Posts: 26
From: Karlsruhe, Germany
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 08-18-2007 08:30 AM            

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Pictures of that lunar globe I am talking about are very rare. I have discovered one in the book "Mapping of the Moon" and now I found one picture on the net.

I was always fascinated about this big, relief globe they used for shootings of crew members and other Apollo program participants.

Does anybody know of the whereabouts of this truly wonderful artistic craftsmanship. I believe I had seen a photo on the net of one of the hemispheres of that globe at the outside of some university or institute in the U.S., but cannot find this website anymore.

Any further information about this globe, who built it, where it was stored back in the Apollo days and today (museum?) is greatly appreciated!

Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 08-21-2007 02:22 PM               

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Are you sure this was a 3D piece and not simply a photograph? In the photo you posted note the shadows on the astronauts' suits, and the lack of shadows in the "craters" of the moon graphic. That seems to suggest a flat image like a photographic enlargement.

I do not know this for fact, I am just commenting.

Posts: 162
From: Athens, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

Posts: 846
From: Los Angeles CA. USA
Registered: Jan 2005

Posts: 151
From: Florida, US
Registered: May 2006

posted 08-22-2007 05:17 PM            

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I'd be more interested in learning what became of the 3D moon sections that were linked to the LEM simulators via CCTV?

I suppose a few were destroyed by "crashes," if the portrayal in Tom Hanks' "From the Earth to the Moon" series is accurate, and perhaps all others have gone to dust, being made from Plaster of Paris?

Posts: 846
From: Los Angeles CA. USA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 08-23-2007 01:16 PM               

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Actually, there were more than one of those also.

The Cape, Houston, Grumman and North American had units for astronaut training. A few years back a guy who bought the Downey "sections" at the Rockwell scrapyard offered them to me for our future museum, but we had no place for them in storage at that time. He closed his company at Long Beach Airport and I lost track of him, now that we have a place. Too bad.

Posts: 115
From: Winterport, Maine, USA
Registered: Jul 2004

posted 08-27-2007 08:45 PM               

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I believe I read that "From the Earth to the Moon" took license with the plaster lunar surface, at least in terms of the LEM training. A similar issue occurred in Apollo 13 with the LEM simulator and solid "plop" sound of the suction cup during capture.

It sweetened the visual image and made it easier for the public to understand what was happening with less stimulating sounds and visuals. Much of the training utilized photographs. There might have been some models, but I don't think they were utilized in the capacity the movies make them out as.