Apollo Discussions > The Reality of Apollo
Apollo LM rear panels
BertieSlack:
Does anybody the identity and purpose of the object on the rear panels of the LM ascent stage?
onebigmonkey:
As I'm sure you know the panels there cover the aft equipment bay, which housed electronics and cooling gear. It isn't referenced by any document I can find, so I tend to agree with a user on quora that it's an access port used to check those things while on the ground.
onebigmonkey:
I can also add (thanks to the marvellous book 'Countdown to a moon launch') that those panels were added at the last moment on the launch pad with the LM inside the stack in case anything needed fixing immediately prior to launch. I'd say that it being some sort of connector to jnternal electronics is more likely than access to the glycol lines.
onebigmonkey:
Happily digging around about this, and one thing that I came across was the Abort Equipment Assembly, part of the Abort Guidance System, that was housed in the Aft Equipment Bay.
What is mentioned in various documents, eg
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/FP6_OperatingManual.pdf
is that data was uploaded to this prior to launch.
It's a guess, but I would think it possible that you'd want to be able to update that system at the last minute if you needed to, and an access port through the panel would be a good place to do that. It would be nice to have a definite "this is what it is" reference, but it's a start!
BertieSlack:
--- Quote from: onebigmonkey on December 23, 2021, 05:57:49 AM ---It isn't referenced by any document I can find..........
--- End quote ---
I couldn't find anything either. Thanks for having a look. Electrical access port seems a very solid idea.
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