Fate of LM 10 in solar orbit

[Dinorupe]

Was just wondering today (on a long boring walk to the shops) what LM10 is like today.
I have read they discarded their human waste containers in all LMs prior to ejection and am unsure if it was depressurised.
What would it be like inside the LM considering its spent so many decades in solar orbit absorbing radiation,would it be filled with mould?

[ka9q]

LM-10 was used as Falcon on Apollo 15; its descent stage remains on the moon and its ascent stage was crashed back into the moon.

Do you mean LM-4, flown as Snoopy on Apollo 10? Its ascent stage is in solar orbit as the only flown one still intact. Whether or not it was pressurized when it was jettisoned, it is certainly not pressurized now; there was a small, normal but non-zero atmospheric leak rate in every Apollo spacecraft.

[Dinorupe]

Yes LM 4 from Apollo 10,apologies!
Im curious as to the conditions inside and what happened to the bacteria in the waste exposed to the radiation and heat.

**Cant modify title **

[ka9q]

Well, since the cabin has been a vacuum for the past 43+ years, I doubt much has happened. Any living organism would freeze-dry rather quickly.

[Echnaton]

They were only in Snoopy for a short time. There probably wasn't any human waste left behind.  Except perhaps flaked skin and such. 

[Dinorupe]

Only one way to find out.....lol

[Echnaton]

I am ready to go when you are!

[gwiz]

Only one way to find out.....lol

You need to find it first.  I've never seen any heliocentric orbital data for it, so it may not have been tracked well enough for an orbit to have been calculated.  Of course, it may be that the data exists, but no-one ever bothered to do the calculations.

[Chew]

The search for Snoopy was discussed in the old forum: http://apollohoax.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=apollo&action=display&thread=3295

[BILLR]

Cool topic. I like the idea of it being the only "flown" example still in existence. Still flying!!!!

[Mag40]

The search for Snoopy was discussed in the old forum: http://apollohoax.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=apollo&action=display&thread=3295

Question: How did it get away from the Moon's gravity?

[ka9q]

After jettison in orbit, the ascent engine was fired to depletion as a test.

The ascent stage was not fully fueled since LM-4 was overweight and it would not be taking off from the surface anyway. So it may seem somewhat surprising that it still had enough propellant to escape the moon entirely starting from lunar orbit.

Escape velocity from a surface is equal to sqrt(2) = 1.414 times the velocity of a surface-skimming orbit over the same body, so it does take less delta V to escape from low orbit than to achieve that orbit from the surface.

Gene Cernan has often been asked if they were tempted to land Snoopy and become the first men on the moon. He says that while they could technically have done so, they would have died there because of insufficient ascent-stage fuel, and that tended to discourage the thought.

[Donnie B.]

As a young person avidly following the Apollo program, I was absolutely convinced that the A10 crew would do exactly that (if all went well up to that point).  I was rather disappointed that they were "good boys" and followed the mission plan to the letter.

Of course, at the time I didn't know about the overweight LM or its light fuel load.  It makes a lot more sense now!

[ka9q]

The crew also knew that if they did a good job they'd be in line to go back. Both Young (A10 CMP) and Cernan (A10 LMP) commanded later landing missions (A16 and A17, respectively).

Stafford (A10 CDR) could almost certainly have done the same if he'd wanted to, but he developed a strong personal interest in his Russian counterparts and eventually commanded the ASTP mission.

ASTP may have seemed like a political stunt (because it was) but even political stunts can be useful; it eventually led to the ISS.

[BILLR]

ISS commanded by a canuck now. I 'm loving it!