APOD: Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph (2017 Dec 30)

[APOD Robot]

Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in the foreground -- behind it lies the Lunar Module and distant lunar hills. Because the world was going to be able to watch the Lunar Module's ascent stage liftoff via the rover's TV camera, this parking place was also known as the VIP Site. In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. The crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than from any of the other lunar landing sites. Cernan and Schmitt are still the last to walk (or drive) on the Moon.

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[ta152h0]

american ingenuity. Bet it still runs

[JohnD]

Voyager's "trajectory correction maneuver" thrusters worked well, after 37 years without a puff. But they run on hypergolic fuel, hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidiser, that stay stable in store and autoignite when mixed.
In contrast, the Lunar Rover ran on two silver-zinc potassium hydroxide batteries with a capacity of 121 amp-hr. This is the same technology as a watch battery, with the same advantages of long life in use and store, and slow self discharge rate. Apoolo 17 drive theirs nearly 36kms, much less than the 97km design range, so much cahrge would have been left, but they cannot be recharged and after 45 years, I think that new batteries would be needed! No doubt the motors would still run. Would the nylon seat webbing have deteriorated in intense sunlight and radiation?

JOhn

[BDanielMayfield]

Voyager's "trajectory correction maneuver" thrusters worked well, after 37 years without a puff. But they run on hypergolic fuel, hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidiser, that stay stable in store and autoignite when mixed.
In contrast, the Lunar Rover ran on two silver-zinc potassium hydroxide batteries with a capacity of 121 amp-hr. This is the same technology as a watch battery, with the same advantages of long life in use and store, and slow self discharge rate. Apoolo 17 drive theirs nearly 36kms, much less than the 97km design range, so much cahrge would have been left, but they cannot be recharged and after 45 years, I think that new batteries would be needed! No doubt the motors would still run. Would the nylon seat webbing have deteriorated in intense sunlight and radiation?

JOhn

I wonder also about the tires. Would they have dry-rotted?

Bruce

[heehaw]

Remember Woody Allen's "Sleeper?" --- and the VW they found in a cave, covered with cobwebs, thousands of years having passed? And it started right up!!! (Ah, VW, how far you have fallen!)

[neufer]

---

I wonder also about the tires. Would they have dry-rotted?

<<The [wheels] consisted of a spun aluminum hub and a 81 cm diameter, 23 cm wide tire made of zinc-coated woven 0.84 mm diameter steel strands attached to the rim and discs of formed aluminum. Titanium chevrons covered 50% of the contact area to provide traction. Inside the tire was a 65 cm diameter bump stop frame to protect the hub.>>

[BDanielMayfield]

Remember Woody Allen's "Sleeper?" --- and the VW they found in a cave, covered with cobwebs, thousands of years having passed? And it started right up!!! (Ah, VW, how far you have fallen!)

There was an even more way, way out there episode of Star Trek: Voyager (The 37's if memory serves) in which an old rusty pickup truck was found drifting in space in the delta quadrant, far side of the galaxy. Naturally, it started right up too.

[BDanielMayfield]

---

I wonder also about the tires. Would they have dry-rotted?

<<The [wheels] consisted of a spun aluminum hub and a 81 cm diameter, 23 cm wide tire made of zinc-coated woven 0.84 mm diameter steel strands attached to the rim and discs of formed aluminum. Titanium chevrons covered 50% of the contact area to provide traction. Inside the tire was a 65 cm diameter bump stop frame to protect the hub.>>

So, metallic tires, I should have guessed as much, as no blowouts could have been tolerated.

Well then, with a dust-off, a battery swap out and a lube job, should be good to go.

Bruce

[JohnD]

Voyager's "trajectory correction maneuver" thrusters worked well, after 37 years without a puff. But they run on hypergolic fuel, hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidiser, that stay stable in store and autoignite when mixed.
In contrast, the Lunar Rover ran on two silver-zinc potassium hydroxide batteries with a capacity of 121 amp-hr. This is the same technology as a watch battery, with the same advantages of long life in use and store, and slow self discharge rate. Apoolo 17 drive theirs nearly 36kms, much less than the 97km design range, so much cahrge would have been left, but they cannot be recharged and after 45 years, I think that new batteries would be needed! No doubt the motors would still run. Would the nylon seat webbing have deteriorated in intense sunlight and radiation?

JOhn

I wonder also about the tires. Would they have dry-rotted?

Bruce

Zinc coated steel wire mesh tyres with steel 'treads', aluminium alloy hub - whats to "dry-rot"?
I wonder about the bearings. Has the lubrication been preserved?
John

[Fred the Cat]

No telling what VR adapts we'll be able to view soon. I'm still hoping for rocket drones.

[JohnD]

VW, tough? Pah!
Ford (?) pick-up, survives even space? Trivial.

I give you Ladees & Gennelmen, ther TOYOTA HILUX!
Top Gear tried to kill it. They:
Drowned it, in ther sea.
Dropped a caravan on it
Dropped it froma height
Used a wrecking ball on it.
SET FIRE TO IT
Blew it up from the top of a 23-story building that was being demolished with explosives.

And it started AND DROVE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTPnIpjodA8

John

[Chris Peterson]

No doubt the motors would still run.

I wouldn't count on that at all. Or any other moving parts still working. Vacuum welding is a serious problem, even today with exotic coatings. On that old technology? Lots of things are going to be solidly frozen up.

[JohnD]

I've unfrozen 5o year old engines that have sat in the rain! With no cyclinder head on!
They don't make things like they used to!

John

[Chris Peterson]

I've unfrozen 5o year old engines that have sat in the rain! With no cyclinder head on!
They don't make things like they used to!

Were they sitting in a hard vacuum, as well? ;)