![]() ![]() Ed remembers that Armstrong’s iconic statement surprised him: “He said basically one small step for man, one great step for mankind. ![]() Of course, the Lunar Module landed safely on the moon and Neil Armstrong took his famous first steps. It’s the landing stage of the vehicle on top of it.” And that’s why they had two stages of the lunar module, including the descent stage, which then became a platform. ![]() And if that had happened then they would start tilting. So that way, if they could stand the more severe environment, they were certainly going to be okay in the more limited environment that they were going into.”Īdditionally, Ed vividly recalls the worry that he and others felt while watching the Lunar Module touch down on the moon’s surface for the first time: how solid is the lunar surface? “There always was a concern that as they landed, they were going to end up landing on a soft spot. At the same time, I had the confidence of how we tested it because the specs that we tested it to were far more severe than anything they would encounter. That pressure is always there there is still the knowledge of what can go wrong with those parts. “One of the things you’re concerned about and you’re hoping for is that your equipment works and doesn’t break. He recalls watching the news on TV at home after sending his young children to bed that evening. When looking back on the moon landing on July 20, 1969, Ed remembers the moment fondly. The Lunar Module’s environmental control system performed eight functions: it provided oxygen for the astronauts to breathe in their suits and in the spaceship provided ventilation to warm or cool the astronauts removed carbon dioxide waste to recirculate and reuse oxygen cooled down electronic equipment within the LM vehicle let out all heat waste into deep space provided water for drinking and food preparation and contained enough oxygen and water to support the portable life support systems for the duration of the astronauts’ time in space. To construct the Lunar Module, Grumman was hired as the primary contractor, with four major subcontractors: TRW’s Space Technology Laboratories (to build the descent engine that descended onto the moon), Bell Aerosystems (to build the ascent engine that took the astronauts back to earth), Marquardt (to develop the reaction control system), and Hamilton Standard (to construct the environmental control systems). The Apollo 11 spacecraft itself consisted of three parts : The Command Module, Columbia, which housed the astronauts during their mission the Service Module, which provided storage for resources such as oxygen, water, electric power, and jet propulsion and the Lunar Module, Eagle, which carried the astronauts to land on the moon. He started on a project group working on the Lunar Module writing specifications, fitting for tube connectors, and developing plans to test equipment. in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964, Ed went to work at the Hamilton Standard division of United Technologies Corporation (UTC)-then known as Hamilton Sundstrand and now a part of Collins Aerospace -in Windsor Locks, CT. in mechanical engineering from Manhattan College in 1963 and a M.S. As children explored the activities in the Space Gallery, Ed and I sat in front of the space suit replica and talked about his involvement in developing the technology used on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.Įd O’Connor has spent 48 years of his life working on the space program. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I sat down with former engineer and current Science Center volunteer Ed O’Connor to talk about his experience as an inventor/engineer and the history of Connecticut’s longtime involvement in the space program. “Well, this suit does the same thing for astronauts it has everything to keep you alive.” “Do you wear a snowsuit to keep warm in the winter? Or bring a backpack to school?” asks Science Center volunteer Ed O’Connor as a young girl stares up at the space suit replica in the Connecticut Science Center’s Space Gallery.
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