Lunar Module Contingencies

I have heard the LM was so thin, in order to keep weight down, that it
may have been possible for the astronauts to puncture it by something
as mere as a pencil. If that had happened, and they had had their
suits on, is it a safe assumption that they would have been able to
blast off, rendezvous, and effect a transfer to the CM?

wrote:

I have heard the LM was so thin, in order to keep weight down, that it
may have been possible for the astronauts to puncture it by something
as mere as a pencil. If that had happened, and they had had their
suits on, is it a safe assumption that they would have been able to
blast off, rendezvous, and effect a transfer to the CM?

I can only speculate, but it takes specialized electronics to operate in a
vacuum, since you have no air to dissipate heat. So it would have to be in
the specs for the LM. Other than that, I see no obstacle. It would
probably cost a lot of air to get back into the CM

I've seen a proposal wherein a suited person would ascend strapped to the
front of a vehicle out in the open. I guess the crew could even act as a
docking system, using outstretched hands. :-)

Mike Ross

wrote:
I have heard the LM was so thin, in order to keep weight down, that it
may have been possible for the astronauts to puncture it by something
as mere as a pencil. If that had happened, and they had had their
suits on, is it a safe assumption that they would have been able to
blast off, rendezvous, and effect a transfer to the CM?


It would have been a lot simpler to put a patch over the hole. IIRC,
they did have those aboard.
In the lox pressure O2 environment, a thing as small as a hole made by a
pencil (I always heard the puncturing thing as being a screwdriver, not
pencil) would take a long time to depressurize the cabin.

Pat

Pat Flannery writes:

It would have been a lot simpler to put a patch over the hole. IIRC,
they did have those aboard.
In the lox pressure O2 environment, a thing as small as a hole made by a
pencil (I always heard the puncturing thing as being a screwdriver, not
pencil) would take a long time to depressurize the cabin.

Were the walls really bare? It seems a layer of lightweight foam or
cloth would help quite a bit with preventing punctures...

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Jochem Huhmann wrote:
Were the walls really bare? It seems a layer of lightweight foam or
cloth would help quite a bit with preventing punctures...

That sounds logical and fairly lightweight also.
This photo of a cutaway LM cabin shows most of the cabin interior being
covered with equipment of one sort or another, with little of the cabin
wall proper exposed http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/LMSimulator.jpg
I imagine the floor had some sort of covering on it both for durability
and traction when on the Moon's surface.

Pat

Pat Flannery writes:

Jochem Huhmann wrote:
Were the walls really bare? It seems a layer of lightweight foam or
cloth would help quite a bit with preventing punctures...

That sounds logical and fairly lightweight also.
This photo of a cutaway LM cabin shows most of the cabin interior being
covered with equipment of one sort or another, with little of the cabin
wall proper exposed http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/LMSimulator.jpg

OK, it looks as if it might have been not that easy to actually find a
spot to poke a screwdriver through the wall.

I imagine the floor had some sort of covering on it both for durability
and traction when on the Moon's surface.

A carpet with little NASA emblems on it? ;-)


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Mike Ross" wrote in message
. ..
wrote:

I have heard the LM was so thin, in order to keep weight down, that it
may have been possible for the astronauts to puncture it by something
as mere as a pencil. If that had happened, and they had had their
suits on, is it a safe assumption that they would have been able to
blast off, rendezvous, and effect a transfer to the CM?

I can only speculate, but it takes specialized electronics to operate in a
vacuum, since you have no air to dissipate heat. So it would have to be
in
the specs for the LM. Other than that, I see no obstacle. It would
probably cost a lot of air to get back into the CM

Considering both the CM and LM wer used for EVs, vacuum operation was in the
specs.


I've seen a proposal wherein a suited person would ascend strapped to the
front of a vehicle out in the open. I guess the crew could even act as a
docking system, using outstretched hands. :-)

Mark I eyeball and Mark I hands (albeit gloved) all the way man.


Mike Ross




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Greg Moore
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Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

Jochem Huhmann wrote:
I imagine the floor had some sort of covering on it both for durability
and traction when on the Moon's surface.


A carpet with little NASA emblems on it? ;-)


Probably something like a fireproof mat or some sort of patterned metal
like is used on the walkways of industrial machinery.
On obvious thing though...the pressurized section of the LM is a
cylinder...and assuming the floor is flat, that means there's a space
under it before you get to the outside surface of the cylinder. That
means that dropping something on the floor that puts a small hole in it
won't cause a loss of pressure.

Pat

On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:31:41 +0100, Jochem Huhmann
wrote:

I imagine the floor had some sort of covering on it both for durability
and traction when on the Moon's surface.

A carpet with little NASA emblems on it? ;-)

....A welcome mat that says "Wipe Your Feet!" :-P

OM
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On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 07:19:33 -0500, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)"
wrote:


Considering both the CM and LM wer used for EVs, vacuum operation was in the
specs.

For the LM was it Apollo 9 by chance, just a guess?
Any particulars? What was the reason for an EV with the LM?