Auction Offers the Moon--Or at Least NASA Gear That's Been There [Slide Show]
Stargazers will have the opportunity to get their hands on photos, charts, models and other space race relics from NASA missions thanks to an auction to commemorate the Apollo 11 moon mission
![Auction Offers the Moon--Or at Least NASA Gear That's Been There [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/99731630-E26E-4DD5-BC4FDFFACB54250E.jpg?w=590&h=393)
Auction Offers the Moon--Or at Least NASA Gear That's Been There [Slide Show]
- APOLLO REACTION-CONTROL ROCKET ENGINE NASA used these Marquardt Corp. rocket engines (weighing 45 kilograms each) for attitude control. There were 16 of these reaction-control engines clustered in groups of four on the Apollo service module as well as 16 on the lunar lander ascent stage in the same cluster configuration... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- GEMINI SPACECRAFT ROCKET ENGINES Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engines provided attitude and maneuvering control for the Gemini spacecraft, including pitch, roll and yaw. A set of eight of these bipropellant engines—they burned liquid hydrogen and oxygen—were located in the equipment section aft of the crew compartment, which was part of the orbit attitude and maneuver system (OAMS)... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- APOLLO 16 EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITY SPACESUIT CUFF CHECKLIST Lunar module pilot Charles Duke wore this spiral-bound checklist on the cuff of his spacesuit during the second and third lunar surface explorations of the 1972 Apollo 16 mission. It was exposed directly to the lunar environment for more than 12 hours during those exploration periods... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- APOLLO 15 LUNAR MODULE FILM MAGAZINE STOWAGE BAG This bag stored several 70-millimeter and 16-millimeter film magazines for photography outside the lunar module during surface explorations. (The Apollo 15 mission included three such explorations lasting about seven hours each.)
Estimated bidding: $40,000 to $50,000... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK - ATTITUDE CONTROLLER ASSEMBLY FROM THE APOLLO 15 LUNAR MODULE FALCON This controller assembly is an actual piece of flight control equipment that assisted the landing of the first extended-duration lunar exploration flight of the Apollo Program. It allowed the astronaut to input pitch, roll and yaw maneuvers by moving the hand grip forward and backward, side to side or with a twisting action... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- APOLLO 14 COMMAND MODULE WINDOW This 38.1-by-40.6-centimeter, 2.5-centimeter-thick silica glass with a red outer seal served as a window on the Apollo 14 command module. It was exposed to the vacuum of space for more than 215 hours during the entire Apollo 14 flight—to and from the moon, in lunar orbit, and through the fiery reentry into Earth's atmosphere—a total distance of more than 804,672 kilometers... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- DRINK CARRIED ON APOLLO 13 This packet of dehydrated cocoa drink was carried during the Apollo 13 mission but not consumed. Several food items were never eaten during the flight because of the oxygen tank explosion in the service module, which, among other things, caused an electrical power loss to the command module... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- APOLLO 12 LM STRAP WITH LUNAR DUST–USED INSIDE INTREPID ON THE MOON Flown on the Apollo 12 lunar module Intrepid , this 25.4-centimeter-long strap was used to secure lunar exploration equipment. During this mission, commander Charles Conrad and lunar module pilot Alan Bean logged more than 31 hours on the moon's surface during November 19 to 20, 1969... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- LUNAR ROCK BOX COVER Moon rocks were placed in an aluminum storage box that was vacuum sealed on the lunar surface. The crew then placed the box inside the container covers like this for the journey back to Earth to prevent moon dust from spreading inside the lunar and command modules... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- ARMSTRONG'S APOLLO SPACESUIT CONNECTOR COVER The Apollo astronauts' A7L spacesuits consisted of an inner pressure garment assembly (PGA) pressurized with oxygen for breathing, and an outer integrated thermal micrometeoroid garment (I/TMG) that protected the astronaut from temperature extremes and hypervelocity micrometeoroid punctures while on the lunar surface... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- MERCURY–ATLAS 9 HEAT SHIELD SEGMENT This 2.5-centimeter cube is a piece of the heat shield from astronaut Gordon Cooper's Mercury capsule, Faith 7 , flown during his May 1963 mission. Cooper's 22-orbit flight lasted more than 34 hours—the longest, and final, flight of the Mercury Program... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
- MERCURY CAPSULE MODEL This steel, fiberglass and plastic model is a miniaturized replica of the Mercury spacecraft, identical to the one NASA first unveiled during the April 9, 1959, press conference held to introduce the original seven Project Mercury astronauts (chosen from a pool of more than 500 candidates)... COURTESY OF BONHAMS NEW YORK
