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From the backstage tour of the Smithsonian restoration labs, where they have the batch of Neil Armstrong artifacts that he brought back from the lunar module Eagle, contrary to protocol, and recently discovered in his closet at home.

After landing on the moon, this was the optical sighting tool (like an analog heads-up display) that allowed the ascending lunar module to dock with the orbiting CSM… a critical rendezvous with the lifeboat that would take the astronauts back home.

I have the Apollo 16 LM COAS on display at the DFJ Space museum.

7 responses to “The Apollo 11 LM COAS”

  1. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    detail

    Reply
  2. tedd4u Avatar
    tedd4u

    I love how real space hardware looks – the opposite of the slick, mass-produced aesthetic in many sci-fi movies. How many of these scopes were made? Probably fewer than 100 would be my guess. Almost certainly hand made by highly skilled engineers and craftspeople.

    Reply
  3. M. Cristian Ioan Avatar
    M. Cristian Ioan

    Superb!
    But it is BIG!
    I can understand that Neil took back, against the protocol, some small items, but this one is large, not easy to be hidden. It seems also to be quite HEAVY!
    Nobody computed the return payload with a precision of a few grams, take-off weight is not THAT critical,but this analog sight looks heavy to me …

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  4. nhr Avatar
    nhr

     
    @[https://www.flickr.com/photos/cristian2014/]
    > take-off weight is not THAT critical,but this analog sight
    > looks heavy to me …

    As this analog sight was presumably designed to control the approach and accurately align the Lunar Module during its delicate in-orbit docking with the CSM, leaving said analog sight on the lunar surface to shave some take-off weight from the LM would probably have been a false economy 😉

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  5. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    While this is essential for docking after lunar ascent, there is a lot of weight shed in the final undocking. Trash and unnecessary items are put in the LM. Even the titanium docking ring on the CM side is shed via an explosive wire that runs the perimeter; it is left docked to the LM to shed weight. The LM then crashes into the moon, destroyed. The CM weight is minimized for TEI and the trip home.

    For my Apollo 16 LM, I did some research, and
    here is the complete post-docking transfer list of materials from the LM to the CSM. Note that the COAS and the LM Utility Light are not on the list, and so the return of these mementos by the astronauts were an off-script activity:
    IMG_0930

    And from the transcript of the direct ascent from the moon, there are several references to this COAS as well. I love that Young jokes about his raiding: “Yeah, we get to keep the Lunar Module.”

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  6. spacecraftengr Avatar
    spacecraftengr

    Little known fact regarding the COAS. STS orbiters also carried Apollo COAS as backup to the electro-optical star tracker assy.
    Though not directly one of my orbiter systems, during some operation prior to a launch a COAS was being stowed in the mid-deck lockers. I and the responsible engineer were checking it out during our tasks. It and the obviously ground in grey "stain" on it were interesting. Though I never did get a copy of it, there was a list of serial numbers someone threw together and it also stated which Apollo flights each unit had been on.

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  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    fantastic. I did not know that.

    Reply

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