Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, the means of reaching the moon in a mothership, landing in another craft, and then returning to Earth in the mothership, required both a lander and a mothership as independent craft. North American received the contract for the mothership (the Command and Service Module), while Grumman was commissioned to design and build the lander.
    Grumman's design was one of the most bizarre creatures to fly. With a minimal stretch of the imagination, one could view it as some sort of enormous, metallic insect. It had eyes, a nose, a mouth, shoulders, legs, and feet! It was the sort of thing that looked like it could built in their garage with copious quantities of tent poles and aluminum foil. But, as is often the case, looks were deceiving. Hidden beneath the metallic foil skin and buglike appearance was an engineering  masterpiece.
    Grumman could get away with making their lander so otherworldly because it was designed to be just that: a true spacecraft, operating only in a complete vacuum. The engineers didn't need to get bogged down with such pesky things as aerodynamics, because there is no atmosphere on or anywhere near the moon.
    Grumman's lunar lander (which was originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module, but shortened to Lunar Module due to Excursion's connotations of a frivolous expedition) was made up of two stages: the descent stage, and the ascent stage. The descent stage was octagonal in shape with four legs extending from the sides. It contained all of the necessary items for descent to the moon, landing there, and staying for a few days. At the very bottom was the descent engine, used to brake the fall to the lunar surface.
    The ascent stage on top of the descent stage was the pressurized crew compartment that the crew of two would live in during their visit to the moon. The front of the ascent stage made up the face of the LM (pronounced lim). A squarish hatch was the mouth, and two triangular windows were the eyes. These windows were slanted downward to provide a good view of the lunar landscape unfolding below.
    The original design for the LM called for called for huge picture windows in front and a chair for both crew members. But, this was exceedingly heavy, and Grumman found that for each kilogram of weight added, two kilograms of fuel were needed. Thus began the intense weight loss program for the LM.  Every milligram that could be removed was eliminated. The nine rung ladder leading down to the surface was made to work only in the gravity of the moon, which is one-sixth of that on Earth. If one tried climbing on the ladder on Earth, it would bend and break. The walls and floors were made much thinner to save weight. Once, a technician working in the LM dropped a tool, and it fell straight through the floor!
    The LM only flew unmanned once, on the Apollo 5 mission. Two manned test missions followed, and then six triumphant landings on the moon. Perhaps the true strength in Grummans design became apparent on the Apollo 13 mission when an explosion in the SM Odyssey forced the crew to use the LM Aquarius as a lifeboat to bring the crew safely home. Despite various design studies, the LM was never used after the Apollo program. It remains to this day the only spacecraft ever capable of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

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Country: USA
Organization: NASA
Manufacturer: Grumman
Launch Vehicle: Saturn 1B (unmanned test flight only), Saturn V
Price: $50 million
Number of crew: 2
Length: 6.4 meters
Diameter: 4.3 meters
Mass: 14,696 kilograms

image, image: LM exterior views.
image: LM interior.
image: Main LM control panel.

image, image, image: Views of LM#2, built as a follow-up to the Apollo 5 mission, but never needed. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, photographed February, 2001. (WL)

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