What a weekend!

From: Pat Barron <pat_at_transarc.ibm.com>
Date: Thu May 4 14:15:16 2000

On Wed, 3 May 2000, John Wilson wrote:
>
> Forgive my ignorance, I was just a kid at the time, but weren't the
> lunar landers abandoned to crash-land on the moon after the trip was
> over? So is this stuff from prototypes or am I missing something?
>

Not sure where the particular units in question came from, but as Eric
pointed out, a number of the various parts were never flown. There were
even a few entire landers that never flew. If you are ever in
Philadelphia, be sure to visit the Franklin Institute, where they have the
Apollo 19 lunar module parked out in the back yard (Apollo 19 was one of
the missions in the original schedule that was eventually cancelled).

In an effort to keep this post slightly on-topic, if you're at all
interested in the computers that flew on these missions, you must read:

   Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer
   by Eldon C. Hall
   ISBN 156347185X

Hall was a member of the MIT Instrumentation Lab team that that designed
the AGC. It's a little light on real technical details, but an excellent
read.

--Pat.
Received on Thu May 04 2000 - 14:15:16 BST