identify and solve those
Speaker 1: problems before human lives are ever at stake. This was
Speaker 1: a suborbital mission. It did not go into orbit. It
Speaker 1: went up to a very high altitude, but it was
Speaker 1: a sub orbital test. The following mission, on August nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty six, this is a S two oh two, was
Speaker 1: the first to test the fuel cell power system that
Speaker 1: would power the spacecraft. Now I've talked about fuel cells
Speaker 1: in other episodes. I've got another episode I have planned
Speaker 1: where I'm going to talk more about fuel cells, so
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into it here. It's a
Speaker 1: really interesting technology, but we'll cover it more in a
Speaker 1: future episode, and if you really want to learn more,
Speaker 1: you can look at the tech Stuff archives and find
Speaker 1: an old episode where we talk about fuel cells. Like
Speaker 1: the a S two oh one mission, the two oh
Speaker 1: two was also suborbital. This one lasted ninety three minutes
Speaker 1: from liftoff to touchdown, and it proved the design of
Speaker 1: the heat shield for the spacecraft worked as was intended.
Speaker 1: The two oh three unmanned mission, the one that took
Speaker 1: place in between two oh one and two or three,
Speaker 1: was actually an orbital mission. It went all the way
Speaker 1: up into orbit. So you might say, well, why is
Speaker 1: this one designated two oh three when one it happened
Speaker 1: before to oh two, and why did it go into
Speaker 1: orbit when two o two didn't. Well, two oh three
Speaker 1: did not carry a command module or a service module
Speaker 1: or a lunar module. The main purpose of two oh
Speaker 1: three was to test the propulsion system that would boost
Speaker 1: an Apollo spacecraft from Earth orbit to insert it into
Speaker 1: a learned lunar orbit. So the S four B was
Speaker 1: a very important component here, but the actual spacecraft was
Speaker 1: not included in this. And now to get to what
Speaker 1: was originally designated as a S two oh four. This
Speaker 1: is one of the tragedies of the U S space program.
Speaker 1: There have been a few, and this was a pretty
Speaker 1: This was a terrible one. It wasn't a pretty bad one.
Speaker 1: This was a terrible one. It happened on January nine.
Speaker 1: This was supposed to be the first manned mission on
Speaker 1: an Apollo spacecraft, and it was intended to be a
Speaker 1: suborbital flight, so it wasn't meant to go into Earth orbit.
Speaker 1: It was meant to go up to space and come
Speaker 1: right back down again. I was supposed to test Apollos
Speaker 1: systems with actual human beings aboard, and the astronauts aboard
Speaker 1: were Virgil Grisom, he had been one of the original
Speaker 1: Mercury seven astronauts, Edward White, who was the first American
Speaker 1: to walk in space during the Gemini four mission, and
Speaker 1: Roger Chaffee, who had served on the ground on various missions,
Speaker 1: but this was his first chance to fly in a
Speaker 1: mission as an astronaut. They were inside the command module
Speaker 1: when during a pre flight test, a fire swept through
Speaker 1: the module and all three astronauts lost their lives. This
Speaker 1: was a terrible tragedy. NASA immediately started an investigation into
Speaker 1: the accident and suspended all crude missions for more than
Speaker 1: a year. As a result, they did continue working on
Speaker 1: uncrude tests, testing the lunar module, in particular, by they
Speaker 1: were absolutely concerned. They wanted to make absolutely certain that
Speaker 1: they eliminated the possibility as best they could of such
Speaker 1: an accident happening again, and it was a terrible loss.
Speaker 1: Later in nineteen sixty seven, Dr. Georgie Muller, who was
Speaker 1: the Associate Administrator for Manned space Flight at NASA, announced
Speaker 1: that the mission was retroactively going to be named the
Speaker 1: Apollo one, so it's no longer a S two O four.
Speaker 1: It was Apollo one. The next unscrewed mission was Apollo four,
Speaker 1: and that happened on November nine, nineteen sixty seven. Also
Speaker 1: at this time, I think it's interesting to point out
Speaker 1: there were no missions that ever received the designation Apollo
Speaker 1: two or Apollo three, so there's no Apolo to No
Speaker 1: Apollo three went from Apollo one to Apollo four, and
Speaker 1: Apollo four carried an unscrewed Apollo spacecraft, so no astronauts
Speaker 1: were aboard. This was an orbital test that lasted about
Speaker 1: nine and a half hours. The spacecraft enter a translunar
Speaker 1: trajectory before returning to Earth. Apollo five was another unscrewed mission.
Speaker 1: This one carried a lunar module as a payload, so
Speaker 1: it was to test the module's propulsion systems in space.
Speaker 1: Apollo six carried a command and Service module as well
Speaker 1: as a Lunar Module Test Article or l t A.
Speaker 1: So on casual glance, this looked like the lunar modules
Speaker 1: that astronauts would later use to go to the Moon's surface,
Speaker 1: but instead of carrying all the life support systems and
Speaker 1: the related systems that the astronauts would absolutely need, the
Speaker 1: test article carried systems that were measuring the dynamic behavior
Speaker 1: of the module during launch to make sure it would
Speaker 1: hold together. That this design of the lunar module could
Speaker 1: withstand the stress that would be put upon it in
Speaker 1: a launch vehicle, so they were verifying that the design
Speaker 1: was up to the task. Apollo six launched on April
Speaker 1: four nine. Now the next mission would again include astronauts
Speaker 1: in the actual command module is the first crude mission
Speaker 1: after Apollo one. It was called Apolo seven, and the
Speaker 1: crew consisted of Walter Skira Jr. H Are, Walter Cunningham,
Speaker 1: and Don F. Eisel. The launch took place on October eleventh, nineteen.
Speaker 1: The payload was a Command Service module. There was no
Speaker 1: lunar module in this particular test. This mission, the crew
Speaker 1: tested the systems aboard the CSM, including going through the
Speaker 1: maneuvers that would be necessary for docking with the lunar
Speaker 1: module on future missions. So there was no lunar module
Speaker 1: to dock with, but they went through the actual steps
Speaker 1: to make certain that the craft could actually maneuver the
Speaker 1: way they intended, and everything worked the way it was
Speaker 1: meant to. The fuel cell power system worked well. There
Speaker 1: were occasional issues with overheating, but the crew was able
Speaker 1: to solve that by distributing the electric load across the
Speaker 1: cells so that no one cell was overworked. The only
Speaker 1: other minor issue was these spacecraft's coolant lines sweated a bit,
Speaker 1: so water would collect inside the command module, but the
Speaker 1: crew used a vacuum to suck up that water and
Speaker 1: they ejected it out into space along with their p
Speaker 1: More on that in a second. The a C also
Speaker 1: stopped working briefly, but the crew was able to manually
Speaker 1: reset the a C bus breakers to restore service, so
Speaker 1: that wasn't a big deal. But one thing that proved
Speaker 1: to be a little unpleasant. It's time to talk about poop.
Speaker 1: It was all about the waste disposal system, which is
Speaker 1: a very elevated way to describe what they had to do.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about pooping, guys, the astronauts. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest questions, by the way, the how stuff
Speaker 1: works would get. One of the most frequently asked questions
Speaker 1: how stuff works would get was how does going to
Speaker 1: the bathroom in space work? Well, if you were an
Speaker 1: Apollo astronaut and you needed to go and make a tuozy,
Speaker 1: this is how it worked. So they had to poop
Speaker 1: into back EAGs. Yep, they had poop bags. The bags
Speaker 1: had a lining of germicide that was there to help
Speaker 1: prevent bacteria from multiplying and spreading. Uh. They were bags
Speaker 1: that were supposed to be easily sealed, and from what
Speaker 1: I understand, they were easily sealed. And then the crew
Speaker 1: was to store the used bags in empty food containers.
Speaker 1: So if you're going rummaging for a snack, you could
Speaker 1: have a nasty surprise if you didn't keep track of them.
Speaker 1: But uh, it was apparently something of a flexibility challenge
Speaker 1: to use them properly because you had to maneuver out
Speaker 1: of your pressure suit in order to do this, and
Speaker 1: also it got a little stinky, and according to NASA,
Speaker 1: it took between forty five minutes to an hour to
Speaker 1: use one of the darned things because of getting out
Speaker 1: of that pressure suit and getting the coveralls adjusted in
Speaker 1: such a way where you could hold the bag in
Speaker 1: the appropriate position and do your business. And that meant
Speaker 1: that because it took so long, up to an hour
Speaker 1: just to do this, it meant that you essentially had
Speaker 1: to hold it until there was a good long stretch
Speaker 1: of time where you didn't have any mission requirements, you
Speaker 1: didn't have anything you had to do that was related
Speaker 1: to the actual mission, and the mission was a long one.
Speaker 1: This particular test, it lasted eleven days or nearly eleven days,
Speaker 1: so on eleven day long mission with three astronauts and
Speaker 1: close quarters, and this is the process you have to
Speaker 1: go through. You might be asking yourself, if you're morbidly curious,
Speaker 1: how much did they have to poop? NASA recorded it.
Speaker 1: NASA recorded twelve defecations. So imagine working at a job
Speaker 1: where not only are your restroom breaks logged, but your
Speaker 1: boss has taken an unusual interest in the product of
Speaker 1: said restroom break. Space travel sure is glamorous. The p
Speaker 1: by the way, was ejected along with that puddled water
Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier. They didn't have to remove any
Speaker 1: clothing to do this. They could just pee in their suits.
Speaker 1: They had a urine collection service, something that NASA did
Speaker 1: not go into further detail about, but I think we
Speaker 1: can all come up with various hypotheses of what that meant. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it was in such a way that the urine was
Speaker 1: actually collected so it could be vented out into space.
Speaker 1: They weren't just, you know, wearing diapers. All three astronauts
Speaker 1: caught a cold during the course of the mission, which
Speaker 1: was incredibly unpleasant. Mucus accumulated and filled up their nasal passages. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm making space travel sounds sexy, right, So it made
Speaker 1: it real hard to breathe up. Their Tor's just shaking
Speaker 1: her head and looking at me. She's like, I can't
Speaker 1: believe And only do I have to listen to you
Speaker 1: talk about pooping and mucus. I'm gonna have to listen
Speaker 1: to it again when I edit this show. Sorry, Terry,
Speaker 1: I'll buy you a coke. Anyway, the astronauts found that
Speaker 1: the only thing that could really clear their noses was
Speaker 1: if they gave their honkers a real good hard blow,
Speaker 1: but that would cause pressure to build up in their ears,
Speaker 1: and it hurt their ear drums to blow their noses,
Speaker 1: so it was a very unpleasant experience. NASA, by the way,
Speaker 1: would refer to the crew morale on this mission as
Speaker 1: and I quote grumpy. I'm not surprised if you told
Speaker 1: me to poop in a bag for eleven days and
Speaker 1: then you gave me a cold, I'd be grumpy too,
Speaker 1: And I'm not even in space. That's just not cool.
Speaker 1: Tari is even talking to me, but I can't hear
Speaker 1: her because she's on the other side of the glass.
Speaker 1: But she's got things to say about this too. I
Speaker 1: imagine a Polo seven ended up having a safe splash
Speaker 1: down on October twenty nine. Now, I know I said
Speaker 1: eleven days, but technically, if you were to look at
Speaker 1: the full time between liftoff and splash down, it was
Speaker 1: ten days, twenty hours, nine into three seconds. So I'm
Speaker 1: rounding up to get to those eleven days. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: it's set the stage for Apollo eight I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what Apollo eight was all about in just a second,
Speaker 1: but first let's take another quick break to thank our sponsors.
Speaker 1: Apollo eight would take a crew further than any human
Speaker 1: had gone before. The mission would include a trip around
Speaker 1: the backside of the Moon and back that involved a
Speaker 1: maneuver called the trans lunar injection, in which the spacecraft
Speaker 1: would move out of Earth orbit and travel into an
Speaker 1: orbit around the Moon before going for a trans Earth
Speaker 1: injection and essentially reversing this process. It's actually more complicated
Speaker 1: than reversing the process but coming back to Earth. Astronauts
Speaker 1: Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr. And William Anders were selected
Speaker 1: as the crew of the Apollo eight. The trip to
Speaker 1: the Moon required two mid course corrections, the first at
Speaker 1: nearly eleven hours into the mission and the second at
Speaker 1: sixty one hours eight minutes in the mission, so more
Speaker 1: than two days. Almost three days into the mission, the
Speaker 1: Apollo eight spacecraft spent twenty hours in lunar orbit, and
Speaker 1: it went around the Moon ten times before using the
Speaker 1: spacecraft's propulsion systems for a trans Earth injection and a
Speaker 1: return trip to Earth. Whenever the spacecraft passed on the
Speaker 1: far side of the moon, radio communication would end. Because
Speaker 1: the Moon's big, it blocked all the radio signals, so
Speaker 1: we would lose communication with the astronauts whenever they went
Speaker 1: around the far side of the moon. By the way,
Speaker 1: I know all of you know this, but I feel
Speaker 1: like I should remind folks that the far side of
Speaker 1: the Moon is what we call the face of the
Speaker 1: Moon that is away from the Earth. The Moon is
Speaker 1: tidally locked with the Earth, so the same side of
Speaker 1: the Moon always faces us. We never see the other
Speaker 1: side from Earth. There is, not, however, a dark side
Speaker 1: of the Moon, or rather, there's not a permanent dark
Speaker 1: side of the Moon. There is a side of the
Speaker 1: Moon that's dark, but it's not the same side all
Speaker 1: the time. All sides of the Moon receive light at
Speaker 1: one time or another, but there is a permanent far
Speaker 1: side of the Moon. Sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's lit up,
Speaker 1: but it always faces away from us. The astronauts aboard
Speaker 1: the Apollo eight were the first to see that side
Speaker 1: of the Moon firsthand. It's pocked with craters from various
Speaker 1: impacts that it blocked from colliding with the Earth potentially,
Speaker 1: which is kind of cool, but otherwise it's you know
Speaker 1: it's the Moon. I'm sure it's really cool to see
Speaker 1: of close. I'll never get a chance to see it
Speaker 1: like that, but you know, it's the Moon. The launch
Speaker 1: vehicle took off on December one, nine, and the command
Speaker 1: module splashed down on December, so they spent Christmas up
Speaker 1: in space. There was no lunar module attached on Apollo eight,
Speaker 1: it was just the command and service modules that went up.
Speaker 1: Apollo nine would include a lunar module, but it did
Speaker 1: not touch down on the Moon instead. The purpose of
Speaker 1: this mission was to test the rendezvous and docking procedures
Speaker 1: between the command Service module and the lunar module. These
Speaker 1: would all be necessary maneuvers during a mission to the
Speaker 1: Moon itself. The mission included a simulation of a lunar
Speaker 1: module rescue mission and the event of a lunar module
Speaker 1: losing its ability to maneuver in space, so the Command
Speaker 1: and Service module would have to do all the work
Speaker 1: in order to orient itself properly and dock with a
Speaker 1: lunar module. This was just in case there might be
Speaker 1: an incident where a lunar module is able to ascend
Speaker 1: from the Moon but then loses its ability to maneuver,
Speaker 1: and it would have mean that the pilot of the
Speaker 1: Command Service module would have to go on a rescue
Speaker 1: mission during this and the command module and lunar module
Speaker 1: docked without incident, and the crew was able to transfer
Speaker 1: from the command module over into the lunar module. And
Speaker 1: remember there that kind of head to head. That's something
Speaker 1: I didn't realize until I was probably a teenager. At
Speaker 1: that time. I just assumed that the lunar module was
Speaker 1: somehow on the bottom side of the Command Service module.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't make any sense. The Command Service module's
Speaker 1: engine is on the base of the service module, so
Speaker 1: you can't you can't have a lunar module under that
Speaker 1: or you would be blasting the lunar module with your engine.
Speaker 1: So again, when the whole spacecraft would go into Earth orbit,
Speaker 1: they would have to have this maneuver where the Command
Speaker 1: Service module would effectively turn around in space and dock
Speaker 1: point to point with the lunar module. So it's it's
Speaker 1: like the two tops of the spacecraft are attaching a
Speaker 1: course in space top and bottom. That really loses meaning
Speaker 1: when you're in a microgravity environment, you don't really have
Speaker 1: to worry about the top versus a bottom. Uh. It
Speaker 1: becomes kind of a confusing nomenclature because there's no gravity
Speaker 1: to use as a point of reference. But it did
Speaker 1: mean that when the Command Service Module would travel to
Speaker 1: the Moon, it would have the Lunar module on the
Speaker 1: front point of it, so that the tip of that
Speaker 1: cone would attach to the lunar module. Then the the
Speaker 1: service module of the CSM was where the propulsion system was,
Speaker 1: and that's where you would get your thrust from your engine.
Speaker 1: So the crew went through these maneuvers. They connected the
Speaker 1: Command Service Module to the lunar module in space, and
Speaker 1: they moved between the two and on day five, two
Speaker 1: of the Apollo nine crew transferred to the lunar module
Speaker 1: and the two modules separated from each other. So you
Speaker 1: had a Command Service Module with one astronaut in it
Speaker 1: and a lunar module with two astronauts in it. So
Speaker 1: you had two craft, two modules that were orbiting the Earth,
Speaker 1: both of which were carrying astronauts. The lunar module fired
Speaker 1: its engine to put it into a different orbit. Originally
Speaker 1: it was a twelve miles higher than the Command Service Module.
Speaker 1: Several hours later, the two modules would rendezvous again. The
Speaker 1: lunar module would go into a lower orbit in preparation
Speaker 1: for a rendezvous. The two craft were able to dock
Speaker 1: again and the uh the two astronauts transferred back over
Speaker 1: into the command service module. In preparation for landing, they
Speaker 1: jettison the lunar module because you can't land with a
Speaker 1: lunar module attached to it, And then later they were
Speaker 1: separated from the service module and returned to Earth. Re
Speaker 1: entered the Earth's atmosphere. The Apollo nine spacecraft made one
Speaker 1: hundred fifty one orbits of the Earth in ten days,
Speaker 1: and it touched down on March thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine. Now,
Speaker 1: Apollo ten was a serious dry run at a lunar
Speaker 1: landing and included all procedures that would be involved with
Speaker 1: such a mission with one small exception, and that small
Speaker 1: exception was there was no actual landing on the Moon.
Speaker 1: But the mission did put a crude spacecraft, crude as
Speaker 1: in people were aborted, not that it was crude in design.
Speaker 1: It put a manned spacecraft. I hate using that phrase
Speaker 1: because of the gender, but it put a crude spacecraft
Speaker 1: in a lunar orbit, and that in would actually go
Speaker 1: through the whole process of rendezvous and docking with the
Speaker 1: lunar module in the lunar orbit as if the lunar
Speaker 1: module had actually gone down to the Moon and ascended
Speaker 1: back into lunar orbit. It just didn't do that one
Speaker 1: part of it. It did everything else. This was NASA's
Speaker 1: last task before trying to actually put people on the Moon.
Speaker 1: The Apollo ten craft made only one and a half
Speaker 1: orbits of the Earth before it moved into a translunar
Speaker 1: injection path. The lunar module inside the S four B
Speaker 1: stage of the launch vehicles separated from the Command Service
Speaker 1: Module twenty five minutes after the translunar injection and preparation
Speaker 1: for the docking process that put the lunar module on
Speaker 1: the nose of the Command Service Module for the rest
Speaker 1: of the trip to the Moon, and on May twenty two,
Speaker 1: in orbit around the Moon, the Command Service Module and
Speaker 1: lunar modules separated and performed a station keeping lunar orbit,
Speaker 1: which meant that they were traveling not together because they
Speaker 1: were separate, but in an orbit where they could have
Speaker 1: a rendezvous if necessary. One astronaut, John Young, stayed aboard
Speaker 1: the command module as pilot. The other two astronauts, Thomas
Speaker 1: Stafford and Eugene Sarnen boarded the lunar module, and that
Speaker 1: would simulate what the crew of Apollo eleven would do
Speaker 1: in preparation for a lunar landing. The command module would
Speaker 1: stay in orbit around the Moon, and the other two
Speaker 1: astronauts would get to go down on the lunar surface,
Speaker 1: not not with Apollo tin, but with Apollo eleven. So
Speaker 1: in Apollo ten they just simulated this by going into
Speaker 1: orbit around the Moon, but not actually landing on it.
Speaker 1: And after sixteen lunar orbits, the two modules ocked again
Speaker 1: and Stafford and Sernan came back aboard the Man's Service
Speaker 1: module with Young, and then they jettisoned the lunar module
Speaker 1: and returned home. The command module, by that on that
Speaker 1: particular mission had the nickname Charlie Brown, and the lunar
Speaker 1: module's nickname was Snoopy, which I thought was cute. The
Speaker 1: Apollo Tis spacecraft completed all its mission objectives and performed
Speaker 1: a maneuver to enter trans Earth injection, came back home
Speaker 1: without major incident. It splashed down on May nine, and
Speaker 1: so the stage was set for a real lunar landing.
Speaker 1: And now we're finally up to Apollo eleven. All the
Speaker 1: Apollo missions were historic, but this is the one that
Speaker 1: most people talk about. If they're not talking about Apollo
Speaker 1: with their team, which we'll get to in the next episode,
Speaker 1: they talked about Apollo eleven. This was the first mission
Speaker 1: that put astronauts on the Moon, which is an achievement
Speaker 1: only the United States has managed. So far. NASA has
Speaker 1: done pretty much everything it could do at that point
Speaker 1: to prepare for this mission. They simulated all the maneuvers
Speaker 1: in space. They used the various modules that would be
Speaker 1: needed in order to achieve success. But one thing that
Speaker 1: had not yet happened was an actual landing of a
Speaker 1: lunar module on the surface of the Moon and more importantly,
Speaker 1: launching that module off the surface of the Moon back
Speaker 1: into lunar orbit. Apolo eleven would have to do that
Speaker 1: in order to get the lunar astronauts back home safely.
Speaker 1: So it was it was scary. It was also thrilling.
Speaker 1: I mean, the astronauts, as far as I can tell,
Speaker 1: weren't scared. They were just raring to go. So Poulo eleven,
Speaker 1: launched on July six, nineteen sixty nine, had Neil Armstrong,
Speaker 1: Michael Collins, and buzz Aldron aboard. Four days after launch,
Speaker 1: Armstrong would set foot upon the Moon, a small step
Speaker 1: for a man, but a giant leap for mankind. Buzz
Speaker 1: Aldrin piloted the lunar module, so he went down with
Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong to the Moon. He was in charge with
Speaker 1: when the lunar module can leaded its thirteenth orbit of
Speaker 1: the Moon and then fired its descent engine to start
Speaker 1: descent towards the Moon's surface. The descent required a last
Speaker 1: minute change of plans, actually, because the trajectory they were
Speaker 1: on would have the lunar module land in a crater,
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to do that, so they had
Speaker 1: to change uh sort of at the last minute. They
Speaker 1: ended up touching down about four miles away from where
Speaker 1: their predicted landing site had been. The lunar module landed
Speaker 1: on the dusty surface of the Moon, and about four
Speaker 1: hours after landing, Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the surface
Speaker 1: and buzz Aldron would join them about twenty minutes later.
Speaker 1: Armstrong spent probably around two and a half hours on
Speaker 1: the Moon's surface walking around a space suit. Of course,
Speaker 1: Aldrin would re enter the lunar module about forty minutes
Speaker 1: ahead of Armstrong. Armstrong really took his time out there.
Speaker 1: UM can't blame them. I think it probably was fascinating,
Speaker 1: and not only that, but it was part of the mission.
Speaker 1: The lunar module spent about twenty one and a half
Speaker 1: hours on the surface of the Moon. Meanwhile, the command
Speaker 1: module continued to orbit the Moon up above. Must have
Speaker 1: been pretty lonely up there, honestly. The lunar module engaged
Speaker 1: its ascent stage engine at one four hours twenty two
Speaker 1: minutes into the mission. Less than ten minutes later, the
Speaker 1: lunar module was in a lunar orbit, so it took
Speaker 1: less than ten minutes to go from the surface of
Speaker 1: the Moon into lunar orbit, and the command module was
Speaker 1: in its twenty five orbit around the Moon at that point.
Speaker 1: The two modules docked at one hours three minutes into
Speaker 1: the mission, and Armstrong and Aldrin then transferred back over
Speaker 1: to the Command Service module. A few hours later, the
Speaker 1: crew jettison the lunar module into lunar orbit, and then
Speaker 1: they prepared to go home. The Apollo eleven completed fifty
Speaker 1: nine hours of lunar orbit before moving into a trans
Speaker 1: Earth injection. This was on July one. The Apollo eleven
Speaker 1: spacecraft would touchdown on Earth on July nine. Astronauts had
Speaker 1: successfully traveled to the Moon and returned home safely. I
Speaker 1: am still amazed even now looking back on that achievement
Speaker 1: and thinking all the things that were required in order
Speaker 1: to make that a success. It is a phenomenal testament
Speaker 1: to the ingenuity of humans. Countless men and women worked
Speaker 1: together to make this happen. And when I look up
Speaker 1: at the Moon and think people have been there, it
Speaker 1: blows my mind to this day. But it's time for
Speaker 1: me to wrap up this episode. In our next episode,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give a quick overview, you know me,
Speaker 1: It probably won't be quick. I'll give an overview of
Speaker 1: what the other Apollo missions were all about. All of
Speaker 1: them are important and they all really deserve their own episodes,
Speaker 1: but I'll give an overview of those. Then I'll transition
Speaker 1: to talking about the Soyuz spacecraft, the Soviet spacecraft that
Speaker 1: was used to not only doc with the first space station,
Speaker 1: but also ended up being a vehicle that transported the
Speaker 1: first space tourists in space. Though from what I understand,
Speaker 1: they all hate being called that. We'll talk that about
Speaker 1: that in the next episode. Now as I wrap up here,
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