Timeline for Apollo 14-17 - Why didn't they keep the Lunar Module docked as a lifeboat for the way back to Earth?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 13, 2021 at 16:32 | comment | added | Christian | @Nobody Engineers in western countries tend to quit and look for better options if worked to death. | |
| Jul 13, 2021 at 7:53 | comment | added | Nobody | @ThorbjørnRavnAndersen Yet no one starved or was worked to death, so they could have gone bigger with the budget. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 20:33 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | @ThorbjørnRavnAndersen Well, that and "before the Russians". Without that competition, they might not have put quite so much resources into it. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 19:41 | comment | added | Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen | @nobody the budget was pretty big. planetary.org/space-policy/cost-of-apollo The hard limit was “before the end of the decade”. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 18:44 | comment | added | Nobody | @ThorbjørnRavnAndersen Because you used that same phrasing: "I don’t think you understand" the point regarding "It all comes down to how much money you want to spend which is a purely political decision" when you answer "It would be much more expensive." | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 16:26 | comment | added | Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen | @nobody also I don’t think you understand how much effort went into doing this due to the politically decided deadline… | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 16:24 | comment | added | Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen | @nobody. A larger rocket? It still has to lift itself. It would be much more expensive. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 15:01 | comment | added | Nobody | @ThorbjørnRavnAndersen Not really, they could have built a larger rocket or assembled something in Earth orbit using multiple launches of the rocket they had. It all comes down to how much money you want to spend which is a purely political decision. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 10:48 | comment | added | Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen | This demonstrates clearly how close to the limit of technology this was. They only barely could do it. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 5:28 | comment | added | supercat | Another point to consider is that the CM/SM combo was expected to burn fuel to enter lunar orbit, and again to leave it. Skipping those parts of the mission meant that Apollo 13 craft were able to carry the LEM back to earth, but if the failure had happened after the lunar insertion burn, there wouldn't have been enough extra fuel to get the LEM out of orbit. | |
| Jul 12, 2021 at 3:25 | history | answered | Loren Pechtel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |