MovieChat Forums > Apollo 18 (2011) Discussion > Piloting a foreign lunar module

Piloting a foreign lunar module

posted 9 years ago by sean-van-der-smythe
4 replies | jump to latest

How feasible is it to launch a foreign landing module at the required trajectory to rendezvous with an orbiting body? I'm guessing totally not feasible. I expect that while the principles may be similar, the operation would be markedly different and the film should have found a way to launch from the NASA lander but maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure that in reality, even if he knew how to operate the craft, the calculations necessary to determine when to launch and at what angles and speeds would be far from trivial but maybe those calculations can be carried over from the flight plan for the Apollo 18 lander?

[–] patola-3 9 years ago

Well, the russians stole the design documents of the U.S. space shuttle to create the Buran space shuttle, didn't they? It is believable that it would be a close rip-off, with even the controls in the same place.

[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

Definitely not feasible. These spacecraft are very custom vehicles that are designed for specific operations. You can't just hop around on the moon with a lunar module and decide spontaneously where you want to go.

I don't understand how he expected to dock with the other guy, even if he got all the trajectories and takeoff right. There is no way that they would be compatible.

[–] ronatola (384) 2 years ago

He said he couldn't dock and would need to do an EVA when they got into a synchronous orbit.

[–] ronatola (384) 2 years ago

Ya not very feasible, PLUS he hit a bullseye when he rammed the Liberty.