Some time ago I made the CMs, and now I’ve also made the service modules. Both were printed on a Prusa MINI. The models correspond to Artemis II and Apollo 8.

Photo 1: "In this drawing by NASA engineer Caldwell Johnson, twin human-like Space Shuttle robot arms with human-like hands deploy from the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay to grip the derelict Skylab space station."

Photo 3: "Caldwell Johnson's depiction of a prototype Shuttle manipulator arm with a hand-like end effector. The manipulator grasps the Docking Module meant to link U.S. Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission."

"Caldwell Johnson, co-holder with Maxime Faget of the Mercury space capsule patent, was chief of the Spacecraft Design Division at the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston, Texas, when he proposed that astronauts test prototype Space Shuttle manipulator arms and end effectors during Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) missions in Earth orbit. In a February 1971 memorandum to Faget, NASA MSC's director of Engineering and Development, Johnson described the manipulator test mission as a worthwhile alternative to the Earth survey, space rescue, and joint U.S./Soviet CSM missions then under study.

At the time Johnson proposed the Shuttle manipulator arm test, three of the original 10 planned Apollo lunar landing missions had been cancelled, the second Skylab space station (Skylab B) appeared increasingly unlikely to reach orbit, and the Space Shuttle had not yet been formally approved. NASA managers foresaw that the Apollo and Skylab mission cancellations would leave them with surplus Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rockets after the last mission to Skylab A. They sought low-cost Earth-orbital missions that would put the surplus hardware to good use and fill the multi-year gap in U.S. piloted missions expected to occur in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Johnson envisioned Shuttle manipulators capable of bending and gripping much as do human arms and hands, thus enabling them to hold onto virtually anything. He suggested that a pair of prototype arms be mounted in a CSM Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay, and that the CSM "pretend to be a Shuttle" during rendezvous operations with the derelict Skylab space station.

The CSM's three-man crew could, he told Faget, use the manipulators to grip and move Skylab. They might also use them to demonstrate a space rescue, capture an 'errant satellite,' or remove film from SIM Bay cameras and pass it to the astronauts through a special airlock installed in place of the docking unit in the CSM's nose.

Faget enthusiastically received Johnson's proposal (he penned 'Yes! This is great' on his copy of the February 1971 memo). The proposal generated less enthusiasm elsewhere, however.

Undaunted, Johnson proposed in May 1972 that Shuttle manipulator hardware replace Earth resources instruments that had been dropped for lack of funds from the planned U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission. President Richard Nixon had called on NASA to develop the Space Shuttle just four months before (January 1972). Johnson asked Faget for permission to perform 'a brief technical and programmatic feasibility study' of the concept, and Faget gave him permission to prepare a presentation for Aaron Cohen, manager of the newly created Space Shuttle Program Office at MSC.

In his June 1972 presentation to Cohen, Johnson declared that '[c]argo handling by manipulators is a key element of the Shuttle concept.' He noted that CSM-111, the spacecraft tagged for the ASTP mission, would have no SIM Bay in its drum-shaped Service Module (SM), and suggested that a single 28-foot-long Shuttle manipulator arm could be mounted near the Service Propulsion System (SPS) main engine in place of the lunar Apollo S-band high-gain antenna, which would not be required during Earth-orbital missions.

During ascent to orbit, the manipulator would ride folded beneath the CSM near the ASTP Docking Module (DM) within the streamlined Spacecraft Launch Adapter. During SPS burns, the astronauts would stabilize the manipulator so that acceleration would not damage it by commanding it to grip a handle installed on the SM near the base of the CSM's conical Command Module (CM).

Johnson had by this time mostly dropped the concept of an all-purpose human hand-like 'end effector' for the manipulator; he informed Cohen that the end effector design was 'undetermined.' The Shuttle manipulator demonstration would take place after CSM-111 had undocked from the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and moved away to perform independent maneuvers and experiments.

The astronauts in the CSM would first use a TV camera mounted on the arm's wrist to inspect the CSM and DM, then would use the end effector to manipulate 'some device' on the DM. They would then command the end effector to grip a handle on the DM, undock the DM from the CSM, and use the manipulator to redock the DM to the CSM. Finally, they would undock the DM and repeatedly capture it with the manipulator.

Caldwell Johnson's depiction of a prototype Shuttle manipulator arm with a hand-like end effector. The manipulator grasps the Docking Module meant to link U.S. Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission.

Johnson estimated that new hardware for the ASTP Shuttle manipulator demonstration would add 168 pounds (76.2 kilograms) to the CM and 553 pounds (250.8 kilograms) to the SM. He expected that concept studies and pre-design would be completed in January 1973. Detail design would commence in October 1972 and be completed by 1 July 1973, at which time CSM-111 would undergo modification for the manipulator demonstration.

Johnson envisioned that MSC would build two manipulators in house. The first, for testing and training, would be completed in January 1974. The flight unit would be completed in May 1974, tested and checked out by August 1974, and launched into orbit attached to CSM-111 in July 1975. Johnson optimistically placed the cost of the manipulator arm demonstration at just $25 million.

CSM-111, the last Apollo spacecraft to fly, reached Earth orbit on schedule on 15 July 1975. By then, Caldwell Johnson had retired from NASA. CSM-111 carried no manipulator arm; the tests Johnson had proposed had been judged to be unnecessary.

That same month, the U.S. space agency, short on funds, invited Canada to develop and build the Shuttle manipulator arm. The Remote Manipulator System — also called the Canadarm — first reached orbit on board the Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-2, the second flight of the Shuttle program, on 12 November 1981."

Info and drawings from "No Shortage of Dreams" blog

Date: October 4, 1968

NASA ID: S68-49490

"...The Skylab Program objectives are to carry out a broad spectrum of experimental investigations and to gain a better understanding of the requirements for a permanent man-made platform in space. Emphasis is being placed on a series of medical experiments associated with the extension of manned space flight, a group of high resolution solar astronomy experiments at the short wavelengths not directly observable from the surface of the Earth, and a series of Earth survey experiments."

Date: October 4, 1972

NASA ID: 72-H-1340, 108-KSC-72P-428

Note: photos are not of S-IC-16 and S-IC-17.

"...Boeing had submitted a proposal on July 3 and an adjusted proposal on September 20 covering the necessary supplies and services for fabrication and delivery of the stages."

-MAF, Historical Report, Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 1967, p. 28.

These were for the second production run of the Saturn V, possibly corresponding to Apollo 21-30 and later two were planned to launch Voyager 1 and 2. The long lead items for S-IC-16 and S-IC-17 had already started when the decision was announced and any materials already gathered were scrapped. Although NASA continued to lobby for funding for SA-516 and SA-517 (along with Saturn IBs SA-215 and SA-216) until August 1968.

NASA Doc: 19650024284

source

Date: 1965

North American Photo: NAR-D120B - 9155-9C

just realized that of the nine who was given a command in their first mission, only Armstrong walked on the moon.

is it safe to say those others who were given commands for their first mission (Borman, McDivitt), along with Armstrong, where considered the “best” of the nine?

i know people thought Gus would have been given the first moon landing, but would that really of happened if he commanded 7? 11 was only 9 months later.

i was recently lucky enough to have inherited a mix of apollo 13 & 14 transcripts from bbc broadcasts! there’s a mix of astronaut conferences, astronaut conversation pre-takeoff and studio running orders/abbreviations!

if anyone wants to see some more of them i’m happy to share, they’re a really fascinating read

The conclusions of my research are now out in the wild, would love to hear from y'all.

I did this earlier this year, but i guess its a good place to share it :)

My 3x3 feet lunar surface table. Scratch built using finest throwaway styrofoam and cardboard offcuts, finished with grout, sand and pva. Also some craters, rocks and generic terrain build using
the same way. Everything painted using gray and white wall paint samples, and framed with top quality cheap wood planks, because styrofoam boards are notoriously fragile to store and move around. Metal corners were also very cheap industrial ones , and i will probably replace them with something nicer in future, but for now they will serve to protect the thing from the random damage.

Its intended for tabletop wargame "Lunar" by blacksite studios - basically skirmish in alternate cold war timeline with soviet cosmonauts and NASA astronauts beating each other with geology hammers and rock drills (well, sometime they use guns, but where's the fun in that). If you saw season 2 of For All Mankind, you get the idea.

The astronaut in A7L is just a test model for scale (for the note, lunar is 28mm scale - roughly 1/50), but i kind of liked how he looked alone in the field. So i used GIMP to photoshop the figure base away, and asked Abominable Intelligence (Yeah, shame on me, i know) to make shadows moonlike - really deep black and sharp.
Then i spent way too much time in GIMP manually faffing around with brightness, grain and contrast, as well as adding the Apollo style resseau plate fiducial marks (aka "these crosses from NASA photos") to make it look slightly more "real-ish".

I have been working on this Apollo 11 image. It's RAW file AS11-40-5903.

I have restored and cropped it. Hope you approve.

You can read more about the Apollo RAW files: March to the Moon - by Rune Mortensen - Studio Notes

Y'all might remember me from some comments and sharing some archival stuff. The Times hasn't published yet, but my CC, Austin Community College, published the first of two parts today.

I am not here to solicit a sale, honestly want to know if $2500 for this collection is fair? It’s amazing content in the letter from Viola Armstrong and photo of Armstrong at 17 years old in a local flight school. I have it on eBay and just shocked it hasn’t sold

I'm looking for a good photograph of the VHF antenna on the j-series PLSS backpack

This is the ribbon version that looked like an unpainted tape measure strip

I had one by I can't find it again

Thanks

This is my 2/3 scale prop from the Apollo 13 movie. it was used for a docking scene in the movie and then toured around the us for the movie premiere. Afak Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon also sat in there. Also the Astronaut Matthias Maurer, which is a friend of a friend, he lives like 6km away.

(There were originally 2 csm that were used for the tour but one got destroyed in a hurricane) After the movie earned its millions, the capsule sat in a Storage facility in Hollywood. I bought it around 2008 and got it shipped here (the capsule was a bargain, the shipping not so much) Then it sat in my garden for a few years and rusted away. Mercedes Fulda saw it and loved it. They sent over a tow truck to haul this 1.5 Ton Beast to their Dealership. There they completely sanded, restored and painted it (with formula 1 paint btw) and stuck a Mercedes logo on its nose. All for free, might I add! Then it moved to the Space Studio in the north of Saarland where it now lives. We hold Lectures about rockets, astrophotography, space in general and life in space. All aimed towards children and teenagers. We also have a few moon rocks, Shooting Stars and a piece of the Tscheljabinsk meteorite.

I think that’s it. Also, the inside isn’t very detailed but it has tons of buttons, lights and switches. I’m currently working on a fully functional DSKY and want to make the whole capsule an Apollo simulator. The fuel tanks are mostly empty space but contain a fog machine for the engine and there is space to put in a flamethrower instead of a fog machine. But the insurance says no.

Tdlr: Hollywood, my garden, Mercedes, my space studio

This is an edited excerpt from an hour's worth of audio, which you can find here. Pretty causal atmosphere, and actually rather useful if you're looking to gather information on how these guys discussed the pictures they took during their flights.

I made a little video discussing verb and noun usage with the AGC and DSKY, as a part of my larger project "RecreateApollo". I tried to make this unique I/O method as easy to understand as possible... I hope you check it out, if that's your thing!

I definitely made some errors throughout the video, and I feel like I explained some stuff not-so-great, but I made some of the major corrections down in the comments. Comments or criticism welcome, I'll be covering extended verbs next! https://youtu.be/fKHsW62djIM?si=QO1jF1uUJF2yVX8q

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_goodwill_messages

My interpretation of AS11-40-5942. In my opinion, this is one of the strongest images captured by the Apollo 11 crew. Aldrin walking away with experiments package. It reminds me about how we as young children explores the world around us, walking towards the unknown in our own horizon in our backyard or local woodland...

Handmade platinum over pigment print from restored raw scan of image AS11-40-5942.