Lunar Module Hatch Prototype

11 responses to “Lunar Module Hatch Prototype”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Nov 4, 2009 at 6:05 am

   Other side:
   

   Tags:
   

   

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2. 

   In Memoriam: jerryfi_99

   Nov 4, 2009 at 7:28 am

   It does look like the upper docking hatch. Search for LMA 790 and NAS 9-1100 for manuals on the LEM. Check page A-110 of this:
   history.nasa.gov/ap13rb/appApt3.pdf
   and page 2-6 of:
   http://www.footnote.com/image/228144716/#228144716

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3. 

   gcquinn

   Nov 4, 2009 at 8:31 am

   Got all the basics that a Lunar Module Hatch Prototype should have!! Very Buck Rodgers.

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4. 

   biotron

   Nov 4, 2009 at 12:23 pm

   ah, but it did it have Wilma Deering inside? no – thought not 🙁

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5. 

   jurvetson

   Nov 4, 2009 at 6:32 pm

   One can dream…

   jerryfi: thanks. Some great images there (even more Buck-Deer-esque). A sample:

   
   
   Lunar Module Interior, looking aft:

   

   From LEM Manual: First Manned Lunar Landing Familiarization Manual, Gannett, July 15, 1964

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6. 

   ideastoday

   Nov 5, 2009 at 2:31 am

   Nice find. I love the quality control tag and vintage Grumman logo.

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7. 

   Victor1

   Nov 7, 2009 at 8:47 am

   Without a sense of scale, the first photo looked like the top of a beer can with some special flip up lid…. and if you’ve seen the apollo capsule in Smithsonian, probably had a similar sense of deja vu-doo.

   Steve is secretly assembling a spare Apollo system…. like that guy in ‘Contact’ who parallel produced his own space travel system. Go Steve! I wanna call shotgun right now for that 3 seater in the command module.

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8. 

   WF&DT

   Nov 9, 2009 at 6:57 pm

   That LEM diagram must be an older one; it shows the forward hatch in the original circular configuration, before NASA discovered a PLSS-wearing astronaut couldn’t get through it and made the hatch square instead.

   cool stuff as always!!

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9. 

   jurvetson

   Nov 10, 2009 at 2:10 am

   Yes, the drawings are from 1964, the year that spaceaholic thought the prototype hatch was from. full text

   Victor 1: about 3 ft. across. I wanted to cut a hole and mount it through my office door, but it is too large. From before: Other side:
   

   Tags:
   

   ——————————————————- From LEM Manual: First Manned Lunar Landing Familiarization Manual, Gannett, July 15, 1964
   
   
   Lunar Module Interior, looking aft:

   

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10. 

    jurvetson

    Nov 25, 2011 at 11:53 pm

    Here’s a passage from How Apollo Flew to the Moon, 2011, p.146 on the purpose of the oval dump valve at the top of the hatch:

    ”Prior to launch, the dump valve in the LM’s overhead hatch was left open in order that, as the Saturn V lofted the spacecraft into orbit, the mixed atmosphere within the LM was gradually exhausted leaving the interior essentially a vacuum, ready to be filled with (low pressure) oxygen. When docking with the LM, the tunnel had been placed over the hatch and its dump valve. Once the pressure on both sides of the forward hatch had equalized, the hatch itself could be removed”

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11. 

    jurvetson

    Feb 3, 2022 at 5:25 am

    compare to the finalLM hatch

    Reply