IONs Question #2
What type of cooling / heating system was used to protect the astronauts from the extreme cold and heat of the vacuum of space on the moon. We know that there was a nylon undergarment that circulated water for cooling or heating but there is little to no information on the mechanism used to produce the cooling or heating as required to stabilize the extreme temperatures, which could cover the rang of +253F to -378F.
Since there is a near perfect vacuum on the moon, conduction and convection can be ruled out as there is no atmosphere to exchange the heat to. The backpacks look to be sealed with no evidence of cooling fins etc. which would be useless anyway. The only mechanisms left are evaporation and radiation, but we see no evidence of any gases emanating from the backpacks that could carry away heat. The internal drawings of the backpacks show a H2O sublimation plate which would somewhat answer the cooling issue, but again we never see any evidence of outgassing. There is also no evidence of radiation e.g. pumping to a higher energy state than the surroundings and allowing it to radiate into space.
The same questions apply to the lunar landing module, which had to survive up to three days in blistering 250F heat. The all aluminum tin can construction of the lunar lander would have posed enormous problems of heat conduction to the interior.
When questioned on this Alan Bean, briefly hesitated like a deer in the headlights then said batteries were used for the cooling (yeah that's it...batteries). This is absurd as anyone who has worked in thermodynamics knows you cannot pack that much power into batteries to provide the tonnage of air conditioning required over three days.Well,first i would have to say that the suit and lander having reflective surfaces,would mean didly squat in this situation.
Think about this.
You get your self a 500 watt incandescent bulb spot light,and a nice shinny S/S pot and lid.
You half fill said pot with water,and place spot light about 8 inches away from the pot,shining onto the pot.
Leave for a couple of hour's--will the pot and water inside get hot?,even though the shinny S/S surface of the pot is very reflective--of course it will,and even more so in a vacuum.
!BUT! as far as the batteries go,well the lander descent stage had 4 x 28–32 V, 415 A·h silver-zinc batteries,and the ascent stage had 2x 28–32 volt, 296 ampere-hour silver-zinc batteries
So we have a total of 2252 amp hours.
This is absurd as anyone who has worked in thermodynamics knows you cannot pack that much power into batteries to provide the tonnage of air conditioning required over three days
Well if it was a domestic air conditioner,then maybe.
But it was not a domestic type heat pump air conditioning unit.
It was much the same as the suit's cooling system,where heat rejection was by radiation, supplemented by an open-cycle sublimator.
So,for this we would only need a circulation pump,and not a compressor.
So this would be doable,but only if the other systems that rely on the batteries did not draw to much power.
Obviously they did not have to leave the porch light on,as it was always daylight while they were on the moon.
But two problems arise with this,and they are
1-the amount of water used through the sublimator in that 3 day(72 hours) period of cooling-as it was always day time.
2-And AFAIK,when water is subject to a vacuum,it turns to vapor-not ice.
So where dose this ice come from that forms on the porous plates of the sublimator ?
So,i would have to say !no way! that kind of cooling system would work,unless they took 1000's of LTRs of water with them.
And like you said ION-not once do you see any of that water vapor being ejected from either the suits or the lander.
Brad
Never let your schooling get in the way of your education.
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Topic: Did we go to the Moon (Read 41630 times)
