NASA ‘Snoopy’ lunar module likely found 50 years after being jettisoned

https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/10/nasa-snoopy-lunar-module-likely-found-50-years-after-being-jettisoned-into-space/

by jason_zig • 7 years ago

124 77 7 years ago

stcredzero3• 7 years ago

This sounds bad, but it's a serious question: Was there any poop aboard Snoopy? It sounds silly, but it's at least an issue of comfort and dignity when people first enter the historic craft after recovery.

waiseristy• 7 years ago

It'd be completely frozen through. Anyone who has a dog in a cold climate knows frozen poo is infinitely easier to deal with

bhaak• 7 years ago

If you can find the poop after it fell through a thick layer of snow.

Although I wouldn't expect this to be a problem on the lunar module.

erobbins• 7 years ago

and vacuum desiccated. Freeze dried poo.

gus_massa• 7 years ago

Not exactly what you asked, but more information than you even wanted to know: (Scott Manley) "Space Poop Challenge - Floaters Are Way Worse in Space" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5y0mTqK54k

m4632• 7 years ago

They can take one of those giant canadian arms to pick it up and put it in a ... wait, to throw it into the sun.

stcredzero3• 7 years ago

... wait, to throw it into the sun.

Okay, nice try there! Everyone on HN should know the Canadarm can't achieve the approx 29 km/s needed to cancel orbital velocity around the sun in the vicinity of Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHvR1fRTW8g

'doh, you got a reaction out of me anyhow!

BurningFrog• 7 years ago

If there is, that means there is still a repository of Earthly life around, even if Earth itself somehow perishes.

Might be pretty serious indeed!

mirimir3• 7 years ago

Sky News: https://news.sky.com/story/snoopy-lunar-module-from-1969-apo...

protomyth3• 7 years ago

Sad you got downvoted given the TechCrunch article links to the Sky News article while providing less information.

[edit: I see the TechCrunch brigade is out in force]

mirimir3• 7 years ago

Hey.

What's really funny -- and why I posted the link -- is that TFA doesn't actually point to the Sky News article. The Sky News link in this sentence ...

The effort to discover its location began in 2011, undertaken by a group of amateur U.K. astronomers led by Nick Howes — the same who now claim they’re “98 percent convinced” they’ve discovered where it ended up, according to Sky News.

... actually points to https://www.newsweek.com/nasa-snoopy-lunar-module-space-1443... . Some editor wasn't paying attention, I guess. If they still have editors, anyway.

toddsiegel• 7 years ago

I just learned about this mission on Saturday, while visiting the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA. They have small display with pictures, and the audio from the mission.

I often think of NASA as exceptionally serious people, but it never seems to stop them from adding a bit of humor and fun to their work.

https://schulzmuseum.org/

trsohmers• 7 years ago

Well Apollo 10 was the last time NASA let the astronauts name the CM and LM, precisely because they named it Snoopy. I think it is well known that in general the early astronauts had a pretty good sense of humor (along with balls of steel), but ground control, not so much.

WalterBright3• 7 years ago

WW2 air crews named and painted their airplanes crazy fun things. There were some complaints about it, but the brass had enough sense to let the crews do what they wanted. It was a way for them to take a bit of the edge off of the terrible strain they were under. (Very high death rates.)

My dad was a bit superstitious, all his combat rides were named "Round Trip Ticket". It worked :-)

https://imgur.com/zuY1vGA

https://imgur.com/QqlYM

frosted-flakes• 7 years ago

I'm pretty sure all of the CMs and LMs were named by the astronauts themselves, but the names probably had to be approved after that.

My favourite names are Gumdrop and Spider from Apollo 9.

Rebelgecko• 7 years ago

Are you sure? NASA still seems to use Snoopy in an official capacity (e.g. the Silver Snoopy award). Starting in the 80s they even started sending every Silver Snoopy pin up into orbit before it was given to the recipient.

trothamel• 7 years ago

There was a great relationship between Charles Schulz, and NASA, which showed up in some odd places. There's an award, the Silver Snoopy, that is presented by astronauts to non-management employees that have significantly contributed to human space flight.

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/sfa/aac/silver-snoopy-...

mbreese• 7 years ago

On Apple TV there is a 9 minute documentary about this relationship and specifically Apollo 10. It aims to answer the question: was Snoopy a secret astronaut?

It’s pretty cute.

pryce3• 7 years ago

An impressive achievement if they did manage to locate it, certainly.

On the other hand, proposing that it merits retrieval is staggeringly vain- only the tiniest fraction of human enterprise has ever operated outside our planetary system (the Earth and our moon). Consider the mind-blowing opportunity cost of any mission sent to 'retrieve Snoopy', and take a moment to think of just some of the incredible projects one could do instead.

cesarb• 7 years ago

Consider the mind-blowing opportunity cost of any mission sent to 'retrieve Snoopy', and take a moment to think of just some of the incredible projects one could do instead.

For an opposite point of view, think of all the technological advances that would be necessary for a safe "retrieve Snoopy" mission. Even if the mission itself is pointless, all the developments leading to it could be useful. That is, what matters might be the journey, not the destination.

iscrewyou• 7 years ago

I was thinking the same thing. The technology and science that could come out of a mission like that would be great! We’d be the First Nation to retrieve something far away from earth that belonged to us. A stepping stone for future mishaps on other planets.

mLuby• 7 years ago

Agreed. Plus it's like a dry-run for a deep space rescue, and a bit like an easier version of an asteroid capture mission. For example, how do you grapple and maneuver with an object if you don't have matched docking ports? If the object is fragile? How do you efficiently enter LEO from interplanetary space without aerobreaking? Lots to learn from the effort!

kijin4• 7 years ago

If Snoopy somehow stayed near (or returned to) the Earth-moon system, retrieving it might be similar to fixing the Hubble in space. Difficult, yes, expensive, of course, but evidently doable.

close043• 7 years ago

Would retrieving the module bring the same kind of benefit as fixing Hubble did?

TeMPOraL2• 7 years ago

The thing about opportunity costs arguments wrt. space, when used from the outside (vs. just reallocating existing NASA budget), is that the "incredible projects one could do instead" never materialize. It's a thinly veiled way of just not giving money to space exploration.

russdill• 7 years ago

It would have to be done in stages anyway. The first stage would be to send a tug out that would return Snoopy to an Earth centric orbit. Such a mission would be unmanned and would take many years, on the order of a decade or more. That mission would be something low cost and low risk.

Getting it out if Earth orbit and back to Earth would be much harder. But who knows, maybe by then something like starship would be operational.

melling• 7 years ago

The BBC has a podcast about the moon landing:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48232627

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csz4dj

Apple podcast url: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/13-minutes-to-the-moon...

rjmunro• 7 years ago

It's one of the best podcasts I have ever listened to.

RSS feed: https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/w13xttx2.rss

Program page (with link to RSS etc.): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episodes/downloads

seniorsassycat• 7 years ago

Notably, the fuel tanks used in this mission weren’t provided enough fuel to return from the Moon’s surface — an intentional limitation imposed in case the astronauts flying the test run were tempted to jump the queue and become the first people to walk on the lunar surface

I wish we lived in a universe where NASA didn't have the forsight to short fuel Apollo 10. Imagine a joyride to the lunar surface.

cyberferret3• 7 years ago

Conversely, I am glad I live in a universe where professional crew members stick to the flight plan and don't go glory hunting at the first opportunity.

AFAIK, "Snoopy" was too heavy to land and take off anyhow, the astronauts didn't have EVA capable suits, and there wasn't enough oxygen to replenish the LM cabin should they have opened the hatch to perform EVA. Any ride to the surface would have been suicidal folly, regardless of fuel quantity.

dmurray• 7 years ago

I thought Apollo 10 was meant to be a dry run for Apollo 11, so it was set up identically. Why would they have differed on something so important as the weight of the LM?

chrisshroba• 7 years ago

Is it really reasonable to think the astronauts would have disobeyed orders and landed on the moon? This seems like it would have so many negative repercussions on the astronauts involved that it seems outside the realm of possibility to me.

patejam• 7 years ago

I feel like this type of job self selects for people who would totally do that.

Also, disobeying orders in space has happened before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab_controversy

NotPaidToPost• 7 years ago

Once you are the first man on the Moon they can ask you to resign for disobeying orders or even sack you if they don't mind the bad publicity at a time when NASA is showered in international glory. But you're still the first man on the moon.

ConcernedCoder• 7 years ago

I'm positive NASA pilots are professional enough not to 'jump the queue', I believe the fuel limitation, like everything else, was fine tuned to minimize total weight on takeoff.

serf• 7 years ago

I'm positive..

i'd like to be positive about that too, but the whole stamp controversy made me realize that astronauts are people, too.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15_postal_covers_incide...

Fiahil• 7 years ago

You can hear about Apollo 10 a little bit in this podcast (which is absolutely amazing) : https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2

Iamgroot1992• 7 years ago

Imagine just landing on the moon, totally off the cuff. Madness. Even crazier that NASA considered this and accommodated for it lol

evanweaver• 7 years ago

So, where is it, and how was it found? The article and even the source it links are extremely vague.

protomyth3• 7 years ago

It is apparently in an orbit that "won't make a close pass to our planet until 2037".

https://www.iflscience.com/space/apollo-10-lunar-module-snoo...

ahazred8ta2• 7 years ago

The object is 2006-RH120, which was closer than the moon (0.002 au) in 2007 and will come within 0.025 au in 2028. It is currently on the far side of the sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_RH120 -- https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=3403148;orb=1;old=0;c...

ahazred8ta2• 7 years ago

The 'Apollo 10 Lunar Ascent Stage' is listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Derelict_satellites_i...

ornel• 7 years ago

This is the closest to a primary source I've found:

https://twitter.com/NickAstronomer/status/113779137705039462...

supernova87a• 7 years ago

Is it me or is this article so poorly written that the main point of the article -- where the thing is -- is not even described coherently?

cyberferret3• 7 years ago

I was disappointed in the lack of details too (as well as the mis-spelling of Gene Cernan's name). Is the LM in orbit around the sun? In an extended orbit around the Earth's orbital plane? Trapped in orbit around another solar body? That was what I was looking for from the article...

RawChicken• 7 years ago

The lack of knowledge in news articles regarding space topics is astounding. If you want to learn more about Snoopy, Scott Manley makes a great video about it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXVYZm9epmU The orbit description starts at 3:30 but the rest is worth a watch, full of interesting footage and data!

keyle• 7 years ago

- Make this headline get clicks! - I have no idea what I'm doing <labrador>

codewritinfool• 7 years ago

Agree. I was screaming inside my head the whole time, "Where is it?" IMO, this article is very poorly written.

stcredzero3• 7 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect

As noted below, Scott Manley does a much better job covering it. YouTube is a much more efficient tool for connecting the knowledgeable and passionate with the interested learner. If anything the "imprimatur" granted by legacy media brand names gets in the way on topics where the public is generally badly informed, or where there is a lot of false knowledge floating around the culture.

The downside, is that knowledge has to compete with falsehood, so the complete elimination of falsehood is problematic, and it may take some time for the real knowledge to rise. I think it's better overall, more democratic and pro-freedom, if people participate by making their own choices to find the truth.

salutonmundo• 7 years ago

I feel like it's kind of ironic that a probe named "snoopy" was hard to find.

warrenm• 7 years ago

It wasn't a probe - it was part of Apollo 10

NASA ‘Snoopy’ lunar module likely found 50 years after being jettisoned

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