I'm not a skeptic of the Lunar landings, But..?

Question

I often sit and poner whether or not the Lunar landings actually occured. I am not one of those people who watch those TV shows and immediately think HOAX! But it's hard to believe that NASA would send man to a new front with hardly any experiments to ensure there safety.. I don't know much about the tests and experiments NASA did prior to these missions but to think of the safety issues involved with sending a man to the moon, and the likely hood for survival seems pretty low. How did NASA know that the spacesuits the astronauts wore were going to keep the astronauts warm on the moon. I truly believe man has landed on the moon.. I would just like to know some of the preperations NASA took for such an astronaumical safety risk.

Answer 1

You have some good answers about the Mercury and Gemini programs.

Those who claim that the Moon landings never occurred are forgetting some very powerful circumstantial evidence and without offence, it is a mistake that some Americans quite often make. That is that the only scientists engineers, radio experts etc in the world are within the borders of the USA.

The fact is that if the Moon landings had been faked, hundreds of scientists and radio experts around the world would have spotted it at once. Especially the Russians, who were within a few years of getting their own people on the Moon. But not only Russians. Scientists from Australia, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and dozens of other countries would have seen it.

Not all of these countries have been all that friendly to the USA over the subsequent 38 years and if the landings had been faked do the people pushing the "fake" idea seriously imagine that it would have been kept quiet by all those people for all that time?

Answer 2

Every flight leading up to 11 could be considered a test - especially Gemini, which was entirely devoted to being a proof of concept for the various activities required for a Lunar mission: Rendezvous in orbit, docking, EVA (space walk), and extended duration exposure to microgravity were the main aspects proven in Gemini.

Apollo sent several unmanned missions before launching the manned ones, starting with 7.

Apollo 7 was the first manned flight with all the hardware.

Apollo 8 was the first flight to the moon. They didn't have a LEM (lander) with them on this mission due to the landers not being flight ready yet.

Apollo 9 was an earth orbit test of the LEM to make sure that it worked as it was supposed to. This also demonstrated the in-flight docking with the CSM and LEM. It was in Earth orbit because it's easier to get back to Earth from orbit here than at the moon.

Apollo 10 tested the lander at the Moon - going down to within 10 miles of the surface, and then returning - basically testing that phase of the mission.

Once all had been tested, 11 made the historic landing.

I highly recommend watching the miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon." You'll learn a lot while being entertained!

Answer 3

I have no doubt that the lunar landings did take place and I've books on top of books on the subject. It was a very dangerous enterprise and when the last Apollo mission splashed down the management at NASA took a collective sigh of relief. Apollo 13 was a close call and indirectly resulted in the cancellation of Apollo 18,19,and 20. NASA directors have always operated with the fear that accidents could mean the end of the program and with it their jobs,

The Apollo lunar suits was one of the triumphs of the whole program. They were designed to work only in a vacuum and in the event of an accident or problem with a suit, the two astronauts could share the life support of the remaining suit long enough to return to the lunar module. Since the last three missions traveled miles from their landing site this was deemed a must. The lunar suits were tested here on Earth and again in space of the orbital mission Apollo 9 during a space walk.

The Apollo program was a marvel and more than likely the most significant achievement in the history of mankind. Remember, the U.S. had to invent space travel from scratch and did it in a matter of a very few years.
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Answer 4

Space suit issue alone, I understand the same basic inner suit was the one worn by the X-15 high altitude pilots. There is not a huge amount of technology there. With a lot of high altitude flights, Gemini and early Apollo to lead them on before actually departing for the moon. I had to laugh at some of the material presented in the recent program claiming the moon launch a hoax. Especially the glove in the zero pressure box. The gent claiming he could not bend the gloves fingers because with zero pressure inside and one atmosphere outside it is impossible. Of course it is impossible, that is why the pressure suits worn are about .25 atmospheres of pure oxygen. Anyone who wants to know anything about space travel understands that concept. The original suit material is a cloth covered mesh wound closed foam (fishing waders) that's has been around a very long time.

Answer 5

There were a lot of experiments done to figure out exactly what would be needed to make the trip as safe as possible. How did they know the suits would keep them warm? Well... they tested them I would think. There were a lot of things we knew that we could prepare for. We did everything we could with what we had to try and make the missions as safe as possible. At some point though you just have to go try it otherwise you'll spend all your time and money waiting around trying to solve problems that may not even exist. We went for it and succeeded. We did such a great job in fact that when the oxygen tank on Apollo 13 exploded, we managed to get the astronauts safely back to Earth, though a bit worse for wear.

Answer 6

with hardly any experiments to ensure their safety.

rotflmao

what do you think Nasa was doing in between the time Kennedy declared that the United States would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade (May 25, 1961) and the first lunar landing (July 20, 1969). They were testing, step by step, all of the events that would go into making this happen safely.
***emphasis added***
"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him ***safely*** to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations--explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: ***the survival of the man*** who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon--if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there." President John F. Kennedy
Delivered in person before a joint session of Congress
May 25, 1961

Answer 7

The technologies used in the Apollo moon missions were developed in the Mercury and Gemini programs. All three of the early manned space programs (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo) started with unmanned missions. There were also other orbital and lunar probes that gathered information on the environments.

The Mercury program orbited a chimpanzee before sending a man up.The space suits were developed based on high-altitude flying suits. They were tested in environmental chambers on Earth before being sent into space and used for space walks. The Gemini orbital missions lasted up to two weeks, to test the effects of prolonged space flight on the astronauts.

Answer 8

An enormous amount of experimental work was done in the laboratories to certify the equipment for space use. Visit the Johnson Space Center near Houston, and see the huge vacuum chamber that was used for testing the gear. Recall that the Mercury and Gemini programs were primarily to test systems in near-earth space before venturing to the moon.

Answer 9

There were a vast number of previous robotic missions to the moon to test conditions. The first one being the Russian bot "Luna 2". They had a series of Lunas that transmitted pictures and signals that allowed Russian scientists to better understand the Moon's climate.

The Americans used a series of space craft called "Surveyor" and they too measured and analyzed Gravity fields, Radiation, Temperature, and everything else we needed to know.

As for Spacesuits, the material was tested in vacuums, freezers, microwaves, in Earth-bound laboratories before they were approved for flight. They were designed to withstand every known extreme of Space. But even still, there were many blunders with space suits not many know about.

Alexey Leonov was the first person to do a space walk on Voskhod 2. Scientists failed to account for the pressureless vacuum in Space, so 15 minutes after leaving the airlock, his suit expanded to the point where he could not get back inside. He had to open a valve in the suit to bleed out excess air for him to get back inside.

Answer 10

the apollo missions were not without casualties. you can read this article, written soon after the apollo 1 fire. it mentions some of the safety issues.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901964-1,00.html

unmanned spacecraft had landed on the moon before apollo 11, it was all done fairly methodically.