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Author
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Topic: LM ladder
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mensax
Member Posts: 861
From: Virginia
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 04-04-2002 07:25 PM
   
I'm sure that someone out there can answer my question! Why was the LM's ladder made to be 3'(?) short of reaching the Moons surface? I read today that if an astronaut would have climbed down it here on Earth that it would have bent under his own wieght. The ladder was made just strong enough to withstand a man in Moons' gravity in order to cut a few pounds off the LM! I know that the contractor was paid an incentive for every pound it shed so... did they cut the bottom off of the ladder to save money? |
Jurg Bolli
Member Posts: 977
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 04-05-2002 09:46 AM
Hi,
I think it was short so that the landing gear could compress upon landing without hurting the ladder. The inside of the gear struts was aluminum honeycomb, and it was designed to crumple up and act as a shock absorber. Had the ladder been as long as the gear it would have been bent or crushed at the moment of landing.
That's my take on it, anybody else?
Jurg |
mensax
Member Posts: 861
From: Virginia
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 04-05-2002 04:08 PM
That makes sense to me... The LM sure is a fascinating machine the more I learn about it, the more the genius behind it is revealed. I just read that the landing gear was also designed with lunar gravity in mind. If they were to have filled her up here on earth with fuel she would have crushed under her own weight! |
Rodina
Member Posts: 836
From: Lafayette, CA
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted 04-05-2002 05:30 PM
Well, sort of crushed under its own weight.The Lunar Module couldn't be designed without taking Earth gravity (and more) in mind. Recall you've got to launch the thing, so it can't be so fragile as to not handle a few g's (what was the max g force on a Saturn V? 3? 4?) - but that it was very important only to build to support the stresses of launch, etc. Anyone read Charles Murray's "Apollo" - I've always thought that that book did a better job describing the technical history of the Apollo program than any other.
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Regis
New Member Posts:
From:
Registered:
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posted 04-06-2002 09:08 AM
The LM ladder was indeed designed so that it would just support the weight of an astronaut under the 1G environment of the moon, and would not have been able to do this under 1G on earth.
I do not believe this was, in the first instance, to do with saving money. The less weight (mass) of the LM in flight, the longer the fuel (what fuel would eventually be available for the descent)would last whilst the astronauts were descending to the lunar suface - pure and simple physics/mechanics was the driving factor.If you are interested in the LM design, I would recommend Tom Kelly's book 'Moon Lander'. Cheers,
Russ. |
Mike
Member Posts: 178
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: May 2001
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posted 04-06-2002 04:01 PM
I agree with Russ: Tom Kelly's Moon Lander is a superb read!Mike |
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