Apollo 40th Anniversary - Apollo 11 Animation

Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon or Moon orbit. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.

Each crewmember of Apollo 11 had made a spaceflight before this mission, making it the third all-veteran crew in manned spaceflight history.

Apollo 11 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969 at 13:32 UTC (9:32 a.m. local time), It was in earth orbit 12 minuted later.

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• First
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[HuwReesMusic]

@Tyrannobeast As far as I'm concerned, the physics proves it. The pressure required would have dug a small way down into the dirt/rock. Regardless of whether this is the case or not, there is NO disturbance whatsoever under the lander - this is scientifically impossible.

[dalek14mc]

@HuwReesMusic-I'e already seen that, it doesn't prove anything. The reason why it shouldn't dig 'down' is because if they used anything above what they used, they would have shot back into space.

[HuwReesMusic]

@dalek14mc Check out this series - it'll change your mind. watch?v=yEQNZQdJFtI

[dalek14mc]

@HuwReesMusic-There are photographs showing clear stryations in the lunar regolith.

And no, it shouldn't 'dig down.'

[Tyrannobeast]

@HuwReesMusic I guess that's fine. It's been nice talking.

[HuwReesMusic]

@Tyrannobeast Hmmm, well I guess we'll have to just disagree here - I can't see any disturbance whatsoever below the lander, and regardless of the plume being more spread out than a boot, it should 'dig down' just as much if the PSI for both are comparable.

[Tyrannobeast]

@HuwReesMusic No. Even with that relatively minuscule amount of pressure on the surface, some areas were fairly well swept, with about an inch or two off the surface (you can also see the small streaks of regolith on the edge of the engine where the dust was thrown about). But the Astronauts did affect the surface more, because they were putting more pressure per square inch with each step, a result of their weight being more focused than the engine exhaust, even with a smaller total force.

[HuwReesMusic]

@Tyrannobeast And yet the astronauts left bootprints, but the thruster did nothing to the surface?

[Tyrannobeast]

@HuwReesMusic All right, I checked all the numbers, this should be helpful.

The DPS put out about 3000 pounds of thrust at cut-off. The diameter of the engine bell exit was about 28 inches, so a little pi*r^2 puts the bell area at about 1930 inches^2. Divide the thrust by the area and you get around 1.5 psi.

Obviously the numbers here are not super-precise, but the ballpark estimates are that the engine exerted less force on the surface than the Astronauts hopping around.

[HuwReesMusic]

Jarrah did a series on this, check out his playlist "Moonfaker: No Crater"

I haven't had the time to go through the numbers, but it seems acceptable at face value. Right, I'm off to bed mate, good chatting!