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Apollo A
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Apollo A was a lighter-weight July 1961 version of the Apollo spacecraft. It was specifically designed for long-duration operations in space; to conduct re-entry tests at near-parabolic speeds; and then for manned circumlunar missions.
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LM Langley Light
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This early open-cab single-crew Langley lunar lander design used storable propellants, resulting in an all-up mass of 4,372 kg.
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LM Langley Lighter
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This early open-cab Langley design used cryogenic propellants. The cryogenic design was estimated to gross 3,284 kg - to be compared with the 15,000 kg / 2 man LM design that eventually was selected.
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LM Langley Lightest
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Extremely light-weight open-cab lunar module design considered in early Langley studies. This version used cryogenic propellants to get a single crewman from lunar orbit, to the lunar surface, and back, at an all up mass of only 1,460 kg.
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Apollo D-2
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The General Electric design for Apollo put all systems and space not necessary for re-entry and recovery into a separate jettisonable 'mission module', joined to the re-entry vehicle by a hatch. Every gram saved in this way saved two or more grams in overall spacecraft mass. In comparison with the NASA final Apollo design, the General Electric D-2 provided the crew with 50% more living space, an airlock, and a service module for the mass of the Apollo capsule alone. But in the end, NASA administrator James Webb examined the model of the D-2, thanked the contractor for its efforts, and announced that Apollo would use the NASA design without any consideration of alternatives. The Soviet Union used the General Electric design approach for their Soyuz spacecraft, still in service 45 years later. The NASA Apollo deign was retired after 8 years.
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Apollo L-2C
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Martin's L-2C design was the basis for the Apollo spacecraft that ultimately emerged. The 2590 kg command module was a flat-bottomed cone, 3.91 m in diameter, 2.67 m high, with a rounded apex. A jettisonable tower was equipped with a tractor-rocket launch escape system. Behind the flat aft bulkhead were propulsion, equipment, and mission modules. The circumlunar version had a total length of 12.5 m and a fuelled mass of 6,466 kg. Flaps provided limited maneuverability (hypersonic L/D ratio of 0.75) on re-entry, with a parachute landing system being used for final recovery.
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Apollo Lenticular
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The Convair/Astronautics alternate Lenticular Apollo was a flying saucer configuration with the highest hypersonic lift to drag ratio (4.4) of any proposed design. The lenticular shape, with deployable wings for final approach, had first been suggested by Alan B. Kehlet of STG's New Projects Panel in 1959. The compact circumlunar version of the spacecraft was only 9.76 m long but also the heaviest Apollo proposed at 8,778 kg.
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Apollo M-1
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Convair/Astronautics preferred M-1 Apollo design was a three-module lunar-orbiting spacecraft. Command, mission, and propulsion modules were designed primarily for lunar orbit, with flexibility and growth potential built in for more advanced missions (such as a lunar landing) with the same basic vehicle design. The preferred command module was a flat-topped blunt half cone lifting-body concept, similar to the HL-10 shape developed by Alfred Eggers at Ames.
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Apollo R-3
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General Electric's Apollo horizontal-landing alternative to the ballistic D-2 capsule was the R-3 lifting body. This modified lenticular shape provided a lift-to-drag ratio of just 0.70 but eliminated the severe heating and weight problems General Electric believed to be inherent in the basic lenticular configuration.
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Apollo ULS
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An Apollo unmanned logistic system to aid astronauts on a lunar landing mission was studied. Space Technology Laboratories did a feasibility study of developing a general-purpose spacecraft into which varieties of payloads could be fitted.
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Apollo W-1
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Martin's W-1 design for the Apollo spacecraft was an alternative to the preferred L-2C configuration. The 2652 kg command module was a blunt cone lifting body re-entry vehicle, 3.45 m in diameter, 3.61 m long. The propulsion, equipment, and mission modules were identical with those proposed for the L-2C baseline. The RV shape was heavier than the W-1 but provided higher maneuverability (hypersonic L/D ratio of 0.75). Flaps and a parachute landing system being used for final recovery were used as in the L-2C. The circumlunar version had a total length of 11.4 m including a short launch escape tower and a fuelled mass of 6,677 kg.
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Lunar Bus
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The lunar "bus" was an early NASA Apollo logistics vehicle study. The spacecraft "bus" concept could be adapted for use first on the Saturn C-1B and later on the Saturn C-5 launch vehicles. It would deliver supplies to a manned lunar expedition.
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Apollo CSM
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The Apollo Command Service Module was the spacecraft developed by NASA in the 1960's as a standard spacecraft for earth and lunar orbit missions. Block II CSM's were the only version to fly manned, and they successfully ferried crews to the moon, to the Skylab space station, and to a joint docking with the Russian Soyuz. No production was undertaken after the initial run of 13 Block II capsules - Apollo was abandoned in favor of the Shuttle as the ferry for American manned spaceflight. Forty years later, the Shuttle was to be retired, and a design similar to the Apollo, the CEV, was conceived as the Shuttle's 'replacement'.
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Apollo CSM Block I
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The Apollo Command Service Module was the spacecraft developed by NASA in the 1960's as a standard spacecraft for earth and lunar orbit missions. Block I command service modules, which lacked forward docking tunnels and hatches, never flew manned after the Apollo 204 fire killed its crew on the pad.
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Apollo CSM Boilerplate
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Boilerplate structural Apollo CSM's were used for various systems and booster tests, especially proving of the LES (launch escape system).
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Apollo X
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Apollo X was the designation given at various times during the Apollo program for follow-on versions of the spacecraft for extended earth-orbit operations (for a time, all follow-on projects using Apollo hardware were termed 'Apollo X'.
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Apollo ALSEP
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ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package) was the array of connected scientific instruments left behind on the lunar surface by each Apollo expedition. Powered by radioisotope generators, they were turned off as a budget move when still operating. Apollo 11 deployed a simpler version called EASEP.
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Apollo LLRF
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In support of Apollo, Langley Research Center put into operation a Lunar Landing Research Facility. The huge structure (76.2 m high and 121.9 m long) was used to explore techniques and to forecast various problems of landing on the moon. The facility enabled test vehicles to be operated under one-sixth g conditions.
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Apollo LLRV
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Bell Aerosystems initially built two manned lunar landing research vehicles (LLRV) for NASA to assess the handling characteristics of Apollo LM-type vehicles on earth. A follow-on contract for three 'production' versions for astronaut training were referred to as LLTV 'lunar landing training vehicles'.
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Apollo LM
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Following the decision to use the lunar orbit rendezvous method to get to the moon, Grumman received the contract to develop the lunar module, which would take the first men to the surface to the moon. If funding had been available, modified lunar modules (dubbed LM Taxi, LM Shelter, and LM Truck) would have been used to set up the first lunar bases.
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Lunar Leaper
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One of the many bizarre modes for lunar transportation proposed in the early 1960's.
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Apollo Experiments Pallet
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The Apollo Experiments Pallet was a sophisticated instrument payload that would have been installed in the Apollo CSM for dedicated lunar or earth orbital resource assessment missions.
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Apollo LM CSD
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The Apollo Lunar Module was considered for military use in the Covert Space Denial role in 1964. A modified lunar module could make large orbital maneuvers, rendezvousing with enemy satellites by surprise and in total radio silence. For inspection and destruction of the satellite the LM was to be equipped with a single remote controlled arm.
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Apollo LM Lab
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Use of the Apollo LM as an earth-orbiting laboratory was proposed for Apollo Applications Program missions. The LM would have its engines and propellants removed, providing space for up to 10 metric tons of scientific equipment. A specific version of the LM lab was the Apollo Telescope Mount.
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Apollo LM Truck
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The LM Truck was an LM Descent stage adapted for unmanned delivery of payloads of up to 5,000 kg to the lunar surface in support of a lunar base using Apollo technology. The LM Truck would make precision landings using radio landing beacons prepositioned by the lunar base staff.
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Apollo MSS
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The Apollo Mapping and Survey System was a kit of photographic equipment that was at one time part of the basic Apollo Block II configuration. The actual hardware, which would be installed in the equipment bay of certain Service Modules, would weigh up to 680 kg. The system was abandoned when it became clear that Lunar Orbiter would provide all the necessary photographs needed for Apollo landing site selection.
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AES Lunar Base
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AES (Apollo Extension Systems) was planned as the first American lunar base. It would involve minimal modification of Apollo hardware. The Apollo CSM would be modified for long duration lunar orbit storage. Two versions of the Apollo LM would be developed: the LM Taxi, and the LM Shelter. Surface mobility would be provided by an open cab lunar rover within the 2050 kg lunar surface payload capability of the LM Shelter. This preliminary base would require two Saturn V launches to allow two astronauts to explore the vicinity of their LM Shelter over a two week period. Development was actually begun in May 1966 with plans for a first mission in March 1970. But subsequent cutbacks and then cancellation of further Saturn V production led to the project being completely abandoned in June 1968.
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Apollo ATM
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The Apollo Telescope Mount began as a solar telescope built into the spaceframe of an Apollo lunar module. Initially it was to be either free-flying (operated by a visiting crew in an Apollo CSM) or launched separately and docked to a Saturn S-IVB orbital workshop. Over many years it evolved into a piece of hardware unrelated to the Apollo LM and integrated into the Skylab space station.
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Apollo CMLS
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In 1966 North American concluded that the Apollo Command Module (CM) could be converted into a lunar shelter by removal of the heat shield, interior modification, addition of a fuel cell power supply, storage facilities for fuel cell reactants and life support expendables, and possibly some type of airlock. When compared to an LM derivative shelter, the greatest advantage of the CM was the 36% greater available volume-- 8.7 m3 compared to 6.4 m3.
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Apollo LASS S-IVB
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The Douglas Company (DAC) proposed the "Lunar Application of a Spent S-IVB Stage (LASS)". The LASS concept required a landing gear on a S-IVB Stage. The mission was an unmanned, direct-flight, using an existing lunar beacon to obtain a precise landing location. The LASS required either a highly throttleable J-2 type engine (J-2X) or a moderately throttleable J-2S with RL-10 engines added to provide proper landing control.
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Apollo LM Shelter
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The LM Shelter was essentially an Apollo LM lunar module with ascent stage engine and fuel tanks removed and replaced with consumables and scientific equipment for 14 days extended lunar exploration. Work was planned to begin in 1966, with 1-2 missions per year beginning in 1970 after accomplishment of the manned lunar landing goal. In the event, only the Lunar Rover vehicle, used in the later Apollo missions, ever saw actual use.
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Apollo LM Taxi
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The LM Taxi was essentially the basic Apollo LM modified for extended lunar surface stays. This was expected to be the workhorse of both Apollo Applications Extended Lunar Surface Missions beginning in 1970 and still be used to shuttle crews to the surface to larger LESA (Lunar Exploration System for Apollo) in the mid- to late- 1970's.
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Apollo LMSS
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Under the Apollo Applications Program NASA began hardware and software procurement, development, and testing for a Lunar Mapping and Survey System. The system would be mounted in an Apollo CSM. The system was later cancelled due to the shrinking NASA post-Apollo budget.
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Apollo SMLL
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North American Aviation (NAA) proposed use of the SM as a lunar logistics vehicle (LLV) in 1966. The configuration, simply stated, put a landing gear on the SM. It was proposed for use in an unmanned, direct landing mode. The system required the addition of remote guidance and control and a suitable throttling engine.
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LLV
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Many versions of new Lunar Logistic Vehicles (LLV's) using several possible candidate propellants were studied by NASA and its contractors in the mid-1960's for post-Apollo lunar base support. By the time budget cutbacks ended such thoughts, NASA was favoring a two-stage version powered by throttleable RL10 engines burning liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen propellants.
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Lunar Worm
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The Aeronutronic Division of Philco Corp. proposed the unique Lunar Worm Planetary Roving Vehicle Concept in 1966. This was a bellows-concept mobile vehicle which could 'inch' its way across almost any kind of lunar surface. Design studies were made of the concept as applied to a small unmanned vehicle, a supply vehicle, a small lunar shelter, and a large lunar shelter.
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MOCOM
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Third generation versions of the CM were studied by North American in 1966 to further modify a CM shelter to provide mobility. Essentially the CM was mounted on a four-wheel chassis.
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MOLEM
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Third generation versions of LM derivative equipment were studied by Grumman in a report delivered on 10 May 1966. The LM shelter was further modified to become a mobile shelter (MOLEM); thereby eliminating the need for a separate lunar roving vehicle (LRV).
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ALSS Lunar Base
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The ALSS (Apollo Logistics Support System) Lunar Base would require a new development, the LM Truck, to allow delivery of up to 4100 kg in payload to the lunar surface. This would allow larger surface shelters and MOLAB pressurized roving laboratories to be landed on the moon, allowing two astronauts to make extensive exploration of selected areas of the lunar surface. No elements of ALSS were funded for development prior to the cancellation of further Saturn V production in June 1968.
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Apollo LTA
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Apollo Lunar module Test Articles were simple mass/structural models of the Lunar Module. Several were used in test flights of Saturn launch vehicles, most famously in Apollo 8.
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Apollo RM
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In 1967 it was planned that Saturn IB-launched Orbital Workshops would be supplied by Apollo CSM spacecraft and Resupply Modules (RM) with up to three metric tons of supplies and instruments.
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Apollo 120 in Telescope
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Concept for use of a Saturn V-launched Apollo CSM with an enormous 10 m diameter space laboratory equipped with a 3 m diameter astronomical telescope.
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Apollo LASS
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In the LASS (LM Adapter Surface Station) lunar shelter concept, the LM ascent stage was replaced by an SLA 'mini-base' and the position of the Apollo Service Module (SM) was reversed. In comparison to the LM Shelter concept, this provided a lunar mini-base of superior capacity and capability. The SM was used for lunar orbit insertion and the first portion of descent to the lunar surface. The LM descent stage was used for final touchdown.
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Apollo LMAL
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This was one of 18 conceptual designs published 25 April 1968 for the Earth-orbital spacecraft lunar module adapter laboratory prepared by spacecraft design experts of the MSC Advanced Spacecraft Technology Division. The configuration was developed to illustrate the extent to which the building block philosophy could be carried. It would utilize both Gemini and Apollo spacecraft and would require 2 unmanned launches and 10 manned logistic launches. The report was published 25 April 1968.
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Apollo LPM
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The unmanned portion of the Lunar Surface Rendezvous and Exploration Phase of Apollo envisioned in 1969 was the Lunar Payload Module (LPM). This was an Apollo Lunar Module, augmented or not, in which all of the normal ascent features had been eliminated. This allowed a 3620 kg payload to be delivered to the lunar surface, to be used by a separately landed crew.
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LSSM
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The Bendix Local Science Survey Module was a forerunner of the Lunar Rover. The LSSM was a small size vehicle used to support a local manned survey. It was proposed for delivery with an LM Shelter. The typical, one-man configuration weighed in the order of 450 kg, was battery powered and had a total range capability of 200 km per mission. The crew sat in an open cockpit.
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Lunar Exploration Program 1968
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In January 1968, Bellcomm, NASA's Apollo project management advisor, proposed a four-phase program for exploration of the lunar surface using Apollo and Apollo-derived hardware. A total of 12 lunar landing missions would be conducted between 1969 and 1976, the final two being dual-launch missions with the Apollo crews landing on the lunar surface near a previously-landed payload lander. The supplies, lunar flying vehicles, and rovers delivered by the separate lander would allow two-week explorations of the lunar surface. This was the final iteration of the AES Lunar Base before further Saturn V production was cancelled.
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Apollo LRM
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Grumman proposed to use the LM as a lunar reconnaissance module. But NASA had already considered this and many other possibilities (Apollo MSS, Apollo LMSS); and there was no budget available for any of them.
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Apollo LRV
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The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle was one of those sweet pieces of hardware that NASA and its contractors seemed to be able to develop so effortlessly during the short maturity of the Apollo program. The collapsible 208 kg battery-powered rover could take two astronauts, 55 kg of scientific equipment, and 27 kg of lunar samples over a cumulative distance of 92 kilometers during one lunar day. The Lunar Rover was the only piece of equipment from NASA's ambitious post-Apollo lunar exploration plans to actually fly in space.
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Apollo MET
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NASA designed the MET lunar hand cart to help with problems such as the Apollo 12 astronauts had in carrying hand tools, sample boxes and bags, a stereo camera, and other equipment on the lunar surface. The MET would extend lunar surface activities to a greater distance from the lunar module prior to availability of the Apollo Lunar Rover vehicle. It was planned to use the MET on Apollo 14 and 15. But the Apollo 15 H class mission was cancelled. So the MET was only used on Apollo 14.
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Apollo Rescue CSM
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Influenced by the stranded Skylab crew portrayed in the book and movie 'Marooned', NASA provided a crew rescue capability for the first time in its history. A kit was developed to fit out an Apollo command module with a total of five crew couches. In the event a Skylab crew developed trouble with its Apollo CSM return craft, a rescue CSM would be prepared and launched to rendezvous with the station. It would dock with the spare second side docking port of the Skylab docking module.
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Skylab
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First US space station. The project began life as the Orbital Workshop (see separate entry) - outfitting of an S-IVB stage with a docking adapter with equipment launched by several subsequent S-1B launches. Curtailment of the Apollo moon landings meant that surplus Saturn V's were available, so the pre-equipped, five times heavier, and much more capable Skylab resulted.
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Skylab Lunar Orbit Station
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McDonnell Douglas (Seal Beach, CA) did a study on modifying the to modify the Skylab as a moon-orbiting observatory and station
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Apollo ASTP Docking Module
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The ASTP docking module was basically an airlock with docking facilities on each end to allow crew transfer between the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft. The docking module was 3.15 m long, 1.4 m maximum diameter, and weighed 2,012 kg. Apollo's cabin atmosphere was 100 percent oxygen at 0.34 atmosphere pressure, while that of Soyuz was nitrogen/oxygen at 1.0 atmosphere. Transfer between these two atmospheres would require pre-breathing of pure oxygen to purge the blood of suspended nitrogen. This was avoided by lowering the Soyuz pressure to 0.68 atmospheres pressure. The docking module served mainly as an airlock to raise or lower the pressure between 0.34 and 0.68 atmospheres when moving from one spacecraft to the other. This was done through the use of pressure equalization valves with both hatches closed.
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Apollo CM Escape Concept
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Escape capsule using Apollo command module studied by Rockwell for NASA for use with the shuttle in the 1970's-80's. Mass per crew: 750 kg.
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Skylab Reboost Module
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Module developed for Shuttle to deliver to Skylab to boost it to a higher orbit for use during the Shuttle program. Due to Shuttle development delays, Skylab re-entered and burned up over Australia before the first Shuttle mission, and NASA would have to wait another twenty years for a space station.
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