Photo Anomalies

[bknight]

Ah, but you see NASA manufactured those "glitches" just to keep everybody from getting bored...

They were crafty back in them there days. 

[raven]

Ah, but you see NASA manufactured those "glitches" just to keep everybody from getting bored...

They were crafty back in them there days. 

But they can't dig blast craters, add stars to the sky, or figure out a labelling system for more than 26 props. Crafty, indeed.

[Zakalwe]

Now this really might turn out to be a dumb question, but how do the astronauts get past this piece of equipment to move between the CM and the LM? I haven't found a diagram that shows this clearly enough.

Is it attached to the forward hatch door so that it somehow gets removed or swung out of the way?

Of all the clever bits on Apollo (and there were a LOT of them!) the probe and drogue has got to be on the list of the cleverest (all IMHO). It's an exquisite piece of form and functionality.

http://history.nasa.gov/afj/aoh/aoh-v1-2-13-dock.pdf

http://heroicrelics.org/stafford/apollo-probe-and-drogue/

http://www.apollohoax.net/forum/index.php?topic=687.0

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19720018207.pdf

[Kiwi]

IIRC, one of the Apollo 11 TV transmissions on the way to the moon showed Mike Collins removing the docking mechanism and opening the tunnel.  Couldn't find it in a quick Youtube search.  Maybe someone else knows where it is.

The Spacecraft Films Apollo 11 set of DVDs has it. From the original Apollo 11 set:--

TV transmission during translunar coast, JSC kinescopes.
0:00:00   1  Probe removal and LM checkout.  GET 55:08
0:02:00   2  Working on the probe
0:14:00   3  Removing the drogue
0:23:44   4  Ready for the hatch
0:27:00   5  Into Eagle
0:33:00   6  Opening the shades
0:40:40   7  The AOT
0:47:30   8  Mike over in Columbia
0:52:00   9  Eagle instrument panels
1:04:30   10  Camera mount
1:16:43   11  Panel 3
1:18:00   12  More instruments
1:25:09   13  Our home from space
1:30:52   End

I also recall that on another DVD set the astronauts carried the probe or another part of the mechanism back to the couches and videoed it so that the techies in Houston could see it and maybe figure out a problem.

Can't recall which set though. Fellow Kiwi member AJV can probably tell us.

[bknight]

IIRC, one of the Apollo 11 TV transmissions on the way to the moon showed Mike Collins removing the docking mechanism and opening the tunnel.  Couldn't find it in a quick Youtube search.  Maybe someone else knows where it is.

The Spacecraft Films Apollo 11 set of DVDs has it. From the original Apollo 11 set:--

TV transmission during translunar coast, JSC kinescopes.
0:00:00   1  Probe removal and LM checkout.  GET 55:08
0:02:00   2  Working on the probe
0:14:00   3  Removing the drogue
0:23:44   4  Ready for the hatch
0:27:00   5  Into Eagle
0:33:00   6  Opening the shades
0:40:40   7  The AOT
0:47:30   8  Mike over in Columbia
0:52:00   9  Eagle instrument panels
1:04:30   10  Camera mount
1:16:43   11  Panel 3
1:18:00   12  More instruments
1:25:09   13  Our home from space
1:30:52   End

I also recall that on another DVD set the astronauts carried the probe or another part of the mechanism back to the couches and videoed it so that the techies in Houston could see it and maybe figure out a problem.

Can't recall which set though. Fellow Kiwi member AJV can probably tell us.

Perhaps give us a time this occurred so we may search the ALSJ?

[Kiwi]

From  FIRST ON THE MOON - A Voyage with NEIL ARMSTRONG MICHAEL COLLINS EDWIN E. ALDRIN JR. written with GENE FARMER and DORA JANE HAMBLIN Epilogue by ARTHUR C. CLARKE, Michael Joseph, London, 1970

Page 146
   Fifty-five hours and ten minutes, receiving live television at Goldstone, presumably a test of the system. Stand by for a call from the crew...
   HOUSTON (Duke): We're getting ready to flight configure here at Houston for the transmission. We'll be up in a couple of minutes. Over.
   ALDRIN: Rog, this is just for free. This isn't what we had in mind.
   [It turned out that they had quite a lot in mind... It was time to remove the probe and drogue assembly linking the two spacecraft. Then Buzz Aldrin would go "up" and through a tunnel to enter the lunar module for the
<146

147>
first time and check it out; the lunar landing was almost exactly forty-eight hours away...]
   HOUSTON (Duke): It's a pretty good show here. It looks like you almost got the probe out.
   ALDRIN: Yeah, it's loose now. Can you see that?... Coming down.
   HOUSTON (Duke): Looks like it's a little bit easier than doing that in the chamber. Over.
   ARMSTRONG: You bet.
   ALDRIN: It's pretty massive but it goes where you direct it.
   ARMSTRONG: Mike must have done a smooth job in that docking. There isn't a dent or a mark on the probe.
   HOUSTON (Duke): With a twelve-foot cable, we estimate you should have about five to six feet excess when you get the camera into the LM... We can see the probe now. A correction, the drogue.
   COLLINS: Okay, drogue removal is coming next.
   [Once that was out of the way, they would have access to the lunar modale hatch...]
   HOUSTON (Duke): Looks like it's pretty crowded in there with that drogue. Over.
   ARMSTRONG: Oh, it's not really bad.
   ALDRIN: This TV cable is getting in the way.
   HOUSTON (Duke): We see lots of arms.
   COLLINS: The only problem, Charlie, is these TV stagehands don't know where they stand... well, the dock latches look good today, just like they did yesterday.
   HOUSTON (Duke): Eleven, Houston. We can even read the decals up there on the LM hatch.
   ALDRIN: Well, let me move [the camera] up and see how much you can read.
   HOUSTON (Duke): We can see the LM umbilical connection quite well, Buzz. We see you zooming in on one of the decals now. It's — to reset, unlatch handle, latch behind grip and pull back two full strokes. That's about all we can make out.
   ALDRIN: You get an A plus.
   HOUSTON (Duke): Thank you very much, sir. At least I passed my eye test.

There will most likely be more info in the Apollo 11 Flight Journal.

[Kiwi]

Perhaps give us a time this occurred so we may search the ALSJ?

It's on the first line:
0:00:00   1  Probe removal and LM checkout.  GET 55:08

You'll want the Apollo 11 Flight Journal.
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/

[bknight]

Perhaps give us a time this occurred so we may search the ALSJ?

It's on the first line:
0:00:00   1  Probe removal and LM checkout.  GET 55:08

You'll want the Apollo 11 Flight Journal.

I'll get to watching later, but thanks for the timeline synopsis, saves me a lot of research time.

[Dr_Orpheus]

I was just remembering that two of the missions AS14 and AS17 had docking problems.  AS14 was more severe and I don't know if NASA ever figured out why the latching mechanism didn't perform as expected.  AS17 had Cernan open the hatch and manually lock a number of the latches manually, before the LM was retrieved from third stage.

The first manned Skylab mission also had great difficulty docking.  After the crew put on space suits and fiddled with the docking probe, the next attempt succeeded. 

I don't recall any of the shuttle missions having difficulty.   I guess its docking system is more reliable.

[Kiwi]

I'll get to watching later, but thanks for the timeline synopsis, saves me a lot of research time.

The quickest place to ascertain things like GET and tons of other minutiae is at Apollo By the Numbers
http://apollohoax.proboards.com/thread/1356/apollo-numbers

I have all the mission summaries and timelines printed and in a folder - 59 pages. They are very useful.

Anyone who wants a copy and doesn't want to reinvent the wheel can PM me with their email address.

[bknight]

I was just remembering that two of the missions AS14 and AS17 had docking problems.  AS14 was more severe and I don't know if NASA ever figured out why the latching mechanism didn't perform as expected.  AS17 had Cernan open the hatch and manually lock a number of the latches manually, before the LM was retrieved from third stage.

The first manned Skylab mission also had great difficulty docking.  After the crew put on space suits and fiddled with the docking probe, the next attempt succeeded. 

I don't recall any of the shuttle missions having difficulty.   I guess its docking system is more reliable.

I didn't realize the Skylab had problems, thanks.  The Shuttle probably had all the experience from prior missions to get it right or a re-design.

[bknight]

I'll get to watching later, but thanks for the timeline synopsis, saves me a lot of research time.

The quickest place to ascertain things like GET and tons of other minutiae is at Apollo By the Numbers
http://apollohoax.proboards.com/thread/1356/apollo-numbers

I have all the mission summaries and timelines printed and in a folder. They are very useful.

I don't have room for anything more!!!  I get the constant "advice" to clean up my office and throw "stuff" out.

[JayUtah]

AS14 was more severe and I don't know if NASA ever figured out why the latching mechanism didn't perform as expected.

Ice in the latches.  One of my early mentors was one of the engineers who worked on the probe mechanism, and one of the guys who got an emergency call to help diagnose it.  He had pieces of one of the Apollo docking probes in his office.

[bknight]

AS14 was more severe and I don't know if NASA ever figured out why the latching mechanism didn't perform as expected.

Ice in the latches.  One of my early mentors was one of the engineers who worked on the probe mechanism, and one of the guys who got an emergency call to help diagnose it.  He had pieces of one of the Apollo docking probes in his office.

Did the ice make the latches non-responsive or slow response?  I read somewhere, maybe WIKI, that they tried it five times.  The sixth and successful was they retracted the latches as the vehicles just contacted.  The entrance distance was then slowly decreased to zero and the latches latched when tried.

[JayUtah]

The latches work very much like the bolt on a bedroom door.  Pressure on the door forces the latch into the door body until it reaches the hole in the jamb, whereupon it springs back out and "captures" the door.  Ice prevented the latches on the docking probe from withdrawing into the probe tip.  Imagine trying to slam the door when the bolt won't retract; it just bounces off the jamb.  The latches sit on the tip of a retractable apparatus not unlike some scissors-type car jacks.  So with the RCS firing and exerting pressure between the vehicles, and the tip of the probe held in the apex of the drogue by that pressure, they retracted the probe until the hard-dock latches could engage. around the rim.  The capture latches never did work for that first docking.

When they pulled the probe and drogue into the CM, the bit of ice had already melted because the tunnel had to be pressurized first.  It really doesn't take much contamination to jam up those latches.