Author Topic: Animation of Apollo LM/CSM docking hardware and procedures  (Read 2823 times)

Offline jfb

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Animation of Apollo LM/CSM docking hardware and procedures
« on: July 01, 2021, 02:09:10 PM »
This randomly showed up in my feed the other day - it's a good animation and explanation of the Apollo docking hardware between the LM and CSM.



I had never really understood how that whole system worked, and found this to be a good overview. 

Offline JayUtah

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Re: Animation of Apollo LM/CSM docking hardware and procedures
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2021, 10:19:56 AM »
This is superb.  I sent the link to my first mentor, who worked on the docking probe and was one of the people consulted when Apollo 14 couldn't dock.  His academic research was also in computer modeling, so he will be further interested in the skill which which this animation was put together.

And yes, it's actually common even for people in the know to be unsure about the docking mechanism.  I knew an engineer who worked for North American on Apollo, who wasn't really sure.  (He specialized in re-entry.)
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline bknight

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Re: Animation of Apollo LM/CSM docking hardware and procedures
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2021, 02:59:56 PM »
So it was a bit of debris on the locking ring that prevented some of the latches from fully engaging the locking ring.
Great animation.
Truth needs no defense.  Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
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