Apollo program encore, 1969

Archibald

Banned
Now the fantastic Apollo 8 mission was over. Next steps were to be a test of the LM in Earth orbit, and another around the Moon. Apollo 10 would not land however, as Grumman early lunar modules were simply too heavy.

This day, February 2, 1969, the phone rung in George Low office, Houston, Texas.

It was James Webb. "Congrats, George. President Nixon called me an hour ago and annouced me you're my successor at the head of NASA.
By the way, Bob Seamans is leaving, too, so you'll have to find you a deputy to assist you. See you this afternoon."

The two man had met, and reviewed a list of potential deputy administrators. Amid them were George Mueller, Maxime Faget, Bob Gilruth, Gene Krantz, Werner von Braun and other germans from Marshall, and Dale Myers.

Low choice was Myers.

Now Webb and him had another subject of discussion.

"Nixon transition team on space just published its final report. Some people says Tricky Dick don't give a damn about space, but its transition team on space was led by a Nobel Prize, for god sake ! Charles Townes did a reasonable, balanced job. Look at this."

What are the program items and their urgency for the immediatefitum?Various items
needing special consideration are
a.
A manned space station. We are against any present commitment to the construction
of a large space station
, but believe study of the possible purposes and design of such
a station should be continued.

[5] b.
Apollo Applications Program. This program should proceed as a way of testing
man's role in space, of allowing a healthy continuing manned space program, and for the
biomedical and scientific information it will yield.
c. Lunar exploration. Lunar exploration after the first Apollo landing will be exciting
and valuable. But additional work needs to be initiated this year to provide for its full
exploitation by means of an adequate mobility and extended stay on the lunar surface.



d. Planetary exploration. The US. program for planetary exploration by instrumented
probes needs to be strengthened and funds for such probes increased appreciably. However,
the great majority of the task force is not in favor of a commitment at present to a
manned planetary lander or orbiter.
e. Astronomy and other sciences. The space program is important to a number of
sciences, and can be of enormous benefit to astronomy. This potential should be continuously
developed through sound and stable programs.
f. Applications of spacecraft and associated techniques for civil and commercial benefit.
We believe research and development of such applications should be supported strongly
and increased in pace. Furthermore, the new administration should give considerable
attention to their use in promoting international cooperation.

(snip)

Cost reduction , and “low cost”boosters. The unit costs of boosting payloads into space
can be substantially reduced,
but this requires an increased number of flights, or such an
increase coupled with an expensive development program. We do not recommend initiation
of such a development
, but study of the technical possibilities and rewards. Some cost
reductions in the space program can probably be made simply through experience and
stabilization of the level of effort, and through coordination of future NASA and DOD
programs.

Low was stunned. "Ouch. That won't please Mueller - no space station nor space shuttle. That won't please Von Braun - no Mars mission nor NERVA.
The direction is clear - more lunar exploration or broader use of Apollo hardware. Or both."

Webb grinned at Low.

"That's it. After all we go to the Moon, so why going further - Mars - or retreat to low Earth orbit ? Let's explore the Moon further and better."

"I see. The main problem we face is Apollo transportation system real lack of efficiency. The LM is too small, even on cargo-only variants delivers barely 3000 kg to the lunar surface. We have to dugg through the Apollo Application Program to see if grown-variants of Apollo can allow better lunar exploration" Low concluded.
 

Archibald

Banned
March 1969

Low and Myers had send signals to Nixon, signals that carefully followed recommandations of the Townes panel - more lunar exploration and nothing else.

However the NASA centers and contractors had been very productive over the last decades. They had produced huge piles of papers and large amounts of lunar plans.

Low and Myers had to find the best answer to the Townes report.

"We have to start from Mueller's Apollo Application Program. However unlike Apollo itself, which was driven by Kennedy deadline, AAP was not very well defined.

"We have to eliminate all the non-lunar stuff within AAP - earth orbiting space station, Earth survey mission, satellite servicing and allthis crap". Myers said.

"This aim bad for Skylab" Low said dryly. "Unless we put it around the Moon, but for what use ? It is too heavy, unless we go back to the wet workshop concept."

Myers dugg through the pile of documents. "I have it. It is LASS - Lunar Application of a Spent S-IVB. The annexes features ann interesting proposal. An empty S-IVB weight 14 tons, just like a LM. So the CSM can insert that in low lunar orbit."

"Kind of Skylab to the Moon - Moonlab maybe ?" Low smiled. "Dale, even lunar orbiting space stations are unuseful. We should focuse on lunar surface only. Didn't AAP had some lunar base concepts ?"
"Of course, plety of them. AES, ALSS, LESA..."
"What a bunch of acronyms. Can you detail that briefly ?"

"Of course. Got a summary from Mueller and the contractors.

"AES, ALSS and LESA represent a gradual increase in lunar bases capacity. They essentially differs by their logistic vehicle - LM shelter, LM Truck, and a clean sheet LLV. " AES / ALSS LM-derivatives can't land more than 4000 kg of payload."

"Why that ?"

"Because these LM-derivatives use storable propellants, a CSM, and LOR to go to the Moon. This is certainly not the most efficient way of exploiting a Saturn V, at least for cargo delivery to the lunar surface."

"Indeed. And I suppose LESA is the answer to that."

"You got it George. Lunar Exploration Systems for Apollo features a clean-sheet cargo carrier maximizing Saturn V performance to the lunar surface.
In other words, Direct Ascent and lox/hydrogen RL-10s."
"Which translates as ?"
"12 000 to 25 000 kg to the lunar surface. Four to six times any LM derivatives."
"Excellent. Heck, this look like a return to the Direct Ascent days before 1962 - when Von Braun wanted to land the whole lunar stack to the surface, S-IVB included. The CSM engine was made powerfull enough for such sheme, and still is. That explains why the CSM mass 30 000 kg, way too much for LOR.

"You're right George. Back to Direct Ascent, although for cargo only."

"Dale, this is really the way to go. That what we need for efficient lunar exploration. But how does the crew goes to the Moon in the LESA sheme ?"

"Still with the CSM / LM combo."

"Ok. Maybe we should try merging the two vehicles into a direct ascent lander. Didn't Mc Donnel had such plan for a rescue Gemini ?"
"Yes. May be we should dug that further. Whatver, if we propose any lunar base or exploration to Nixon, we have to forget those AES or ALSS, and go for LESA directly.
LESA is what matched the Townes panel recommandations closely." Low concluded.
 
Last edited:
"Still with the CSM / LM combo."

"Ok. Maybe we should try merging the two vehicles into a direct ascent lander. Didn't Mc Donnel had such plan for a rescue Gemini ?"
"Yes. May be we should dug that further. Whatver, if we propose any lunar base or exploration to Nixon, we have to forget those AES or ALSS, and go for LESA directly.
LESA is what matched the Townes panel recommandations closely." Low concluded.

Why, why, why would anyone want to land a CM (or worse a CSM) on the moon?!? You've got to carry the heavy heatshield and parachutes, etc. to the surface and back. THat means both your descent and ascent modules have to be bigger which means that you can't launch everything on 1 Saturn V. No?

Sure, going to LH2/Lox will help some, if that's where you go, but enough???
 

Archibald

Banned
Here's the Gemini Lunar Lander I've mentionned. Didn't realized it was so heavy - 46 tons, when the Saturn V land 25 tons directly to te Lunar surface.

Maybe I'll keep the CSM / LM spearated after all. Or, in the long term, the LLV may become a manned vehicle.

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/gemcraft.htm

Whatever, let's continue this alt-history.

July 24 1969

It had been a very complicated story to bring Nixon and his staff to the USS Hornet.
Air Force One had flown to Hawai, then to Johnston Island.
There, two Sea Kings had flew the President to the USS Arlington, a Navy major communications relay ship.
Nixon had spent the night there, then the two choppers had flown him up to the USS Hornet.

George Low, as NASA administrator, sat next to Nixon in the Sea King. The helicopter rapidly flew over the Pacific this day of July.

Inevitably Low talk to Nixon drifted toward the future of manned spaceflight. What next after Apollo ?

"George - I'm personally very enthusiastic about American space activities. However we have to withstand the burden of the vietnam war, and I'm not sure I can keep throwing large amount of money at the space program with this war on.

"I understand. As you know we carefully took in consideration your transition on space report, led by Charles Townes. We know he recommended more lunar exploration.
So we thought an option matching its recommandations. And we found a concept from 1963-65. It is called Lunar Exploration System for Apollo - LESA.
The only new start is a large unmanned logistic vehicle, which payload will boost Apollo missions enormously. Aside that, all the hardware is an extension of current Apollo.

Further, I'm ready to accept some sacrifices, and a reduced budget.
First, we won't ask for a manned expedition to Mars.
Secondly, we are ready to stretch the remaining Apollo mission up to 1975, at a rate of two per year.

The main sticky point is Saturn V: to maintain the production line open, we need that our budget remains above the fatidic 4 billion dollar level per year.
I'm ready to cancell Skylab and NERVA to save budget - we don't need them in the LESA sheme.
More Saturn will roll out of the production line, and their cost will drop significantly. Again, we don't need nor want expensive upgrades to the current booster. Current Saturn V can do the job.

Look: we just started exploring the Moon, so we have to hang on. We can't explore Mars, not now; but we can't retreat to low Earth orbit, not now."

Low had done his best. He looked through the helicopter window. The Hornet was in sight now. What did Nixon thought about all that ?

"So you're ready to make sacrifices - and accept a lower budget, but not below some level. Look, you half convinced me, but congress may balk at the cost of more lunar exploration. Could you draft a paper comparing the cost of your austere Mars mission, of your Lisa sheme, and of a Earth orbit space station with an expendable crew taxi ?"

Low rapidly analyzed Nixon words. He did not mentionned the Shuttle. He wants austere programs - cheap Mars or cheap Moon or cheap space station.

"We will do that. Our report will be ready in september."
 
quick note on Apollo Hardware for Lunar Base
the CSM/LM was Design to bring humans to Moon, not to land heavy equipment.

thats most Lunar AAP Mission had to be dual launch CSM/LM shelter - CSM/LM Taxi
thats 2050 kg surface payload for a 14 day mission on Moon
Grumman look even for a way to put a third astronauts in LM Taxi
(the CSM stay unmanned in Orbit on Autopilot)

NAA (Rockwell) proposed Apollo Logistics Support System
a Apollo Service Module on top of Lunarlab and LM descent stage.
launch by Saturn V to Moon, the SM make most of lunar descent is drop off
and rest of landing is made by LM descent stage.
with 7700 kg surface payload
and two astronauts could stay for a total of 96 days.
three astronauts cut down the mission time to 48 days

Boeing LESA
it drop the Apollo LM and goes for Direct Ascent and lox/hydrogen RL-10s. for Cargo
10500 kg surface payload and Mission time of 90 days for 3 Astronauts with LM Taxi

Douglas LASS
it use S-IVB for Direct Ascent and lands on Moon with 2xRL10 engine
around 14000kg payload and a empty fueltank

after look on them there only two who are good concept

NAA Apollo Logistics Support System, because its cheap in development
Boeing Lunar Exploration System for Apollo, because more payload

Douglas LASS has problem the Crew at arrival, has rebuild the fueltank in to a Station
the ideal combination would be Boeing LASS Station and LASS resupply flights !

AAP Mission are too limited in payload and stay on lunar surface
and only be considert as a temporary solution during Lunar Base development.
 

Archibald

Banned
Great ! What could I ask him ?

First, how was he recruited by Nixon ?

How where its relations with NASA, notably Thomas Paine ?

What did he thought of the Space Task Group - formed February 1969, a month after the Townes report was released ?

And, above all, did he ever heard of LESA - Lunar Exploration System for Apollo, studied by boeing around 1963-65 ?

Thank you in advance.
 

Archibald

Banned
March 1970

Over the last six months Low had literally spent days in meetings with every important people within Nixon staff – the Weinberger, Mayo, DuBridge, Kissinger, Erlichman…

From all these meetings he had now a taste over the general mood. It was not very encouraging – ramping inflation, Vietnam war, sequel to Johnson great society weighed more heavily than NASA on the federal budget.

At least Nixon advisors liked Low pragmatic vision – that NASA would follow the path of Nixon transition team on space.

Push lunar exploration further, period.

No push for Mars, no bold new technology like NERVA. Low had forged a vision: an austere Lunar exploration plan as a continuation of the ongoing Apollo effort. That, coupled with a stretch of remaining Apollo flights, resulted in a balanced lunar program folding into a maximum $4.5 billion budget per year – Nixon had capped the space agency level to this upward limit.

Nixon had finally published a statement where he publicly endorsed an advanced manned lunar exploration program – Lunar Exploration System for Apollo.

The cost to NASA had been high however.

NERVA cancelled. Skylab cancelled. Viking cancelled. Saturn IB cancelled. No space shuttle. There would be no major uprate to the Saturn V – not even F-1A nor J-2S. No big solids. And the remaining Apollo flights had been stretched at two per year, up to 1976. The Lunar Module would evolved into the LM taxi, for extended duration on the lunar surface. The CSM would remain unchanged.

The only new start was the LLV, a big RL-10 can launched, direct-ascent style, by a Saturn V right to the lunar surface.
Saturn V production line had been officially reopened in February 1970, after a 18 month hiatus since july 1968. Saturn 516 through 520 had been budgeted, enough for a first try at LESA after 1975.

Despite the high cost, it was a coherent strategy – continuing lunar exploration, expanding Apollo instead of pushing further or retreating to low Earth orbit.
 
Cancel of NERVA, Skylab, Viking, Space Shuttle save around $25 Bilion 1970 dollar
Saturn IB was already cancelled in 1967
but moon flights until 1976, need a second production run of Saturn V !

note on LM Taxi

its three man version
the third is squeezed in aft comparment and sit on ascend engine cover

LM Ascent stage:
has increase structure, heatet RCS, Lifesurportsystem is now for three man.
LM Descent stage:
increase structure, 2 Fuel Cell powersystem, increase propellants,
Supercritical oxygene storage, Heat radiators and Heat Transport disribution.

14 days on Moon in standby mode, 90 day in dormant mode
is same time the empty CSM remain in Orbit in dormant mode

why three man on Moon ?
if the CSM Pilot is also co Pilot for LM we can put a scientist on back seat !

so scientist on Moon, wat can they do ?
Geologist to study the Lunar survace
Astronomers, if there telescope in the payload
Medical Doctor, to study human under low gravity
 

Archibald

Banned
Cancel of NERVA, Skylab, Viking, Space Shuttle save around $25 Bilion 1970 dollar
Saturn IB was already cancelled in 1967!

Thank you for the calculations. $25 billion ? great, what a boost !

It essentially amounts to a "clean up" of the manned spaceflight program - everything not needed for lunar exploration is cancelled, notably LEO stuff (space stations and their taxis).

NERVA is not needed, while Viking can't survive - although more Mariner 9 is probably feasible. The only "big" unmanned space program that may survive is Voyager - scaled-down Grand Tour.

Never realised the LM taxi carried three men, not two ! :eek:

so scientist on Moon, wat can they do ?

Shut mouth of guys who consider Apollo as a horrendous expensive stunt. Gotcha, mister Mondale !
 
Last edited:
There would be no major uprate to the Saturn V – not even F-1A nor J-2S.
Why would they drop these? Surely the minor incremental cost would be more than worth it? What was the projected development cost?
It was always meant to have better F1's for the next production series of Saturn V's, no?
 

Archibald

Banned
1971 June 26

Robert Anderson was a CIA analyst at Langley, and he had was amazed. The satellite data showed that a huge explosion, as big as a tactical nuclear bomb, had happened in Kazakhstan. “Looks like the soviets blew their second N-1 moon rocket” he told the man standing near him. Jack Power was from the british CIA counterpart.
The man grinned “you mean their THIRD moon rocket. Why you at the CIA don’t want to understand the first flight test was in February 1969, not July ?”
“Ask the boss why. The prooves you british gathered looks convincing.
Whatever, second or third attempt, its still a failure. They don’t progress much… we still don’t have any idea of what soviet lunar plans looks like.
Some say they just flyby the Moon, other they want to send a Salyut around it, others that the Soyuz is their Apollo, so that there’s inevitably a soviet LM hanging around, already tested unmanned in low earth orbit as a Cosmos any-number-you-like.
We simply don’t know what the big exploding rocket was carring.”

Baikonur

10 000 km away from Langley, Vasily Mishin knew it exactly. He was recovering for another hangover this day – the only way for him to withstand the pressure Chelomei, Ustinov, Glushko and the Politburo exerced on him was to get drunk again and again. Viktor Afanasyev wanted his head on a silverplate, too.
The current plan was to spent lunar Soyuz and tiny LK landers into manned and unmanned earth orbital flight tests, and N-1 explosions. A much more advanced lunar program was ongoing – the L3M.

The first batch of N-1s had been good for nothing.

1L and 2L had been bare mockups. 3L had exploded – the first N1 to be launched in February 1969, the one the British could not convince the CIA it had ever existed.
4L had not even been launched – cracks had been found in its tanks, it had been cannibalised as a result.
5L had exploded, too, two weeks before Armstrong set his foot on the Sea of Tranquillity. That had been a huge explosion, so big it had been detected by American satellites usually tasked with monitoring soviet nuclear tests !
6L had exploded this day of 1971.
7L was a carbon copy of it, so, although its launch was planned late 1972, Mishin had no hope it would past first stage separation.

So the battered, drunk ingenier pinned all its hopes into the 8L – first of the much improved N-1F, to be flown around 1974.

8L would have, again, a dummy payload – Chelomei Almaz. Perfectly unuseful manned military space station. The Americans were more clever than us, cancelling their own Almaz - the MOL - before completion.
Unknown by Mishin at the time, late 1969 its ingeniers and Chelomei teams had sceretely conspired to build an Almaz with Soyuz subsystems, a civilian space station dubbed Salyut. The plot, however, had failed miserably. With Nixon unexpected push for more lunar exploration its looked obvious there would be no space station in low Earth orbit. N1 8L would send the first, half-finished Almaz hull around the Moon. It would be loaded with experiments, captors and cameras, and eventually a Soyuz or a LK for a simulation of a lunar landing.

“the 8L will fly mid1974. If I survive until this moment – that’s a big if.” He sipped its alcohol faster.
 
Last edited:
hehehe

let see who go first in Heaven
8L N-1F or Vasily Mishin liver :rolleyes:

i found a 1970 NASA Patent for Saturn V launch "Lunar Logistics vehicle".
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710008255_1971008255.pdf

and I found somthing else
in 1970 NASA had program running for hardshell spacesuits for Apollo !
the LM crew wears those Suits, while CSM pilot wears standart Apollo softsuit

the Garret AiResearch EX-1A aka NASA Contract NAS 9-7555 Phase B is hard shell space suite with 5 Psi
EX-1A was consider as Apollo Spacesuit for Mission 18 to 20
here on youtube (no audio)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhB9uWZZPFo

(the suit will be coverd by protective cover for Lunar EVA)
 
Last edited:

Archibald

Banned


June 1974

Mishin had been fired. The N1 7L had failed as expected. Now every eminence in the soviet space fought to be the next leader of the manned space program.

The fate of the N-1 was on the balance.

The VPK met this day of June to find Mishin a successor at the head of TskBEM. There were ingeniers and mathematicians, and politicians – Chelomei, Glushko, Keldysh, Mishin deputy Okhapkin, Afansyev, Ustinov.
For years these men had played wicked games – sometimes allies, sometimes enemies. Their conflicts had cost the Soviet Union billion of rubbles, and the Moon.
Now, however, they were pressed by time. Apollo continued moving ahead, at lower pace. Apollo 19 astronauts had flown a LM taxi to the Moon, setting new endurance records. And the first LESA mission would be flown late 1977 – in time for the soviet revolution 60th anniversary !
The atmosphere in the little room near Moscow was explosive. Glushko intented to be made boss ofTskBEM, merge it with its engine design bureau, kill the N-1, and start afresh with a brand new rocket.
“But that will push our first lunar landing well into the 80’s” Sergey Afansyev answered. “We can’t accept that.”
“The N-1 is a piece of junk. “ Glushko answered bitterly. “We should better burn pile of rubbles directly.”
“Like it or not, and despite its weaknesses the N-1 is the only heavy lifter we have as of today.” Keldysh added, glacial. Ustinov approved. So did Afanasyev - to Glushko astonishment.
And suddenly he understood. They can’t let the Moon to the Americans. Maybe they think NASA will fly military astronauts to the Moon – god know what will happen after that. Ontop of that both Keldysh and Okhapkin were Korolev fellows !
This time conspirators had played against Glusko. He had been set aside ! Okhapkin would be the leader of the new entity, not him. The N-1 program would hang on, and so would the L3M big lander.

What ? You bastards ! They all plotted against me.

Unbestknown to Glushko, the order had come from much higher - from Premier Kosyguin with Breznhev tacit approval. It was a case of prestige, not of rational thinking. Everybody knew that Glushko objective was to kill the N-1 and substitute its own rocket. Although probably a much better design, it amounted, after all, to a paper project with a ten year development shedule. And that was, plain simply, unacceptable.
 

Archibald

Banned
Last part - borrowing from 2001, Voyage, and OTL Shuttle-Mir :)

1987

The mobile lab – MOLEX - now rolling across the crater plain at ten miles an hour looked rather like an outsized trailer mounted on six flex-wheels. But it was very much more than this; it was a self-contained base, a vehicle which provided complete life support capabilities for its 3-man crew during a 90-day, 3425-km mission. Indeed, it was virtually a landgoing spaceship - and in an emergency it could even fly. If it came to a crevasse or canyon which was too large to detour, and too steep to enter, it could hop across the obstacle on its four underjets.

“Hey buddy, doesn’t the actual situation remind you of 2001 ? I mean, the book, not movie.” Vance Brand grinned at Sally Ride next him.
“But I’m the geologist here.” Eugene Shoemaker voice joked. Fuck this Addison disease of mine.

The Moon being a small world, the curvature was much more pronounced than on Earth. Thus the small LM taxi had been rapidly out of sight. The much taller LLV had took longer, but had now vanished, too.
Ride, Brand and Shoemaker felt isolated – but this sentiment did not last long. A small star rapidly crossed the sky above their head: Apollo, flying solo, waiting to bring them home.

Everything had been carefully mothballed. The CSM first, left in lunar orbit. Brand had then led its LM taxi to a gentle, perfect landing near the three-story tall Lunar Logistic Vehicle. The huge RL-10-powered can had been launched ahead of them, straight to the lunar surface by a Saturn V. Shoemaker had been squeezed in the LM aft comparment. He had sat on the ascent engine cover and watched, amazed, the deployment of MOBEX – fully automated of course.
A ramp unfold from the LLV and the ten-ton vehicle hesitantly drove himself to the lunar surface. It then moved toward the LM taxi, stopping near a footpad. They would not even touch the lunar soil, not immediately – instead transfering directly to the rover interior.
Before that they had shut the LM down, patiently mothballing it. As they drove away from the small, isolated camp, he surprised Brand waving at the lander – saluting it with its gloved fingers, and muttering “good luck, baby.”

Those astronauts – he rolled his eyes.

Ride was now driving the rover toward the rim of Aristarchus. The sight was outstanding. And their were those flashes in its retinas – radiations entering his eyes !

Shoemaker noted how the Lunar landscape was disturbing for the human eye. There was no colors outside boring tones of grey, no atmosphere to allow estimation of distances, the deep black sky making a violent contrast with any landscape.
This was the mission day 7 – a week had been spent in the MOBEX cramped space. Fortunately there had been many, many stops. Excellent geological traverse.

The mission climax, however, had yet to come.

“There !” Ride said. “I have the L3M in sight.” Brand had it, too. The soviet lander was tall, a bit crude-looking; a large thing, four legs topped by an oval upper stage – a soyuz reentry module literally hanged to the roof of an egg-shapped hangar.
The soviets had already unfolded their rover, smaller and open-cab – after all its only their third mission up there. There was noone outside, however.

Brand, Ride and Sheomaker parked the MOLEX as close as possible from the soviet lander. A soviet astronaut waved at them through a small window – was it Petrov ?

Now an extension tube like a stubby elephant trunk was nuzzling affectionately up against the soviet spacecraft.

A few seconds later, there were bangings and bumpings from outside, followed by the sound of hissing air as connections were made and pressure was equalized. The inner door of the airlock opened. There were Petrov, and Viktorenko, and Ivanovitch – the latter with its round head bolted to his shoulders, and puffy cheeks – all bortsh and potatoes and vodka.

The Russian and U.S. commanders walked through the docking tunnel, shaked hands and exchanged greetings.

They all moved into the L3M, facing the camera with the Russian and U.S. flags as a backdrop. There were toasts to successful space missions, and gifts - a halved pewter medallion bearing a relief image of LM Taxi and L3M on the lunar surface, which two halves were joined during the ceremony; and 1/200th-scale model of the repesctive lunar stacks.

Shoemaker and Petrov turned toward the camera and said


"The success of this endeavor demonstrates the desire of these two nations to work cooperatively to achieve the goal of providing tangible scientific and technical rewards that will have far-reaching effects to all people of the planet Earth and beyond.”


The crew exchanged food tubes – some of those, unbestknown to Earth, contained whisky and vodka.

The PR done, the crews started to work together. The robustness of the soviet hardware, and the sophistication of American gear married perfectly.

To say, we could have given up lunar exploration fifteen years ago… there will be a lunar base in the next future… we are planting the first seeds in this direction...

 
Cool Idea

MOLEX is a super Rover
most big Mobile Lunar Laboratory have only 400 km range.
MOLEX has 3425 km range and it can jump with rocketenigne !
i wand one them for a Lunar trip :cool:
 
Top