Translate

Friday, May 25, 2012

Lunar Module






Here are some images of Dragon's 1/48 scale Grumman LM (Lunar Module) Eagle used in the Apollo 11 landing.

From Wikipedia"

The Apollo Lunar Module (LM), also known as the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back. Six such craft successfully landed on the Moon between 1969–1972.

The LM, consisting of an Ascent stage and Descent stage, was ferried to lunar orbit by its companion Command/Service Module (CSM), a separate spacecraft of approximately twice its mass, which took the astronauts home to Earth. After completing its mission, the LM was discarded. In one sense it was the world's first true spacecraft in that it was capable of operation only in outer space, structurally and aerodynamically incapable of flight through the Earth's atmosphere.

The LM got a later start on its design than the CSM, due to the initial unpopularity of the lunar orbit rendezvous strategy. Its development was also plagued with several hurdles which delayed its first unmanned flight by about ten months, and its first manned flight by about three months. Despite this, the LM eventually became the most reliable component of the Apollo/Saturn system, the only one never to suffer any failure that significantly impacted a mission,[1] and in at least one instance (LM-7 Aquarius) greatly exceeded its design requirements by maintaining life support for astronauts after an explosion damaged the Apollo Service Module.


Lunar Modules produced

Serial number Name Use Launch date Current location
LM-1
Apollo 5 January 22, 1968 Reentered Earth's atmosphere
LM-2
Intended for second unmanned flight; not used
On display at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC
LM-3 Spider Apollo 9 March 3, 1969 Reentered Earth's atmosphere
LM-4 Snoopy Apollo 10 May 18, 1969 Descent stage impacted Moon; Ascent stage in solar orbit. Snoopy is the only surviving flown LM ascent stage.
LM-5 Eagle Apollo 11 July 16, 1969 Descent stage on lunar surface; Ascent stage left in lunar orbit (orbit decayed: impact location on moon unknown)
LM-6 Intrepid Apollo 12 November 14, 1969 Descent stage on lunar surface; Ascent stage deliberately crashed into Moon
LM-7 Aquarius Apollo 13 April 11, 1970 Reentered Earth's atmosphere
LM-8 Antares Apollo 14 January 31, 1971 Descent stage on lunar surface; Ascent stage deliberately crashed into Moon
LM-9
Not flown (originally intended as Apollo 15, last H-class mission)
On display at the Kennedy Space Center (Apollo/Saturn V Center)

LM-10 Falcon Apollo 15, first ELM July 26, 1971 Descent stage on lunar surface; Ascent stage deliberately crashed into Moon
LM-11 Orion Apollo 16 April 16, 1972 Descent stage on lunar surface; Ascent stage left in lunar orbit, eventually crashed on Moon
LM-12 Challenger Apollo 17 December 7, 1972 Descent stage on lunar surface; Ascent stage deliberately crashed into Moon
LM-13

Not flown (originally intended as Apollo 18)[11]
Partially completed by Grumman; restored and on display at Cradle of Aviation Museum, Long Island, New York. Also used during HBO's 1998 mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.
LM-14

Not flown (originally intended as Apollo 19)
Never completed; unconfirmed reports claim that some parts (in addition to parts from test vehicle LTA-3) are included in LM on display at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia (see Franklin Institute web page.)
LM-15

Not flown (might have been Apollo Telescope Mount)
Scrapped

4 comments:

Pablo J. Álvarez said...

Here are some forms as familiar as those of M. Monroe.
well done Mr. Zoell
I don´t know the Dragon kit in 1/48.
In my times, I made the airfix one, in 1/72.

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Pablo - The 1/48 Dragon kit is relatively new and in my mind the most accurate kit of the LM out there so far though if you do decide to build one you will have to ad the rivets yourself as well as foil to the accent stage.
The foil on the decent stage isn't foil but molded into the plastic and for the first edition run the kit comes with the foil looking parts already pre painted in a very shiny gold like paint.

Manchu said...

I don't know this Dragon model, is it more accurate than Monogram model ?

-Warren Zoell said...

I think so. The Dragon model only came out a few months ago and the Monogram one has been around since 1969. The Dragon kit is beautiful.


Je crois. Le modèle de dragon n'est sorti il ya quelques mois et le monogramme a été autour depuis 1969. Le kit Dragon est belle.