ths@lanl-a.UUCP (07/06/84)
O' Henry....that was a trick question! The LEM was hardly a "major" piece of Apollo hardware being less than 1% of the Saturn V launch weight. No doubt there were two people on each flight that thought otherwise. Your reference to the LEM as a "modern" rocket was also a bit questionable, since the LEM hasn't flown in the past twelve years. I would guess that since there wasn't anyone on the Lunar surface that needed protecting from an errant missile a self destruct system was not seriously considered. While your thinking up another trivia, let me run one up the flag pole...."what was the first missile to fly using gimbaled engines for control". This was also perhaps the first liquid fueled rocket to employ the cluster concept since it was powered by four engines.
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (07/10/84)
Some replies to comments:
O' Henry....that was a trick question! The LEM was hardly a
"major" piece of Apollo hardware being less than 1% of the
Saturn V launch weight. No doubt there were two people on each
flight that thought otherwise.
And the packs in my Ampex 300-meg drives are obviously not a "major"
part of the drives, since I can lift a pack with one hand while I'd
need six gorillas to lift one of the drives... The LM was the whole
reason for the rest of the assembly.
Your reference to the LEM as a "modern" rocket was also
a bit questionable, since the LEM hasn't flown in the
past twelve years.
The "modern" part was mostly intended to exclude references to obscure
historical curiosities which didn't satisfy the intent of the question.
I concede that the LM hasn't flown in a while, but it's the most modern
lunar lander we've got. As somebody (Jerry Pournelle?) pointed out, we
are not a lot closer to the moon today than we were in 1961: we have
lost the capability to mount manned lunar missions on less than about a
decade's notice.
I would guess that since there wasn't
anyone on the Lunar surface that needed protecting from
an errant missile a self destruct system was not seriously
considered.
On the contrary, there was a considerable battle about it. I can dig
up references if you're interested. The concern was over launch from
Earth (since the LM was fully fueled at launch), not lunar activities.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry