Apollo in Perspective : Spaceflight Then and Now

337 Pages·2018·37.45 MB·English

by  Allday

Apollo in Perspective
Spaceflight Then and Now

Apollo in Perspective
Spaceflight Then and Now
Jonathan Allday
The King's School, Canterbury
Institute of Physics Publishing
Bristol and Philadelphia
First published 2000 by CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
Reissued 2018 by CRC Press
© 2000 by IOP Publishing Ltd
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0 7503 0644 0 (hbk)
0 7503 0645 9 (pbk)
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First printed 2000
Reprinted 2001 (pbk)
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ISBN 13: 978-1-315-89064-7 (hbk)
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'Men who have worked together to reach the stars are
not likely to descend together into the depths of war and
desolation.'
Lyndon B Johnson (1958)
'For a successful technology, reality must take precedence
over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.'
Richard Feynman
Appendix to the Presidential Report on the Challenger
Space Shuttle Disaster

Contents
Introduction xi
Acknowledgments XV
1 Apollo in outline 1
1.1 The mission 1
1.2 The Moon 9
1.3 The immediate future 16
2 The best driver in physics 20
2. 1 The first voyage to the Moon 20
2.2 On spacecraft and shopping trolleys 21
2.3 The power of imagination 21
2.4 Falling 24
2.5 Forces during lift off — the astronauts 26
2.6 Forces during lift off — the spacecraft 29
2.7 Momentum 32
2.8 The physics of rocket motors 35
Intermission 1: The Saturn V booster rocket 41
3 Rocketry 50
3.1 Faltering starts 50
3.2 Thrust 52
3.3 Propellant 53
3.4 Applying Newton's laws to a spacecraft 56
3.5 Real rocket engines 60
3.6 Staging 70
3.7 A typical Saturn V launch 75
3.8 Future developments in rocketry 78
Intermission 2: From Mercury to Gemini 87
4 Orbits and trajectories 92
4.1 Hollywood gets it right 92
4.2 Falling again 93
Vll
viii Contents
4.3 Orbits 95
4.4 Centripetal forces 98
4.5 Gravity and orbits 101
4.6 Other orbits 103
4.7 Simulating gravity 104
4.8 Changing orbits 107
4.9 Flying to the Moon 114
4.10 Trajectories to Mars 116
4.11 Space stations 119
5 The Apollo command and service modules 134
5.1 Mission modes 134
5.2 The command module 139
5.3 The service module 158
Intermission 3: Inertial guidance and computers 173
13.1 The need for a guidance system 173
13.2 Guidance and control systems 174
13.3 The Apollo computer 176
13.4 The Apollo computer in perspective 182
6 The lunar module 186
6.1 Designing the first spacecraft 186
6.2 The ascent stage 187
6.3 The descent stage 195
6.4 Space suits 200
6.5 The lunar rover 205
6.6 The ascent to orbit 209
Intermission 4: The three 'ings' 211
7 The shuttle and its followers 214
7.1 The space shuttle 214
7.2 Shuttle components and construction 216
7.3 Assembling a shuttle 223
7.4 Launching a shuttle 229
7.5 Challenger 234
7.6 What follows the shuttle? 241
7.7 Other ideas 246
Intermission 5: The politics of Apollo 248
8 Mars 252
8.1 The modern scene 252
8.2 Mars Direct 253
8.3 Chemistry on Mars 257
8.4 The NASA reaction 258
Contents ix
8.5 Mars in the near future 258
8.6 Mars in the more distant future 262
Intermission 6: Godspeed John Glenn 266
9 Journeys to the stars 270
9.1 Motivations and timescales 270
9.2 The ground rules 273
9.3 Is warp drive possible? 274
9.4 Orion and project Daedalus 274
9.5 Laser propulsion 278
9.6 Ramjet 282
9.7 Antimatter drive 283
9.8 Colony ships 284
9.9 Wormholes 286
9.10 Personal conclusions 288
Appendix 1: Glossary 293
Appendix 2: Apollo mission summary 297
Appendix 3: Development of boosters 299
Appendix 4: Deriving some of the maths 302
Appendix 5: Further information 305
Index 313