Moon Tree at LPL

In 1971, the mission of Apollo 14 flew to the Moon and landed Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell near Cone Crater in the Fra Mauro Highlands.  Orbiting above the Moon was Stuart Roosa, the Command Module Pilot.  Roosa had been a smoke jumper before becoming an Astronaut and in honor of that profession and their work, he carried a packet of seeds of several different types of trees.  When they returned to Earth, the seeds were distributed to all the states and trees were grown from the seeds.  The trees were planted at many different sites and the University of Arizona received one of the seedlings which was planted between the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the Flandrau Planetarium where it has been since before I arrived on campus.  I have enjoyed watching it grow over the years.

The above image shows the Moon tree in late June 2014 as I was test driving a new lens for my Canon 70D.  The new lens is a Sigma 18-250mm telephoto, in this case set at 18mm focal length.  The exposure was 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 800.

This 2nd image shows the sign in front of the Moon tree and was taken from the exact same spot as the first image, showing the range in focal length of my new lens.  This image was taken at 250mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 800.  It also shows the sharpness of the lens which appears quite good given its large range in focal length.

Apollo 14 CM

The Apollo 14 CM is on display at the KSC Saturn V center. The last time I visited, this CM was over at the nearby Astronaut Hall of Fame. It shows the affects of entering the atmosphere at 25,000 mph on its return from the Moon. When it flew it had a silver mylar insulation over the forward heatshield. At left is the open hatch which shows the round window. Below the hatch are two hand rails that might have been used if the crew had to return to the CM by EVA if they failed to dock the LM. Between the hand rails are two pitch RCS motors. Near the bottom center are two roll RCS motors and at the right edge of the CM are 2 yaw RCS motors. At the apex of the CM are packed parachutes & other recovery components. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/15 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.

The LM at the Moon Rock Cafe

If you have lunch at the Moon Rock Cafe in the Saturn V center, you can sit at tables right underneath a real live Lunar Module. This is LM-9 which was originally scheduled to fly the Apollo 15 mission before that mission was canceled. LM-9 was an "H" series LM similar to what flew on Apollos 11, 12, 13 and 14. Apollo 15 flew LM-10, the first of the "J" series LMs designed for longer stays on the Moon and to carry more weight to the lunar surface (including the Lunar Rovers). LM-9 became an unflown spare and one of only three flight ready LMs that rest in museums (LM-2 at the NASM in Washington D.C and LM-13 is at the Cradle of Aviation on Long Island). Several other simulators, replicas and test articles can be found in other museums. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/40 seconds at f/5, ISO 400.

Apollo Soyuz Test Project - Apollo Capsule

This Apollo capsule (the CM in CSM-111) was originally slated to fly the Apollo 18 mission to the Moon, but after that mission was canceled, it was reassigned to the fly the Apollo Soyuz Test Project which happened 35 years ago this month (the Apollo & Soyuz docked on July 17, 1975 and undocked on July 19). Commanded by Tom Stafford with Mercury 7 astronaut Deke Slayton and Vance Brand, the Apollo rendezvoused and docked with Soyuz 19 commanded by Alexei Leonov with Valeri Kubasov as his Flight Engineer. The ASTP Apollo capsule can be found in the California Science Center. You can see a replica of the Cassini spacecraft that still orbits Saturn in the background. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/40 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400.

The Hatch

I found the Apollo Command Module from the Apollo Soyuz Test Project at the California Science Center. Being the Apollo Geek that I am, I started taking closeup pictures of every part of the machine that I could get close enough to. This is part of the hatch mechanism. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/20 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400.

F-1 engine details

Speaking of a plumbers nightmare.... These three parallel tubes carried oxydizer at high pressure, as well as helium and compressed gases. They each have labels which show the flow direction, pressure and what flows through them. Pretty cool - literally in the case of the oxydizer, namely liquid oxygen. This image was taken at 28mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/4, ISO 200.

F-1 engine details

This is the top end of the F-1 engine centered roughly on the combustion chamber near the bottom. What a plumbers nightmare with pipes and tubes and pumps and all. Some of the next images will show some closeups that you might be able to place using this shot. Looking at the details of this engine was fascinating and included part numbers and parts with labels showing fuel or oxydizer flows. It's hard to imagine the complexity involved and also amazing that 13 sets of 5 of these engines performed flawlessly during their 13 Saturn V launches! This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 200.

F-1 thrust sctructure

This is the thrust structure of the F-1 engine outside the New Mexico Museum of Space History. The engine produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust and had to transmit that thrust into the Saturn V rocket above it. The F-1 was also gimbaled, so that the thrust could be aimed to steer the vehicle as it flew into space. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with and exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 1600.

Rockets

This view from below the John P. Stapp Air & Space Park looks back towards the New Mexico Museum of Space History. On the right in front of the museum is the subject of the next few images of the giant F-1 engine which powered the Saturn V rocket. This image was taken at 18mm focal length. It is not quite as sharp as I'd like since I accidently shot it at ISO 1600 with the lens wide open and I also cropped it a bit from the original. The high ISO gives the image a bit of grain which I sometimes like in pictures, but not really in this one. The image was taken at 1/6400 seconds at f/3.5, with a polarizer.

Little Joe II

This rocket assembly was used to test the Apollo launch escape system (LES) which was designed to pull the Command Module away from a failing rocket either on the launch pad or through the first stage burn. The tests were done at White Sands Missile Range which is adjacent to Alamogordo, New Mexico. This display is at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. The LES is the white tower at the tip of the conical Command Module. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/11, ISO 200 with a polarizer.

MQF Interior

Imagine living & riding in this little trailer for about a day with 2 other guys who you just flew back from the Moon with! In order to decrease the reflections, I used a yellow filtered B&W conversion which also gave the best contrast between the seats and their surroundings. Several support personel entered the MQF and the 21 day quarantine with the Apollo crews returning from the first moonwalks. The first 3 landing crews were subjected to the quarantine just to be safe and used 3 different MQFs. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/13 seconds at f/5.0, ISO 800.

MQF

This is the MQF - the Mobile Quarantine Facility - at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air & Space Museum. It was used to isolate the crew of Apollo 11 after the first Moonlandings in order to be sure that the crew did not carry any dangerous lunar germs. The crew donned isolation garments before being hoisted into the recovery helicopter and then once on the Aircraft Carrier "Hornet", they entered this airstream which was then transported back to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston where they stayed in quarantine for 3 weeks after landing. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/5.0, ISO 800.

Apollo-Soyuz

In 1975, the superpowers first attempt at cooperation in space - the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) flew the last Apollo mission into space to dock with a Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit. A special docking adaptor was used to mate the two spacecraft which each used rather different docking mechanisms. This effort led eventually to cooperative ventures in space including shuttle flights to the Mir space station and now the International Space Station. This exhibit in the Air & Space Museum shows the size of both spacecraft, both in relative and absolute scales. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.

Apollo 11 CM

The Apollo 11 CM "Columbia" is a big attraction at the Air & Space Museum. There wasn't a moment that it did not have a crowd around it. It is amazing to consider that of the Saturn V launch vehicle that left Earth on July 16, 1969 - all 363 feet of it, only this tiny capsule returned to Earth on July 24 after the successful landing on the 20th. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/6.3, ISO 1600.

3D LM

This 3D anaglyph of the Lunar Module at the Air & Space Museum was made with Stereo Picture Maker. You'll need your red-cyan anaglyph glasses to see it properly.

Gene Cernan's lunar spacesuit

This is the spacesuit worn by Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan while he walked the Taurus-Littrow Valley in December 1972. Compare this suit to the previous image of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin's suit. This suit was an improvement on the earlier suit, allowing the astronaut more flexibility (for example easier to bend at the waist so he could sit on the Lunar Rover). The most obvious difference is in the arrangement of the suit connectors for the various hoses as well as with the red stripes that were used starting on Apollo 13 to distinguish the commander from the lunar module pilot in the lunar photography and video. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/25 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 800, with a flash.

Buzz's lunar spacesuit

Here is Buzz Aldrin's suit which he wore on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 flight. The slight grey color is moondust. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/25 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 800, with a flash.

70mm Hasselblad

This is an Apollo Hasselblad 500 EL camera like those used on Apollo 11. This is possibly an interior camera as it does not have the silver coatings that helped protect the camera and film from heating by sunlight. Magazine "N" is attached to the back of the camera and you can see flanges on the lens that allowed a gloved hand to adjust the focus and exposure settings of the camera. The shutter button is on the front of the base of the camera at right. The surface cameras also had a mounting bracket that allowed it to be attached to the chest mounted RCU and they also had a pistol grip attached to the bottom to allow the camera to be handheld. The pistol grip also had a shutter trigger. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/20 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 800.

70mm Hasslblad magazine

Here is a view of the front end of the 70mm Hasselblad magazine where it would attach to the camera. A dark slide would protect the film and is removed before attaching the magazine to the camera and you can see the gears for the film drive on the left. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/10 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 800.

70mm Hasselblad magazine

Back in the National Air & Space Museum in the Space gallary, I found this Hasselblad 70mm film magazine. Apollo used several of these magazines which contained different types of film, typically a black and white film and a version of Ektrachrome. The top of the magazine shows a decal that helps the crewman select the best exposure. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/20 seconds at f/1.8.