I have a particular fascination with Lunar Module hardware, especially if it has been to the moon and back. The lunar landers were marvels of engineering and both the descent stage and ascent stage were abandoned on every mission. All possible weight was left behind, and NASA written protocol governed the item transfer procedure. Moon rocks, flight documents and bags of personal items and flown souvenirs were brought back on each mission. But, generally, not a piece of the lunar lander spacecraft itself, as there was no mission need for that.
From research I have done with space collectors, this may be the only piece of the Eagle spacecraft in existence on Earth (except for the box that held the moon rocks, which now resides in the Smithsonian).
For a part of the LM to survive, an astronaut would need to detach and smuggle booty from the lunar spacecraft, carry it through the hatch to the command module, and retain possession on Earth. Until a law passed through Congress a few months ago, the legal possession of such artifacts was ambiguous. (Now, the common sense of the past four decades has been codified – if an Apollo, Gemini or Mercury astronaut was awarded something on landing, it legally belongs to them).
I started collecting space artifacts three years ago, when I found the COAS from the Apollo 16 lunar module up for auction. And I have since found flown LM hardware from Apollo 10 , 15 and 16.
But Apollo 11 is special, for so many reasons. Beyond the historic significance, it was a short and scripted mission. NASA ordered most of Command Module Columbia to be retained intact, and Neil Armstrong pledged his mementos to museums… so that leaves Buzz Aldrin as the lone possible channel.
Buzz detached this LM Data Clip from Eagle and brought it back with him, a small remnant of the great vessel that first ferried humanity to a celestial body. Had the Apollo astronauts not saved mementos from their craft —contrary to protocol — these artifacts would have been destroyed as the abandoned ascent stage inevitably deorbited and crashed back into the moon.
Buzz Aldrin wrote and signed an explanatory letter which reads:
“This is to certify that the enclosed Data File Clip was flown to the moon. The device held charts and checklists in the Lunar Module. Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and I flew the Apollo 11 mission from July 16 to 24, 1969. Neil and I made the first lunar landing on July 20. Part number SEB32100094-301 is listed in the Apollo Stowage List for Mission AS-506 as seen on the copy of page 39. The dark material in the Velcro most likely is moon dust from our space suits or other equipment.”
It seems like an apt post as we are about to kickoff the Google Moonshot brainstorming retreat. They said to bring props… =)
Details: Flown Data File Clip carried to the lunar surface on Apollo 11. It was designed with a mating fixture to be used while attached to the spacecraft. Given the physical space constraints, the data cards were clipped in an area that blocked the AOT. So it makes sense that the space needed to be reconfigurable with detachable hardware (and were it not detachable, it would not be with us on Earth).
Clip measures approximately 2 x 2.25, and is constructed from two plates of aluminum with a spring mounted between the plates to provide tension to hold the plates closed and the ability to grip flight equipment. A one-inch square Velcro patch is attached above the etched part number which reads: “P/N SEB32100094-301, S/N 1122 ASSY.”
The clip was a simple, yet effective tool to secure equipment such as checklist sheets, flight maps, and any loose articles floating in the weightless conditions while traveling to the moon or in the 1/6 gravity environment on the lunar surface. They were placed in the Data Card Kit of the Flight Data File (FDF) with the approximate weight stated as one tenth of a pound.
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