Buzz Lightyear returns from 15 months in the ISS. Credit: NASA. Click for larger image.
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Buzz Lightyear, that is. The action figure returned from space on Sept. 11, aboard space shuttle Discovery’s STS-128 mission after 15 months aboard the International Space Station. Word has it that Disney is quite excited about his return, and will give him a ticker-tape parade on October 2, along with some of his his space station crewmates and the original Buzz, Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin, at Walt Disney World in Florida.
So what was Buzz doing on the ISS?
While in space Buzz supported NASA’s education outreach program — STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)–by creating a series of fun educational online outreach programs. Following his return, Disney is partnering with NASA to create a new online educational game and an online mission patch competition for school kids across America. NASA will fly the winning patch in space. In addition, NASA plans to announce on Oct. 2, 2009, the details of a new exciting educational competition that will give students the opportunity to design an experiment for the astronauts on the space station.
In their preliminary report, a panel of independent space experts commissioned by President Obama concluded that any human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit is not viable with the money NASA is expected to receive under the budget for 2010 and beyond. The Augustine Commission proposed several different options for NASA’s future path, which highlighted working closely with other countries and commercial spaceflight companies, as well as extending the life of the space shuttle through 2011. But NASA is on an “unsustainable trajectory,” and going to the Moon or Mars is not possible on the current level of funding, the Commission said. The only way the US could conduct a “meaningful” human spaceflight program would be by adding at least $3 billion annually to NASA’s budget.
“The nation is facing important decisions on the future of human spaceflight,” the Commision Report stated. ” Will we leave the close proximity of low-Earth orbit, where astronauts have circled since 1972, and explore the solar system, charting a path for the eventual expansion of human civilization into space? If so, how will we ensure that our exploration delivers the greatest benefit to the nation? Can we explore with reasonable assurances of human safety? And, can the nation marshal the resources to embark on the mission? Whatever space program is ultimately selected, it must be matched with the resources needed for its execution.”
The Augustine Commision developed five alternatives for the Human Spaceflight Program, including a “Moon First” option or a “Flexible Path.” They said that funding at an increased level of $3 billion additional each year would allow for either plan.
Here’s a graph of the options: Augustine Commission graph of options for NASA.
Option 1 is to continue with the current funding and the plan of building the Constellation Program. But the shuttle should be kept going until 2011 and then this would mean de-orbiting the ISS in 2016. With the proposed budget, Ares I and Orion are not available until after the ISS has been de-orbited. The heavy-lift vehicle, Ares V, wouldn’t be available until the late 2020s, and worse, funds would be insufficient funds to develop the lunar lander and lunar surface systems until well into the 2030s, if ever.
Option 2 again maintains the current budget. This option extends the ISS to 2020, and it begins a program of lunar exploration using a Lite version of Ares V. The option assumes the shuttles until FY 2011, and it includes a technology development program, a program to develop commercial crew services to low-Earth orbit, and funds for enhanced utilization of ISS. Heavy lift capabilities wouldn’t be developed until late 2020s and going to the Moon is not an option.
The remaining three alternatives employ the budget of an additional $3 billion for FY 2010, which then grows with inflation at a more reasonable 2.4 percent per year.
Option 3 would be keeping the current plan going. De-orbit the ISS in 2016, developing Orion, Ares I and Ares V, and beginning exploration of the Moon. But the shuttle should fly until 2011. The Committee concluded that Ares1/Orion would be available by 2017, with human lunar return in the mid-2020s.
Option 4 would send humans to the go the Moon first. It also extends the ISS to 2020, funds technology advancement, and uses commercial vehicles to carry crew to low-Earth orbit. There are two significantly different variations to this option.
Variant 4A is the Ares Lite variant. This retires the Shuttle in FY 2011 and develops the Ares V (Lite) heavy-lift launcher for lunar exploration. Variant 4B is the Shuttle extension variant. This variant includes the only foreseeable way to eliminate the gap in U.S. human-launch capability: it extends the Shuttle to 2015 at a minimum safe-flight rate. It also takes advantage of synergy with the Shuttle by developing a heavy-lift vehicle that is more directly Shuttle-derived. Both variants of Option 4 permit human lunar return by the mid-2020s.
Option 5. Flexible Path. This option follows the Flexible Path as an exploration strategy. It operates the Shuttle into FY 2011, extends the ISS until 2020, funds technology development and develops commercial crew services to low-Earth orbit. There are three variants within this option; they differ only in the heavy-lift vehicle.
Variant 5A is the Ares Lite variant. It develops the Ares Lite, the most capable of the heavylift vehicles in this option. Variant 5B employs an EELV-heritage commercial heavy-lift launcher and assumes a different (and significantly reduced) role for NASA. It has an advantage of potentially lower operational costs, but requires significant restructuring of NASA. Variant 5C uses a directly Shuttle-derived, heavy-lift vehicle, taking maximum advantage of existing infrastructure, facilities and production capabilities.
All variants of Option 5 begin exploration along the flexible path in the early 2020s, with lunar fly-bys, visits to Lagrange points and near-Earth objects and Mars fly-bys occurring at a rate of about one major event per year, and possible rendezvous with Mars’s moons or human lunar return by the mid to late 2020s.
It’s nice to see the folks at NASA have a sense of humor and can poke fun at themselves. The following (fake) press release was part of the Flight Day 6 Execute Package sent up to the STS-128 crew on board space shuttle Discovery, now docked at the International Space Station: “Colbert Elated, Stewart Miffed.” Also impressive is how NASA employees can seemingly come up with an acronym for almost any occasion:
Fake Colbert/Stewart press release on Flight Day-6 execute package.
Comedic news commentator Jon Stewart is apparently miffed about ISS exercise hardware being named after fellow Comedy Central commentator Steven Colbert. Colbert lobbied to get the Node 3 element of the International Space Station named COLBERT in NASA’s online naming contest for the Node. Although Colbert convinced his viewers to vote for “Colbert” as the new name, helping it win by a large margin, NASA elected to name the hardware “Tranquility”. As a concession, NASA decided to name the new exercise treadmill COLBERT, which is an acronym for Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill.
While the decision pleased Colbert, an irate Jon Stewart vehemently complained to the space agency that he deserved the same treatment. In response, NASA offered to name the ISS Urine Processor after Stewart, Space Toilet Environmental Waste Accumulator/Recycling Thingy. Upon hearing this, Stewart declined the offer.
A radioisotope thermalelectric generator schematic. Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Science
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As if things weren’t tight enough at NASA, now the US House and Senate have decided to cut the funding to restart production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238), the power source for many of NASA’s robotic spacecraft. Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, only the US Department of Energy is allowed to possess, use and produce nuclear materials and facilities, and so NASA must rely on the DOE to produce these power sources and the fuel. A report by the National Research Council says “the day of reckoning has arrived” and that NASA has already been forced to limit deep space missions due to the short supply of Pu-238.
Pu-238 is needed for radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) that supply power for systems and instruments on spacecraft travel too far from the Sun to rely on solar energy or land on surfaces with long “nights.” For example, the Voyager spacecraft utilize RTGs and are still able to communicate and return science data after over 30 years of operation, and now are at the outer edges of our solar system. Pellet of Pu-238. RTGs are constructed using marshmallow-sized pellets of Pu-238. As it decays, interactions between the alpha particles and the shielding material produce heat that can be converted into electricity.
Pu-238 is expensive to produce, but it gives off low-penetration alpha radiation, which is much easier to shield against than the radiation produced by other isotopes.
Pu-238 does not occur in naturally, and the United States has not produced any since the late 1980s. It purchased Pu-238 for NASA missions from Russia during the 1990s, but those supplies reportedly are now exhausted. The NRC based its estimate of NASA’s Pu-238 requirements on a letter NASA sent to DOE on April 29, 2008 detailing space science and lunar exploration missions planned for the next 20 years.
The cost of restarting production appears to be the major reason for the cut, as estimates are it would cost at least $150 million.
The DOE requested $30 million in FY2010 to restart production, but the House cut that to $10 million when it passed the FY2010 Energy and Water appropriations bill (H.R. 3183) on July 17. The Senate went even further (S. 1436), completely cutting funds for restarting production of Pu-238.
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees complained that DOE had not explained how it would use the funds.
But if funds aren’t made available soon, NASA may have to revamp its plans significantly for the New Frontiers missions, lunar rovers, and other deep space missions. There are other isotopes that have been used in the past, such as strontium-90, but Pu-238 has been found to work the best. NASA has also solicited ideas for alternative power sources, as well.
First results from the Kepler mission. Credit: NASA
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NASA researchers have published confirmation this week that the Kepler mission will be able to reveal the presence of Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars. The mission’s first scientific results appear today in the journal Science.
Lead author William Borucki, of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and his colleagues announced that Kepler has detected the giant extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b, one of the roughly two dozen exoplanets that have been discovered by ground-based observations and the CoRoT mission as they “transited” in front of their stars, periodically dimming the starlight.
Many more exoplanets — more than 300 now — have been detected by the so-called “wobble” or radial velocity method, where a planet’s gravitational tug influences the motion of its star.
HAT-P-7b is comparable to Jupiter in size and orbits a star analogous to our Sun. It showed up in 10 days’ worth of Kepler data on the intensity of light from over 50,000 stars.
“The detection of the occultation without systematic error correction demonstrates that Kepler is operating at the level required to detect Earth-size planets,” the authors write.
The $500 million Kepler mission launched in March 2009 and will spend three and a half years surveying more than 100,000 sun-like stars in Cygnus-Lyra.
By staring at one large patch of sky for the duration of its lifetime, Kepler will be able to watch planets periodically transit their stars over multiple cycles, allowing astronomers to confirm the presence of planets and use the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, along with ground-based telescopes, to characterize their atmospheres and orbits. Earth-size planets in habitable zones would theoretically take about a year to complete one orbit, so Kepler will monitor those stars for at least three years to confirm the planets‘ presence.
Astronomers estimate that if even one percent of stars host Earth-like planets, there would be a million Earths in the Milky Way alone. If that’s true, hundreds of Earths should exist in Kepler’s target population of 100,000 stars.
Astronaut Scott Altman speaking to children at the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences. Photo: Nancy Atkinson
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Astronaut Scott Altman, commander of the recent servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope said the independent review of NASA’s current plans is allowing both the space agency and the nation to step back, contemplate and plan the future. “The new administration wants to take a good hard look at the direction of future of the space program and I endorse that,” Altman said. I think we’ll come out of this with a more focused and hopefully a stronger movement forward. And the folks working on Constellation have the chance to take a breath while the Augustine Commission is at work and I’m looking forward to hearing what they have to say.”
The veteran astronaut worked on helping to develop the Constellation program before he was assigned to the Hubble servicing mission, and he looks forward to returning to that task, whether it be the Ares and Orion vehicles or another incarnation of the next space vehicles. When asked about his future plans, Altman said. “I think I will go back and work on the next generation vehicle as we work those designs. Will I get to stick around and maybe fly them? I don’t know, that’s another five or six years — we’ll see. But I’m loving what I’m doing and it’s great to be an astronaut at NASA.” Scott Altman speaks to reporters. Photo: Nancy Atkinson
The Augustine Commission is holding an open meeting on Tuesday in Houston, and another on July 29 in Huntsville, Alabama, to allow public input on the course NASA should be taking. Altman likes that the Commission is readily taking public comment.
“It’s always good,” he said. “The space program is a manifestation of the country’s national will, what we want to do. I think it is important that NASA stay connected with people. There should be a place where the public can let NASA know how they think we’re doing. And we (NASA) need to make sure we let them know what we are doing, so we need to make sure the communication goes both ways.”
Hubble Images of Jupiter Impact Site
Altman was asked if he had seen the first Hubble image released to the public since the servicing mission, a surprise observation of the recent impact on Jupiter. “The pictures they took of Jupiter were awesome,” he said “The other great thing about seeing those pictures is that we know our repairs worked, so it’s nice to see the success of our mission.”
The Wide Field Camera 3, which took the Jupiter image, was one of the first tasks for Altman and his STS-125 crew to repair, and the repair provided some initial drama for the mission. “I thought it wasn’t going to come out,” he said. “We came so close to being stuck with our very first thing not working out but I was thrilled when the old camera came out and the new went in. And now to hear that it’s working they way it should, we’re all thrilled.”
Altman said he and his crew were able to see other new images taken by the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope while at a visit to the Space Telescope Science Institute last week, and hinted the images may be released to the public soon. “We did get a sneak peak at some of the images they are starting to take and I think when they have an early release of them, you should all watch because it’s going to be incredible,” he said.
Mission Memories
Altman said the most memorable part of the STS-125 mission was when crewmate Mike Massimino had to tear a handle off the telescope in order to proceed with the repair of the STIS instrument. Massimino and spacewalking partner Michael Good spent hours struggling to remove a stuck bolt from a handrail on the telescope. Finally mission control told Massimino to just tear the handrail off.
“I was with the rest of the crew at the edge of the window looking out when Mike broke the handle off,” said Altman. “That was pretty amazing to watch. But I think it shows the benefit of having people in space who can respond to things that you didn’t think were going to happen.” Scott Altman makes a presentation at the Lakeview Museum in Peoria IL. Photo: Nancy Atkinson
Altman presented the museum with pictures and an item he flew in space. “When we fly in space we are able to take a few things with us,” he said. “One of the things that I took along was this Illinois flag. So it’s got 5.3 million miles on it, 197 orbits, but no frequent flyer miles! But I wanted to present it to the museum along with a few pictures from the mission as a way of saying thanks for the inspiration that started here for me, and starts for so many other people. And, as you kids here look to follow your dreams and reach for the stars, you never really know where you might end up, but there are some pretty cool places out there that you might visit, I know I have. It’s really an honor for me to be back here. I’m so thrilled and I just want to say thank you to the museum for the great work that you do, and I know you’re about to do a lot more in the near future in the new facility.
The Lakeview Museum will be part of a new 81,000-square-foot Peoria Riverfront Museum that will feature a 3-D IMAX Theatre, state-of-the-art planetarium, and other educational and cultural activities.
Garver and Bolden after they were sworn into office. Credit: NASA
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Steely-eyed missile men may still be a part of NASA, but the space agency’s newly sworn-in administrator says he is an unabashed hugger and admits to crying easily. “One more thing you’ll learn about me, I cry,” said Charlie Bolden at an all-hands video meeting with the NASA centers. “I think it’s important to be passionate.” Bolden’s Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said she’s a hugger, too and as Bolden and Garver hugged on stage, Garver exclaimed, “Feelings are not something that were popular in the last few years at NASA, but they’re back. Feelings are back!”
Garver was obviously referring to former administrator Mike Griffin, who once said, “I don’t do feelings, just think of me as Spock.”
Bolden, a retired Marine Corps general and four-time shuttle astronaut, spoke at length about himself and his hopes for NASA’s future. He asked NASA employees in attendance to raise their hands if they didn’t think NASA should go to Mars. When no one raised their hands, he said, “We all agree we want humans to go to Mars, we don’t agree on how to get there. The challenge is to figure out the most efficient, most cost-effective path to get there. We can’t get there the way we’re doing it right now, with a whole bunch of different people thinking we’ll do a little of that and a little of this. We need to come together with a coherent plan.”
A presidential panel is reviewing options for the NASA’s human space program and is expected to issue its report next month. Bolden told workers the review is “nothing to be afraid of.”
Also, a second review encompassing all areas of space — military, commercial, civil and scientific — is under way by the national security advisor, James Jones, a retired four-star Marine general.
“There needs to be a coherent policy and so President Obama has asked General Jones to put together a group to take a look at the national space policy,” Bolden said.
Bolden said he wants working at NASA to be fun. “I will make mistakes, but I’m going to have fun, and I want all of you (NASA work force) to have fun,” he said. However, he cautioned that working in space is a risky business, and not everything is fun. “NASA is in the news every day and there’s always the potential for it to be bad news when we have people in space.”
Showing that she is in touch with the public’s views of NASA Garver shared some encouraging poll results about public opinion of NASA. Of those polled, 72 per cent have a positive impression of NASA. That’s better than Apple, Garver said, which got only a 63 per cent rating.
“We are more popular than your iPod,” she said.
Both Bolden and Garver said they were incredibly proud to be working at NASA again. “I look forward to working with you all,” Bolden said, “and we have some important things we have to do.”
Seven Apollo astronauts gathered at NASA headquarters this morning to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s lunar landing — on July 20, 1969.
“This is really a national celebration,” said James Lovell, who flew on Apollo 8 and 13. “This is really a celebration for all the people who helped Neil and Buzz and Mike” make the trip to the moon, he said.
But the press conference was bittersweet, as all of the astronauts seemed to agree the space program has not gone where they hoped it would, in the years since that pinnacle of achievement. “I don’t think there was a soul in NASA that wouldn’t have thought we would have been on Mars by the year 2000,” said Walt Cunningham, from Apollo 7.
Among the astronauts, there seemed to be seven different opinions about how to get back on track.
Eugene Cernan, from Apollo 10 and 17, advocated going back to the moon, setting up bases and new telescopes. “The ultimate goal is truly to go to Mars,” he said.
Charles Duke from Apollo 16 says we need to develop better space suits. “Lunar dust, I think, is going to be a real problem,” he said, adding that air locks shoudl be developed to keep lunar dust outside any living quarters.
Buzz Aldrin has different notions altogether: “Why not do those [projects] at the space station?” he mused. “Prolong the life of the space station. We put 100 billion into the space station.” Aldrin questions the rationale that going back to the moon is a logical next step to Mars, since the physical environment on Mars will be different.
The astronauts seemed all over the map about the International Space Station as well, with some questioning its usefulness to science and its expense, and others optimistic that its glory days haven’t yet begun.
Several of the astronauts pointed out that Mars exploration has hit a new and encouraging stride, but all of them also seem to agree that space exploration needs a shot in the arm in terms of both funding, and the will of the people — especially young people.
“Everyone knows who John Glenn is, Neil Armstrong … I defy almost every one in this room to name one or two or three members on the space station today,” Cernan said. “We need to re-inspire that kind of spirit in the minds and hearts — the passion — of these kids.”
Other Universe Today Apollo 11 40th anniversary stories:
Magnificent Desolation, the new autobiography by Buzz Aldrin
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I very much enjoyed chatting with Buzz Aldrin a couple of weeks ago, for some stories leading up to the 40th anniversary of the July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 landing on the moon. I found him honest, personable and generous with his time.
But when his publicist offered to send a copy of his new book, “Magnificent Desolation,” I didn’t set my expectations too high. I didn’t know what to make of an autobiography by a retired Air Force pilot and astronaut. Doesn’t that history put the “Rocket Hero” pretty squarely in the category of techie or a jock — a non-writer type?
Well, color me impressed. The book arrived late last week, and I turned the last page this morning — looking for more to read!
Courtsey of Buzz Aldrin
Granted, Aldrin got help when he teamed up with writer Ken Abraham. But no writer can spin a book like “Magnificent Desolation” without an incredible story, and Aldrin is a master of that.
The book opens with a few chapters on the Apollo program that made him famous. Even though I’ve dabbled in some research the past few weeks — including catching up on the movie “In the Shadow of the Moon” and leafing through some books — I learned new details both whimsical and serious.
Who knew, for example, that American astronauts traditionally eat steak and eggs prior to launch? Or that Aldrin is such a font of deep thoughts, which has apparently been true for a long time:
“From space there were no observable borders between nations, no observable reasons for the wars we were leaving behind,” he remembers musing as the Earth got smaller in Apollo 11’s windows.
“Magnificent Desolation” is about as revealing as you can get in personal realms. Aldrin engages in a lengthy discussion of his decade of deep depression and alcoholism following the Apollo years, from which he eventually escaped. At his rock bottom, Aldrin had lost faith in himself, had no vision for his purpose in life, and was failing at his job — as a salesman of Cadillacs.
During our interview, Aldrin said he turned his life around by deciding that he could share his experiences for a greater good.
“Do you continue to descend into an abyss? Or do you try to make a difference with what you know best?” he remembers thinking.
These days, Aldrin lives a life fitting for a hero. He hobnobs with greats in every field, from journalists and athletes to international leaders, scientists and movie stars. He and his wife, Lois, have traveled the world for scuba diving excursions, ski trips and unflagging efforts to promote his primary passion (besides Lois): a return to the collective national motivation that helped fuel the lunar landings. He desperately wants to see America lead the charge toward space exploration — to Mars and/or a moon of Mars, and beyond.
Aldrin admits he’s been criticized in the past, even by some of his astronaut peers, for garnering so much publicity as the second man (after Neil Armstrong) to set foot on the moon.
“The truth was, no other astronaut, active or inactive, was out in the public trying to raise awareness about America’s dying space program. None of them,” he writes. He points out that he is not promoting himself: “I did not want ‘a giant leap for mankind’ to be nothing more than a phrase from the past.”
Besides pushing for a new era of space exploration, the book is also a testament to the benefits of citizen space travel, which Aldrin avidly promotes through his outreach efforts, including his non-profit Sharespace Foundation. Among them: “The United States will capture the lion’s share of the global satellite market,” and “NASA’s planetary probes will become far more affordable.”
Aldrin has used traditional channels to advance his ideas, addressing international audiences of all stripes and testifying before Congress. But the really fun stuff comes when he reaches out to younger audiences. He seems to stop at nothing to reach out to the next generations, to ensure that his space exploration dreams will stay alive.
“I look forward to these things happening during my lifetime,” he writes, “but if they don’t, please keep this dream alive; please keep going; Mars is waiting for your footsteps.”
This review is cross-posted at the writer’s website, anneminard.com.
Apollo 11 crew in quarantine talking with President Richard Nixon. Credit: NASA
50 lbs. of moon rocks. That’s how much weight was allocated for the Apollo 11 astronauts to bring back lunar samples to Earth. But this would be the first time materials from another world would be brought to our planet. What should be done with these alien rocks, and could they possibly be a threat to life as we know it?
What started out as a seemingly straightforward idea of building a facility to store and study rocks from the Moon ended up becoming a power struggle between engineers building the facility and scientists who wanted to study the rocks and those who wanted to save the world from biological disaster — not to mention even more squabbling between the various governmental agencies and politicians. In the middle of it all was James McLane, Jr. one of the engineers tasked with the early planning for the Manned Spaceflight Center –now known as Johnson Space Center in Houston — and in particular, he led a group to determine the requirements and design concept of NASA’s Lunar Receiving Laboratory.
James C. McLane Jr. in 1971. Photo courtesy of James McLane Jr.
“We started the Manned Spaceflight Center from scratch and a cadre of people envisioned what we should have for the space program’s ground facilities,” said McLane, in an interview from his home with Universe Today. “A whole range of facilities were recommended. For a year or so I went from one design review to another to add my two bits as to how things might be done. The new facilities included a big manned centrifuge, electronics labs, and a thermal vacuum lab with a couple of very big space simulation chambers to test the Apollo spacecraft and its onboard crew under conditions similar to those to be found during the lunar missions. There was just about everything you could think of that was needed to support the Apollo program.”
While engineers at the MSC were intent on designing unique, world-class facilities (as well as rockets and spacecraft to take humans to the moon) scientists were excited about the prospect of researching pristine lunar materials. Lunar Receiving lab concept drawing. Credit: NASA
During this time, a couple of young MSC scientists, chemist Don Flory and geologist Elbert King had been given responsibility of designing the airtight sample return containers in which lunar samples would be brought back to Earth. But, said McLane, no one had given much thought as to how the rocks should be handled or stored once they were brought back to Earth. “There really wasn’t much direction on what should be done after we got them back to Earth,” he said. “Oh, there were scientific committees of course, but for some reason this was down low on their priority list. I think they were thinking more about the research they were going to do with the rocks.”
But one day Flory and King showed up in their boss’s office and said since they had the responsibility for the container they were a little concerned what would be done with it after the astronauts returned the samples. They suggested that, at least, the containers ought to be opened in a vacuum chamber.
“They asked, ‘Does anyone around the Center have a small vacuum chamber where we can open these boxes?’ And that started the whole business of what would happen to the lunar samples and what was required to do that,” said McLane. “A small office was setup under the Assistant Director of Engineering, Aleck Bond, and I was assigned to head it. We were charged with determining what was needed to receive, protect, catalog, and distribute the materials collected from the surface of the moon. We were guided and assisted by a committee appointed by NASA headquarters, consisting mostly of people who had been selected, or expected to be selected as principal investigators for some of the many examinations and experiments proposed for the lunar samples.”
The initial plan called for a clean room approximately “ten feet by ten feet by seven feet” where the sample box could be opened under vacuum conditions and repackaged for distribution to various researchers.
But some NASA officials concluded just a single room wouldn’t be sufficient, and quickly came up with a plan for a 2,500 square foot research facility where the lunar samples would not only be stored, but studied as well. After more discussion, an 8,000 square-foot version was proposed. Scientists in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. Credit: NASA
Working with the scientific advisory committee to develop a workable plan for the ever-growing and changing proposed facility turned out to be an interesting challenge for McLane and his team.
“The biggest challenges were political,” McLane said. “All the scientists involved in studying the samples had laboratories of their own. They didn’t want to do anything unless it was going to benefit their facility back home. Others were suspicious that we were trying to appropriate activities that weren’t in the Manned Spacecraft Center’s charter at the expense of other NASA Centers. So, it was difficult to get everybody to cooperate and agree on just on the initial receiving procedure. A few of the experiments such as those to determine low level radiation properties of the samples were very time dependant. Thus it became evident that the facility and equipment required to perform those experiments would have to be located very near the point where the samples were first available. That point was Houston, and it particularly rankled some of the scientists to see new state-of-the-art facilities and equipment being located at Houston rather than at their home laboratories.”
“I had never worked with high level scientists before, and our advisory committee usually consisted of people who were at the level of principal assistants to Nobel Prize winners,” McLane continued.”Overall, it was a great group to work with, with one important exception. They each reserved the right to change his mind. It was not unusual for us to settle a contentious issue only to have it brought up again some weeks later. This caused some real schedule problems, but the instigator would plead ’Well, I was just wrong before’, or ‘I changed my mind’, often ignoring schedule and reality.
For example, one issue was whether to use glove boxes or use a closed container with mechanical manipulators (McLane equated them to the toy grappling machines in restaurants, only a little fancier) to work with the moon rocks. It took many discussions and debates to decide, and the decision would make a big different on what direction the engineers needed to go for building the lab, and they had a limited amount of time to decide.
McLane was also surprised about all the different scientific speculation that took place. “Some of the leading scientists of this country thought the moon was covered with several hundred feet of lunar dust and thought that when we landed on the moon the spacecraft would sink into the dust,” he said. “Fortunately that didn’t happen. Others thought the rocks on the moon, sitting in hard vacuum and bombarded with radiation and meteorites, that when first exposed to air they might catch on fire or explode. The speculations by good, smart, reputable people were just unlimited. But I guess they were trying to think of all the possibilities. We were fortunate that no one forced us to plan for any of these extreme speculations. Overall, our advisors did a good job of things.” The Lunar Receving Lab shortly after it was built. Credit: NASA
But then at one of the meetings in Washington to meet with advisors at NASA Headquarters, a scientist from the Public Health Service showed up and asked how NASA was going to protect against contamination of the Earth by lunar microorganisms.
McLane said the initial reaction by everyone else was, “What?”
For a couple of years a small group of scientists (which included a young and relatively unknown scientist named Carl Sagan) had been discussing the remote possibility that lunar samples brought back to Earth might contain deadly organisms that could destroy life on Earth. Even the spacecraft and the astronauts themselves could possibly bring back non-terrestrial organisms that could be harmful. Several governmental agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the US Army, and the National Institute of Health got wind of this idea — and perhaps blew it a little out of proportion — and NASA was forced to take action to prevent a possible biological disaster.
“The ‘lunar bugs’ as we called them,” said McLane, “well, nobody really believed there was life on the Moon, especially something that might affect people – make them sick or kill off our civilization, that sort of thing.”
McLane said that the first time Deke Slayton, head astronaut at the time, heard about this, he just about “flew out the window.”
“He said, ‘No way is somebody going to step in and put these restraints on the program. It’s difficult enough to just fly to the moon without all these precautions about contamination.’ But NASA had meetings with the Surgeon General of the US, and he took the attitude, ‘How much is the Apollo program going to cost – $20 billion or so? I don’t think it is outlandish to set aside one percent of that to guard against great catastrophe on Earth.'”
“We said that we would take on the challenge of guarding against organisms, but the Surgeon General would have to justify it to the Congress, about the increased costs to the program,” McLane recalled. “And he did. So that got settled. We developed a scheme and it was approved. Everyone had to accept it, there wasn’t any choice.”
That changed the entire complexion of what McLane and his team had to accomplish before astronauts could go to the Moon. What started out a just a small clean room would now have to be a research lab, plus a quarantine facility. Plans for the facility grew to an 86,000 square foot structure that would cost over $9 million. Lunar Receiving Lab. This drawing illustrates the complex design of the LRL, with its several different components including Lunar Sample Laboratory, Astronaut Reception Area, Radiation Laboratory, and Support and Administration. Credit: NASA
“We had to devise all the precautions,” said McLane, “as well as the facilities and procedures for quarantine of the astronauts, as well as accepting the samples and initiating tests on the rocks that had to be done quickly behind absolute biological barriers to test for any contamination before anything could be distributed to the scientific community. It was very interesting work.”
The LRL had accommodations for all the people and equipment that needed to be quarantined. “The astronauts were picked up in the ocean and they had to wear a special suit that was supposedly impervious to ‘lunar bugs,'” McLane said. “The astronauts were put into a modified Grumman Airstream trailer and delivered to Houston, trailer and all, waving at everyone through the windows, and talking to the president. They were taken to the Lunar Receiving Lab and placed in quarantine. It was comfortable in there, but the astronauts didn’t particularly like being in quarantine. We tried to limit the number of people who went into quarantine with them, but inevitably there were a few people– mostly ambitious secretaries and that sort of thing— who intentionally violated procedure and exposed themselves to the hypothetical lunar bugs and had move into the quarantine quarters.” The astronauts stayed in quarantine for three weeks. First lunar samples arrive from Apollo 11. Credit: NASA
By the time Apollo 11 launched McLane had moved on to other projects. “My part of the organization was the engineering directorate, and I was only charged with determining the requirements for the facility and staffing the facility,” he said. “Once we reached the point where the design had come along and the staffing was pretty well up, leading the lab required someone with an interest in science as opposed to engineering.”
But he watched with interest as the first mission to the Moon unfolded. He even had a place in the Mission Control VIP viewing gallery for the launch, sitting just behind science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.
Of course, it was determined that there were no “lunar bugs” and the quarantine requirement was dropped after Apollo 14. But the LRL safely stored, distributed and allowed for study of the lunar samples. In 1976 a portion of the samples were moved to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for second-site storage.
The LRL building is currently occupied by NASA’s Life Sciences division. It contains biomedical and environment labs, and is used for experiments involving human adaptation to microgravity. James C. McLane Jr today. Photo courtesy of James McLane Jr.
The lessons learned from creating the LRL will certainly be used in preparing for the first Mars sample return mission. Now, 86 years of age, will McLane offer any words of advice?
“The best that I hear now is that the techniques of isolation we used wouldn’t be adequate for a sample coming back from Mars,” he said, “so somebody else has a big job on their hands.”
McLane will be attending a special Apollo 11 celebration at Johnson Space Center – “just for the old timers,” he said.
