The Truth About the First Moon Landing
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What were the near-disasters faced during the Apollo 11 mission?
57 years ago, we went to the moon. But what appeared to many like an effortless feat was not all plain sailing. This mission nearly failed, and not just once. The entire endeavour was fraught with mishaps, many of them potentially lethal. It took an army of 400,000 engineers scientists and experts to send Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong to the moon, but also to bring them home alive. How did they do it, and how much of it came down to sheer luck? I'm Alex McColgan, and you're watching Astrum Extra. Join me today as we uncover the incredible science that made the Apollo 11 mission possible. We'll explore the launch, journey through space and descent onto the moon, digging into the meticulous maths, manoeuvres and materials that kept the Apollo 11 team alive, that most people don't even know existed.
The next time you go out at night, look up, find the moon, hopefully you can't really miss it, and now imagine going there, travelling more than 384,000 kilometres away from everything and anyone any human being has ever known, and actually landing on the moon. It blows my mind to think about, but nearly 60 years ago, three humans did just that. On Wednesday, the 16th of July 1969, an estimated half a million people descended on the roads and beaches around Cape Canaveral. They were here to witness the launch of Apollo 11, humanity's first attempt at a manned moon landing. A 110-meter Saturn V rocket shimmered in the distance. The excitement was palpable. But what none of these lawn chair lounging enthusiasts knew was that a problem was about to unfold that could stop the mission before it even got off the launch pad.
Just as the crew arrived on site, a leaking hydrogen replenish valve was discovered 60m up, in the third stage of the Saturn V. Not something you want to see just before you're set to take off. Because liquid hydrogen is kept at a bone chilling minus 252 degrees Celsius, it constantly boils off into gas as the rocket sits on the pad. So, the replenish valve allowed the tank to be constantly topped up, keeping it at 100% capacity. This was vital. Without a completely full tank, the rocket would not be able to complete its trans-lunar injection, the burn that would take the craft out of Earth's orbit and towards the moon. The leak was so severe, it could have caused an explosion. So, fuel loading was immediately stopped and the lines were quickly drained.
It was only just over two years since the tragic Apollo 1 fire where three crew members had died, so there was no room for error and certainly no appetite for risk. If the leak remained unaddressed, the mission would be over before it even left the pad. So, a brave crew consisting of three technicians was dispatched to try and tighten the valve, but with a little more than two hours to launch, time was running out. The crew were working on the valve, manually tightening each bolt even as the astronauts were starting to board the craft just 30 meters above them. But when they still failed to stop the leak, the crew took the extreme measure of pouring water from an eyewash station over the valve, where it froze.
While the resulting ice successfully isolated and sealed the leak, It rendered the valve completely inoperable. They needed another way to keep the tanks topped up. Engineers decided to try using the large main fill valve to keep fuel in the tank, something it was never intended for. For the final hours of the countdown, two engineers worked to keep the rocket flight ready. One monitored fuel levels, whilst the other turned the fill valve on and off, topping up the tanks to compensate for boil off.
oxidizer tanks from the second and third stages now have pressurized.
Meanwhile, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong sat in the command module in eerie silence, preparing themselves for launch. Now sealed off from Earth's atmosphere entirely, they were concerned with a different gas, one that was just as critical to their survival as the integrity of the rocket itself.
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