dcn@ihuxl.UUCP (Dave Newkirk) (11/15/86)
... The lander was much more fun to fly than the simulator. Then, five minutes into the maneuver, the crewmen began hearing alarms. On one occasion, the computer told them a switch was in the wrong position, and they corrected it. Another time, they could find no reason for the alarm, but they juggled the switches and the clanging stopped. Coping with these alarms, some of which were caused by computer overloads, lasted four minutes. ... But these nerve-wracking interruptions had come at a time when the crewmen should have been looking for a suitable spot to sit down, rather than watching cabin displays. They had reached `high gate' in the trajectory - in old aircraft-pilot parlance the begin- ning of the approach to an airport in a landing path - where the Eagle tilted slightly downward to give them a view of the moon. When they reached `low gate' - the point of making a visual assessment of the land- ing site to select either automatic or manual control - they were still clearing alarms and watching instruments. By the time they had a chance to look outside, only 600 meters and three minutes time separated them from the lunar surface. Armstrong saw the landing site immediately. He also saw that the touchdown would be just short of a large rocky crater with boulders, some as large as five meters in diameter, scattered over a wide area. If he could land just in front of that spot, he thought, they might find the area of dome scientific interest. But the thought was fleeting; such a landing would be impossible. So he pitched the lander over and fired the engine with the flight path rather than against it. Flying over the boulder field, Armstrong soon found a relatively smooth area, lying between some sizable craters and another field of boulders. How was the descent fuel supply? Armstrong asked Aldrin. But the lunar module pilot was too busy watching the computer to answer. Then lunar dust was a problem. Thirty meters above the surface, a semitrans- parent sheet was kicked up that nearly obscured the surface. The lower they dropped, the worse it was. Armstrong had no trouble telling altitude, as Aldrin was calling out the figures almost meter by meter, but he found judging lateral and downrange speeds difficult. He gauged these measure- ments as well as he could by picking out large rocks and watching them closely though the lunar dust sheet. Ten meters above the surface, the lander started slipping to the left and rear. Armstrong, working with the controls, had apparently tilted the lander so the engine was firing against the flight path. With the velocity as low as it was at the time, the lander began to move back- ward. With no rear window to help him avoid obstacles behind the lander, he could not set the vehicle down and risk landing on the rim of a crater. He was able to shift the angle of the lunar module and stop the backward movement, but he could not eliminate the drift to the left. He was reluctant to slow the descent rate any further, but the figures Aldrin kept ticking off told him they were almost out of fuel. Armstrong was concentrating so hard on flying the lunar module that he was unable to perceive the first touch on the moon nor did he hear Aldrin call out "contact light," when the probes below the footpads brushed the surface. The lander settled gently down, like a helicopter, and Armstrong cut off the engine. 4 days, 6 hours, 45 minutes, 57 seconds. Capcom: We copy you down Eagle. Armstrong: Houston, Tranquility Base here. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED. Capcom: Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From "Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft", NASA SP-4205, available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, stock number 033-000-00768-0, $12. This is the last in this series of excerpts. If anyone has missed an installment, send mail to ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn for a copy. Dave Newkirk -- Dave Newkirk, ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn
lew@ihlpa.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) (11/17/86)
. . . > The lander settled gently down, like a helicopter, and Armstrong cut > off the engine. > > 4 days, 6 hours, 45 minutes, 57 seconds. Capcom: We copy you > down Eagle. > > Armstrong: Houston, Tranquility Base here. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED. > > Capcom: Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got > a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. > Thanks a lot. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > From "Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft", NASA > SP-4205, available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government > Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, stock number 033-000-00768-0, $12. > > This is the last in this series of excerpts. If anyone has missed an > installment, send mail to ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn for a copy. > Dave Newkirk > -- > Dave Newkirk, ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn For all the detail being given, you'd think that the actual words spoken after touchdown would be included. From memory, I think it was Armstrong who recited the checklist: "OK, engine stop, ACA out of detente, modes control both auto, descent engine command overide off, engine arm off, 413 is in." Pure poetry. This was was what elicited the response "We copy you down Eagle." The only sources I know which avoid this wanton excision are the National Geographic record insert, and Norman Mailer's OF A FIRE ON THE MOON. It was from the latter that I got the words, since I couldn't quite understand the record. Lew Mammel, Jr. FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR FILLER TO DEFEAT IDIOTIC ARTICLE REJECTOR