Apollo Facts

The possibility of a micrometeoroid as big as a cigarette ash striking the command module during an 8-day lunar mission was computed as 1 in 1230. If a meteoroid did strike the module, it would be at a velocity of over 30 km/second. The probability of the command module getting hit was 0.000815. The probability of the command module not getting hit was 0.999185

The heat leak from the Apollo cryogenic tanks, which contained hydrogen and oxygen, was so small that if one hydrogen tank containing ice were placed in a room heated to 21 degrees Celcius a total of 10 years would be required to melt the ice to water at just one degree above freezing. It would take approximately 4 years more for the water to reach room temperature. The gases in the cryogenic tanks were utilised in the production of electrical power by the Apollo fuel cell system and to provide oxygen for the use of the crew

When the Apollo spacecraft passed through the Van Allen belts on its way to the Moon, the astronauts would have been exposed to radiation roughly equivalent to that of a dental X-ray

With gravity on the Moon only one-sixth as strong as on Earth, it was necessary that this difference be related to the Apollo vehicle. A structure 76,25m high and 122 m long in which cables lifted 83% of the spacecraft vehicle weight was used in tests to simulate lunar conditions and their effects on the vehicle

The command module panel display included 24 instruments, 566 switches, 40 even indicators (mechanical) and 71 lights

The command module offered 2.044 cubic metres per man as against 1.904 cubic metres per person in a compact car. By comparison, the Mercury spacecraft offered 1.54 cubic metres for its one astronaut and Gemini provided 1.12 cubic metres per man.

The angular accuracy requirement of midcourse correction of the spacecraft for all thrusting manoeuvers is one degree

If your car gets 12 kms to the litre, you could drive 28 962 000 kilometres or around the world about 400 times on the propellants required for the Apollo/Saturn lunar landing mission. The Saturn V launch vehicle contained 2.55 million kilograms of propellant (or 3633600 litres)

When the Apollo spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere it generated energy equivalent to approximately 86,000 kilowatt hours of electricity - enough to light the city of Los Angeles for about 104 seconds; or to lift all the people in the USA 28 cms off the ground

The fully loaded Saturn V launch vehicle with the Apollo Spacecraft stood 18.3 m higher than the Statue of Liberty on its pedestal and weighed 13 times as much as the statue

During its 3.5 second firing, the Apollo Spacecraft's solid-fuel launch escape rocket generateed the horsepower equivalent of 4,300 automobiles

The engines of the Saturn V launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon had combined horsepower equivalent to 543 jet fighters

The Apollo environmental control system had 180 parts in contrast to 8 for the average home window air conditioner. The Apollo environmental control system performed 23 functions compared to 5 for the average home conditioner. There were 23 functions of the environmental control system, which included: air cooling, air heating, humidity contol, ventilation to suits, ventilation to cabin, air filtration, CO2 removal, odour removal, waste management functions, etc.

The 3.66m-high Apollo spacecraft command module contained about 24 kms of wire, enough to wire 50 two-bedroom homes

The astronaut controlled and monitored the stabilisation and control system by means of two handgrip controllers, 34 switches and 6 knobs

The Apollo command module could sustain a hole as large as 6 mm in diameter and still maintained the pressure inside for 15 minutes, which was considered long enough for an astronaut to put on a spacesuit

The boost protective cover protected the command module from temperatures of 650 degrees Celcius during the launch phase

Here is an analogy pertaining to the benefits of the multistage concept as opposed to the single-stage, brute-force method. If a steam locomotive pulling three coal cars carries all three cars along until all fuel is exhausted, the locomotive could travel 800 kms. By dropping off each car as its coal is expended the locomotive could travel 1500 kms.

The five F-1 engines equalled 160,000,000 horsepower: about double the amount of potential hydroelectric power that would be available at any given moment if all the moving waters of North America were channeled through turbines

The interior of each of the first stage propellant tanks was large enough to accommodate three large moving vans side by side

The Saturn V's second stage construction was comparable to that of an eggshell in efficiency, the amount of weight and pressure constrained by a thin wall

Total amount of propellant (fuel and oxidizer) in the Saturn V launch vehicle, service module and lunar module was 12 389 869 kgs.

If an automobile has less than 3,000 functional parts, the command module had more than 2,000,000 not counting wires and skeletal components

The command module used only about 2000 watts of electricity, similar to the amount required by an oven in an electric range

The honeycomb aluminum used in Apollo's inner crew compartment was 40 % stronger and 40 % lighter than ordinary aluminium

The tanks which held the cryogenic (ultra-cold) liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen on the Apollo spacecraft came close to being the only leak-free vessels ever built. If an automobile tyre leaked at the same rate that those tanks did, it would take the tyre 32,400,000 years to go flat

There were approximately 2,5 million solder joints in the Saturn V launch vehicle. If less than 0,8 mm too much wire were left on each of these joints and an extra drop of solder was used on each of these joints, the excess weight would be equivalent to the payload of the vehicle

Apollo 17 hand-held Hasselblad picture of a three-quarters illuminated Earth. This view is centered on Australia which is partially obscured by clouds. Antarctica is visible at the bottom of the disk. Much of the Indian (left) and Pacific (right) Oceans can be seen. Earth is 12,740 km in diameter and north is at about 1:00


	www.moonlandings.co.uk \| home Apollo 1 \| Apollo 7 \| Apollo 8 \| Apollo 9 \| Apollo 10 \| Apollo 11 \| Apollo 12 \| Apollo 13 \| Apollo 14 \| Apollo 15 \| Apollo 16 \| Apollo 17 \| Apollo 18 - Soyuz \| Saturn V \| Launch Complexes \| Apollo Mission Summaries \| Apollo Facts \| Luna \| Costs Apollo Facts The possibility of a micrometeoroid as big as a cigarette ash striking the command module during an 8-day lunar mission was computed as 1 in 1230. If a meteoroid did strike the module, it would be at a velocity of over 30 km/second. The probability of the command module getting hit was 0.000815. The probability of the command module not getting hit was 0.999185 The heat leak from the Apollo cryogenic tanks, which contained hydrogen and oxygen, was so small that if one hydrogen tank containing ice were placed in a room heated to 21 degrees Celcius a total of 10 years would be required to melt the ice to water at just one degree above freezing. It would take approximately 4 years more for the water to reach room temperature. The gases in the cryogenic tanks were utilised in the production of electrical power by the Apollo fuel cell system and to provide oxygen for the use of the crew When the Apollo spacecraft passed through the Van Allen belts on its way to the Moon, the astronauts would have been exposed to radiation roughly equivalent to that of a dental X-ray With gravity on the Moon only one-sixth as strong as on Earth, it was necessary that this difference be related to the Apollo vehicle. A structure 76,25m high and 122 m long in which cables lifted 83% of the spacecraft vehicle weight was used in tests to simulate lunar conditions and their effects on the vehicle The command module panel display included 24 instruments, 566 switches, 40 even indicators (mechanical) and 71 lights The command module offered 2.044 cubic metres per man as against 1.904 cubic metres per person in a compact car. By comparison, the Mercury spacecraft offered 1.54 cubic metres for its one astronaut and Gemini provided 1.12 cubic metres per man. The angular accuracy requirement of midcourse correction of the spacecraft for all thrusting manoeuvers is one degree If your car gets 12 kms to the litre, you could drive 28 962 000 kilometres or around the world about 400 times on the propellants required for the Apollo/Saturn lunar landing mission. The Saturn V launch vehicle contained 2.55 million kilograms of propellant (or 3633600 litres) When the Apollo spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere it generated energy equivalent to approximately 86,000 kilowatt hours of electricity - enough to light the city of Los Angeles for about 104 seconds; or to lift all the people in the USA 28 cms off the ground The fully loaded Saturn V launch vehicle with the Apollo Spacecraft stood 18.3 m higher than the Statue of Liberty on its pedestal and weighed 13 times as much as the statue During its 3.5 second firing, the Apollo Spacecraft's solid-fuel launch escape rocket generateed the horsepower equivalent of 4,300 automobiles The engines of the Saturn V launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon had combined horsepower equivalent to 543 jet fighters The Apollo environmental control system had 180 parts in contrast to 8 for the average home window air conditioner. The Apollo environmental control system performed 23 functions compared to 5 for the average home conditioner. There were 23 functions of the environmental control system, which included: air cooling, air heating, humidity contol, ventilation to suits, ventilation to cabin, air filtration, CO2 removal, odour removal, waste management functions, etc. The 3.66m-high Apollo spacecraft command module contained about 24 kms of wire, enough to wire 50 two-bedroom homes The astronaut controlled and monitored the stabilisation and control system by means of two handgrip controllers, 34 switches and 6 knobs The Apollo command module could sustain a hole as large as 6 mm in diameter and still maintained the pressure inside for 15 minutes, which was considered long enough for an astronaut to put on a spacesuit The boost protective cover protected the command module from temperatures of 650 degrees Celcius during the launch phase The power of one Saturn V was enough to place in Earth orbit all US manned spacecraft previously launched Here is an analogy pertaining to the benefits of the multistage concept as opposed to the single-stage, brute-force method. If a steam locomotive pulling three coal cars carries all three cars along until all fuel is exhausted, the locomotive could travel 800 kms. By dropping off each car as its coal is expended the locomotive could travel 1500 kms. The F-1's fuel pumps pushed fuel with the force of 30 diesel locomotives Enough liquid oxygen was contained in the first stage tank to fill 54 railroad tank cars The five F-1 engines equalled 160,000,000 horsepower: about double the amount of potential hydroelectric power that would be available at any given moment if all the moving waters of North America were channeled through turbines The interior of each of the first stage propellant tanks was large enough to accommodate three large moving vans side by side The Saturn V's second stage construction was comparable to that of an eggshell in efficiency, the amount of weight and pressure constrained by a thin wall Total amount of propellant (fuel and oxidizer) in the Saturn V launch vehicle, service module and lunar module was 12 389 869 kgs. The ratio of propellant to payload in Saturn V was 50:1 The main computer in the command module occupied only 0.026 cubic metre If an automobile has less than 3,000 functional parts, the command module had more than 2,000,000 not counting wires and skeletal components The command module used only about 2000 watts of electricity, similar to the amount required by an oven in an electric range The honeycomb aluminum used in Apollo's inner crew compartment was 40 % stronger and 40 % lighter than ordinary aluminium The tanks which held the cryogenic (ultra-cold) liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen on the Apollo spacecraft came close to being the only leak-free vessels ever built. If an automobile tyre leaked at the same rate that those tanks did, it would take the tyre 32,400,000 years to go flat There were approximately 2,5 million solder joints in the Saturn V launch vehicle. If less than 0,8 mm too much wire were left on each of these joints and an extra drop of solder was used on each of these joints, the excess weight would be equivalent to the payload of the vehicle Adapted from the Apollo Spacecraft News Reference; Ed Dempsey (Source) Australia and Antantica: Apollo 17 hand-held Hasselblad picture of a three-quarters illuminated Earth. This view is centered on Australia which is partially obscured by clouds. Antarctica is visible at the bottom of the disk. Much of the Indian (left) and Pacific (right) Oceans can be seen. Earth is 12,740 km in diameter and north is at about 1:00 (Apollo 17, AS17-148-22742) Apollo Programme Contents