50 years later: Students help plan man's lunar landing celebration

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 1/15/19

By JOHN HOWELL They're going to build a lunar command module at the Warwick Area Career and Tech Center. Expect it to be completed by the end of the spring semester and ready for takeoff on July 20. Although designed for space travel, this module

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50 years later: Students help plan man's lunar landing celebration

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They're going to build a lunar command module at the Warwick Area Career and Tech Center. Expect it to be completed by the end of the spring semester and ready for takeoff on July 20.

Although designed for space travel, this module probably won't make it out of Warwick and the top speed won't exceed 25 mph. This module is about a 5/8 replica version of the original that astronaut Michael Collins commanded while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to land, and then walk, on the surface of the moon 50 years ago as of July 21.

The model module will be a featured display in what Conimicut resident Lonnie Barham believes is to date the only planned parade commemorating the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing. Barham started planning the celebration about a year ago and several of his neighbors are helping with the undertaking. John Roberts, who lives just across the street from Barham, is in charge of displays of the Apollo 11 components and the one who reached out to the Career and Technical Center. The parade, with Rhode Island native astronaut Woody Spring as grand marshal, will step off from Clegg Field and proceed north on West Shore Road to the William Shields Post.

That should be no strain for the module or for the scaled down version of the Saturn V rocket that carried the three astronauts, command module Columbia and lunar lander Eagle into space. The students at the East Providence Career and Technical Center are building a model of the Saturn.

Replicating the Columbia is offering challenges for the architectural and mechanical engineering students, says instructor Michael Kugler. The students were able to find module dimensions on the Internet. Using a CAD, or computer assisted design program, they did a digital drawing of the module from which they were able to make a model of the module using a 3-D printer.

"This is a live project that takes instruction into a real-world experience," said Kugler.

Two seniors, Max Grossquth and Hunter Carpenter, have taken a special interest in the project and are spearheading the effort. Recreating the module from readily found materials and without tallying up a hefty bill for the parade committee, which could use some help with funding, is yet another challenge. The frame is likely to be OSB, composite board with some form of plastic sheeting for the exterior skin. What promises to be difficult, Kugler said, is molding the material to replicate the module's pear-shaped base.

Once the class has the specifications of the display, they will go to construction and the marine trades programs for the actual construction. Taken into consideration is the overall size of the module display. Kugler said students could have planned and built a life-sized replica, but that would have had a base 13 feet wide. The problem is that it would have been too large to transport without provisions for an extra wide load. The maximum width, therefore, was reduced to eight feet making for a model of roughly 5/8 of the original. The model will include a hatch.

Roberts would like for the display to include a model of the Eagle that landed on the moon and from which Armstrong stepped to declare "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" before he and Aldrin spent almost 21 hours on the surface of the moon. They gathered nearly 50 pounds of lunar rocks and performed numerous experiments before using the ascent feature of the Eagle to rejoin Columbia that was in orbit around the moon. The Eagle was then jettisoned and the three astronauts returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

Building a model of the Eagle with its landing legs and communication elements would be particularly difficult, Roberts explains. He remains hopeful the Career and Technical Center will take on that project.

Roberts gravitated to coordinating the parade display.

With some time on the Internet, Roberts found replicas of the command module and lander for rent in California. Weekly rental prices weren’t exorbitant, but with shipping time and charges, it didn’t fit into the budget. Then he found a life-sized replica of the lander, which would have been terrific but was out of the question.

Roberts said the lunar landing is the “most impactful thing I can remember.” He recalls the national fascination with the quest to land a man on the moon and his love of science as a student.

“I was a geek,” he says, adding that he was president of the science and audio/visual clubs as a 7th grader. Looking at the Saturn rocket, the module and the lander, Roberts finds them “rudimentary” compared to what is available with today’s technology.

“Everything was rudimentary at that time,” he said.

That’s part of the intrigue of commemorating such an accomplishment that took place 50 years ago – realizing what was achieved without the technical horsepower available today.

He’s not alone. Even with today’s computers and all that is available, Career and Tech students are being challenged by the command module, and it won’t even leave Warwick.

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  • Justanidiot

    fake newz! dont believe the lies dat nasa spouts. just reads the internets and you and find out how this hoax was carried out. dont be sheeple. larn the truth

    Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Report this

  • thepilgrim

    NASA certainly mooned America. Don’t believe those Astro-nots. The truth was told by OJ in the movie Capricorn One. But the flag waiving on the moon was a sure tip-off.

    Friday, March 1, 2019 Report this