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On July 20th 1969 I was a young engineer working with a team of other young fluid mechanics on the design for the fuel sytem for the Olympus jet engine which was used to power that beautiful aircraft Concorde
I was at the time with all of my colleagues well into the excitement of manned space travel and lets face it hold your breath moments.
We had during the last few days from 16th July onward being following the Apollo 11 mission and we had all found the whole Apollo manned missions absolutely terrific.
We all watched the landing moments with fingers crossed it was edge of the seat stuff anything could have gone wrong and of course nearly did,we cheered fit to bust when they announced ...
"Tranquility base here.The Eagle has Landed"
Years later in 1976 when I was involved with my company in designing the engines for the shuttle(which they never used,chose the bunsen burner approach) I met Alan Shepherd commander of Apollo 14.(sad to say he passed away in 1998 through cancer) my home observatory is named Antares after the Lunar Module of Apollo 14.
When you talk face to face with someone who has travelled to and walked on the MOON he convinced me totally that the manned mission to the Moon was a definite stepping stone to Mars(Buzz Aldrin is still saying that now) and that it was a wonderful and life changing experience for him and all the Apollo Astronauts.
With the Ares 1 rocket and Orion capsule now well into developement should be going back and learn a whole lot more.
The previous Landing sites I look upon as historical sites much as we look upon landing sites of our great Earth bound explorers e.g Capt Cook and Christopher Columbus and as such kept preserved so I belive the Moon deserves to have these landing sites preserved too..
The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has transmitted the first images in 40 years of the Apollo 11 lunar lander.
But first below a few images of the original pictures taken..
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/06.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
In the Apollo 11 image (above) taken by Neil Armstrong, astronaut Buzz Aldrin works to extract Apollo science hardware from the descent stage of Eagle. This shows the scale of the boxy descent stage with its landing struts in comparison with a person.
The separation of the Apollo 17 ascent stage from the descent stage (below) was imaged by the television on the crew's lunar rover car parked about 100 ft. away.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/07.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
Descent stage (above) shows at ground level what the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was imaging at all of the sites.
The location of the Apollo landing sites is shown (below) on a globe of the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter transmitted its images to antennas at White Sands N. M. which then relayed them to the Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. Which controls the spacecraft.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/08.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
Historic Apollo landing sites imaged by new lunar orbiter.
Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues.
They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the moon.
The LRO spacecraft also imaged four other Apollo sites showing Grumman lunar module descent stages, and in one case, a trail of astronaut footprints on the Moon.
In addition to Apollo 11, the Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17 sites were imaged. LRO has not yet flown over the Apollo 12 landing site when lighting was suitable for imagery, but the spacecraft will be commanded to obtain imagery of the Apollo 12 site by late July or early August.
The image of the Apollo 14 landing site (below) , however, had a particularly good lighting condition that allowed visibility of additional details.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/01.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
In the image (above) the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, set of scientific instruments placed by the Apollo 14 astronauts, is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module Antares and instrument package left by astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell in February 1971.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/02.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
The image (above) of the descent stage of Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle was taken with just over 1 meter resolution, showing the small crater just behind the LM that Armstrong had to extend his landing over to avoid. At touchdown Eagle had only 15-30 sec. of descent engine fuel remaining to achieve the landing.
The Apollo 15 landing site (below) was near Hadley Rill, a collapsed lava tube deeper than the grand canyon. The rill is out of view to the east.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/03.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
The Apollo 15 site (above) was the first to be explored with a Boeing Lunar Rover car that enabled astronauts David Scott and the late Jim Irwin to roam widely throughout the area imaged by LRO.
The Apollo 16 site (below) in April, 1972 was in the Descartes highlands.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/04.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
Astronauts John Young and Charles Duke nearly had to abandon the landing when problems arose with the Command/Service Module piloted by Thomas K. Mattingly. But the problem with an engine gimbal were resolved, allowing the landing to proceed after Young and Duke had orbited the moon in the LM longer than planned.
On Apollo 17, the final manned mission to the moon in 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt explored the Taurus-Littrow region for almost three days. The descent stage of their lunar module Challenger is visible near Camelot crater (below).
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/05.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
The Taurus-Littrow valley explored by Apollo 17 (above) was formed 3.9 billion years ago when a mountain-sized asteroid or comet hit the Moon and blasted out a basin nearly 400 mi. in diameter. Around the rim of the Sea of Serenity formed by the impact, great blocks of rock were pushed out and up, forming a ring of mountains. In places, the blocks quickly fell again, and left radial valleys among the mountains. Taurus-Littrow explored by the Apollo 17 crew is one such valley, in the southwestern Taurus Mountains. The lunar module descent stages (see image below) were quite large carrying the descent engine and its propellant tanks, along with science packages and, on the last three flights, the lunar rover cars.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/images/grafix/spacer.gif[/IMG]
All these years later still has the Wow! factor because man went out into space.
At the moment we only go into low earth orbit not quite the same as travelling 250,000 miles there do a few lunar orbits drop down land on surface,do some scientific experiments,take off,dock with command module then 250,000 miles return trip and splash down back on earth now that is WOW!!!!
20th JULY 1969 Remembered [IMG]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/bdayparty.gif[/IMG] 40 years!!!
I was at the time with all of my colleagues well into the excitement of manned space travel and lets face it hold your breath moments.
We had during the last few days from 16th July onward being following the Apollo 11 mission and we had all found the whole Apollo manned missions absolutely terrific.
We all watched the landing moments with fingers crossed it was edge of the seat stuff anything could have gone wrong and of course nearly did,we cheered fit to bust when they announced ...
"Tranquility base here.The Eagle has Landed"
Years later in 1976 when I was involved with my company in designing the engines for the shuttle(which they never used,chose the bunsen burner approach) I met Alan Shepherd commander of Apollo 14.(sad to say he passed away in 1998 through cancer) my home observatory is named Antares after the Lunar Module of Apollo 14.
When you talk face to face with someone who has travelled to and walked on the MOON he convinced me totally that the manned mission to the Moon was a definite stepping stone to Mars(Buzz Aldrin is still saying that now) and that it was a wonderful and life changing experience for him and all the Apollo Astronauts.
With the Ares 1 rocket and Orion capsule now well into developement should be going back and learn a whole lot more.
The previous Landing sites I look upon as historical sites much as we look upon landing sites of our great Earth bound explorers e.g Capt Cook and Christopher Columbus and as such kept preserved so I belive the Moon deserves to have these landing sites preserved too..
The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has transmitted the first images in 40 years of the Apollo 11 lunar lander.
But first below a few images of the original pictures taken..
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/06.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
In the Apollo 11 image (above) taken by Neil Armstrong, astronaut Buzz Aldrin works to extract Apollo science hardware from the descent stage of Eagle. This shows the scale of the boxy descent stage with its landing struts in comparison with a person.
The separation of the Apollo 17 ascent stage from the descent stage (below) was imaged by the television on the crew's lunar rover car parked about 100 ft. away.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/07.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
Descent stage (above) shows at ground level what the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was imaging at all of the sites.
The location of the Apollo landing sites is shown (below) on a globe of the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter transmitted its images to antennas at White Sands N. M. which then relayed them to the Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. Which controls the spacecraft.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/08.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
Historic Apollo landing sites imaged by new lunar orbiter.
Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues.
They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the moon.
The LRO spacecraft also imaged four other Apollo sites showing Grumman lunar module descent stages, and in one case, a trail of astronaut footprints on the Moon.
In addition to Apollo 11, the Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17 sites were imaged. LRO has not yet flown over the Apollo 12 landing site when lighting was suitable for imagery, but the spacecraft will be commanded to obtain imagery of the Apollo 12 site by late July or early August.
The image of the Apollo 14 landing site (below) , however, had a particularly good lighting condition that allowed visibility of additional details.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/01.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
In the image (above) the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, set of scientific instruments placed by the Apollo 14 astronauts, is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module Antares and instrument package left by astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell in February 1971.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/02.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
The image (above) of the descent stage of Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle was taken with just over 1 meter resolution, showing the small crater just behind the LM that Armstrong had to extend his landing over to avoid. At touchdown Eagle had only 15-30 sec. of descent engine fuel remaining to achieve the landing.
The Apollo 15 landing site (below) was near Hadley Rill, a collapsed lava tube deeper than the grand canyon. The rill is out of view to the east.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/03.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
The Apollo 15 site (above) was the first to be explored with a Boeing Lunar Rover car that enabled astronauts David Scott and the late Jim Irwin to roam widely throughout the area imaged by LRO.
The Apollo 16 site (below) in April, 1972 was in the Descartes highlands.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/04.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
Astronauts John Young and Charles Duke nearly had to abandon the landing when problems arose with the Command/Service Module piloted by Thomas K. Mattingly. But the problem with an engine gimbal were resolved, allowing the landing to proceed after Young and Duke had orbited the moon in the LM longer than planned.
On Apollo 17, the final manned mission to the moon in 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt explored the Taurus-Littrow region for almost three days. The descent stage of their lunar module Challenger is visible near Camelot crater (below).
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0907/17lroapollo/05.jpg[/IMG]
Credit: NASA
The Taurus-Littrow valley explored by Apollo 17 (above) was formed 3.9 billion years ago when a mountain-sized asteroid or comet hit the Moon and blasted out a basin nearly 400 mi. in diameter. Around the rim of the Sea of Serenity formed by the impact, great blocks of rock were pushed out and up, forming a ring of mountains. In places, the blocks quickly fell again, and left radial valleys among the mountains. Taurus-Littrow explored by the Apollo 17 crew is one such valley, in the southwestern Taurus Mountains. The lunar module descent stages (see image below) were quite large carrying the descent engine and its propellant tanks, along with science packages and, on the last three flights, the lunar rover cars.
[IMG]http://spaceflightnow.com/images/grafix/spacer.gif[/IMG]
All these years later still has the Wow! factor because man went out into space.
At the moment we only go into low earth orbit not quite the same as travelling 250,000 miles there do a few lunar orbits drop down land on surface,do some scientific experiments,take off,dock with command module then 250,000 miles return trip and splash down back on earth now that is WOW!!!!
20th JULY 1969 Remembered [IMG]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/bdayparty.gif[/IMG] 40 years!!!
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Shardy
19 July 2009 - 08:21
Hmmm,
look at the size of Aldrin, then look at the size of the LEM after it separates from the legs. Not much room is there?..... I feel a conspiracy coming on ;)
look at the size of Aldrin, then look at the size of the LEM after it separates from the legs. Not much room is there?..... I feel a conspiracy coming on ;)
Philip Bedford
19 July 2009 - 10:42
Good Blog.
I remember watching the Apollo 11 landing on the telly.
I was working in a canning factory in Kings Lynn over that summer.
..
I remember watching the Apollo 11 landing on the telly.
I was working in a canning factory in Kings Lynn over that summer.
..
NE7 7QE
05 February 2010 - 10:38
I remember the excitement of the time too, though entirely as a youngster watching Tomorrows World and the occasional 'special' like the moon landings. Watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin get down onto the Moon AS IT HAPPENED was awe inspiring, as were the published high definition colour pictures of the event that were published in the Sunday Times about a fortnight later. Concorde was similar. I was at my Gran's when Brian Trubshaw blasted it down the runway on its maiden flight and pulled it into the sky trailing huge black streams of smoke. It was Dan Dare stuff that aircraft, even down to the shape. I often wondered whether designers were influenced by the imagination of the artists who devised the images in science fiction comics. Concorde could have been spotted in the Eagle comic of the 1950s - only it would have been zapping about in space being pursued by the Mekons or some other evil race of aliens.
It must have been great to work in mechanical engineering at that time. I was never any good at maths and had to go a different way, but my youngest son has just graduated in MechEng with a First. He must have got the maths from his mum. I hope he will go into an exciting sphere of work like you did.
It must have been great to work in mechanical engineering at that time. I was never any good at maths and had to go a different way, but my youngest son has just graduated in MechEng with a First. He must have got the maths from his mum. I hope he will go into an exciting sphere of work like you did.
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