Moon Walkers.

[tinman]

Tinman,

I have the answers to the questions you posed regarding the discrepancies in the images you noted.

The outer wall of the command module is made up of three major heat shields.  The aft heat shield is the rear most disc shaped heat shield that most people are familiar with.  The other two heat shields are the "crew compartment" and "upper" heat shields, which is pretty much everything in front of the aft heat shield.  Those two heat shields are made of a phenolic composite material.  This is somewhat similar to the material used in the old brown colored PCB's before FR4 became more common.  The heat of re-entry would melt most metals so phenolic, although being what most consider a type of plastic or epoxy like resin, does not burn or melt.  When heated, it will get white hot, char (turn to ash), and then shed the charred material.  This process insulates, sinks, and removes heat.  Of course, if the heat is applied long enough or the phenolic is thin enough, extreme heat will eventually wear (not burn) thru the material.  The thickness required is therefore determined by the expected heat and duration.  This type of heat shield is called an "ablative" heat shield because the material ablates or is destroyed as it shields from heat.  The aft heat shield is also an ablative heat shield but is constructed somewhat differently.

Anyway, exclusive of the aft heat shield, the phenolic material used for the CM 's varied in color from an ugly gray to orange brown color.  Some of the early Bloc-1 CM's were painted white.  The Bloc-2 Cm's however, instead of being painted white, were covered with very thin aluminized Mylar (PET) tape, which gave them their shiny appearance.  When looking at the Mylar tape covered CM's under most lighting conditions and/or from a distance, they appear uniformly shiny as if covered in metal.  But, under certain lighting angles, the individual runs of tape, and any nicked areas patched with smaller pieces of tape, become quite visible (as evidenced by your images).  This is a mostly optical phenomenon due to the tape being so thin.

Regarding your "cracked window frame", a somewhat makeshift attempt at adding a glare shield to the edge of those windows was made using the Mylar tape.  Although, as you have noticed, the tape tore at the edges, the remaining flap did cut down on glare caused by light striking the .7" thick fused silicon outer window at a shallow angle.

Excluding the launch vehicle, in an earlier post I stated that Apollo consisted of three sections, the SM, CM, and LM.  However, an often overlooked section is the Launch Escape System (LES).  This attached to the top of the CM using 4 legs attached with explosive (frangible) bolts.  Besides pulling the CM away from the rocket during an emergency, the LES had a tightly fitting cork and fiberglass shell that covered most of the CM which saw the bulk of the aerodynamic forces and protected the CM (and tape) from those forces as well as from the launch heat generated by air friction, which could reach 1200F. 

If you go to your flickr site and look at images toward the end of AS17 cassette 145, you will see the CM in a few different lighting angles where you can see the long runs of Mylar tape used to cover the bulk of the two heat shields.  Perusing other cassettes and images will provide you with additional evidence in support of this explanation.

PW

Thanks for the info PW-makes sense.
I am still a little lost as to how the tape was multi colored when leaving earth, and ended up looking like sjinny chrome by the time they got to the moon.

Brad

[tinman]

The short answer is the impact energy would be the same.   You clearly haven't read or understood what I said and you are still hooked up on the moon's gravity.  But what you really need to do is unscramble what you are saying above and restate it in a coherent way that makes sense.

Off-gassing from the space suit and a small localized moon tremor from the astronaut's impact on the lunar surface are two perfectly reasonable explanations for the waving flag.  I learned something the other day and changed my view and you seem to think there is something wrong with that.  You don't dare touch PW's explanation because you were ignorant of it just like me, and that probably applies to 100% of the moon conspiracy theorists when discussing the flag.  You are making yourself look like a fool when you flat-out deny the possibility of a localized moon tremor.

The above is a ridiculous comparison that is completely invalid and makes no sense.  It's just another item to add to that list that I posted of crazy things that you said.

It's laughable that you accuse me of being a puppet on a string because I learned something new and adapted my views.

The above is a ridiculous comparison that is completely invalid and makes no sense.  It's just another item to add to that list that I posted of crazy things that you said.

MH
If you believe the impact energy of a mass is going to be the same on the moon as it is here on earth, then you need help.
If you now think that moving over to PWs reason for the flag wavering, then you have just made another mistake. Before blindly believing PWs explanation, you should maybe go do some research into what PW said. But im guessing you wont, and im also guessing that you also paid no attention to what I said about the power of observation.

I have never seen you get so much so wrong in one thread.

Brad

[picowatt]

Thanks for the info PW-makes sense.
I am still a little lost as to how the tape was multi colored when leaving earth, and ended up looking like sjinny chrome by the time they got to the moon.

Brad

Tinman,

That is an optical property of thin films.  Think soap bubbles and oil films on water...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_interference

[MileHigh]

MH
If you believe the impact energy of a mass is going to be the same on the moon as it is here on earth, then you need help.
If you now think that moving over to PWs reason for the flag wavering, then you have just made another mistake. Before blindly believing PWs explanation, you should maybe go do some research into what PW said. But im guessing you wont, and im also guessing that you also paid no attention to what I said about the power of observation.

I have never seen you get so much so wrong in one thread.

Brad

If, when you discuss this topic, you could put a coherent sentence together that makes sense and demonstrates you are aware of what the issues are, it would make a huge difference.

The impact energy of an identical mass hitting the Earth or the moon will be the same if the two impact velocities are the same.  It's rocket science.

If you disagree with what PW said about the sublimation of the ice then make your case.

[picowatt]

Just an interesting factoid I'd like to share regarding thermal management on the rover.

Figuring out a way to keep the electronics on the rover cool while not adding an undesired amount of weight or complexity was an engineering challenge.  Various methods were considered but the incredibly simple and very reliable method selected should at least inspire some degree of awe.

The enclosure housing the electronics was insulated and shielded to reduce solar flux.  However, the heat generated by the electronics would have caused the internal temperature of that well insulated enclosure to rise to an unacceptably high temperature because the heat dissipated by the electronics was unable to escape thru the insulation.

The brilliant, and very elegant solution arrived at, was to completely fill the electronics enclosure with molten wax.  The wax became solid when it cooled.  As the rover was operated, the heat generated by the electronics would slowly cause the wax to melt, that is, change phase from solid to liquid.  This process took advantage of the latent heat of fusion, and could absorb fairly large quantities of heat while remaining at a fixed temperature.  When the rover was parked, an insulated lid on the electronics enclosure would be raised to expose the wax filled enclosure.  The insulated lid, when open, also acted as a sunshade and shaded the wax from the sun allowing the wax to radiate its heat into the cold blackness of space and re-solidify.  As well, the rover had to be strategically parked to ensure that the lid shaded the wax filled enclosure when the lid was open.  Just before use, the lid was closed and it was off to the races.

Imagine the amount of research, science, and engineering required just to select the proper wax formulation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy_of_fusion