Space Artifacts

The Watches of Apollo

Space travel is an unforgiving and exacting science of time and distance with Sir Isaac Newton in the driver’s seat. Missions are calculated down to the minutes and seconds, and critical activities – such as engine burns and EVA activities -- are timed with precision. A mistake in timing is, literally, a matter of life and death. As the United States advanced further into Space, the astronauts needed timepieces that would allow them to time various mission events such as engine burns and EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activity) or commonly called "Spacewalks."

Apollo 10: "Son of a Bitch!"

As Apollo missions go it had been an uneventful flight. The mission's accomplishments were ticking off the flight plan like seconds on a well tuned clock.

Apollo 10, the second lunar voyage, was that "in between" flight that the public seems to forget due to the accomplishment of Apollo 8 in first reaching the Moon and Man's first landing on another world during Apollo 11. Even so, this flight was groundbreaking in that this was the first time the lunar module (LM) would be used in lunar orbit. The LM, as the craft would be nicknamed, would take Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface. That close approach would mimic every operational objective of a landing with the exception of the final descent.

Flying Our Flag

 

Call me patriotic, call me jingoistic or just call me a lover of the American Flag, but it is a truly beautiful flag. It is simple in its design and, yet, complex in its symbolic meaning. The stripes in our country's flag truly reflect the beginnings of a unique experiment in democracy and, yet again, the stars reflect our Union's accomplishments in today's world.

The "Thrust" of the Experiment

Although the makeup of the Moon's surface had been debated since the dawn of Mankind, the need to understand the lunar surface commanded greater attention as humans began to journey to from the Earth to the Moon.

BEEP BEEP My Ass!

The astronauts have a sense of humor. Does that surprise anyone? There are many instances where they played practical jokes on each other. Was it to have fun? To relieve stress? To break the tension? Well, you would have to ask them.

One example of the types of practical jokes the astronauts played on each other during the Apollo Era was the Apollo 14 "Roadrunner" or BEEP BEEP Patch.

There are many accounts of the story behind the patch that are detailed in different books such as, "The Last on the Moon" by Gene Cernan, but the basic tale is that the Apollo 14 backup crew used this patch to drive the Apollo 14 prime crew towards their goal of landing on the Moon.

A tool used on the Moon

On April 20, 1972, John Young and Charlie Duke landed on the Cayley Plain in the Descartes Highlands region of the Moon. Apollo 16 was the fourth lunar landing and second "J" mission which included an enhanced lunar module for an extended stay on the Moon and the Lunar Rover.

Among the many scientific experiments Young and Duke had to perform on the lunar surface during their three EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activity), they were required to take core samples at designated locations at each research station on their itinerary.

The Star Charts of Apollo

Humans have navigated by the stars, since the dawn of man. Those seemingly stationary pinpoints of light in the night sky provided mariners and aviators the direction home as mankind moved into modern times. It would only be natural to use the stars to determine the proper course of a spacecraft during a voyage into outer space.