LEM (Lunar Excursion Module)
A
spacecraft that carries astronauts from the command module to the
surface of the moon and back
Common clues: Moon vehicle,
briefly; Moon lander; The Eagle, e.g.; Apollo component, for
short; NASA vehicle; Moon-landing transport
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
3 times a year
News: Neil
Armstrong's bag of moon dust up for auction
Video: The
Eagle Has Landed
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program to achieve the transit from Moon orbit to the surface and back. The module was also known as the LM from the manufacturer designation (yet pronounced "LEM" from NASA's early name for it, Lunar Excursion Module).
Apollo
16 on lunar surface
The module was designed to carry two crew in a 6.65 m³ space. The total module was 6.4 m high and 4.3 m across, resting on four legs. It consisted of two stages - a descent stage and a module and ascent stage. The total mass of the module was 15,264 kg with the majority of that (10,334 kg) in the descent stage.
The Apollo Lunar Module came into being because NASA chose to reach the moon via a lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) instead of a direct ascent or Earth orbit rendezvous (EOR). Both a direct ascent and an EOR would have involved the entire Apollo spacecraft landing on the moon; once the decision had been made to proceed using LOR, it became necessary to produce a separate craft capable of reaching the lunar surface.
The LM contract was given to Grumman Aircraft Engineering and a number of subcontractors. Grumman had begun lunar orbit rendezvous studies in late 1960 and again in 1962. In July 1962 eleven firms were invited to submit proposals for the LM. Nine did so in September, and Grumman was awarded the contract that same month. The contract cost was expected to be around $350 million. There were initially four major subcontractors - Bell Aerosystems (ascent engine), Hamilton Standard (environmental control systems), Marquardt (reaction control system) and Rocketdyne (descent engine).
The primary guidance, navigation and control system (PGNCS) on the LM was developed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. The Apollo Guidance Computer was manufactured by Raytheon. A similar guidance system was used in the Command Module. A backup navigation tool, the Abort Guidance System (AGS), was developed by TRW.
To learn lunar landing techniques, astronauts practiced in the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), a flying vehicle that simulated the Lunar Module on earth.
Configuration freeze did not start until April 1963 when the ascent and descent engine design was decided. In addition to Rocketdyne a parallel program for the descent engine was ordered from Space Technology Laboratories in July 1963, and by January 1965 the Rocketdyne contract was cancelled. As the program continued there were numerous redesigns to save weight (including 'Operation Scrape'), improve safety, and fix problems. For example initially the module was to be powered by fuel cells, built by Pratt and Whitney but in March 1965 they were paid off in favor of an all battery design.
The first LM flight was on January 22, 1968 when the unmanned LM-1 was launched on a Saturn IB for testing of propulsion systems in orbit. The next LM flight was aboard Apollo 9 using LM-3 on March 3, 1969 as a manned flight (McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart) to test a number of systems in Earth orbit including LM and CSM crew transit, LM propulsion, separation and docking. Apollo 10, which launched on May 18, 1969, was another series of tests, this time in lunar orbit with the LM separating and descending to within 10 km of the surface. From the successful tests the LM successfully descended and ascended from the lunar surface with Apollo 11.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Apollo Lunar Module".
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