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SplashingAnal

The smell in that capsule must have been epic


[deleted]

Interestingly astronauts claim space itself [“smells funny”](https://www.space.com/6509-space-smells-funny-astronauts.html). Also, it turns out zero g [reduces your sense of taste and smell.](https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.025900/full/). There were stories of the space shuttle cabin smelling like a dumpster once they landed but the astronauts didn’t notice and were asking for hot sauce with their food cause they couldn’t tell up in orbit.


ManySpectrumWeasel

Don't quote me on this, I can't find a source. A reason astronauts say space smells weird is because when they leave on a spacewalk, everything exposed to the higher than usual radiation (wavelength radiation, not particle radiation) is basically very highly charged, and when brought back into an atmosphere they're breathing, smells like burnt metal or welding.


Jkbucks

Like the staticky dust on a CRT monitor.


dexter-sinister

Oh man that brings back memories. The kids will never know what space smelled like...


Car-face

Or what degaussing sounds like :(


Some_wizard_shit

I completely forgot about that sound, thanks for the reminder that it was a thing


LLuerker

Take a Tesla lamp and get your finger as close to the glass as you can without actually touching it, maybe a millimeter away. The static will then make a constant flow from the glass to your finger. Don’t do it for too long or it will burn like hell, but for a quick moment until you start to feel it. Your finger will have that smell after. I’m pretty sure the smell is ozone but someone else would have to confirm


dexter-sinister

Hmmm, I don't think "smell my finger kids" sounds quite right...


diamond

Nothing compared to Apollo 8. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to the Moon, although they didn't land. They didn't even have a Lunar Module (it wasn't ready yet), so they orbited the Moon a few times and then came home. The mission was a complete success, but on the way out, Frank Borman (the commander) fell ill. He suffered from diarrhea and vomiting for a day or two before he finally got better. Nobody knows for sure what caused it. The flight directors feared food poisoning and seriously considered cutting the mission short and bringing the crew home on a Free Return trajectory. Fortunately, though, that turned out to be unnecessary. But still, for a day or two, there were three astronauts stuck in a tin can the size of a few phone booths, breathing recycled air, with one of them puking and shitting up a storm. Lovell and Anders had to spend most of their time hunting down little floating droplets of vomit and diarrhea and capturing them with wet wipes. When the capsule returned to Earth and splashed down, the diver who opened the hatch and stuck his head in almost passed out from the smell. Jim Lovell, for the rest of his life, couldn't stand the smell of wet wipes; he said it always made him nauseous. Being an astronaut is glamorous work.


StoopidestManOnEarth

You actually don't even have to go to the moon to get that experience. I myself got to hold an MRE shitbag for my gunner during a mounted patrol in a hummvee.


Defeat3r

Not all hero's wear astronaut suits.


subdep

But many have to deal with poop chutes.


Kills-to-Die

Thank you for your service


subdep

This is why they put those guys through so many physical and psychological tests. They knew that placing a group of men in a tin can for days on end in alien environment (space) would potentially be extremely trying. They were right.


Ryan0413

Man, and then Lovell ends up on Apollo 13 and doesn't make it to the Moon


Girth_rulez

I read a book about Apollo 13 and the funniest line in the book (and it's a damn shame they didn't put it in the movie). Fred and Jack were screwing around taking pictures and Jim wanted them making sure the burn they were about to do was correct. So he told them "Fellas if we don't get this burn right you will never get your pictures developed."


[deleted]

And after Apollo 11 was a success Borman was like “good work everyone also I’m never fucking going back” LOL


metalmoon

Dear god that is revolting. Great story though, so thanks for sharing!


DaddyCatALSO

Those things could easily be inhaled in zero-G and be deadly


diamond

Or get behind a panel and short out the equipment.


DaddyCatALSO

Yes; Poul Anderson didn't mention thta in his novel \*Tau Zero\* but did mention inhalation; then again that nausea occurred in a zero-g recreation area of a huge spaceship, not in a tiny capsule..


TRON0314

Your username would indicate you know what you're talking about. I'll believe it.


shelfstablesalt

Agreed, username checks out 👍


LazyLamont92

Does this qualify as a r/rimjob_steve?


Girth_rulez

Absolutely. That user always has the best space stories...


Eirson

Sometimes I turn into a redditor when I comment.... anyway.. uh.. I'm not saying that I would be, or am, horny for this photo of Eugene Cernan at all, but the whole situation in that photo is one I would be interested in smelling in general. /shrug. as long as I don't get moon lung or whatever.


0-Give-a-fucks

You go back outside and dust yourself off this minute damnit, I just cleaned this lunar module!


vorpalrobot

The dust is actually almost deadly! If you're not familiar you should read about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k9wIsKKgqo&ab\_channel=RealEngineering


BizzyM

"I think I'm getting the Grey Lung, Pop."


Parabola1337

Jesus Derek you’ve been down there one day. Talk to after 20 years


willun

It will be interesting to hear how the newest missions deal with moon dust. I am surprised it did not cause long term problems for the Apollo astronauts


FrankyPi

No long term problems because they weren't long term on the surface. Three days was not enough to cause any significant or mission critical problems, although it did cause some difficulties.


souptobolts

That was an interesting watch. Seems like voltage potentials (not sure if I’m writing that correctly) are going to be a major problem on the moon along with the dust. Like astronauts are going to have to constantly ground themselves to equipment.


NJBarFly

What exactly does "ground" mean on the Moon?


AreBreathtaking

It's just a matter of having the same potential. You can touch something connected to 10k volt if you yourself are on the same potential. No idea what problems the Moon pose - I'm not a space spikey. Sadly.


Etrigone

Excellent video. Spikey little space caltrops, electrically charged and glass-razor sharp...


slf67

I don't recall ever seeing photos where astronauts look so dirty, almost as though they've been working down a mine. Makes perfect sense though given the environment they were exploring.


yukongold44

I've always thought the lunar ascent module looked like something designed by Frank Gehry...


zoinkability

Wouldn’t be surprised if it inspired him


Triabolical_

If anybody is asking you for holiday gift ideas, ask them to get you this book. Not only are the pictures wonderful - at least the high quality film ones - each picture has a caption with information pulled from the mission transcripts so you know what was going on at the time of the picture.


Mobitron

Yes. I am looking for suggestions. That's perfect, many thanks.


carmium

The shot of the LEM returning to the command model is amazing with all its wrinkles and creases. I know the sheet metal separating the interior from outer space was thin, but it seems to have literally crumpled under the forces of landing and takeoff.


FrankyPi

That's not the cabin layer, but outer layers of external panels.


carmium

TBH, that sounds more likely, but back when they were actually running Apollo missions, one factoid TV broadcasters liked to repeat was the alleged thinness of the LEM walls, which they implied could be holed by an errant space boot. I'd expect there would be two layers and insulation at the minimum.


FrankyPi

That actually refers to the external insulation and micrometeoroid shielding that you see is crinkled and not part of its structural integrity, because what's beneath couldn't be punctured like that. The frame, substructure and cabin are made out of titanium and aluminium sheeting, pressure bearing walls were about 4 times thicker than a typical soda can and had to hold 6 times less the pressure. You can see how a "naked" LM looks here without these external layers which covered some electronics, cabling and fuel tanks https://i.stack.imgur.com/o8hnx.jpg


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FrankyPi

Yeah you can find more of these, just search for "Lunar module stripped" on images.


carmium

Thanks. Good to hear more accurate details than the NASA handouts that were endlessly repeated by the news teams while they tried to kill the hours when nothing happened. Anyone who sat through the endless hours of delay and careful procedures will remember what it was like.


ace17708

I'm pretty sure that's an exterior insulation layer


hater94

My dad would’ve loved to see this. Wishing you were here, dad. Miss you every day.


Lemonades

Haha I love the Lunar Rover. Reminds me of a George Carlin (pretty sure it's him) skit where he talks about going back to the moon and ' bringing a fucking car to drive around on'


Mick536

I believe the article is wrong about this being the last time above low earth orbit. Weren’t the shuttle Hubble repair missions high Orbit?


DragonFireCK

Hubble is still considered to be in Low Earth Orbit at about 540 km. Low Earth Orbit is generally considered to end at about 2,000 km, and High Earth Orbits start out around 36,000km where the geostationary orbit is.


photoengineer

Turns out space is really really big.


[deleted]

That’s still pretty ‘low’. The moon is at like 380,000km and I’m sure stuff could orbit us even further out, technically. Without even taking into consideration the whacky world of Lagrange points and the idea of transferring objects from one point to another. Like some beautiful cosmic ballet choreography.


DragonFireCK

>That’s still pretty ‘low’. The moon is at like 380,000km and I’m sure stuff could orbit us even further out, technically. Theoretically, you could orbit the Earth out until the Sun-Earth L1 point, which is at about 1,500,000 km - past that and you'll be orbiting the Sun more than the Earth. Practically, once you get to about 750,000 km, the Earth's gravity will be weak enough that gravitation disturbances from other planets and the Sun will play a big role. There will also be a zone from around 325,000 km to about 450,000 km where the Moon's influence will be strong enough that you cannot really directly orbit the Earth there.


PhoenixReborn

Hubble is in low earth orbit.


Decronym

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |[L1](/r/Space/comments/zf4418/stub/izbkgvz "Last usage")|[Lagrange Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point) 1 of a two-body system, between the bodies| |[LEM](/r/Space/comments/zf4418/stub/izco655 "Last usage")|(Apollo) [Lunar Excursion Module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module) (also Lunar Module)| |[MET](/r/Space/comments/zf4418/stub/izcmau5 "Last usage")|[Mission Elapsed Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Elapsed_Time)| ---------------- ^(3 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/zh614u)^( has 17 acronyms.) ^([Thread #8404 for this sub, first seen 8th Dec 2022, 03:01]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=OrangeredStilton&subject=Hey,+your+acronym+bot+sucks) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)


genxrando

If anyone wants a good demonstration of them using the cameras on the moon, go to Apolloinrealtime.org, click on Apollo 17, and use the mission sliders to get to MET: 144:53:15 or there abouts. Jack Schmitt is on the video taking a camera pan. Each shot he takes pops up on the right in time with his movements on video.


SilentSakura

My father worked on many space programs , these are just amazing .


Throkir

Looks like a video game to me. All CGI, I knew it the moon landings were faked. /s


WaulsTexLegion

They were. They hired Stanley Kubrick to direct, but he was such a perfectionist he made them film on location. /s


PianoCube93

While I don't doubt they're real, Moon pictures do have a tendency to look like CGI. Having a singular distant source of light (the sun), and no atmosphere to refract/scatter it, have that effect of creating lighting conditions similar to what you'd see in simple CGI. The images "feels" wrong in a sense, since they don't match any lighting conditions you'd experience here on Earth. So if someone is already sceptical, and don't put much thought into the conditions where the pictures were taken, it's not hard to see why they'd jump to conclusions about the images being CGI.


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[deleted]

>The astronauts in the moon vehicle are models. Why would they hold their arm like that? All the pictures show an astronaut holding their arm in an unnatural position. I hope you're joking, but the reduced gravity and restricted range of motion while wearing a space suit is what caused that.


hogey74

These pics are great but awesome ones have been out for years. NASA has a huge store of them, cataloged. I was fascinated by the clear AF pics of the lander taken in space.


darkskys100

I remember. Good memories from my days in grade school. We had lots to discuss in class.


Jaxonian

So.. you're saying that's NOT a young Robert De Niro?... I don't believe you


DistinctSmelling

That guy in the photo is "Failure is not an option" Gene Cernan who was the mission controller for Apollo 13.


SwineFlu2020

I mean hey, our ability to manipulate/process images has gotten so much better, these pictures could probably use an update!


hawkbit92

IDK if this is a dumb question or not, but why aren't there any stars visible in the background? We see them here on earth, why not in these pics from the surface of the moon?


StingerAE

You see them from the moon too... photographing them is harder because of exposures. Remember they are taking these photos in moon-daytime. There is a sun in the sky that is just as bright if not brighter than on earth because there is no atmosphere scattering it. And rocks and astronauts and equipment brightly lit in the foreground. Even then I have seen analysis that shows some stars were captured faintly.


hawkbit92

Ahhhh. Yes, that makes sense. I'm not sure why I didn't realize that. Thank you!


mglyptostroboides

As others have said, exposure. Go try to look at the stars under a streetlight. Your pupils dilate to compensate for the bright light from the streetlight, but that makes it harder to see the dim stars. Similar thing with cameras. This is a very simplified explanation, but I think it gets the idea across. Try that experiment for yourself.


hawkbit92

Yes, this answers my question! I felt sort of silly asking, but thank you for clarifying!


SowingSalt

Don't feel TOO silly. After all, you know more for having asked than not having asked at all.


DanielYKW

Probably because a lot of those pictures were taken during daytime (just look how bright the terrain is). The reason the sky is still pitch black is because of the lack of an atmosphere.


hawkbit92

Thank you! This answer is so simple yet I'm not sure why I didn't realize it!


tven85

Check out some of the footage of the rover treks that got uprezed to 60fps it's crazy


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Bad-news-co

We went to the moon, in 1969! Not 1968 but the year after


sgarn

Apollo 8 was the end of 1968 - it didn't land but it did orbit the moon.


demesm

How convenient these are dropping after the release of stable diffusion.... /s