NASA studies historic lunar module simulator on Long Island to help design future Artemis spacecraft

A historic lunar module simulator in the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale played a role Wednesday in the next phase of space exploration that eventually could take humankind to Mars and beyond.

NASA experts came to the museum to examine one of the original lunar module simulators that astronauts such as Neil Armstrong trained on before he landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo mission. They examined the module in depth to see what they can learn as they prepare to construct a simulator for the Artemis astronauts.

Tom Wolters, a simulation engineer from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, who led the visit, said he was impressed by the museum's simulator.

"I am really amazed at how small this area was, and how long they were able to function well in this kind of an environment," he said. "Until you see it, you really don't have an appreciation for it."

And it was not just that Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent almost 30 hours in the cramped capsule. The astronauts on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission lasted four days in 1970 as they used the lunar module as a "lifeboat" after their command module lost power and oxygen following an explosion.

"The lunar module is the quintessential lesson in overcoming these incredible challenges of getting from the earth to the moon," said Andrew Chaikin, a Great Neck native who is author of "A Man on the Moon," a history of the Apollo program. "It's just a marvel of engineering. You could spend the rest of your life studying the lunar module."

The lunar module and lunar module simulators were built by Long Island-based Grumman and were a huge source of pride for Long Islanders for decades, including on July 20, 1969, when Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. There are only four remaining lunar modules or lunar module simulators in the world, including at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. A fourth is at the Uniondale museum.

But only the one that Wolters and his team examined on Wednesday still has its complete control panel inside. The others have been fully or partially stripped, said Chaikin, who has interviewed 23 of the 24 astronauts who traveled to the moon and was at the museum Wednesday.

Wolters and his team spent a few hours examining the lunar module, using a LIDAR laser scan which will help create a 3D model of a simulator. They took measurements on such things as how far the astronauts had to reach to get to certain controls in the spacecraft and what got in their way. 

"It was great to have NASA people here, because it shows they're looking back at the past to help design what's going on in the future. They're not reinventing the wheel," said Josh Stoff, the museum’s curator and historian.

NASA started constructing its simulator in Hampton, Virginia, in December and expects to finish it by this December, Wolters said.

Two private companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, are building the actual rockets and lunar modules that will go to the moon. They are expected to land there sometime in 2028, Wolters said, and must operate under NASA guidelines.

The goal is to establish a base on the moon where astronauts and others can live for months at a time to conduct research. Ultimately, NASA and the companies hope to use the base to be able to reach Mars and beyond — what Chaikin called "deep space."

"It's not just going around the Earth," he said. "It's other worlds — living on other worlds. ... We're trying to turn ourselves into a multi-planet species."

Scientists believe there may be ice and other resources on the moon’s north and south poles, that could help allow humans to survive there and beyond on a sustainable base, Chaikin said.

The moon is like "an Outward Bound school to learn how to live on another planet. And we need those skills before we can ever try to go to Mars with humans," he said.

"So let's practice on the moon, which is only three days away; if you have an emergency, you can get somebody back home in a reasonable amount of time," he said. "It's going to be a different game when we go to Mars."

The most recent Artemis mission, which concluded on April 10, was a 10-day journey that broke the record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth — 252,756 miles, compared with the previous record of 248,655 miles set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

During the Apollo missions, the United States landed men on the moon a total of six times. They ended in the early 1970s partly because the United States had achieved its geopolitical Cold War goal of landing a man on the moon before Russia, Chaikin said. Public interest also waned amid conflict over the Vietnam War and other civil unrest, and the program was considered too expensive.

Wolters acknowledged space launches are an inherently dangerous endeavor that can end in disasters, such as the 1986 explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger that killed all seven people aboard.

"I think we're going through taking the steps we need to verify that we're building a good product," he said. "We're very cognizant of the accidents of the past. We don't want to repeat those."

Stoff said he was excited by the Artemis mission and Long Island’s contribution. Within our lifetimes and possibly even within 10 years, "we're going see people living and working on the moon ... before eventually mankind moves further out into the solar system," he said.