Belitopia

Project Apollo started as a program simply to land a man on the moon before the Russians. But, as time went on, the Apollo technology found more and more uses as we learned how to live and work in space. Apollo technology gave us earth orbiting space stations, two bases on the` lunar surface, a lunar orbiting space station, communications satellites a quarter of a million miles from either the earth or the moon, and a crewed mission to flyby the planet Venus. What a legacy. But what’s next? Now that we’ve proven we can live and work in space, what is our next challenge in space? The next challenge is learning how to live in persistently and sustainably in space. How can we have a permanent presence in space? That is the subject of season 2 of Belitopia, and this final episode of season 1 gives you a glimpse into the missions and technology that are next inline after Project Apollo, and the Apollo Applications Program is complete. LINKS * Link to episode (https://belitopia.com/110 [https://belitopia.com/110]) * Apollo Program Information (https://belitopia.com/apollo [https://belitopia.com/apollo]) * Help support our show (https://belitopia.com/support [https://belitopia.com/support]) * Review and rate us on Podchaser (https://www.podchaser.com/Belitopia [https://www.podchaser.com/Belitopia]) * Keep Informed when season 2 is about to start (belitopia.com/signup [http://belitopia.com/signup]) * Neil deGrasse Tyson - StarTalk (https://www.startalkradio.net [https://www.startalkradio.net]) * Space Resource quote - StarTalk, Nov 27, 2016 INTRODUCTION This season of Belitopia has been all about project Apollo, and extensions and enhancements to the use of project Apollo technology in order to further human presence in space. Using Apollo technology in Belitopia: We landed on the moon. We lived and worked in earth orbit. We lived and worked in lunar orbit. We lived and worked on the lunar surface. And we visited our nearest neighbor, the planet Venus. All of these missions were possible extensions to the real world Apollo program, if we would have just committed the financial resources to make it happen. And in the world of Belitopia, we did commit those resources and these missions occurred. So, this begs the question. Why didn’t we do these missions in real life? Well, you have to remember what was the primary driver for the Apollo moon mission in the first place. It was politics. We were afraid of the Soviet Union and what they could accomplish in space. Sputnik scared America, and our response was to build a space program to prove we were better at space exploration than the Soviet Union. It took many years...decades...before we caught up with the Soviet Union. They kept beating us to space firsts... ...first man in space ...first man in orbit ...first unmanned ship to the moon ...and many others. We needed a victory. We eventually found that victory in July of 1969 with the landing of the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin won the space race for us. It wasn’t because we, the United States, were better at space than the Soviet Union...we weren’t. Rather, it was because we finally were able to beat them at something. Beat them at one thing...landing a man on the moon. But once we did that, for all practical purposes, the race was over. The political drive that motivated the need for the space program was gone. We gave up, and we moved on to other more pressing national priorities, such as the war in Vietnam. The only reason there were Apollo missions beyond the Apollo 11 moon landing was because of the momentum involved in stopping it. The political pressure to stop investing came almost immediately, and eventually the program was swallowed up by the pressure and we stopped after Apollo 17. We had plans for more Apollo missions, and started building the space craft necessary for Apollo 18-20, but by the time Apollo 17 happened, there was no stopping the pressure to stop the investment, and the program was scrapped. The Russians had beat us on many accomplishments in space, but we had beat them on one accomplishment, and that was enough for us. And it was all the American public...and the political powers to be in the United States...could stomach. There was no longer enough motivation to continue the space race. But there are other reasons why we ***should*** explore outer space. Natural curiosity was a big driver for the program, and the space program created a host of auxiliary technology that improved our every day lives. These were reasons enough to continue the space program. But we also are just beginning to realize there might be valuable resources in space, resources valuable enough to worth exploring. But in the real world, none of these reasons were enough to justify continuing the space program. In the world of Belitopia, though, these reasons were enough, and the Belitopian world is a better place because of it. There is a great quote that describes for me why space exploration is so important in the world of Belitopia — and why it should be in our “real” world. The quote is by the famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on his show StarTalk in late 2016. The quote is: “There is an outer space treaty for the peaceful use of outer space. So the goal is when we all go into space, we will treat each other kindly. I don’t have the confidence that others have in that. I want to believe it. But, I say to myself, if you can treat each other kindly in space, then why not do that here on earth? Why do you have to be in space to not kill one another? However, my one glimmer of hope, is that so much of human conflict in the history of civilization has been derived from scarcity of resource and access to those resources. And I look at space. Astroids, comets...stars with limitless energy...and I realize…we should all realize…that space is a limit***less*** supply of natural resources. Space may be the only place where peace is guaranteed, because in fact, we would have run out of all reasons for why to kill one another.” If there has ever been a better reason for space exploration than this, I don’t know what it would be. This quote says that space exploration is important because it gives us access to uncountable amounts of natural resources, and that in turn reduces or eliminates our needs to kill our fellow human beings here on earth This is why, in my mind, the world of Belitopia is so important. THE APOLLO APPLICATIONS PROGRAM And the greatly expanded Apollo program was the first step in this. The expanded world of Belitopia began, if you recall back in episode #2, with the formation of the Apollo Applications Program, AAP, as a formalized program with a real budget and real objectives. In the real world, the AAP was a program that never really materialized. But in the world of Belitopia, it was fully realized and it turned into a separate agency, distinct and separate from NASA, that allowed us to create and expand the reach of the Apollo program in Belitopia. It was because of this expanded AAP program... ...That the Skylab space station became a fully funded, multi-space-station program. ...That the Lunar Skylab space station existed at all. ...That we were able to create two long duration lunar bases on the lunar surface. ...That a sophisticated human transportation network was created between the earth and the moon, as was the case with the LT missions used to send crews to the lunar bases and stations. ...That a powerful communications network was created covering the entire earth-moon system, allowing us full communications without blackout areas anywhere in the earth-moon system. ...And that, finally, humans left our earth-moon system on a flyby voyage around the planet Venus. All of this was possible because of the power of Apollo, and the vision of the Apollo Applications Program. EARTH BASED INFRASTRUCTURE One thing we did not talk about much this season, is the impact this expanded Apollo program had on the infrastructure needed on earth to launch all of these missions. In Belitopia, the space infrastructure needs on earth were substantially greater than they were in real life. We went from launching a dozen Apollo spacecraft into space over a 5-6 year period, as what happened in real life, to suddenly in the world of Belitopia, we needed to launch over 90 Apollo spacecraft. At any given point in time, there could be up to a half dozen distinct missions going on simultaneously...each needing a mission control center on earth to operate it. We needed the ability to build, assemble, launch, operate, and land a significant number of Apollo-based, crewed missions. For that, we needed expanded earth-based infrastructure. Let’s focus just on the NASA and AAP infrastructure pieces required. Obviously, the large contractors that provided equipment to NASA, such as Grumman, Boeing, North American, and Douglas needed to have expanded manufacturing infrastructures. But let’s focus just on the visible pieces of infrastructure needed within the NASA and AAP government program spaces themselves. Let’s start with the cape, where the missions all started. It’s where the rockets were assembled, and where they were launched. The various components that made up an Saturn Apollo launch vehicle were assembled in Florida in the Vehicle Assembly Building. At the time, the Vehicle Assembly Building was the largest building ever built. But with the expanded role of Apollo, the single Vehicle Assembly Building would not be sufficient. The existing Vehicle Assembly Buildings could simultaneously assemble three Apollo vehicle stacks. In Belitopia, at the peak of operations, there could be up to 9 vehicles being assembled at once. This required the construction of two additional Vehicle Assembly Buildings, each as massive as the first. Then there are launch pads. There were several launch pads at the cape in Florida that were used for launching Apollo spacecraft. But with the accelerated launch schedule, there would need to be four fully operational launch pads available, each one capable of launching at Saturn V or Saturn IB rocket into space. There were four launch pads in the real world at various stages of construction, but only two were really used. In Belitopia, all four would be required to be fully operational. This also meant that the conveyance network between the vehicle assembly building and the launch pad needed to be expanded. The conveyance network was the massive tank-like machine that was used to transport a fully assembled spacecraft stack from the vehicle assembly building, to the launch pad. The short trip, a mile or two at most depending on the launch pad used, took many days for a space craft to be transported. With three fully active vehicle assembly buildings and four fully active launch pads, this conveyance network also needed to be expanded. With the four launch pads, multiple launch control centers were needed as well, along with expanded training facilities for the additional launch control operations members that were needed. In Houston, mission control needed to be expanded. During the real Apollo days, there was never more than one mission operating at a time, so a single mission control center was all that was needed. At the peak of Belitopia, there could be up to three full Apollo missions operating at the same time. Additionally, at peak, there were also a Skylab space station in earth orbit, the lunar Skylab space station, and two distinct crewed bases on the lunar surface. That meant at peak, there was a need to manage seven fully staffed mission control centers to manage the seven in-operation missions. This also meant a huge increase in the staff to manage those seven mission control centers. And while the multiple missions could share back room staffs to some degree, a significant increase in back room supporting staff for the mission controllers would also be needed. Then there was the training facilities for all of these additional controllers... To say nothing about the large increase in the number of astronauts needed to handle these 90 missions and the training needs for these astronauts. Even at splashdown, more than one recovery zone and recovery ship was needed to support the ability to recover more than one mission returning close enough to the same time that a single recovery ship could not handle the multiple landings. And those recovery ships had staff, that needed to be trained. The needs were great. Not necessarily significantly greater than what was spent in real life at the peak of the Apollo program, but the spending at the peak of Apollo was needed not for a couple years, but more like a dozen or two years. This investment created jobs and spurred economic growth within the United States. So while a significant amount of money was being spent, the long term positive impact was significant. Apollo, a fully utilized program in the world of Belitopia, was a boom for our economy, for the space program, for technological advancement, for our position as a super power in the new world order, and for an expanded American dominance in the world stage in the latter half of the twentieth century. THE AGING APOLLO TECHNOLOGY But, by the early 1980s, the Apollo technology was getting old and its limitations and warts were showing through. The earliest warts appeared during the Christmas Miracle of The Venus Flyby mission. But other warts started to show as well. The program had accomplished a huge number of goals, but the life of Apollo was nearly over. A bigger...better...larger space exploration program was needed if we wanted to expand our footprint even further and more deeply than we had up until now. Something better than Apollo was needed. So, on June 14, 1982, the Apollo Applications Program was dismantled, and the teams and structures of that program were merged back into NASA. NASA was already starting to explore other technologies, such as a Space Transportation Network — the Space Shuttle — and other technologies. The resources invested in AAP were now going to be put towards these other programs...and an enhanced and expanded NASA was the result. What were some of the programs that were needed beyond Apollo? There were many. First and foremost: there was a desire to replace the temporary Skylab space station program with a permanent manned space station in earth orbit. We needed this not only as a research station, but as a transportation hub for an improved earth-moon transportation system and as a launching point for deeper space missions. We needed a heavy lift rocket program that could bring large quantities of equipment and resources from the earth surface into low earth orbit. This was needed to assemble the space station, but also provide resources for other missions. We needed an easy and convenient method of bringing astronauts back and forth from the earth surface to the low earth orbit space station. This had to allow practical transportation of reasonably large quantities of people back and forth to the permanent space station. We needed an improved earth-orbit to lunar-orbit transportation program. Something that could replace the Apollo spacecraft and allow a regular shuttle program for people and supplies to and from lunar orbit. We were already working on a better lunar lander, as we discussed earlier in this season, and with that lander, we could build larger and more permanent bases on the lunar surface. These permanent bases would allow us to perform lunar geological research and locate valuable resources on and under the lunar surface. And we still wanted to go to Mars... All of these were missions that were coming, were needed, and were going to happen in the world of Belitopia, but we needed improved space technology in order to make all of this happen. Technology beyond Apollo. This is where season 2 will come from. While season 1 of Belitopia was based on the enhanced Apollo program, season 2 will be based on the next generation of space technology beyond Apollo that was to be built. The Apollo technology in season 1 gave us the ability to visit — temporarily but sometimes relatively long term — many different places in our earth-moon system as well as beyond to Venus. The new technology that we will describe in season 2 will focus on building permanent establishments in space. So, while season 1 built the temporary Skylab space station, season 2 will build the permanent Space Station Freedom. In season 1 we built the temporary lunar bases, Tycho Base and BLA Base, in season 2 we will build permanently crewed bases including a permanent Tycho Base...a permanent BLA base...and a brand new permanent Armstrong Base, named after the first man on the moon. We will begin the era of a permanent presence of humans on the lunar surface. We will also begin longer duration crewed deep space missions, including a return to Venus, a flyby mission to Mars, and a landing on the Martian surface. All of this because of the improved space technology we will be constructing in the world of Belitopia in Season 2. I do hope you have enjoyed Season 1. If you enjoyed it, please leave me a rating and review in Apple Podcasts, in Podchaser, or in the Podcasting application of your choice. And please checkout the wealth of information I have available on our website, belitopia.com [http://belitopia.com]. All of it is available for free. But if you like like the work I do in creating the world of Belitopia, please donate to the cause. You can click on the “buy me a cup of coffee” links anywhere on the website, or go to belitopia.com/support [http://belitopia.com/support] to donate. If you would like to be informed when season 2 is about to start, please sign up for our email list. You can click the “Keep Informed” link on our website, or go to belitopia.com/signup [https://belitopia.com/signup]. Thank you for your support and I hope to see you next season, in the world of Belitopia. 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We landed on the moon. We built a habitat on the moon. We are living in earth orbit, and we are living in lunar orbit. We are living on the far side of the moon, with no visibility to earth...ever. With four space stations, two lunar bases, and over 35 crewed trips between the earth and the moon, how can we possibly communicate with each other over the long term? How can we keep all these missions in communications with earth? The answer, is a communications network that grows and becomes more sophisticated as time goes on. By the end of the Apollo-era, we can communicate over a half million miles without the requirement that we be line of sight with an earth based antenna. This required a sophisticated network of communications satellites and technologies…and a bit of luck. This is the Apollo Lunar Communications Network. In the world of Belitopia. LINKS * Episode Details (https://belitopia.com/109 [https://belitopia.com/109]) * Belitopia Information from this Episode (https://belitopia.com/lunarnet [https://belitopia.com/lunarnet]) * Lagrangian Points (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point]) * Lunar Fronzen Orbits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_orbit#Lunar_frozen_orbits [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_orbit#Lunar_frozen_orbits]) * Precession (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession]) * Lunar Wobble - NASA (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10836 [https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10836]) * Lunar Libration - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration]) * Earth Rise - Famous picture from Apollo 8 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise]) As we near the end of season one, we’re going to try a slightly new format for this episode. We aren’t going to use the future documentary format, rather we are going to stay in a current day conversation. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about the fledgling communications network being built in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s to support the various Apollo missions we have previously discussed in season 1. We’ve talked about part of this network briefly in episode 7, when we talked about the lunar base on the far side of the moon...the BLA base. But there’s a lot more to that network than you imagine, and a lot more to lunar communications in general than you might think. This network was the first such extra-earthly communications network, and it was developed during the early days of the space race. GLOBAL EARTH DISH NETWORK During the early Apollo days, during our first missions to the moon, one of the initial communications problems that had to be solved was how do you keep the moon-bound Apollo space craft in communications with earth, when the earth keeps rotating. That means, mission control, in Houston, Texas, was only in line of site of the Apollo space craft for relatively short periods of time every day — a few hours at most. In order for Houston to maintain a 24 hour a day communications with the moon-bound space craft, a series of satellite communications stations were built around the globe. As the earth rotated, different stations around the globe were in line of sight communications with the Apollo spacecraft at different times during the day. These stations were in direct communications with Houston via landline communications channels...essentially phone calls. Each station, when it was their turn, would relay signals between the Apollo space craft and mission control. The result was a virtual 24 hour a day continuous connection between Houston and the Apollo spacecraft. This was a great start. But as the 1960s moved into the 1970s more and more spacecraft were put into space between the earth and moon. This put a drain on this earth bound satellite network. Plus, the earth bound network required the United States to have facilities at foreign bases around the world, meaning there was a political aspect to maintaining the communications network. Something better was needed. EARTH ORBIT COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES The decision was made to invest in a satellite based communications network for lunar communications. This started out as a series of low earth orbit satellites that could communicate with spacecraft on the way to the moon. By utilizing several of these satellites, at any given point in time, at least one satellite and/or a ground station was in line of site of the moon at any given point in time. These satellites relieved pressure on the ground base network, but did not eliminate the need for the ground stations to exist. Eventually, as satellite technology improved, larger and more complex geosynchronous orbit satellites were put into space. This required a fewer number of such satellites in order to maintain communications with the moon, and it eliminated the need for the ground based network. At least one geosynchronous orbit satellite was in line of site with the moon at all times. They would communicate between each other, and one of them would send a signal back and forth to Houston. The result was a continuous communications network between earth and any moon bound craft, 24 hours a day, without the need for earth based relay stations around the globe. NEAR VS FAR SIDE OF THE MOON Back in episode 7, which was part 2 of the Lunar Base series, we learned that we built a base, named the BLA base, on the far side of the moon...the side of the moon opposite that of earth. As you are most likely aware, the moon rotates at the exact same speed as the rate it revolves around the earth. While this may seem like a big coincidence, it actually is pretty common in our solar system...that is to have a moon rotate around its axis at the same rate as the moon rotates around the planet. It’s a phenomenon called tidal lock. Our moon is in tidal lock with earth. Tidal lock is the reason why we always see the same side of the moon from earth. The same side of the moon is always facing the earth. Therefore, until the space program, no human had ever seen the back side of the moon. While the Russians first took pictures of the back side of the moon from their Luna 3 probe in 1959, the first humans to see it in person were the crew of Apollo 8 as they orbited around the moon in Christmas of 1968. This is the Apollo crew that took the famous picture of the “rising earth” over the lunar horizon. This amazingly popular picture is believed by some to be a major contributor to the start of the global conservation movement. The BLA base, named after these astronauts from Apollo 8, was the first human establishment built on the far side of the moon. But being on the far side of the moon, it meant it was not in line of sight with the earth, ever. Hence radio signals could not get from earth to the base, which made it impossible to communicate with the base directly. This generated a huge problem that would have to be solved. EARLY LUNAR ORBIT SATELLITES One possible solution to the problem was to put satellites into lunar orbit, just like we did in earth orbit. Eventually, this would happen, but in the early days of the moon program, it was discovered that it was difficult to maintain an orbit around the moon for any significant period of time. Irregularities in the mass of the moon causes any object in lunar orbit to naturally decay and eventually crash into the lunar surface. This was a huge problem. While a solution was found to this problem in time for the Lunar Skylab program to take advantage of a stable lunar orbit, it took awhile for this capability to be discovered, and it was of limited usefulness during the planning and creation of the BLA base. Another solution was needed. L4 AND L5 LAGRANGIAN POINTS That solution involved satellites placed at the Earth-Moon L4 & L5 Lagrangian points. What are the Lagrangian points? The Lagrangian points are positions relative to the Earth and Moon that provide stable orbits ... stable positions ... where satellites and other objects can exist without having their position degrade and fall into either the earth or the moon. Links to more information about the Lagrangian points and where they are located are in the shownotes. There are five such points in the earth-moon system. However, two of them are quite useful for our communications purposes...they are the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points. These points are in an orbit around the earth at the same distance from the earth as the moon is from the earth. They also are the same distance away from the moon as they are from the earth. The earth, moon, and Lagrangian point form an equilateral triangle...that is a triangle with each of the three sides the exact same length. There are two such points, one that is in orbit ahead of the moon, orbiting the earth in front of the moon. The other is in orbit behind the moon...that is orbiting the earth behind the moon. Satellites could be placed at either of these two locations, and they would remain in that stationary position relative to the earth and the moon. They would be stationary relative to the moon, and would rotate around the earth at a rate equivalent to the rate the moon rotates around the earth, namely once every 27 days. How would satellites in these orbits appear from either the earth or the moon? From the earth, the satellites in either L4 or L5 would appear to move across the ecliptic at the same speed as the moon...in other words, they would rotate through the zodiac once every 27 days. From the perspective of the moon, they would appear to be stationary in the sky, just like the earth appeared to be stationary in the sky. Where in the lunar sky they would appear would depend on where you were on the lunar surface. But the key was that one of the two satellites, either L4 or L5, or the earth itself would always be visible from any point on the lunar surface. This made communications satellites at these two positions valuable in communicating with astronauts on the lunar surface. In the specific case of the BLA base, the base is nearly directly on the opposite side of the moon from the earth. This position meant the satellites would appear very low in the east or western sky...L4 in the eastern sky, L5 in the western sky. These two satellites would be used to communicate between the BLA lunar base and the earth. If L4 was visible in the eastern sky, and L5 was visible in the western sky, why were both satellites needed? Why couldn’t they have just one satellite at either L4 or L5? Why did they have to have both? Well, for one thing, as astronauts roamed the surface of the moon, it would be nice to have a satellite at both locations, which would allow more coverage of a greater portion of the lunar surface. This wasn’t a big reason, though, because there was no plans on roaming far enough from the base to make that much difference in the position of the satellites in the sky. But there was a bigger reason...and that was because of lunar wobble. You see, when I said that the earth and L4/L5 points were stationary in the sky, I wasn’t quite being accurate. The moon, like most other heavenly bodies, including the earth, have a wobble to them. While they rotate around their North-South axis, their North-South axis also rotates a few degrees. Think of a spinning top. The axis of the top doesn’t stay fixed, it rotates at a slower rate than the rate the top spins, but it does move. The same thing happens with planets and moons. Their north-south axis moves over time. EARTH AND MOON PRECESSION In the case of the earth, this wobble is very very slow. In fact, one rotation of the axis takes around 26,000 years. A very slow rotation. This is called the earth precession, and it results in the North Star...the star the North Pole points towards...changing over the course of thousands of years. The moon also has a precession...it also wobbles. In the moon case, the wobble is caused by a complex series of gravitation pull changes caused by how the moon rotates around the earth. The earth gravitation pull varies as the moon rotates around the earth, and the moon orbit is not perfectly round. The net result is the moon wobbles rather rapidly and rather significantly. Because of this wobble, the earth appears to move in the lunar sky in the shape of a series of ellipsis. These ellipsis’ are around 10 degrees to 15 degrees of arc across the sky (that’s about 5%-8% of the total sky from horizon to horizon). The earth would move in this ellipsis over the course of a lunar month...27 days. This is enough wobble that it can be noticed. The earth would appear in different spots relative to the background stars day after day. The wobble is significant. Links to more information about the lunar wobble and precession in general is contained in the shownotes. The same thing occurs with the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points. They also move in 10-15 degree arcs over the course of a lunar month. From the BLA lunar base, however, these Lagrangian points are near the horizon. As a result of this wobble, over the course of a month, the Lagrangian points will dip below the horizon, then go above the horizon, in the shape of an ellipse. When L4 is below the horizon, L5 is above the horizon. When L4 is above the horizon, L5 is below the horizon. This is the main reason why a satellite was needed at both Lagrangian points. Because over the course of a month, at some points one satellite was above the horizon and at other times the other satellite was above the horizon. Only the satellite that was above the horizon could be used to communicate with BLA Base. Hence, a satellite was needed at both locations for continuous communications. COMMUNICATIONS LAG The moon is approximately 239,000 miles away from the earth. Even at the speed of light, communications messages sent from the earth to the moon would take 1.3 seconds to arrive at their destination. A round trip message from the earth to the moon and back again would take 2.6 seconds. If you were on earth talking to an astronaut on the lunar surface, and the astronaut immediately sent what you said back to you on earth again, you would hear an echo...you’d hear your voice repeat back to you 2.6 seconds after you spoke. This delay made real time communications a bit of a challenge, but it didn’t prevent it from occurring. You just had to realize you had the delay when you were talking to astronauts on the moon, and wait a longer period of time for them to reply to your query. However, when the signals had to be relayed through the L4 or L5 satellites, there was a greater delay. The distance from the earth to L4 or L5 was 239,000 miles, but then the distance from L4 or L5 to the moon was another 239,000 miles. This meant that the one way communications path from earth to moon via one of the Lagrangian satellites would take 2.6 seconds. A round trip message from earth to the moon and back again, via L4 or L5, would take 5.2 seconds. This was a significant delay and would make real time communications much more difficult. It was a fact of life, however, and this lag would have to be always considered. It’s the reason why, eventually, a better and more stable set of communications satellites in lunar orbit was preferred. It would remove the long transmission time to and from L4 and L5, which would bring the round trip delay back to 2.6 seconds...much better than the 5.2 seconds caused by the L4/L5 network. But, during the life of the BLA base, this was not to be available. LUNAR TRANSIT COMMUNICATIONS What about communications *during* the trip from the earth to the moon and back again? There were a number of Command-Service modules...CSMs...that were sent back and forth between the earth and the moon, bringing crews back and forth to the lunar surface to the various bases and also to the Lunar Skylab. These LT lunar transportation missions also needed to communicate to both the earth and the moon. Communications to earth was relatively easy. A high gain antenna was attached to the CSM that was used to send messages to earth. The messages at earth were picked up either by an earth based relay station, or one of the low earth orbit or geosynchronous orbit satellites orbiting around the earth. Replies were sent back to the in-transit CSM the same way. When the CSM reached lunar orbit, when the CSM was in line of site of earth, it could communicate with the earth. Before the L4-L5 satellites were in place, when the CSM was on the back side of the moon, they were in a blackout and could not communicate with the earth. This was the case during the early Apollo missions. This was important, because the lunar insertion burns and the trans-earth injection burns...these were the burns that put the CSM into lunar orbit and took the CSM out of lunar orbit for the return trip home...both had to occur on the back side of the moon, out of radio contact with earth. This was unfortunate, but a fact of life in the early Apollo days. Creation of the L4-L5 satellite network meant that the CSM could use the L4-L5 network when on the back side of the moon and remain in communications with earth all the time, even during the back side of the moon burns. This entire process meant that the delay in communications between earth and moon varied. On the way to the moon, the delay was based on how far the CSM was from earth... Once the CSM was in lunar orbit, the delay went back and forth from 2.6 seconds, to 5.2 seconds, depending on whether the CSM was on the front or the back side of the moon. The same was true for the Lunar Skylab. As it orbited the moon, when it was on the front side of the moon, it’s communications lag with earth was 2.6 seconds. When the Lunar Skylab was on the back side of the moon, the delay was 5.2 seconds as messages were relayed via the L4 or L5 satellites. All of this certainly complicated communications, but it was still highly valuable to be able to remain in constant communications with earth, even in lunar orbit. Because of this network, all astronauts anywhere in the earth-moon system...whether they were in transit to/from the moon, in lunar orbit, or literally anywhere on the lunar surface...were always in constant communications with earth. VENUS FLYBY COMMUNICATIONS All of this network communications was designed for communicating between earth and various missions, spaceships, and bases at the moon or on the way to the moon. But what about the Venus Flyby mission? This was the only crewed Apollo mission that went beyond the orbit of the moon. This wasn’t a half a million mile trip, like a round trip mission to the moon involved. This was a 60 million mile round trip mission to and around the planet Venus. At 20-30 million miles away, communications was a bit harder. Communications lag was not measured in seconds, but in minutes. When the mission was near Venus, the round trip delay was around 200 seconds, nearly 3 and 1/2 minutes. This meant that realtime interactive communications was not possible at all. Communications was more like exchanging emails, rather then using a telephone. Additionally, signal strength was an issue. The Venus Flyby vehicle had a large and powerful antenna for communicating with earth. But still the...

The United States was forming quite a bit of a space complex. They had space stations in low earth orbit, learning how to live and work in space, eventually to establish a permanent presence in low earth orbit. They had bases on the surface of the moon. Learning how to live and work on the lunar surface, 239,000 miles from earth, and in the case of the BLA base, not even visible from the surface of the earth. They even had satellites far from earth at the earth-moon Lagrangian points. All of this has been discussed in past episodes of Belitopia. But what was left was an orbital presence above the surface of the moon. We’ve had many ships that have orbited the moon. Every Apollo mission that went to the moon, orbited the moon for some period of time. Yet, given the constraints of the Apollo command module, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for long term study of the lunar surface from lunar orbit. This was the purpose of the Lunar Skylab program. Provide an environment for the long term study of the lunar surface from low lunar orbit. This is…Lunar Skylab. Welcome to Belitopia. Links * Episode Details (https://belitopia.com/108 [https://belitopia.com/108]) * Belitopia Information from this Episode (https://belitopia.com/lunarskylab [https://belitopia.com/lunarskylab]) * Skylab + Episode (https://belitopia.com/105 [https://belitopia.com/105]) * Apollo Lunar Bases p1 Episode (https://belitopia.com/106 [https://belitopia.com/106]) * Apollo Lunar Bases p2 Episode (https://belitopia.com/107 [https://belitopia.com/107]) * Lunar Frozen Orbits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_orbit#Lunar_frozen_orbits [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_orbit#Lunar_frozen_orbits]) Topic Introduction The goal of the Lunar Skylab program was to send a Skylab-like space station into *lunar* orbit — 60 miles above the surface of the moon — then occupy the station with long duration crews that could study the lunar surface in greater detail, along with learn how to live in zero G far from the surface of the earth. In real life, this program never took place. There was never a space station built beyond low earth orbit. But in Belitopia, we deployed a Skylab-like space station into Lunar orbit in order to facilitate the study of the lunar surface, to facilitate telescopic study of the space without the worry of earth’s atmosphere, and explore alternative transportation mechanisms between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. What follows is a fictional documentary about the Lunar Skylab space station. The documentary is presented as if it takes place in the year 2040, some 70 years after these events took place. The documentary, titled “Our World in Space”, describes the construction and occupation of this lunar space station. The documentary describes these events as a future historical record of past events. While fiction, it’s based on research into how such a station may have been constructed, what it would have been used for, and how it would have benefited humankind. Theis documentary is about the Lunar Skylab program and its impact on our long term presence in space. The Lunar Skylab program, in the world of Belitopia. Documentary Hello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Lunar Skylab Program”. The Lunar Skylab. A space station 60 miles above the lunar surface. The first long duration human habitat to be built in space that was not in low earth orbit. The technology wasn’t hard for the station itself. The space station was essentially identical to the Skylab I space station, except it utilized many technology improvements that were built into Skylab III. The hard part was, how do we put it into lunar orbit? After all, the original skylab was launched into low earth orbit using a Saturn V rocket, at least the first two stages of it. That was easy. But now, the goal was to send the same station not 100 miles above the surface of the earth, but they needed to send it 239,000 miles away to a lunar orbit. They did this by making use of a third stage to the Saturn V, and putting the skylab station above that third stage. The additional third stage was actually an S-IVC third stage — the same third stage that was used for the Venus Flyby mission. An extended and more powerful third stage than the standard S-IVB that was used to send the Apollo spacecraft to lunar orbit. The Lunar Skylab was launched from earth on October 10, 1977. The single Skylab module was put into low earth orbit by the first and second stage of the Saturn V rocket. There it remained for a short stay while it was checked out and verified that it was undamaged during the launch. Then, the third stage S-IVC engine fired and sent the Lunar Skylab module on its 239,000 mile trip to the moon. The stations arrived in lunar orbit on October 13, 1977. The solar panels were deployed automatically, and the station was ready for occupation. The station was put into an orbit roughly 60 miles above the surface of the moon. A Stable Lunar Orbit Remaining in lunar orbit was a challenge. Due to variation in the composition of the moon, and changing densities, objects in lunar orbit tended to fall out of orbit. This was an ongoing problem with many previous unmanned satellites sent to the moon, along with all the Apollo manned voyages to the lunar surface. Maintaining a stable orbit was nearly impossible. However, during the many missions that came before the lunar skylab was ready for launch, it was determined that there were four stable orbits…called frozen orbits…where a satellite such as the Lunar Skylab station could exist and remain in orbit for the long term. The easiest orbit was at an 86 degree angle, which was a nearly polar orbit. This was possible, but it would mean it would be difficult for ships arriving from earth to dock with the space station, if they were also destined to land on the lunar surface. Given this, a much more equatorial orbit was desired. A second frozen orbit was found to exist at a 27 degree angle above equatorial, and this was considered to be close enough to be reasonable for docking with lunar surface bound space ships, such as the LT missions that transported crews to the lunar surface. Once the Lunar Skylab was in a safe and stable orbit above the lunar surface, the first crew for the station left earth. This was on October 13, 1977. The crew of Lunar Skylab M1 departed earth and arrived in lunar orbit on October 16, 1977, when they docked with the orbiting space station. They remained at the station for some 40 days before returning to earth on November 28, 1977. Their primary purpose was to setup and test the various components that made up the space station, and make sure it was ready for long term occupancy. In all, seven crews visited the lunar skylab over a period of roughly three years. The longest duration stay was Lunar Skylab M4, which stayed for 386 days. The Lunar Skylab included a telescope mount, just like the original Skylab I and the currently active Skylab III had. The telescope was used to take deep space pictures from lunar orbit. This was especially useful when the ship was in the point of its orbit where it was in the shadow of the sun, and away from the glow of the earth. The darkness at this point gave unprecedented access to the night sky that was great for deep space exploration, much better photographs than was possible from using standard 1980s technology telescopes. This created tremendous opportunities for deep space discovery. Lunar Geological Photography In addition to taking pictures out towards outer space, the various crews of the Lunar Skylab took significant pictures of the lunar surface. One of the crews of Lunar Skylab, the M4 crew, which stayed the longest at the station, had among its crew a astro-geologist who could study the pictures real time and decide what additional pictures should be taken of what parts of the lunar surface. This meant the pictures that were taken weren’t just random pictures of the surface, but were strategically placed photographs of important characteristics of the lunar surface. This sort of intelligent target determination was only possible because a live, human astronaut was onboard the station. This could not be accomplished with 1980s technology using an unmanned satellite. It must be done using a crewed space station. This research was invaluable to the study of the composition of the lunar surface. Among other things, these photographs helped determine where there was likely to be deposits of water under the lunar surface, and where particularly valuable and/or interesting minerals were located. The value of this research was incredible, and that value alone justified the cost of the mission. The New Lunar Lander The Lunar Skylab was also used for one other important project, that of testing out a new prototype lunar lander that was being developed in the late 1970s. This land, which was designed as a long term replacement for the old disposable Apollo LMs, was a reusable lander that could land and take off over and over again. It did not leave behind it’s descent stage, as did the old LM, so it did not create a lunar graveyard. It could be reused over and over again. As long as it had a sufficient supply of fuel, it could land and take off multiple times during a single mission. It also had the capacity to carry up to six astronauts, or fewer astronauts and an increased payload or fuel load. This lunar lander was designed to be the future transportation system for our planned permanent presence on the lunar surface. And in 1979, it was ready to be tested… Testing it was a function of the M7 crew, which was the last crew to visit the Lunar Skylab. This crew was in space from February 1, 1980, until October 25, 1980, which was 267 days — almost 9 months. One of the major tasks for this crew was to work out the kinks in this new lander. The lunar lander went on test cycles between the Lunar Skylab and Tycho base, and eventually between the Lunar Skylab and the BLA base. The M7 crew of the Lunar Skylab made many trips to the lunar surface testing this vehicle. Using the Lunar Skylab created a perfect testing arrangement. It was a great home base for the lunar lander to use for its testing. This new lunar lander would become a durable lunar surface-to-orbit transport as part of the permanent transportation network in place today. And the field testing of this lander was all based from the Lunar Skylab station. The Lander Mission On February 1, 1980, the crew of Lunar Skylab M7 launched from earth, carrying a prototype of the new lander. The lander was stored beneath the CSM where the old LM was stored during normal Apollo missions. On February 4th, 1980, they arrived in lunar orbit. Once they arrived in the vicinity of the Lunar Skylab, one member of the Lunar Skylab M7 crew entered the new lander, undocked, and flew to the Lunar Skylab. Both the M7 CSM and the prototype lander docked to the Lunar Skylab. The lander was put through a series of tests in lunar orbit. Undocking, redocking, maneuvering around in various lunar orbits…approaching the lunar surface at a distance of only 5 miles, then going up to high lunar orbit at 300 miles, then back to the station. Multiple sets of tests to verify it’s space worthiness and orbital maneuverability were performed. Then, on March 4, 1980, the M7 crew entered the lander, undocked from the Lunar Skylab, and proceeded to land on the lunar surface. The first landing was at a distance of 743 miles from Tycho Base…the goal was to just prove it could land, they did not worry about pinpoint landings…yet. The lunar lander then took off, entered lunar orbit, and went back to land on the lunar surface again. It repeated this test three times before returning to the Lunar Skylab. Pinpoint Landing Up until this point, the lander was running on its fuel reserves that it originally launched from earth with. It had enough fuel for one additional test. In this test, the lunar lander went down to the lunar surface and hovered along the surface of the moon until it settled a mere 15 feet from the entrance to Tycho Base. This proved the ability of the vessel to land with pinpoint accurately. In this test, the lander remained on the lunar surface for three days. During this time, the Lunar Skylab M7 crew, along with the crew of Tycho 11, who were currently stationed at Tycho Base, built a pressurized tunnel that could be connected between the primary airlock and the hatch on the lunar lander. They pressurized the tunnel and tested that a crew member could, in a shirt sleeve environment, move between Tycho Base and the lander successfully. After this testing was complete, the tunnel was removed and the M7 crew launched the lander off the lunar surface and rendezvoused again with the Lunar Skylab, completing the final primary testing of the lander. The lander had performed all of the designed testing, and it performed it flawlessly. Shirt Sleeve Environments The capability of the pressurized tunnel at Tycho Base was critical. This now meant it was possible for an astronaut to go all the way from the Lunar Skylab in lunar orbit, to Tycho Base on the lunar surface, while remaining completely in a shirt sleeve environment…they could do the entire trip without the need of a space suit. Emergency suits would always available in the lunar lander, but the ability to make the trip in a shirt sleeve environment would be critical for making the lunar lander a key component in the long term transportation from lunar orbit to the lunar surface. The easier it was to get from orbit to the surface and back again, the more the capability could be built into future missions and the more viable it would be to provide a permanent presence on both the lunar surface and in lunar orbit. A single test of this shirt sleeve capability was performed. The single test involved an astronaut from the Lunar Skylab to enter the lander without wearing a space suit. They then landed at Tycho Base. The tunnel was connected, and the shirt sleeve astronaut entered the Tycho Base environment without a space suit. They stayed for a day, performed some ceremonial duties with earth, then entered the lander in a shirt sleeve environment again and relaunched to the Lunar Skylab, where they entered the space station also in a shirt sleeve environment. The entire trip did not involve a space suit at all. This was the first time such a trip was made anywhere…earth, moon, anywhere…without the aid of a space suit. Earth to Moon Shirt Sleeve Environment It was also possible to go one step further. While it was never tested, it was possible to launch from earth without wearing a space suit. This wasn’t done primarily in case of an emergency. But it was possible. During the trip from earth orbit to lunar orbit, the crews of the Apollo missions were almost always in a shirt sleeve environment…and entering the Lunar Skylab from an Apollo command module was done in a shirt sleeve environment. This meant it was possible…not necessarily advisable…but possible to go from the earth surface all the way to the Lunar Skylab without using a space suit. It was previously proven that you could go from the Lunar Skylab to Tycho Base on the lunar surface without a space suit. That meant it was now possible for a human to go all the way from the earth surface, to the lunar surface, and back again…without ever putting on a space suit. This would be a major, and highly significant, first of its kind action. And while it was not advisable to take off in an Apollo era spacecraft from the earth surface without wearing a space suit for safety reasons, it was possible. This had to be tested… So, on June 29th, 1980, the crew of Lunar Transport 20 would test this capability. The LT 20 mission was scheduled to bring the crew of Tycho 12 to Tycho Base, and pick up the crew of Tycho 11 from Tycho Base and return them to earth. It was a simple, routine, and oft-repeated mission. But this time around, there would be a difference. The crew of Tycho 12, being transported by the LT 20 transport mission, would launch from the earth surface without wearing space suits. Space suits would always be available to them, in case of an emergency, but they would never be worn. The LT missions when they launched from earth typically contained an Apollo-era LM for bringing the Tycho crew to the lunar surface. In the case off LT 20, however, the LM was not included. Rather, the space and weight were used to store additional fuel needed for the prototype lunar lander. Once LT 20 arrived in lunar orbit, it maneuvered to dock with the Lunar Skylab station. This was the first LT mission that would dock with the station, all previous LT missions simply delivered their human cargo crews to either Tycho Base or BLA Base. After LT 20 docked with the Lunar Skylab Station, the crew of Tycho 12 entered the Lunar Skylab. The fuel stored in LT 20 was transferred to the lunar lander. This orbital refueling was also a first…it was the first time fuel was transferred from one vehicle to another while in space. Once the refueling was complete, the crew of Tycho 12, still in shirt sleeve environment, entered the lunar lander and proceeded to land at Tycho Base. The existing Tycho 11 crew, still at Tycho base, connected the tunnel between Tycho Base and the Lunar Lander. The crew of Tycho 12 entered Tycho Base without space suits. At this point, the crew of Tycho 11 was relieved, and they made their way to their existing Apollo-era LM lander over in the Lunar Graveyard, and launched for their rendezvous with the waiting LT 20 CSM, which would return them to earth in the normal manner. Tycho 12 was now on the lunar surface, with the new lunar lander. They made it all the way from earth to the lunar surface without the aid of a space suit, except for backups available in case of an emergency. They never wore the suits. During the mission of Tycho 12, the crew used the lunar lander to move larger distances across the lunar surface than had ever happened before. They were able to explore the entire area surrounding Tycho Crater, covering nearly 200 miles, a distance that had never been explored before. This was all possible because the lunar lander could cover great distances and yet perform multiple pinpoint landings. At the end of their mission, the Tycho 12 crew…the last crew to occupy Tycho base, boarded the lunar lander for the last time and launched to dock with the Lunar Skylab. There, they met up with the commander of the LT 21 transport mission, which was also docked at the Lunar Skylab. The LT 21 mission brought the crew of BLA 9 to the BLA Base, then waited at the Lunar Skylab for the crew of Tycho 12. Tycho 12 arrived at the station, went into the LT 21 command module, and LT 21 brought them back to earth. This was an extensive and elaborate set of maneuvers that was used to test multiple concepts. It tested the concept that shirt sleeve transportation within the earth-moon system was possible. It proved the valuableness of a lunar space station as a transportation hub useful for transferring crews from an earth-moon transport space craft to a lunar orbit to lunar surface transport ship. It could also be used as a crew transition center and as an emergency...

Not long after the end of the Apollo lunar landings, it was time for the next step in lunar exploration. There was belief, and some evidence from the experiments that were performed on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions, that there were minerals...water...and other scientifically useful resources on the lunar surface. There was also a concern that the Soviet Union would eventually land on the lunar surface, and attempt to claim all or part of it as their territory. So, the space race continued. On this front, the race was to the first long duration habitation of the lunar surface, and eventual lunar colonization. The United States created a habitat, a base, designed for the long term exploration and habitation of the lunar surface. In fact, they created two such bases. This allowed the Americans to explore the scientific wealth that awaited them on the lunar surface, as well as make a long term claim of the lunar surface before the Russians. While this is not what happened in real life, it is what happened in the fictional world we have created. This is…the Apollo Moon Bases — part 2. Welcome to Belitopia. LINKS AND MORE INFORMATION * Belitopia Website [https://belitopia.com/] * Apollo Lunar Base - Belitopia [https://belitopia.com/lunarbase] * Apollo Moon Bases p2 Episode [https://belitopia.com/107] * Apollo Moon Bases p1 Episode [https://belitopia.com/106] * Tycho Crater - Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_(lunar_crater)]) * Tsiolkovskiy Crater - Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovskiy_(crater)] * Lagrangian Point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point] Please support our show [https://belitopia.com/support/] INTRODUCTION Not long after the end of the Apollo lunar landings, it was time for the next step in lunar exploration. There was belief, and some evidence from the experiments that were performed on the lunar surface, that there were minerals, water, and other scientifically useful resources on the lunar surface. There was also a concern that the Soviet Union would eventually land on the lunar surface. As it turns out, the Soviet Union had given up on the quest for the lunar surface, and instead had focused on exploring and conquering near earth orbit. This was something we talked about in a previous episode, episode number 5, on Skylab. However, the United States was not aware of this fact, and they continued to work under the assumption that the Soviet Union was still trying to land on the moon, so they could claim as much of the lunar surface as possible. So, given this information, the United States turned away from spot landings of single Apollo LMs for relatively short stays on the lunar surface, towards developing and building their first long duration base on the lunar surface. The purpose of the base was to provide a long term habitation of the lunar surface by Americans. In fact, two bases were built. This is the story of those bases. In part 1, we discussed the design and layout of the Tycho base, which was located near Tycho crater, the same location of the famous monolith found on the Lunar surface in the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001 A Space Odyssey and Arthur C Clark’s book of the same name. We discussed how the base was delivered to the lunar surface in four separate pods, and how those pods were assembled on the lunar surface. In Part 2 we will continue our documentary “Our World In Space”, which takes place in the world of Belitopia in the year 2040, 65 years after the bases were created. We will continue this documentary to discuss the complex lunar transport system put in place to shuttle crews back and forth not only to the Tycho base, but the second base that was also created. We’ll discuss one of the side effects of this transportation system was the formation of an LM graveyard. We’ll also talk about the emergency procedures in place to save the base occupants in case of a problem, and how those procedures were put to test during a real base emergency. Finally, we’ll talk about the creation of the second base, BLA Base, and it’s unique position and unique communications requirements that this base required. This documentary is about the creation of the Tycho and BLA lunar bases, in the world of Belitopia. DOCUMENTARY — OUT WORLD IN SPACE, 2040AD Hello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Apollo Moon Bases”. Part 2. Once Tycho Base was properly setup by the two assembly missions, it was ready for occupancy by the research missions. The first research mission, Tycho 3, arrived on December 1st, 1975, and stayed for nearly seven weeks. In total, nine research missions were sent to Tycho Base. These missions were named Tycho 3 through Tycho 12. Each research mission consisted of a two person crew. The crew was delivered to lunar orbit via an Apollo-era Command and Service Module, or CSM for short. The crew then entered an attached Apollo-era Lunar Lander, or LM for short. The LM descended to the lunar surface and landed near the base. The crew then performed an EVA, or extra vehicular activity — in other words, a moon walk — to arrive at and enter the base, where they lived for the duration of their mission. When their mission was complete and they were ready to depart the lunar surface, they performed an EVA back to their waiting LM, and launched from the same LM that delivered them. They rendezvoused in lunar orbit with another waiting CSM that returned them to earth. Each of the nine research missions stayed for longer durations and lived completely within the base. The shortest duration stay was Tycho 3, which stayed a mere 48 days. The longest duration mission was Tycho 10, which stayed on the lunar surface for 242 days, around 8 months. The research missions occurred from December, 1975, until October of 1980. The base was occupied almost continuously by one of the research crews for that entire nearly five years period. The final mission to Tycho Base, Tycho 12, left the base for the last time on Oct 5, 1980, after spending three months on the lunar surface. CREW DELIVERY The two assembly crews were each standalone missions. Three astronauts went to the moon abort a Saturn V rocket, which delivered them to lunar orbit in their CSM — command and service module. Then, two of the three astronauts entered their Apollo-era LM lunar lander, which took them to the lunar surface. After their shift in assembling the base was complete, they launched in the LM to the waiting CSM — and their waiting partner astronaut, and the three astronauts returned to earth in the same CSM that brought them to the moon. This model worked great for the assembly crew, but what about the long duration research crews? How were these crews delivered to the lunar base? The traditional model used to delivery crews to the lunar surface used during Apollo 11-20 wasn’t going to work. That model required an astronaut to remain in the CSM in lunar orbit for the duration of the landing crews mission on the surface. For a few days, or a couple weeks, this was acceptable. For an eight month mission? That was no longer possible. Instead, a series of delivery missions were used. The delivery missions, named Lunar Transport missions, or LT missions for short, were used to transport crews to and from the lunar station. Each LT mission launched with a three person crew, a CSM pilot and the two astronauts that were going to the lunar surface. The mission included a lunar lander, LM. Once the lunar transport mission arrived in lunar orbit, the two crew that were to occupy the Tycho Base went down to the lunar surface in the Apollo-era LM. The LM remained on the lunar surface until they used it to leave the lunar surface at the end of their mission. Meanwhile the CSM pilot orbiting the moon in the lunar transport vehicle waited for the departing Tycho Base crew to go to their waiting LM, take off, and dock with the lunar transport mission command-service module. The lunar transport CSM then took that departing crew, along with the CSM pilot, home to earth. So, the lunar transport mission, with the CSM pilot, brought one crew to the base, but returned home immediately with the previous departing crew. These lunar transport missions, named “LT” missions for short, occurred whenever there needed to be a crew rotation on the Tycho base. So, for example, LT 5, the fifth LT mission, brought the crew that would inhabit the station as the Tycho 5 crew, and it picked up the end-of-mission Tycho 4 crew and brought them home. The next LT mission, LT 6, brought the new Tycho 6 crew to the base and picked up the departing Tycho 5 crew. Each Tycho crew had their own LM on the lunar surface that was used to bring them from lunar orbit to the lunar surface, and would be used to return them from the lunar surface to lunar orbit when they departed. But each Tycho crew arrived in one CSM as part of one LT mission, and departed in a different CSM as part of a different LT mission. This ship-hopping approach continued for the entire five years of the Apollo Lunar Base program. THE LM GRAVEYARD Standard Apollo LMs were used to bring crews to the surface and return them back to lunar orbit after their mission was complete. These are the same LM designs that were used in the Apollo 11 to Apollo 20 lunar landing missions. The LMs were designed to contain two stages, a descent stage used during landing, and an ascent stage used during takeoff. During takeoff, the descent stage remained on the lunar surface and acted as a launch pad for the ascent stage. Given that each of the Tycho crews had a LM that was used to bring them to the surface and return them to orbit, and each LM left behind their descent stage after it left for again for lunar orbit. That meant near the Tycho Base there was a build up of abandoned descent stages. Twelve in all, for each of the twelve Tycho missions. These twelve lunar descent stages were all in a relatively small area — less than a quarter mile from each other — and all within a short lunar hike of the Tycho Base. This formed what was called the “LM Graveyard”...an unfortunate side effect of the landing approach used. This lunar graveyard become a lasting legacy for humankind’s first long duration stay on the lunar surface. The long term solution to this problem is LMs that can be relaunched and reused, which also means they stay in one piece. But the LMs capable of this were not available during the Apollo Lunar Base missions. These would come in later years. EMERGENCY PROCEDURE Given the long duration stays involved on the lunar surface, there was always an ongoing concern about what to do in case of an emergency. If part of the habitation system failed, or if there was a loss of pressure due to a micro meteor strike or other failure, there was always an ongoing concern for what to do. The problem was compounded because, for a significant portion of the stay on the lunar surface, there was no command-service module in lunar orbit that could be used to return the crew to earth. They were, quite completely, stuck on the moon. To that end, there were two major parts to the primary evacuation emergency procedure. The first was on earth. Due to the number of LT missions to lunar orbit, there was a continuous assembly line production of Saturn V rockets. At any given point in time, there was always at least one Saturn V rocket on one of the many launch pads at the cape. There was also a standby crew always trained and available for use in an emergency. If an evacuation was necessary, the Saturn V rocket could be launched within 48 hours, with a rescue craft and crew, destined to arrive in lunar orbit to take the Tycho crew home. Given the approximately 50-75 hour trip to the lunar surface, a rescue ship could be available in lunar orbit in approximately five days time from when the emergency first occurred. This was the first part of the evacuation procedure. However, a five day wait for a rescue ship was not a practical solution if there was a sudden and significant emergency on the lunar surface that required the crew to abandon the base. So, if an emergency did occur that required an immediate evacuation, the procedure on the lunar surface was for the crew to don space suits, exit the habitat, and make their way to their waiting LM, which was within a short walking EVA from the base. The LM had enough consumable resources to maintain the crew for up to fifteen days. The crew would remain locked in the LM, on the lunar surface, until the rescue ship arrived in lunar orbit. Once the rescue ship was available, the LM would take off from the lunar surface, dock with the rescue CSM, and the CSM would take the crew home. The station would be abandoned, but the crew would be saved. It was a simple and effective procedure to use in case of an emergency. But it did have the unique characteristic of making the Tycho missions the first long duration space missions that had an emergency evacuation procedure that required the launch of a rescue ship from earth, rather than having a ship available for immediate evacuation. Skylab always had a CSM docked to it when there was a crew on board, so the crew could leave and return to earth in a moment’s notice. The Venus Flyby mission always had their attached CSM available for returning home, similar to how the Apollo 11 through Apollo 20 missions worked. But the Tycho Base crews were on the lunar surface without a method to return home, unless and until a rescue mission launched from earth. They had the LM to use for an emergency if the station became compromised, but they could not actually leave the lunar surface until after the rescue ship arrived in orbit. There was one emergency that tested at least part of these procedures. On August 14th, 1977, during the stay of the Tycho 7 crew, there was an emergency decompression of the base due to an unknown reason. The crew was in a sleep cycle, so they were in Pod #4, the living quarters. Since the crew was in a normal sleep period, the hatch connecting Pod #4 to the rest of the base was closed. The decompression occurred in Pod #2 and in a matter of a few minutes, depressurized all of Pod #1, #2, and #3. The crew was ok in Pod #4, but, following standard emergency procedures, they put on the emergency space suits stored in Pod #4, and left the station through the emergency escape hatch in that Pod. They made their way to the waiting LM for further instructions. On earth, a rescue mission was formed and they were going through the procedures necessary to get ready for an emergency launch. While all this was going on, an evaluation of what happened to the space station was undertaken. It was determined that the loss of air pressure was due to a failure of a simple mechanical part that could be easily repaired by the Tycho 7 crew. As such, the decision was made to hold off on the rescue mission, and give the Tycho 7 crew 48 hours in order to fix the problem. If the problem could be satisfactorily fixed during those 48 hours, the rescue mission would not depart and the Tycho 7 crew could return to the base. If the crew was unsuccessful in fixing the problem after 48 hours, the rescue mission would launch and the Tycho 7 crew would remain in the LM until their rescue occurred. The Tycho crew put their suits back on inside the LM to get ready for an EVA back to the base to fix the problem. During the EVA, they were able to identify the broken mechanical system and repair it. The problem was solved. However, they did not have sufficient time during the EVA in order to turn on the base’s environmental systems and re-pressurize the habitat. As such, the Tycho 7 crew returned to the LM for the evening. The next day, they began another EVA to the base in order to restore the environmental systems. During this eight hour EVA, they were able to start the environmental systems, re-pressurize the habitat, and run the necessary self tests to ensure all systems were operating normally. Before the 48 hour window was complete, the Tycho 7 crew was able to get the base up and operating again, and were able to move back into the habitat. The rescue mission was cancelled, and the Tycho 7 crew resumed their mission. The crisis was averted. Other than this one emergency, the Tycho Base functioned nearly flawlessly during its five year life. THE BLA BASE While Tycho Base was being built, a second lunar base was being planned. The purpose of this second base was to study the side of the moon never seen by man, short of those few astronauts to orbit the moon. That is, the far side of the moon. This second base was to be built near Tsiolkovskiy Crator, on the far side of the moon. This base was not named for the crater it was near, rather it was named the Borman-Lovell-Anders Base, or BLA Base for short. Borman, Lovell, and Anders, of course, were the names of the astronauts in the crew of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 brought the first humans from earth to the vicinity of the moon. The crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon and gave us some of our most iconic photographs of the planet earth. These three astronauts were the first humans to ever see the far side of the moon first hand. They were the first to see a part of the lunar surface that no human had ever seen before. This is why the base on the far side of the moon — the side never visible from earth — is named after these three individuals. Given the length of that name, the name was shortened in true government fashion to the BLA Base, and that is the name that stuck in the minds of most people. BLA base was identical to the Tycho base. It consisted of an identical four pods that were launched, landed, and assembled in the same manner as Tycho base. The four pods were sent to the lunar surface over the course of eleven months from January 1977 until November 1977. As was done for Tycho base, two assembly crews were sent to the base to perform the large scale, and final assembly of the base. These two missions were named BLA 1 and BLA 2. Given the base was located on the far side of the moon, communications was difficult because there was no way for a radio signal to get from the base to earth without being relayed from another location. During the construction of the base, communications were relayed via the orbiting CSM and the astronaut that was waiting in this CSM. Even so, construction was slower due to the need for relays that weren’t always available given the location of the orbiting CSM. Before the first research crew could be placed on the base, however, a way for communicating with the base that did not require an orbiting CSM was necessary. SPECIALIZED SATELLITES The solution to the long term communications problem was the launch of a pair of very special communications satellites. These satellites were not destined to orbit the earth in either a low earth orbit or a high geosynchronous orbit, as all satellites up until now were located. These satellites were also not placed in lunar orbit. Instead, these two satellites were positioned at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points L4 and L5. These two points are special points that allow the satellites to be positioned equidistant from both the earth and the moon, in a stationary position relative to the moon. These two satellites were visible to the far side of the moon and the BLA Base. Although from the BLA base, the satellites...

LINKS AND MORE INFORMATION * Belitopia Website [https://belitopia.com/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=links&utm_campaign=107] * Apollo Lunar Base - Belitopia [https://belitopia.com/lunarbase?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=links&utm_campaign=106] * Apollo Moon Bases p1 Episode [https://belitopia.com/106?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=links&utm_campaign=106] * Tycho Crater (Wikipedia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_(lunar_crater)] Please support our show [https://belitopia.com/support/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=support&utm_campaign=106] Not long after the end of the Apollo lunar landings, it was time for the next step in lunar exploration. There was belief, and some evidence from the experiments that were performed on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions, that there were minerals...water...and other scientifically useful resources on the lunar surface. There was also a concern that the Soviet Union would eventually land on the lunar surface, and attempt to claim all or part of it as their territory. So, the space race continued. On this front, the race was to the first long duration habitation of the lunar surface, and eventual lunar colonization. The United States created a habitat, a base, designed for the long term exploration and habitation of the lunar surface. In fact, they created two such bases. This allowed the Americans to explore the scientific wealth that awaited them on the lunar surface, as well as make a long term claim of the lunar surface before the Russians. While this is not what happened in real life, it is what happened in the fictional world we have created. This is...the Apollo Moon Bases. Welcome to Belitopia. INTRODUCTION Project Tycho was the name of the program to create the first long term habitat on the lunar surface. The United States worked hard and fast in order to create this habitat, so that we could continue our exploration of the lunar surface after the end of Apollo 20. After all, the Russians couldn’t be far behind. For the first time since it began, the United States wasfinallyleading in the space race against the Soviet Union. They intended to stay in the lead. As it turns out, the Soviet Union had given up on the quest for the lunar surface, and instead had focused on exploring and conquering near earth orbit. This was something we talked about in the past episode, episode number 5, on Skylab. However, the United States was not aware of this fact, and they continued to work under the assumption that the Soviet Union was still trying to land on the moon, so they could claim as much of the lunar surface as possible. So, given this information, the United States turned away from the relatively short duration spot landings of single Apollo landing missions, which could only provide them with relatively short stays on the lunar surface. Instead, they turned their sight towards developing and building their first long duration base on the lunar surface. The purpose of the base was to provide a long term habitation of the lunar surface by Americans. The habitation would be by regular astronauts, but also by astronaut scientists that could study the lunar surface in greater detail over an extended period of time. How long of a period of time? The goal was to enable stays on the lunar surface of upwards of eight months by any single crew, and provide a total lunar habitation of five years at a single site on the lunar surface by multiple crews. Between the two planned sites, it would create the opportunity for nearly seven years of continuous lunar habitation and exploration. This would give astronauts and scientists plenty of time to study long term effects of living on the lunar surface, and time to study the surface of the moon in substantially greater detail. The desire was to prove feasibility for a permanent presence on the lunar surface and provide evidence that such a presence can be financially viable long term. A side benefit — but not an insignificant additional benefit — was to establish a near permanent presence to fend off the Russians from claiming ownership of extensive parts of the lunar surface. Thus, lengthening the American’s lead in the space race. This episode is about the creation and habitation of two long duration lunar bases, the Tycho Base and the BLA Base, on the surface of the moon. These bases are not intended to be permanent presence, but provide a long term presence in order to make a permanent presence in the future possible. In this manner, they are very similar to the role that Skylab played in earth orbit before the creation of the first permanent crewed space station was possible. This is what happened in the world of Belitopia. What follows is a fictional documentary about these lunar bases. The documentary takes place in the world of Belitopia in the year 2040, 65 years after these bases were first developed. This documentary, titled “Our World in Space”, describes the construction, deployment, assembly, and operation of these lunar bases in greater detail. This documentary is presented as a historical record of past events. While fiction, it’s based on much thought and consideration on what it would take to make these bases possible. This documentary is about humankind’s first attempt to live for long durations of time, on the surface of another astronomical body. It’s about humankind’s early start at colonization of the moon. This documentary is about the creation of the Tycho and BLA lunar bases, in the world of Belitopia. DOCUMENTARY — OUT WORLD IN SPACE, 2040AD Hello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Apollo Moon Bases”. Shortly after the end of the Apollo lunar landing missions, America was looking for the next step in lunar exploration. After all, they had beat the Soviet Union to the moon, but now they needed to keep their dominant leadership position on lunar exploration, or risk losing everything. In the early 1970’s, it was still believed that the Soviet Union was attempting to land on the moon, and the United States must continue to increase their lunar presence in order to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. Little did the Americans know, but the Soviet Union was no longer focused on the moon. But, that little fact eluded the Americans, and they trudged on anyways. The next step on the way toward lunar dominance was to leverage the same Apollo technology that brought the first Americans to the moon, to build a larger lunar presence. To that end, the Apollo Lunar Base program was created. Founded as part of the Apollo Applications Program, the Apollo Lunar Base program, or ALB for short, strove to create the first long term presence for humans on the lunar surface. The goal was great. Humans…namely Americans…were to spend nearly five years on the lunar surface, spread between several distinct crewed missions to the base. Given that the longest amount of time on the lunar surface up until this point was the 21 day stay of Apollo 20, extending this to a five year habitation would be quite a feat. But that was the goal of the Apollo Lunar Base program. In all, two bases were planned. The first base. Which was also the primary one was to be Tycho base. Tycho base was to be located near Tycho crater in order to explore the geological environment of that area. Tycho crater, as you remember, was the landing site of Apollo 20. It was also the crater made famous as the location of the famous monolith found on the Lunar surface in the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001 A Space Odyssey and Arthur C Clark’s book of the same name. Besides being a location filled with geological wealth, it was the perfect location for the first lunar base, as it would create incredible interest and buzz on earth. 2001 A Space Odyssey, which came out in 1968, was extremely popular in the modern culture of the time. This movie is what gave hope to America for what a realistic future in space could be like, and it certainly looked like that future was starting to come true. Building a base at Tycho crater was part of that odyssey, and would bring huge PR benefit to the program. But, in addition to the PR benefit, it was believed that Tycho crater provided the easiest access to the resources we thought were available on the lunar surface. After all, it was Apollo 20 that provided the initial research into locations for the future base, and Tycho crater was seen as providing a veritable goldmine of research opportunities. STRUCTURE OF THE BASE The lunar base itself was a series of four “pods”. These four pods were connected via short tunnels between them in a straight line format with two pods acting as the end caps of the line. Each pod was approximately rectangular in surface area, and had a flat underbelly with a curved top. They looked very similar to a Hostess Ho Ho. Each module was 45 feet long and 15 feet wide. They stood 12 feet tall. Each had a single floor where humans could walk inside in a shirt sleeve environment. The habitation area in most of the modules had an inside height of 9 feet. The extra room above the ceiling was used for storage. The tunnels were simple connecting tubes large enough for a human to walk upright inside them, and wide enough to pass another person going the opposite direction, but they contained no room to store equipment nor material. Each pod was loosely similar in technology to the module used in Skylab as well as the habitation module used during the Venus Flyby. However similar, the actual construction and physical structure of the module was very different from the Skylab and Venus Flyby modules. First, the Skylab and Venus modules were designed to work in zero-G, while the lunar pods worked in the standard 1/6th G gravity environment of the lunar surface. This meant a complete redesign of the interior and a completely new and unique set of living challenges for the crew in the pod. Equipment didn’t float, it had weight and fell to the floor. But heavy equipment could still be easily moved around inside with little effort. Humans inside the pod would walk upright and normal, unlike in the space based modules where they could simply float from one location to another. Yet while they could walk upright, they had to get use to the 1/6G so that they did not put too much spring into their step, and bang into the ceiling every time they moved suddenly. Humans would live and work in a shirt sleeve environment in 1/6 G for the very first time in history. These new ways of living and dealing with the environment were part of what was going to be investigated on the lunar surface. Each of the four pods that comprised the base had a separate primary purpose. * Pod #1, the pod on the south-most edge of the base, was the utility pod. It was sometimes called the garage pod. This pod housed the primary airlock used to go from the shirt sleeve environment of the rest of the base. The pod had the space suit closet, where all the space suits were stored and serviced. This pod had the primary machinery for pressuring the entire base and storing the necessary non-food consumables used by the base. This included oxygen, hydrogen, and the fuel cells needed to make electricity and water, along with the recycling plant for recycling the water for reuse. Food was the only consumable not stored in this pod. This pod was also where tools and equipment were stored that were designed to be used outside the base in the open lunar surface. Many of those were stored in bins that were not pressurized in an external facing side of the pod. This capability is why the pod was sometimes called the garage pod. * Pod #2, the next pod over in the pod chain, was the research and control pod. This was the heart of the base. This pod contained the control room and all the equipment for managing all base operations, along with the communications equipment for communicating with earth. The pod also contained the primary research facilities that were available to the crew of the base. Most of the day-to-day operations and management occurred in this pod. * Pod #3 was next in the line. It was the health and fitness pod. This pod was where the crew could excersize and work out in order to keep fit and toned in the low gravity environment. It did not have the above ceiling storage area, and so the ceiling was over 11 feet high. This gave plenty of room for exercise and other fitness activities. It contained many different types and styles of exercise equipment along with systems that could monitor the health of the crew. It was also the home of the medical bay, where medications, medical equipment, and medical supplies were stored. Routine and emergency medical care was available here, and all crew members were trained to perform relatively advanced medical care. * Pod #4 was on the northern-most edge of the pod string. It was the living and eating quarters. This was where the astronauts would sleep and relax. Shower and restroom facilities were available here, along with kitchen and food preparation capabilities. An entertainment area and sleeping areas were also available. When the crew was not working, and were not exercising, this was where they spent the majority of their off time. Pod #4 also had an emergency egress airlock, along with the storage for emergency space suits. If the crew was cut off from the main egress on the southern end of the base — in the utility pod — during an emergency, they could put on the emergency space suits and exit out the emergency airlock on this northern end. Each pod could be shut off from each other by sealed doors, so that an air pressure drop in one pod would not be fatal to the crew in the rest of the base. At night, when the crew slept, pod #4, the living and eating quarters, was sealed off from the rest of the base. That way if an emergency occurred during the night [background: emergency klaxon— “egress” alarm] and any of the three other pods lost air pressure, the sleeping crew would still be in a pressurized area that had access to emergency equipment and emergency egress capabilities. Besides the four pods, there was equipment and experiments that were kept outside the base. If any equipment did not need to be in a pressurized environment, or if they didn’t need regular access from the crew, they were kept outside the pressurized habitat to conserve valuable pressurized space within the base. Also outside were two rovers. These were enhanced versions of the lunar rovers used during the Apollo lunar landings. They were the same standard open air design, and the astronauts had to wear their space suits while driving the vehicles. They were enhanced for longer duration use and for simple recharging at the base. There was a desire to a have pressurized vehicle for use on the base, allowing long duration trips away from the base while the occupants were in a shirt sleeve environment. However, the vehicle was still being designed at the time the base was construct, and it was many years away from being created. As such, this vehicle was not available for use on Tycho base. BASE DELIVERY AND ASSEMBLY Each pod was sent to the lunar surface independently on a separate unmanned Saturn V rocket. Four Saturn V rockets were used to deliver the entire base to the lunar surface. These four unmanned missions were named Tycho A, Tycho B, Tycho C, and Tycho D. They occurred between the period of Nov 1, 1974, until July 1, 1975. The pods were landed via remote control from Houston. They were landed as close as possible to the desired location for the base. The goal was to land within 1000 feet of the desired base location. The pinpoint landing goal was difficult to plan for, but was considered possible and reasonable. This was due to the extra-ordinary success the later Apollo lunar landings had at making pinpoint landings. Apollo 11 landed wherever it could…but a goal of all the future Apollo landings was to improve the accuracy of the landing to a specific location, and each Apollo landing got better at making that accurate landing. This was needed for the stated goals of each of those individual missions, but it also gave NASA the confidence that landing the base station pods in such a pinpoint manner was also possible. Once on the lunar surface, the pods were equipped with landing legs and side thrusters. An assembly crew dispatched from earth to the lunar surface could then use the thrusters to maneuver each pod into the desired final position next to the other pods on the lunar surface. The thrusters, under the control of a human astronaut on the lunar surface, could move the pod up to a quarter mile along the surface, yet position the pods within a couple feet of each other. This had to be handled via an astronaut on the lunar surface, because they could move the pod much more accurately than could be accomplished remotely from earth, given the communications lag between earth and moon. Once the four pods were in the desired location, the crew then swept the area under the pods to remove small pebbles and other uneven material. The landing legs then folded upwards and set the pod down on the lunar surface. The pods were now permanently positioned on the surface. Tunnels were then installed connecting the pods to each other before the base was pressurized. Two separate assembly crews were used to assemble the base. The first assembly crew, mission name Tycho 1, did the large-scale assembly of moving the pods into place. They also connected the pods, connected the generators and setup the electrical systems, and pressurized the pods. This crew was on the lunar surface for only 10 days, and lived in their LM during this time. They carried an lunar rover in the LM, and they left that behind to serve as one of the two rovers used by the base. The second assembly crew, mission name Tycho 2, arrived later, and they were responsible for the internal setup of the base. They setup the living facilities. They setup the research facilities. They setup the control center. They spent 17 days total on the lunar surface. For the first 5 days, they lived in their LM. On day six, they moved into the activated base to live for the duration of their stay. They carried another lunar rover in their LM, and left that behind as the second of the two rovers used by the base. The assembly of the base on the lunar surface occurred after the four pods were delivered. This took place during August and September of 1975, and the base was finally ready for long term habitation. After that, Tycho Base was completely setup and it was ready for long term occupancy by the research missions. The first research mission, Tycho 3, arrived on December 1st, 1975, and stayed for nearly seven weeks. SUMMARY This is the end of part 1 of the Apollo Moon Bases. In the next episode, we will continue the mock documentary talking about the complex lunar transport system of missions used to shuttle crews to and from the Tycho base. We will also discuss the regrettable creation of the LM Graveyard, along with the emergency procedures that were designed to rescue the base inhabitants in case of a serious base malfunction or accident, and we’ll discuss the one time those procedures were put to a test in a real emergency and the outcome of that emergency. Finally, we’ll talk about the second base, the BLA Base, that was created on the far side of the moon, along with the extraordinary set of satellites that were put in unique...