Saturday, October 24, 2020

Off to get to Huntsville Alabama to visit with Bob's cousin Jan and her husband Lee.  The drive was beautiful and green and the roads are so relaxing...not big city driving between cities.  So different from driving in California.  Skies were overcast and air temperature was much cooler....48 - 55 F.

It was so good to see Jan and Lee and they have been so gracious to ask us to stay with them.  

Jan fixed us lunch and then we all went to the US. Space and Rocket Center. 

Lee is a docent there so we got a personal tour and explanation.  It was incredible to see the rockets and shuttle and how incredibly large these were.  

We learned so much about the space program that actually started after WWII when Wernher von Braun, a German born engineer, who while in his twenties and early thirties, worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and develop the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip. He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1.

The V2 was developed and used during WW 2 by the Germans.Over 3000 were launched during the war.  V2s could fly 200 miles, carry a 2200 pound warhead, reached a height of 55 miles when launched for long range [higher for short range], traveled at max speed of 3580 mph and impacted at 1790 mph.

Von Braun’s brother Magnus spoke the best English and set out on a bicycle to the nearest American check point to relay that there were rocket scientists in the area ready to surrender. The specifics were worked out and the team was interviewed by the US to determine that they were indeed rocket scientists. Over 100 scientists from that team and 300 railcars of V2 components were sent to White Sands, NM to help train and educate American rocket scientists. 

Space Program   No one knew if humans could function in space, or what they would need to take with them in order to survive. Between 1958 and 1963 both manned and unmanned missions were launched to find the answers to these questions. Project Mercury was the first manned US mission into space. The goals for Project Mercury were to orbit Earth, investigate man’s ability to work in space and to recover both astronaut and space craft safely.

The next step in American space travel was Project Gemini. Gemini was a stepping stone to travel to the moon. The goals for the Gemini program were: to put two men into space for two weeks, to rendezvous and dock with orbiting vehicles (fly near and then connect with), to maneuver vehicles that were docked and to perfect landing and re-entry.

The rocket that took man to the moon is sometimes called the moon rocket for that reason. There are only 3 originals left today  – the one you see here, one at Johnson Space Center in Houston and one at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. These were part of the Saturn Project.  (The Saturn V was proposed by Werner Von Braun in 1957)  Below is a sketch of the Saturn V and it shows the stages needed to get the astronauts to the moon.  As you look at the stages you will see the first stage has 5 rockets

Diagram showing the various stages of Apollo V that help get the space ship to the moon.  Double click on the picture to enlarge.

Jan fixed us dinner and then we went right next door to visit with their daughter Janelle and Mark and the kids, Marit, James and Natalie.  How lucky Jan and Lee are to have their daughter and grandchildren that close.  It is obvious that they all enjoy each others company.

If you look at the end of the 1st stage (above) what you see are the very large F-1 engines on the bottom (back). This engine was developed by Rocketdyne for the US Air Force, however the Air Force had no use for so much power. Von Braun and the newly created NASA were duly impressed and contracted with Rocketdyne to finish development of the engine. Each engine produces 1.5 million pounds of thrust. We are looking at five F-1 engines. Together they produce 7.5 million pounds of thrust. This power is necessary because as you recall the rocket weighs over 6 million pounds.

 

After the first stage lifts the rocket off the launching pad, it drops off.  The second stage of the rocket which has 3 F-1 jet engines then takes over.  Once in orbit the second stage drops and the third stage is in charge of getting the orbiting space ship (after one orbit) into the trajectory towards the moon.

Much happens in maneuvering procedures before we get to the next photo but the picture below shows the lunar landing module (separated from the command module) which carries 2 astronauts and a land rover to the moon's surface. (The lunar rover is folded up inside the module like a transformer toy like the kids used to play with).  

Lunar Rover:  During the last three lunar flights, astronauts were provided with a lunar rover. To transport this rover to the moon, it was folded up to about the size of a 4 ft. suitcase and stored on one side of the LM. The rover weighs about 460 pounds and was designed solely for use on the moon. The tires were designed to work in the vacuum of space, while providing the greatest amount of cushion and traction. You can see that they are not inflatable tires like we use on Earth. Again, the lack of air pressure on the moon doesn’t allow for air inflatable tires - they would expand until they pop or have to be so thick to prevent that, that they would have been too heavy to meet launch requirements. The rover had four battery-powered motors, one for each wheel, and could be recharged with solar panels. The astronauts could travel up to eight miles per hour, within a 75 square mile range. The rovers were left on the moon.

Space capsule: The Space and Rocket Center is very lucky in that we have the actual Apollo 16 capsule on display. This capsule was home to John Young, Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke for 12 days in April 1972. 

{Rear of the capsule to show the heat shield] All spacecraft designed by the United States prior to the space shuttle utilized layered ablative materials for heat protection during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Ablative means that as the material is subjected to the heat of re-entry, the material would absorb a certain amount of heat, turn to a liquid, then “burn off” the craft, taking the heat away from the capsule and keeping it cool near the top, where the astronauts sat. The heat of re-entry is quite intense, up to 6000 degrees F, and without some kind of heat protection, re-entry would be impossible to survive. Here you can see what the heat shield looks like when it has worked properly. The thermal protection system is a honeycomb matrix that is bonded to a stainless steel shell. The ablative material (Avco brand of an epoxy resin) was then inserted into the honeycomb cells with a device that looked much like a caulking gun.....OK - you have to know that I copied and pasted that last section.....not sure I could have said any of that again)

Saturn 1

Space shuttle and transport  - Used to transport astronauts and supplies to the international space station and back home again.

Thanks to the US Space and Rocket Center for a lot of "my" words on this blog!!!!