Tweet This! :)

Friday, June 14, 2019

The Apollo 10 mission and Snoopy’s fate


©Mark Ollig 

May 18, 1969, CBS News correspondent Walter Cronkite was broadcasting from the Kennedy Space Center.

Cronkite was there to report on the Apollo 10 mission to the moon.

It was Cronkite’s enthusiastic and informative commentary which kept this youngster’s eyes focused on my parents’ living room television during the Apollo space program.

This mission was a dress rehearsal; a practice run, and final testing of all the systems, maneuvers, and procedures to be used for ensuring Apollo 11 a successful July moon landing.

The Apollo 10 lunar module (LM) spacecraft was not to land on the moon; however, it did get very close to its surface.

Since the LM was going to be “snooping around” the moon’s surface, it was named “Snoopy.”

Of course, it just made sense to name the command module, the spacecraft all three Apollo 10 astronauts rode to and from the moon in, “Charlie Brown.”

May 22, 1969, Apollo 10 achieved an orbit around the moon. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford left the command module and climbed into the crew compartment of the ascent stage (the upper portion) of the two-stage lunar module.

Once inside the LM, they undocked from the command module.

Snoopy was now floating in moon orbit as it slowly began its descent toward the grayish lunar surface.

The command module, Charlie Brown, was being piloted by astronaut John Young, who would continue to orbit the moon.

The astronauts in the LM tested the guidance computer, ignited the reaction control system’s thruster quad engines, and performed tests on the lower-stage descent propulsion system.

They confirmed the lunar landing radar was operating correctly, along with verifying reliable radio communications with the moon orbiting Charlie Brown, and Mission Control in Houston, TX.

The astronauts aboard Snoopy also completed a video survey of the Sea of Tranquility, the designated landing site for Apollo 11.

As Snoopy flew over the Sea of Tranquility, the descent stage (bottom platform lander section of the LM) successfully fired its engine, slowing their descent.

The closest Snoopy would come to the moon’s surface would be 9.5 miles.

After achieving their moon landing mission objectives, the two astronauts jettisoned the descent stage of the LM, which slowly fell toward and crashed on the moon.

So, a part of Snoopy did make it to the lunar surface.

Stafford and Cernan ignited Snoopy’s upper ascent stage rocket engine to gain altitude, and position themselves into a rendezvous orbit with the command module.

After docking with and boarding the command module, the astronauts jettisoned the abandoned lunar module ascent stage, Snoopy, into space.

Once the ascent stage had drifted off to a safe distance from the command module, NASA flight controllers in Houston transmitted the command to remotely ignite Snoopy’s ascent rocket engine to drain the remaining fuel left in its tanks.

Snoopy’s ascent stage began traveling away from the moon.

May 26, 1969, the Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth.

So, where is Snoopy today?

For the last 50 years, Snoopy’s lunar module ascent stage; which includes its crew compartment, has been in a heliocentric orbit (traveling around the sun).

Snoopy is the only surviving Apollo lunar module ascent stage which went to the moon and is still voyaging through space.

Over the years, I often wondered if the two astronauts aboard Snoopy were ever tempted to land on the moon so they could lay claim to fame as being the first to do so.

Mission preparations did not include for an actual landing or lift-off from the moon’s surface.

There wasn’t enough fuel remaining in the propellant tanks of the descent stage to make a controlled landing, or enough in the ascent stage to take off and reach a high enough lunar orbit to rendezvous with the command module.

If they did manage to land Snoopy safely on the moon, the two astronauts would have been marooned there.

The orbiting command module could not land on the moon to make a rescue, so John Young would have been the only astronaut returning to Earth from Apollo 10.

Of course, Snoopy did not deviate from its mission, and the astronauts carried out and successfully completed the practice moon landing according to the flight plan.

Speaking of Snoopy, this week some exciting news was made public by astronomer Nick Howes of the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom.

Howes said he is 98 percent certain he found Snoopy.

Eight years ago, Howes and others began a project to find the still space-traveling Apollo 10 lunar module ascent stage.

“Until we get close-up radar data . . . then, nobody will know for sure . . . but it’s promising,” he wrote on his Twitter account, @NickAstronomer.

He mentioned, when Snoopy gets closer to Earth during its orbit of the sun, a detailed photo of it could be taken.

It wouldn’t surprise me if someday an attempt is made to retrieve Snoopy and bring it back to Earth.

The late astronaut Eugene Cernan, who was the lunar module pilot of Snoopy, reportedly told Howes, “Son, if you find that and bring it down, imagine the queues [lines] at the Smithsonian.”

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has information on the fate of every Apollo lunar module at http://tinyurl.com/nxwyrl6.
 
The Apollo 10 lunar module ascent stage -- Snoopy --
  (credit NASA)