I just read Smilla’s Sense of Snow, and in it Smilla describes her indestructible clock which she got from an Apollo moon vehicle that crashed on the Greenland ice cap. The clock was so tough that it survived and she took it with her wherever she went.
I know the book itself is fiction, but is there any basis in reality for this? What was the fate of the lunar modules - I assumed that they would have burned up entirely upon entry to the atmosphere, or that they were left behind in lunar orbit. I know at least Apollo 13’s was on or near an earth collision trajectory due to the life-boat nature of its unplanned mission. How many re-entered the atmosphere? Did any actually impact the earth?
It looks like most of them that were actually used crashed into the moon’s surface eventually. I can’t find anything about lunar modules in Greenland. http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/lunarmodule/
One, possibly two, did reenter Earth’s atmosphere. The first was “Spider,” the LM tested in Earth orbit during Apollo 9. I believe it was separated in orbit and reentered as two pieces, ascent stage and descent stage. The clock, if it existed, would probably have been from the ascent stage, as the descent stage was not built for human habitation. Why put a face on a clock nobody can read? I’ll have to check NASA to see when the two pieces reentered.
The second possibility is Apollo 13. I think that the LM “Aquarius” was still attached as a lifeboat when the braking for reentry was fired. If so, it, too, should have de-orbited. If on the other hand it was released prior to the braking, it may have fallen into a solar orbit. However, if that were the case, someone no doubt would probably be clamouring for a mission to go and get it, and I haven’t heard that.
As for parts of either surviving reentry, sure they could have, but it sure as hell couldn’t have been much. The rocket nozzles on that thing were so fragile they could be dented with bare hands, and the ladder couldn’t even support human weight on Earth. The motors themselves and structural components had a chance, though. A clock? Weeeeell.
Ah. Here we are. It looks like 9 and 13 went down, while Apollo 5 (unmanned) also went down in flames.
There are also two “boilerplates,” semi-functional test vehicles, which reentered from Apollos 4 and 6. *Where most of those guys went down is a whole 'nother ball of wax. My first recommendation would be to check to see if any of the Apollo missions were launched on polar or near-polar orbits. My guess would be that none were, so Greenland is probably out of the question.
Ah. Here we are. It looks like 9 and 13 went down, while Apollo 5 (unmanned) also went down in flames.
There are also two “boilerplates,” semi-functional test vehicles, which reentered from Apollos 4 and 6. Where most of those guys went down is a whole 'nother ball of wax. My first recommendation would be to check to see if any of the Apollo missions were launched on polar or near-polar orbits. My guess would be that none were, so Greenland is probably out of the question.
I have to concur with the idea that the upper part of the LEM wouldn’t have survived the re-entry, as it was as lightly built as possible. Remember, it was meant to land on the atmosphere-less moon in 1/6th of Earth gravity.
There was a story going around at one time that a Soviet version of the LEM (from their moon program) malfunctioned and landed in China, where it has been secretly stored ever since. Again, for the same reasons as above, it has to be BS.
But the lower half of a surviving Soviet LEM was stored for some years in its homeland. The Soviets and later Russians denied the existence of a lunar program for years, but on a tour of facilities, some visiting Americans stumbled onto it. (This was in Aviation Week). Since then, they’ve fessed up. It was pretty different from our program, and was actually kind of clever.
Thanks, Sofa King! I didn’t find it in my web search, thanks for showing me the light. Sounds like a literary device.
JCHeckler, I’d love to see that article on the Soviet moon program - can you dig up a link on it?
Here’s some stuff for ya:
The Soviet LK lunar lander
The Soviet lunar program
The secret history of the Soviet space program
They were so serious about pulling off a circumlunar navigation before the Americans that they sent a large number of pressurized capsules around the moon. All but one failed in ways that would have been injurious or fatal to a human occupant. Zond 6, a working capsule that could have carried a man, was launched in November, 1968, the month before Apollo 8 actually pulled it off. Not only did Zond 6 depressurize on its return leg, but the parachutes partially malfunctioned, destroying the capsule. That would have been a twice-dead cosmonaut!