The U.S.
rebounded from the Sputnik Crisis with an understanding that if it could not
develop a sizable, powerful rocket to propel a lunar craft, the Space Race would
be no contest. After deciding that a single-stage lunar vessel was impractical,
NASA eventually settled upon a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) as the most
cost-efficient and speediest model to develop.
At the time, astronaut Alan Shepard was the first American
to travel into space, where he had remained in a suborbital flight of less than
sixteen minutes in his Freedom 7 craft, which had been powered by a relatively
small Redstone Mercury rocket. If the
Moon was the goal, it was time to think bigger.
Go Large or Stay Home
The massive Saturn V rocket was developed under the
direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama,
and in collaboration with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft
Company, and IBM. A three-stage, liquid-fueled
expendable rocket, the Saturn V is the most massive rocket ever brought
to operational status from a height, weight and payload perspective. Its specifications are mind-boggling. The
Saturn V stood at 363 feet (one foot shorter than St. Paul's
Cathedral in London)
and was 33 feet in diameter. Fully fueled, it had total mass of 6.5 million
pounds and could carry a payload of 260,000 pounds.
Waking Up the
Neighbors
According to the Stennis
Space Center,
the engines in the Saturn V were impossible to ignore. When the rocket's powerful
new liquid hydrogen F-1 and J-2 rocket engines were tested, they blew out
windows in nearby houses. Most impressively, in 13 total launches, the Saturn V
recorded zero failures. It also provided just over 34 MN (Mega Newtons) of
thrust in its first stage alone (a Newton equals the amount of force required
to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second squared
- Stage 1 alone produced 34 million Newtons of thrust).
It's Not Just About the Muscle
 A mere dwarf by comparison, the Apollo spacecraft was a
three-part vessel that consisted of the Command Module, the Service Module, and
the Lunar Module. NASA developed not only a means of travel from Earth to lunar
orbit, but also methods of lunar landing, reconnecting in orbit, and returning
back to Earth.
The Command Module housed the three-man crew in flight and
served as the cabin and control room. The Service Module was unpressurized and
held everything from communications equipment to water, oxygen and propellant
for course corrections during flight. The final module, the Lunar Module,
represented the first real "space craft" as it was the first vessel ever to launch
while in space, and was not designed to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
Getting Lunar
The Lunar Module itself was divided into two sections and
could hold two crew members. It had a descent and ascent section, and was
designed to hold only what was strictly necessary to power descent to the Moon,
provide for the basic needs of the crew, and then ascend back to the orbiting
modules above for the return flight home.
If All Else Fails
The final piece to the Saturn V – Apollo combination was
never used. The Launch Escape System (LES) was designed to save the Command
Module and, therefore, the crew, if there was an emergency during launch. During
any potential disaster - from a fire on the pad, to an exploding launch vehicle,
to even the launch vehicle going off course through either automatic or manual
activation - the Command Module would be propelled from the rest of the launch
vehicle, bringing it to a height that would allow safe deployment of its
landing parachutes and a safe return to Earth.
The Motivation, the
Means, the Men
Part 1 of this three-part series examined the United States'
motivation to reach the Moon as quickly as possible. Part 2 (this entry) explained
how this was accomplished. Surf in tomorrow for the final installment as we
celebrate the three men (of thousands) who are best-known for that ground-breaking
lunar landing flight.
Resources:
http://history.nasa.gov/ap16fj/index.htm
http://history.nasa.gov/MHR-5/contents.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/gettingtospace/stennis_40th.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_spacecraft
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