To the Moon and Back chapter sampler

To the Moon and Back

Eagle, back into orbit was broken by the support backpack on one of the astronaut’s spacesuits. The internal workings of the switch were perfectly fine, but the toggle (the bit that you flicked up or down) was broken. The switch wouldn’t work, even when they shoved the broken toggle into the hole. It had been decided that the astronauts carry no general tools on board the Eagle in order to save weight. The solution to their dilemma was brilliant. The astronauts had ballpoint pens — specially made to work in zero gravity — known as Fisher Space Pens. The cartridge inside the pen was filled with dry nitrogen gas (at 4 atmospheres of pressure) that pushed coloured glue, not ink, past the ball out of the nozzle and onto the page. The astronauts unscrewed the Fisher Space Pen and inserted the cartridge into the hole where the toggle used to be. The replacement switch worked perfectly, and the astronauts were able to take off from the surface of the Moon. This book gives fascinating insights into the part Australian technicians played in getting the astronauts to the Moon and back. I wish a book like this had been available during the time of the Moon landings, so that I had a better understanding and appreciation of what went on. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

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