Amazing picture.
Homemade or a 30 billion dollar research ?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-40-5924HR.jpg

<ninja edit by Moderator Serenitude - made the embedded image a link - it's size breaks the forum look, and will make life difficult for our many dial-up users>

Amazing indeed.
Neither.

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Yes, quite amazing. Weight was precious, and there was considerable work reducing it, hence foil and a somewhat stark appearance. A quote from this page, regarding weight and the LM:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...205/ch7-3.html

By the end of 1965, Scrape and SWIP had pruned away 1,100 kilograms, providing a comfortable margin below the control weight limit. One of the more striking changes to come from this drive for a lighter spacecraft was the substitution of aluminum-mylar foil thermal blankets for rigid heatshields. The gold wrapping characteristic of the lander's exterior saved 50 kilograms.20

Many of these weight-reducing changes made the lander so difficult to fabricate, so fragile and vulnerable to damage, that it demanded great care and skill by assembly and checkout technicians. Structural components took on strange and complex shapes, requiring careful machining to remove any excess metal - a costly and time-consuming process even after vendors had been found who would make these odd looking parts.

By the way, there's a lot of good information here:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi.../contents.html

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Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Homemade or a 30 billion dollar research ?

Handmade, with a bit over 1 billion dollars R&D.

Here is what the back of the LM looks like under the skin. Note that the thin outer panels attach to the small frames to minimize heat transfer to the aft electronics bay, underneath. Also notice the much sturdier frames that provide the true structural strength.

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"Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures - in this century, as in others, our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together." St. Exupery

Hi quarn, how about posting more than once in the threads you start? What are your views on the LM? Are you trying to make a point or just liven things up on a slow Sunday?

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It doesn't look like the Starship Enterprise. It has to be fake!

About a billion dollars of research, if it was homemade it would look much better (but work much worse).

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Girl: Mister Darwin! The stupid people are breeding and taking over the planet!
Charles Darwin: Tut tut, little girl, don't worry! I'll take care of them with my CHAINSAW OF NATURAL SELECTION! Ahahahahahhaha!!!!!!
-QUeen of Wands 12/08/2003

Why is this topic in Conspiracy Theories? What conspiracy theory do you wish to advocate?

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It is presumably a rehashing of the old saw that the LM was so badly built that it couldn't possibly have worked because many of its its external features are made of foil and tape and only loosely attached, ignoring the fact that as it never had to face aerodynamic forces the exterior didn't need to be sturdily built (and therefor it wasn't to save mass) and that the actual internal structure is much more sturdy (though still no more than is necessary)

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Girl: Mister Darwin! The stupid people are breeding and taking over the planet!
Charles Darwin: Tut tut, little girl, don't worry! I'll take care of them with my CHAINSAW OF NATURAL SELECTION! Ahahahahahhaha!!!!!!
-QUeen of Wands 12/08/2003

Regarding the LM, a beautiful example of form following function.

And in case HB's are ready to make silly assertions regarding the Earth appearing properly exposed in the same image with the LM being properly exposed, well, they're both physical objects reflecting sunlight and exposure settings should not differ by much.

Nice find quarn.

I don't want to presume. Quarn chose to start a topic with a picture of the Lunar Module in Conspiracy Theories. I want an explanation of why that was done.

If this topic is in the right place, then I want the conspiracy theory that quarn advocates stated in plain language.

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Also, if it had been faked all along, don't you think they would have made sure it at least looked good, since it didn't have to work for real?

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Yep, that is a point I have made over on Apollo Hoax. The LM as it is has to be about the ugliest flying machine that even flew but is also an extremely functional design for its intended environment and role. I would expect if it was being hoaxed that it would have at least looked something like the popular conception of a rocket rather than the results of sticking together some scaffolding, foil, and sheet metal.

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Girl: Mister Darwin! The stupid people are breeding and taking over the planet!
Charles Darwin: Tut tut, little girl, don't worry! I'll take care of them with my CHAINSAW OF NATURAL SELECTION! Ahahahahahhaha!!!!!!
-QUeen of Wands 12/08/2003

Kudos, Count Zero! I never saw what the innards of the LM looked like before.

I can't imagine that the innards of the ISS sections looking much different. Maybe a little tougher, as it has to handle the strain of multiple structures. I don't know, just guessing.
I've seen pics of the shuttle under construction. Sturdy looking airframe, but you still have a foil wrapped crew section. Wonder what HBers say about that.

Thus is the folly in the post hoc thinking of hoax believers!

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Agreed. Thanks Count Zero- I saved that and enlarged it even more. I've never seen this ...

Thanks. I found it at the Project Apollo Archive. Look in the Apollo Image Gallery under "Early Apollo". Scroll down ~2/3rds of the way to "Lunar Module Construction".

Remember that the outer skin of the LM was not intended to give structural support, any more than your shirt holds your torso upright.

Here (on the right) is a view of the front of the Ascent Stage, showing the crew cabin. Although the skin of the pressure vessel is very thin, you can see that the actual structural strength is in the closely-spaced frames. To the left, in this picture, is the ruggedly-built Descent Stage.

Here is another view of the Descent Stage "under the foil". Note that the actual structure is not octagonal; it's cruciform. The propellant tanks are within the box-like structures. The pie-shaped wedges contain the water tanks and equipment the astronauts would use on the Moon: ALSEP experiments, the MESA and (for the later missions) the Rover.

This and this picture show the outer coverings being applied to the Ascent Stage. First come the gold mylar thermal blankets. These are then covered with thin aluminum panels that provide micrometeor protection.

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"Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures - in this century, as in others, our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together." St. Exupery

Precisely. A lot of people think the LM is an ugly craft - I strongly disagree. I think the LM is possibly the most beautiful spacecraft I have seen - a masterpiece of functionality.

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Hi.
Point of the picture was it looked rather cheap.
I can see from the other pictures that its only a thin overlay and not gives any support to the craft. Ok.

Just everything about the moon trip annoys me when looking in to it.

Dust behave in vacuum, should it not show a complete perfect arc when driving the rover ?.
Not a brake stop like in air, a complete vacuum has no ressistence at all, just the lower gravity on the moon.

The exit door on lunar module opens IN not OUT. To save space inside the module most normal thing would to open it out.