Lead
On the moon, 380,000 kilometers away, astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin suffered a lunar module failure at the last minute of the Apollo 11 mission.
First, the line of death.
Since Apollo 11 completed the first human mission to the moon in 1969, with the construction of the O'Neill space station, when many scientific instruments were placed on the moon, the moon has become a natural observatory, and they work with telescopes on Earth to study the universe beyond the scope of human research.
However, along with the construction of these scientific research equipment, there are always some accidents, that is, some equipment will fail during use, which will be affected by the lunar environment, and eventually make these equipment useless, so the Apollo 11 lunar mission has also had such problems.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon, completing two astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, who walked on the moon for two and a half hours according to the scheduled time, during which the two astronauts of Apollo 11 carried out some basic scientific work, installed monitoring devices, and carried out soil sampling.
After completing these basic scientific work, the two said they would leave, return to the Apollo 11 module, and then begin preparations to leave the moon.
The preparation for leaving the moon is very important, because there is no water on the moon, so the time for the two to be active on the moon is very limited, and the sampling work must be completed within the specified time, and the return to the orbit of Apollo 11 must be completed.
After the two astronauts re-entered the Apollo 11 lunar module and successfully docked with the command module, they officially left the moon and returned to Earth.
After entering the lunar module, the two astronauts shouted to Davis and the command center, and the spacecraft rose steadily to Earth-Moon orbit, from the orbit of the O'Neill space station, where Apollo 11 was located.
However, after entering the Earth-Moon orbit, the work and mission of Apollo 11 was not so smooth, because Apollo 11 carried out slow winding, and the next morning, Apollo 11 was only 10 kilometers away from the O'Neill space station, but when Armstrong began to carry out further winding, he found that the instructions of the MCC were wrong, and the fuel was enough, but there were no two winding opportunities, only one, so he had to be in one winding opportunity, It is necessary to successfully dock the orbits of the Apollo 11 and O'Neill space stations.
You know, the speed between Apollo 11 and O'Neill is almost 700km/h, so Armstrong must have multiple winding opportunities, first use the winding opportunity to reduce the speed difference between Apollo 11 and O'Neill to 500km/h, and then to 300km/h, 200km/h, and then in the last winding opportunity, narrow the speed difference to 0, so as to successfully winding and enter the O'Neill space station.
Originally, this series of maneuvers was not difficult for the two pilots, but in the middle of their preparation for the winding operation, the middle engine of Apollo 11 suddenly failed, resulting in the inability of Apollo 11's cabin to separate from the lunar module, and Apollo 11 was unable to return to orbit.
Second, the line of death.
At this time, Apollo 11, although there was a failure, but the two astronauts are experienced astronauts, in order to ensure the safety of the two astronauts, Armstrong had a very thrilling idea, he decided to puncture the oxygen tube on the helmet, and then by pushing the snerett into the engine's propellant, into the engine, in order to activate the engine.
However, this practice, in the consciousness of the two astronauts, is not without risks, they know that once the medium engine is activated, Apollo 11 may not only inject too much propellant, causing Apollo 11 to run out of fuel, but also may cause the fuel to catch fire, so Armstrong and Aldrin picked up two cat fire extinguishers, and began to open the valves of the medium engine, ready to use the fire extinguishers when the medium engine is ignited.
However, the middle engine of Apollo 11 has been turned off after the failure, so it cannot be restarted by the two astronauts, so that Apollo 11 can only helplessly continue to fly around the Earth, once the fuel is exhausted, Apollo 11 will continue to fly outside the orbit until it finally loses gravity, thus leaving the Earth's orbit, limited to oxygen and food on the spacecraft, and the two astronauts are likely to die.
After learning that the spacecraft of the two astronauts had failed, Davis and other scientists and even the US president were very anxious, and US President Kennedy also sent a telegram comforting: "Don't give up, we will find a way."
In the end, the scientists and the personnel of the command center, with the efforts of unity, found a simple and crude plan, that is, let Armstrong turn on the spacecraft computer where the lunar module is located, and then let this computer, instead of the medium engine, adjust it, so that Apollo 11 and O'Neill can dock.
In order to allow the computer where the lunar module is located to communicate with the computer of the O'Neill, Armstrong broke half of the pen of the thickness of his middle finger, and then started the computer in the socket of the computer, so that the two computers communicated and positioned each other, and then successfully winded up to return Apollo 11 to orbit.
3. Reveal the secret of the Apollo 11 mission.
Armstrong and Aldrin have very peculiar backgrounds, Armstrong had a strong interest in spacecraft and aviation equipment early on, so he applied for the aviation major of Purdue University, and Aldrin knew his dream of going into space after being admitted to Purdue University, so he applied for the aviation major of Purdue University.
The two thus became roommates, both of whom were a pair of "crazy people" in scientific research, and the two top students became good friends until 1966, when both were selected to become part of the American astronauts.
In 1969, when Armstrong was selected by U.S. President John F. Kennedy as the commander of Apollo 11, and Aldrin was selected as the deputy commander of Apollo 11, Armstrong said, "This moon landing is not mine, but the moon landing of the entire Americans." ”
When Apollo 11 landed on the moon again in 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin held two different pens in their hands, Armstrong's black fountain pen and Aldrin's pencil.
Although Apollo 11 also carried out some scientific research activities after completing the lunar mission, such as placing an Earth-Moon laser reflector, thus revealing the speed at which the Moon is away from the Earth every year, but behind the success of Apollo 11's mission, there is a detail, that is, the Apollo 11 mission was actually determined in 1962, but 5 years later, something wonderful happened.
That is, although the U.S. government invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the Apollo 11 mission, the fuel used in Apollo 11 was purchased from the gunpowder store of the Torch Lake Research Center in California.
At that time, the owner of this gunpowder shop did not know about Apollo 11, but the gunpowder they used was fuel, so the boss used 30 years of gunpowder manufacturing experience to improve the rocket of Apollo 11, and also loaded the rocket with the lamp used by miners on the "truck".
epilogue
After returning to Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin personally signed an American coat of arms for the boss, thanking him with pencils and pens.
Now, however, while NASA has announced a plan to return to the moon and expects to build a new lunar base in 2024, it may be delayed until 2025 due to a dispute between two private space companies, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.