Whould you get in this if I told you it goes to the moon?

OP, you're looking at the outside skin ofthe Lunar Module, and deciding that it's construction is too flimsy? This makes no sense. Is your shirt holding you upright in your chair? No? What about your skin - is that holding you up? Of course not! Heck, looking at my sofa, all I see is wrinkled, cat-clawed fabric, but I know from experience that it can support the weight of two adults engaged in 'atheletic activity'.

What is important is what's under the skin, so let's have a look at what's under the LM's skin:


Here it is one on the factory floor at Grumman Aviation in Long Island.
To the left is the Descent Stage. Note that it is not actually octagonal, but rather is five box structures welded together, with vertical reinforcements rather like a wine box. This provided fantastic vertical strength for the mass of material used; allowing it to support the weight of the Ascent Stage during Saturn V liftoff, and also for it to serve as a launch pad for the AS when it takes off.

To the right is the Ascent Stage. You can see that the inner skin of the pressurized crew cabin is supported by closely-spaced ribs for maximum strength at minimum weight. One of the ascent fuel tanks is visible to the right.


Here is the Ascent Stage of the LM,viewed from the right-rear. To the right (partially obscured) is the drum-like crew compartment. To the left is the aft electronics bay. You can see the thin stringers from which the outer skin will hang, but don't get them confused with the much sturdier structural framework underneath that you can see supporting the AEB and oxidizer tank.


Here's another view of the Descent Stage, showing its rugged construction. The descent fuel & oxidizer tanks are inside the boxes. The triangular sections between the outer boxes were storage areas for auxiliary tanks and equipment the astronauts would need on the Moon, including tools, science packages and, on the later missions, the folded-up lunar rover.

Grumman, whose proud engineers built the Lunar Module, also built the best and most durable naval aircraft ever - they didn't do flimsy.

Hope this helps

originally posted by: Saint Exupery
OP, you're looking at the outside skin ofthe Lunar Module, and deciding that it's construction is too flimsy?

OP has been banned so he can't reply, but I'll reply..great post and very informative photos! Thanks.

Soylent posted a drawing showing where the fuel tanks were, then OP soon after posted he didn't see any fuel tanks, didn't even address Soylent's drawing showing the fuel tanks, so it wasn't really a two-way discussion.

a reply to: ProfessorPatternfish

It gets you to the moon in the sense that you go from an orbiter to the surface and back.. this lander is plenty capable of that with such low gravity and practically no atmosphere

originally posted by: ProfessorPatternfish
Did you know Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon, has given hardly any interviews about his time on the moon.


He is wheeled out when needed to make a quote.

If you really went to the Moon you would be on every TV channel going on and on about it.

You wouldn't be able to shut up about it.

Ever.

I don't care about what people say but there is something very obvious wrong going on... Something which made them very uncomfortable...something significant and they can not talk about.

a reply to: ProfessorPatternfish

The lunar module crew cabin was essentially a balloon made from very thin sheet metal. An astronaut could have easily put his foot right through the wall and would have been in a vacuum in seconds. Those guys had HUGE guts to go on those missions. Think about it, you get on a HUGE rocket, filled with high explosives, and fly thousands of miles into space, land on the moon with NO hope of rescue if you crash, then have to lift off the moon using ONE engine that HAD to work, then you had to rendezvous in lunar orbit, get back aboard the command module, then basically free fall 240,000 miles to finally enter the atmosphere like a meteor, THEN you hoped to god the parachutes opened. Yeah, some major guts were required.

a reply to: openminded2011

It was their job.
They were called test pilots for a reason.

Strange....maybe they are not on the moon...still strange.

a reply to: bassface09
Correct. They are not on the Moon. No one is.
But 12 men have been on the Moon.


Strange how some want to believe so strongly that it didn't happen. I wonder why.

I'd go in a heartbeat. Twice, if they'd let me.

To be able to walk on another world? See something that no other living man has ever seen?

Maybe find the hidden Nazi Moonbase?

Oh, God, yes, I'd go. I'd even expect to comeback alive.

a reply to: seagull

I'd go in a heartbeat. Twice, if they'd let me.

There was a waitlist.

a reply to: Phage

I used to be pretty good at takin' cuts in line at school.

originally posted by: butcherguy
Yes, the men that endeavored to travel to the moon and back were very brave men.
Some if them (not the ones on Apollo 13) landed and came back.
No, I would not have been brave enough to do what they did, I would have been terrified the whole time if I had been forced to do it.
One tiny thing goes wrong and you die.
Hats off to all the brave women and men that have risked their lives to travel in space.... and continue to do so!

I am sure many would sign up to use the same tech again now, so why is it that no one is going ?

Surely it would be easy to make some minor improvements as well , and launch, but NOOOOO.

a reply to: ParasuvO

I am sure many would sign up to use the same tech again now, so why is it that no one is going ?

Pretty pricey for a one day visit.
Soviets aren't really much of a challenge anymore either.

originally posted by: Chadwickus
Aaand there it is!

Hey OP, did you know that soil samples brought back by one of the Russian landers was virtually identical to that from Apollo 12?

I doubt you did, and in fact I doubt you care!

Of course we should all trust and believe that story is completely true!!

It is clear you have a prejudice in your mind that tells you it is impossible to do certain things, like cover things up of ANY magnitude....but yet you would believe this story that is clearly a stretch when examined closely ?

a reply to: ParasuvO

If they put the Saturn V up on the launch pad, with an apollo space-craft attached and asked for volunteers, I'd be there.

As to why they haven't?

Pure politics. Nothing more, nothing less. Give NASA a blank check, or a private firm if you prefer, with a moonbase as the goal, or Mars, for that matter...? We'd be there by the end of the next decade.

But that seems unlikely, since we're too stupid to realize that the Earth is but our nest, and eventually everything has to leave the nest. We prefer to sit here and foul it 'til we kill ourselves, apparently. Though it is to be hoped that someday we'll grow up, at least a little.

originally posted by: 0bserver1
a reply to: ProfessorPatternfish

Whoa you're truly one of those people who appose or deny something as biautiful piece of technical achievements mankind ever witnessed.

Well I will not dare to ask an astronaut who walked on the moon that the lunar module was a fake, but that's me , and I still believe that many things man achieved in space is real , and that from this module learned a great deal from spacrafts
, probably more then we ever will know..

And the lunar module has saved the Apollo 13 crew for what I know..

I think its time to put up or shutup, mankind witnessed NOTHING.

The videos are absolute garbage, and it is high time to go again and do some REAL filming, and exploration.

Reveling in the imagination is what people have been doing, nothing appears to have been learned about spacecrafts at all, not one has been built since that has gone anywhere, when is this great achievement going to lead to something of value and ACTUAL COOLNESS ??

a reply to: ParasuvO
Huh.
Rovers on Mars.
Landing on a comet.
Imaging Pluto.
Leaving the Solar System.

Garbage, right?

originally posted by: ParasuvO
ACTUAL COOLNESS ??

I guess we can leave 'coolness' to the poseurs and the wilfully ignorant.

As Phage has mentioned above, there has been plenty of exploration and science conducted.

Star Trek is fiction, you know that right?

originally posted by: roadgravel
Seems often the biggest non believers are the ones who haven't done much investigation on the program and equipment.

Just a quick look at some pics and then certain it must fail and therefore is fake. I'm glad that isn't the way reality works.

Are you serious ?

A GOOD MANY calculations on how all of this supposedly went down , are either missing or "not shared".

And frankly even hypothetical calculations cannot seem to pinpoint everything down.

How is it, that you find absolutely no fault in all of the information you have received from NASA.

a reply to: ParasuvO

A GOOD MANY calculations on how all of this supposedly went down , are either missing or "not shared".

For example?

And frankly even hypothetical calculations cannot seem to pinpoint everything down.

For example?

How is it, that you find absolutely no fault in all of the information you have received from NASA.

Well, there is the public relations branch of NASA, they occasionally screw up. Then there's the admin, that's another story. But the science part, the physics, that's quite solid.