Скачать или смотреть Moon Rescue - The Plan To Save Astronauts From The Moon

In December 1965, NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION was asked by NASA to come up with a bold rescue plan to save astronauts from the moon if anything went wrong. This is their plan.

By the middle of the 1960s, Moon fever was in full swing. The first US astronaut had reached orbit by 1962, and NASA's budget had gone from $400 million US in 1960 to a colossal five billion US by 1965. NASA was hiring contractors left, right, and center and building a slew of infrastructure across the continent.

As part of the preparation for the moon missions, to be completed in 1969, NASA asked North America Aviation if they would come up with a mission to rescue astronauts from the moon if anything were to go wrong.

Some of the scenarios they planned for were if astronauts were trapped in Luna orbit and had no way to get home.

The original plans dictated a spare Saturn V launcher, being prepared to launch for the following apollo mission, would be readied for a rescue mission instead. Onboard, it would carry a single astronaut with a modified luna command module that had several special features.

For one, the module would be able to carry four passengers. As the Apollo missions carried three astronauts, the rescue module was initially designed to fly to the moon and carry four humans back-to-earth safely. The module would also have its spacewalk technology, such as an umbilical cable and an airlock that could attach to both the lunar module and the lunar lander.

Modifications and additions would add a total of 200 kg (445 lb) to the rescue module. Removal of science equipment and other unneeded systems would reduce the rescue modules mass by 188 kg (415 lb), for a net mass gain of only 30 pounds.

North America Aviation believes that they would need to build six apollo rescue modules for the 20 planned Apollo missions.

But this rescue plan was not as practical as it first appeared, and had several problems.

The first was that NASA planned on launching the rescue attempt as soon as they heard that the astronauts were trapped at the moon. But what if the launch site was facing away, or that the orbital path didn't line up perfectly? In fact, launching too soon would significantly increase the risk that the rescue aircraft would be in flight for well over its 10 days, running out of oxygen and food onboard. Let alone if it would get to the apollo team in enough time.

There were plenty of other risks as well. The fact that the lunar lander and command module would only be able to keep two men alive for only one or two days. It would only be a few years later that NASA would plan an emergency way to keep astronauts alive in orbit for up to three weeks through sheer conservation of resources and emergency rations.

Besides, the risks of a one-man lunar rescue trip, or the problems associated with keeping a rescue CSM, Saturn V rocket, launch pad, and launch team on standby made NASA reconsider the rescue plan for Apollo.

But our story doesn't end there.

In 1969, a film got released by Hollywood called Marooned. Interestingly, this actually spurred NASA into action to develop take a second look at their rescue plans. As it so happens, during Skylab mission three in 1973 one of the thrusts developed leaks and it was feared that if onboard repairs failed, the astronauts would need to be rescued from orbit.

Preparation work began to fit out a rescue command module, much like they planned for apollo, and astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind began preparations to rescue astronauts Bean, Garriott, and Lousma aboard the station. This new take on the rescue craft would have seating for five instead of long-term life support systems. Its mission was to go into space and pluck the stranded crew out of orbit.

Fortunately, they were able to solve the problems of the spacecraft without being rescued, and the rescue craft was never used. When the space shuttle entered service in 1981, NASA put the rescue module into a warehouse. Again, our story keeps going.

In 2007, NASA began to design the next generation of orbital spacecraft, the Orion module, and looked back at successful designs. Instead of basing it off the space shuttle, Skylab, Apollo, or any others, NASA actually pulled the rescue module out of storage 42 years after it was built, and used it as a template for the next generation.

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