Tag: Eagle

Mar 17, 1969

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Mar 17 1969

When America’s first two-man team lands on the moon, one of their first tasks will be to obtain a sample of lunar material as quickly as possible in event they have to make an emergency takeoff. If things go well, they will spend 25 hours on the surface, gathering up to 80 pounds of rocks, dust and other material to be put into vacuum-sealed containers. This sketch shows one astronaut gathering samples from a crater while his companion watches from the lunar module. Later, the two will roam up to 300 feet from the craft, working on a “buddy” system, to plant several measuring devices on the surface which will radio information to earth.

 MAR 17 1969 COPYRIGHT, SEATTLE TIMES CO.

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Numbers Station

S69-38662

S69-38662

S69-38662 (July 1969) — A Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation’s artist concept depicting mankind’s first walk on another celestial body. Here astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, is making his first step onto the surface of the Moon. Armstrong has just egressed Lunar Module (LM) 5. Still inside the LM is astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot. Astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remains with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit. In the background is the Earth, some 240,000 miles away.

Image credit: NASA Johnson
Image source: NASA Images

S-83-28321

S-83-28321

S83-28321 (14 March 1983) — In this artist’s concept of future lunar operations, a lunar ferry is about to burn out of lunar orbit for the trip back to facilities in low Earth orbit. The ferry vehicle carries tank modules filled with liquid oxygen, which has been produced from mining operations on the surface of the Moon. One possibility for such operations would be to have manned facilities in low lunar orbit, such as illustrated here. At the upper right side of the photo is a small orbiting manned station. At the lower right side of the photo is a liquid oxygen propellant dump, to which a lunar landing vehicle carrying liquid oxygen is about to dock. The lunar ferry vehicle itself is representative of one type of aerobraking system. The balloon-like torus around the center of the ferry-craft would inflate to several times its illustrated size and, once the vehicle has swooped down close to the Earth’s outer atmosphere on the return journey, would use atmospheric drag to slow the craft and place itself in low Earth orbit. The liquid oxygen would then be used in operations there for fueling various vehicles, including an orbital transfer vehicle for trips to geosynchronous Earth orbit. This concept is part of a study done for the Johnson Space Center by Eagle Engineering of Houston. The artist was Pat Rawlings.

Image credit: Eagle Engineering
Image source: Internet Archive

S69-39011

S69-39011

S69-39011 (July 1969) — TRW Incorporated’s artist concept depicting the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) descending to the surface of the moon. Inside the LM will be astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot. Astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, will remain with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit. TRW’s LM descent engine will brake Apollo 11’s descent to the lunar surface. The throttle-able rocket engine will be fired continuously the last 10 miles of the journey to the moon, slowing the LM to a speed of two miles per hour at touchdown. TRW Incorporated designed and built the unique engine at Redondo Beach, California under subcontract to the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Bethpage, New York, the LM prime contractor.

Image credit: NASA JSC
Image source: NASA Images

A Grand Tour

  1. A “deep-space” craft, which does not need to take off or re-enter through Earth’s atmosphere, needs no streamlining and can utilise a very light structure. Such a space-ship is shown here landing at a lunar base.
  2. Having refuelled at a lunar base, the space-ship is shown before leaving the Moon for a journey to one of the other planets of the solar system. The cabin for the crew is separated from the rocket engines by a cluster of huge propellant tanks.
  3. After landing in the twilight one of Mercury, the explorers set out in small tracked vehicles across the parched, cracked, lifeless surface of this innermost planet of our solar system.
  4. After entering an orbit high above Mars, the space-shop releases a number of small landing vehicles which will carry explorers down to the “red planet”. Also in orbit, is a meteorite, representing one of the hazards of space flight.
  5. After a pre-liminary reconnaissance by the small craft, the main space-ship has landed on the surface of Mars, near one of the mysterious “canals” that have puzzled astronomers for years. Soon the riddle will be solved.
  6. Although they cannot land on Jupiter, with its dense atmosphere of poisonous gases, the explorers are able to observe it from a distant perch on an orbiting meteorite. One of the planet’s moons casts a shadow on the clouds as it passes.
  7. Show piece of the whole solar system is Saturn, with its spectacular rings. Although this is another planet on which explorers from Earth may never land, it should be possible to observe Saturn from one if its moon, as depicted.
  8. Somewhere in space, explorers have discovered a dead world. Perhaps Uranus might look like this, or Pluto. Nobody knows at present,. But nobody doubts any longer than man will one day be able to learn the secrets of every corner of his own solar system.

Eagle Book of Rockets and Space
by John W.R. Taylor and Maurice Allward
Longacre Press, 1961

Image credit: The Eagle
Image source: Numbers Station