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Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

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Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#171

Post by shoo »

jl6 wrote: post #86
mbauman wrote: post #30

I've always thought the CSM commanders had the most incredible and challenging role of the three Apollo astronauts. They were undoubtedly the "most alone" humans ever — at least on a physical level. Every other hour they'd transit to the far side of the moon and would be 2200 miles (3600km) away from the nearest two humans and hundreds of thousands of miles/km away from everyone else who's ever lived. Not only that,…

What I find remarkable about that quote is that there were only three billion humans at the time. Apollo 11 wasn’t that long ago was it? And we’re already at a population more than twice that figure.

> Nearly 50% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber–Bosch process.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process#Economic_and_env...

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#172

Post by herendin2 »

ud_0 wrote: post #170
iainmerrick wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are suggesting: - Enter the command module, in spacesuit - Quickly re-pressurize - Help incapacitated astronaut into suit (temporarily removing own suit if necessary) - Once both suited up, open airlock again to admit remaining astronaut But I’m not sure if that would have been possible. Was there really a way to re-pressurize in a few seconds, 2001 style?

> - Help incapacitated astronaut into suit (temporarily removing own suit if necessary) > - Once both suited up, open airlock again to admit remaining astronaut These steps don't seem to be necessary. Since the CM can be opened from the inside towards the LM, the third astronaut could just wait in the LM and be let in that way. I think the only question is really how quickly can you repressurize the CM. It was basica…

Your insight suggests an even better solution: the spacewalking astronaut could open the internal hatch to the docked Lunar Module so its cabin air can instantly partially repressurize the Command Module

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#173

Post by 205guy »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #150
iqr11 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably from the film Apollo 13 , which depicts (likely wise) hesitance to fire the SPS due to suspected damage and instead firing midcourse correction burns with the LEM descent stage while attached to the CSM. By contrast, during the otherwise normal Apollo 11, SPS was responsible for returning Collins and the CSM to Earth (TEI) whether he retrieved Armstrong and Aldrin or not. The latter case was a rehearsed abor…

> instead firing midcourse correction burns with the LEM descent stage while attached to the CSM. The descent stage was left on the moon so that would have been the LM ascent stage. They had 2 separate motors for descent and ascent. But indeed Apollo 13 was very different. I think on normal missions they only brought the LM back along for TEI so as not to litter the surface with crashed LMs.

Why make (wrong) guesses when you can find the answer in minutes on Wikipedia? Plus it doesn’t make sense to do a TEI with unnecessary mass. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module :

“The six landed descent stages remain at their landing sites; their corresponding ascent stages crashed into the Moon following use. One ascent stage (Apollo 10's Snoopy) was discarded in a heliocentric orbit after its descent stage was discarded in lunar orbit.“

Elsewhere, I read that the ascent stages were crashed into the moon to provide impulses for the seismometers left on the moon. Snoopy is still in orbit around the sun. And the one from Apollo 13 is in the Tonga Trench. Two fascinating lists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_in_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_on_...

As for littering the surface of the moon, I was surprised to see in videos that in addition to the scientific equipment ( and golf balls) they left on the moon, there was a lot of other little pieces. In one of the videos on the rover, they literally remove the cover off something and just throw it aside on the ground.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#174

Post by ud_0 »

herendin2 wrote: post #172
ud_0 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Help incapacitated astronaut into suit (temporarily removing own suit if necessary) > - Once both suited up, open airlock again to admit remaining astronaut These steps don't seem to be necessary. Since the CM can be opened from the inside towards the LM, the third astronaut could just wait in the LM and be let in that way. I think the only question is really how quickly can you repressurize the CM. It was basica…

Your insight suggests an even better solution: the spacewalking astronaut could open the internal hatch to the docked Lunar Module so its cabin air can instantly partially repressurize the Command Module

Maybe, IF the hatch can be opened when there is a pressure difference. It might be dangerous or even mechanically locked out in those cases. It may not, I have no idea.

I mean we're just guessing and spitballing here, and all of this assumes that whatever incapacitated the CMP is fixable by the other astronaut. But it does look like there may be a decent chance the CMP could survive this. Of course, he might have internal injuries or they might not be able to restart his heart. But seems like this procedure would be worth a try.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#175

Post by DocTomoe »

slg wrote: post #29

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of…

He also, during his orbits around the moon, was the most isolated human being alive, with thousands of miles to the next humans (Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon)

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#177

Post by GekkePrutser »

205guy wrote: post #173
GekkePrutser wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead firing midcourse correction burns with the LEM descent stage while attached to the CSM. The descent stage was left on the moon so that would have been the LM ascent stage. They had 2 separate motors for descent and ascent. But indeed Apollo 13 was very different. I think on normal missions they only brought the LM back along for TEI so as not to litter the surface with crashed LMs.

Why make (wrong) guesses when you can find the answer in minutes on Wikipedia? Plus it doesn’t make sense to do a TEI with unnecessary mass. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module : “The six landed descent stages remain at their landing sites; their corresponding ascent stages crashed into the Moon following use. One ascent stage (Apollo 10's Snoopy) was discarded in a heliocentric orbit after its des…

I was on my phone (materialistic app) so even a wikipedia search is difficult :) I hate using the web on a mobile, it feels like I'm looking through a toilet roll.

But I mentioned it was an assumption... The parent poster mentioned that the ascent stage was carried into TEI so I assumed that was true.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#178

Post by hcrisp »

hcrisp wrote: post #113
fouronnes3 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apollo 15, 16 and 17 did perform nominal EVAs from the command module after the lunar landing, to retrieve film cassettes. To this day they are the only 3 deep space EVAs ever made. All others have been either in Earth orbit or on the moon.

To clarify, they were transearth EVAs, so they were not even during orbit around the moon. I recall seeing some upscaled videos on youtube of this which looked pretty unearthly. https://www.history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-30_Extravehic...

Also, in the article linked below, Al Worden described his transearth EVA on Apollo 15 in which he could see both the entirety of the earth and moon simultaneously in his field of vision (the only person to do so in history?). He regrets not having a camera, but he later had an artist recreate the memorable view of the moon behind Jim Irwin (included in the article).

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/i-was...

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#179

Post by redisman »

aplummer wrote: post #16
unchocked wrote: post #4

Clear skies and tailwinds. Can't get back to the Moon fast enough, while we still have living continuity to Apollo. Can't believe how low the low in our space program has been.

Pictures of Pluto, a helicopter on Mars, I’m more inspired than ever by nasa

James Webb is still planned to launch this year too (fingers crossed)

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#180

Post by Breza »

Stratoscope wrote: post #111
soarfourmore wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The would not know at that point whether the CM pilot had his spacesuit helmet on or not, so they wouldn't know until they opened the hatch whether they had just killed him. There were windows on the command module to look in, and if they weren't sure if he was responsive/unresponsive, they could tap iron onto the command module to let Collins know they were there and spacewalking. It's an interesting thought proce…

Found it! https://spaceflightblunders.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/lunar-o... From the article, I was wrong about not knowing whether the CMP was alive: "Unless there was a very serious issue with the CM’s communications systems, NASA would know of the CMP’s fate immediately. Every astronaut wears biomedical sensors at all times, as part of their constant-wear garment. This telemetry is sent to the flight surgeon." More…

Similarly, Collins wrote a memo to the astronaut corps explaining that on the Mercury missions, if someone became incapacitated during EVA, they'd have to cut their life support cable and close the hatch and come home alone.
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