Touch Down by Tim Parker

Author:Tim Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2020-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Problems-R-Us

Buzz Aldrin (nee – Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.) was the second astronaut to walk on the moon after the Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong in July of 1969. Having served as an Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War, Aldrin received a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. He was selected for the earth orbit crew in 1966 on Gemini 12 in the NASA space programme with Jim Lovell. His five-hour EVA (spacewalk) was the longest up to that point. During that flight, he had to manually calculate the docking manoeuvres after the on-board radar failed.

The astronauts had major problems floating in space where they would use so much energy trying to perform tasks at zero gravity, they would become exhausted. To replicate working in space, Buzz developed improved techniques in a deep-water tank at Johnson Space Center underwater wearing a spacesuit with counterweights adjusted to maintain buoyancy.

Basically, the people in my group worked as freelance designers and problem solvers in addition to being responsible for documentation. Our typical assignments had short fuses for completion before the next mission schedule, so everything was a rush. Sequencing almost didn’t matter because all the tasks had to be finished and documented well before the next flight.

Many times, we were writing the specifications, procedures and documents after we built prototypes, some of which became flight hardware. One example was when NASA planned to do a deep core drill on the moon. Up to that point, quarantining the astronauts after the initial moon shots showed no signs of bugs (creatures) that were brought back with them from the lunar surface. There was concern that some kind of fungus or organism might survive below the surface of the moon, however.

I had to come up with a protective cover garment that would shield them from bringing any ‘alien hitchhikers’ back to earth. It couldn’t weigh anything or inhibit the astronauts’ movements. To meet all the requirements, I specified a non-porous silicone rubber coated fabric ‘overcoat’ that was to be left on the moon when the core drilling was completed. No problem, just a lot of hustling for another unplanned programme addition.

On another occasion, the astronauts reported they couldn’t throw switches and turn dials with the outer thermal gloves in the ITMG (cover garment) over the pressure gloves in the PGA (Pressure Garment Assembly). Flame protection without the insulated outer gloves needed to be provided in the event of a fire inside a module. One of the consulting chemists on loan from LTV Aerospace in Texas was named Joe Young, like the movies, but he didn’t have a gorilla suit. We worked around the clock applying a fire-resistant, fluorinated elastomer (a Teflon like rubber) coating to the pressure gloves to have them ready for the upcoming mission. As we figured out how to accomplish that, the process needed to be fully documented. At times we couldn’t seem to get enough sleep.

In my original group, I had a physicist also named Joe. We called

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