Is the Apollo 11 lunar module 'out there' somewhere?

Question

Is it in a permanent orbit, or would it have crashed into the moon or sun?

Answer 1

No -- They purposely crashed it (the ascent stage) into the moon, after it had transferred Neil & Buzz back to the command module.

The ascent stages used in the other 5 landings met a similar fate. The DESCENT stages of all 6 landings are, of course, still sitting on the surface.

In the case of Apollo 13, the entire lunar module of course made it all the way back to (near) the earth. It was jettisoned just before the crew performed reentry; then the LM burned up in the earth's atmosphere.

There is one LM that is still out there! It's the one used on Apollo 10, in 1969. It went all the way to lunar orbit but never landed. After it served its task, it was injected into an orbit around the sun, where it remains to this day.

I found this out in a blog at the following site:
http://filmer.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_archive.html

Answer 2

The lunar Module was separated into two sections. The Base and footing structure remained on the lunar surface, while the upper instrumentation shell launched back into orbit to connect with the orbiting command module. Once the crew had moved back into the command module, the hull of the lunar module was left in that orbit. I do not recall if they used explosive separation or not, but the velocity of the two units had to be different to facilitate the command modules separation. Likely that put the lunar module into a decaying orbit, allowing it to fall to the lunar surface. Never really thought about it until now.

Answer 3

The descent stage is still on the moon, right where they left it. The ascent stage was crashed into the moon, used as an impactor for the seismic equipment to pick up. The command module is in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

Answer 4

The decent stage is sitting on the Moon and the ascent stage has crashed on the Moon somewhere by now because irregularities in the Moon's gravity make low orbits unstable over time spans of a few years.

Answer 5

There were main two parts to it.

The Descent stage (the base with the rocket engine for landing, and legs) was left on the Moon. It served as the "launch pad" for when the Ascent stage took off to return to the Command Module.

The Ascent stage was targeted to crash into the Moon after the astronauts were back in the Command Module. This created a synthetic "Moonquake" for the seismic instruments we left behind to gather and report data on.

Answer 6

The landing stage of the module is still on the moon where it set down. The upper stage was purposely crashed into the moon... (IIRC, I think it went into the Sea of Storms...), to see if the seismic equipment left by the astronauts would be affected.

Answer 7

It orbits the moon...left there after the astronauts re-entered the command module, which now sits in he Smithsonian.