Apollo spacecraft

The Apollo spacecraft was designed as part of the Apollo Program, by the United States in the early 1960s to land people on the moon before 1970 and return them safely to earth. It was made up of multiple units or modules that worked together to perform the mission of landing on the moon and returning to earth. The main parts of the Apollo spacecraft were (going from top to bottom) the launch escape system, the Command Module, the Service Module, the Lunar Module and the lunar module adapter.

Lunar Module (LM)

The Lunar Module was the portion of the Apollo spacecraft that landed on the moon and returned to lunar orbit. It is divided into two major parts, the Descent Module and the Ascent Module.

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The Descent Module contains the landing gear, landing radar antenna, descent rocket engine, and fuel to land on the moon. It also had several cargo compartments used to carry among other things, the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Packages ALSEP, Mobile Equipment Cart (a hand pulled equipment cart - Apollo 14) the Lunar Rover (moon car - Apollo 15, 16 and 17), surface television camera, surface tools and lunar sample collection boxes.

Related Topics:
ALSEP - Apollo 14 - Lunar Rover - Apollo 15

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The Ascent Module contains the crew cabin, instrument panels, overhead hatch/docking port, forward hatch, optical and electronic guidance systems, reaction control system, radar and communications antennas, ascent rocket engine and fuel to return to lunar orbit and rendezvous with the Apollo Command and Service Modules.

Related Topics:
Optical and electronic guidance systems - Rendezvous

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• Specifications:
• Ascent Stage:
• Crew: 2
• Crew cabin volume: 6.65 m³
• Height: 3.54 m
• Diameter: 4.27 m
• Ascent Stage Mass: 4,547 kg
• Ascent Engine Propellants: 2,358 kg
• RCS Thrust: 16 × 440 kN
• RCS Propellants: N₂O₄/UDMH
• RCS Specific Impulse I_sp: 290 lbf·s/lb (2.84 kN·s/kg)
• Ascent Engine Thrust: 16 kN
• Ascent Engine Propellants: N₂O₄/Aerozine_50 (UDMH/N2H4)
• Ascent Engine Engine Isp: 311 lbf·s/lb (3.05 kN·s/kg)
• Ascent Stage Delta V: 2.22 km/s
• Electric System Batteries: 17 kW·h 800 A·h
• Descent Stage:
• Height: 2.83 m
• Diameter: 4.21 m
• Landing Gear Diameter: 9.37 m
• Descent Stage Mass: 10,149 kg
• Descent Engine Propellants: 8,165 kg
• Descent Engine Thrust: 44 kN
• Descent Engine Propellants: N₂O₄/Aerozine_50 (UDMH/N2H4)
• Descent Engine Engine Specific Impulse I_sp: 311 lbf·s/lb (3.05 kN·s/kg)
• Descent Stage Delta V: 2.47 km/s
• Electric System Batteries: 33 kW·h, 1,600 A·h