Designed by Grumman's brilliant Tom Kelly, the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module (or "LEM" for short) was a triumph of purpose-built engineering. In the six years 1962-1968 between drawing board and first flight, a myriad of challenges were overcome related to weight, reliability and safety. The final design, designated the Lunar Module or "LM", boasted tiny windows instead of large portholes, four legs instead of five and most famously had no seats — instead relying on the astronauts' legs to cushion a lunar landing. Ten LMs made it into space including three flown in development and test missions, and six which landed on the Moon. A seventh famously saved the crew of Apollo 13 when that mission's Command Module suffered a catastrophic malfunction. Originally created for NASA by Grumman in 1964, this LEM Familiarization Manual provides an operational description of all subsystems and major components of the lunar lander. It includes sections about the LEM mission, spacecraft structure, operational subsystems, prelaunch operations, and ground support equipment.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
11 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant Solution
Dec 30 2011
By A Reader
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
With the retiring of the US Space Shuttle fleet (STS), it seems only appropriate to examine one of the most elegant spacecraft, manned or unmanned, that was ever created and successfully flown to, and lifted off from, another planetary body. Harken back to when the little Agency that could, NASA, actually was allowed to do its job.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating piece of NASA history
Jan 6 2012
By Mark Clark
- Published on Amazon.com
Wanted this book the moment I saw it! I remember back when, watching the moon missions, I so desperately wanted to read the instruction manual for the LEM. This book and the even-more-detailed LEM News Reference, which is also sold on Amazon, are exactly what the doctor ordered. I take great satisfaction knowing that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin both read this book...obviously they studied it from cover to cover! Yes it is a technical book but still a very rewarding read (and the News Reference book explains everything in great detail). Well worth the purchase price.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting historical document
Dec 15 2011
By TomK1
- Published on Amazon.com
This book seems to be the manual Grummen would have handed to astronauts, program managers, ground controllers, or anyone who would be involved in the LEM (later LM) operations, so there's definitely the appeal of putting yourself in the position of someone seeing this for the first time in 1965 and hearing "okay, you're going to fly this thing".
Its interesting to flip through, but what's really lacking is any sort of commentary to explain exactly what you're reading, and what each part actually meant. The first part is the most interesting as it gave a high level idea to the astronauts about what they'd be doing.
The rest of the book is a lot of details without enough context to make it more than a tease. For example, this nugget from page 1-2:
"To satisfy the objectives of the FDTB, engineering data beyond that supplied by the basic LEM instrumentation will be required, This additional data will te accommodated on the development flight by the inclusion of special on-board DFL. This equipment will consist of a number of fm/fm telemetry links that radiate LEM-generated data not required for real-time display, and a single pm/fm unit for real-time control purposes."
So its pretty down in the details. There are not many illustrations, its manual created by engineers for the guys who needed this information.
Interesting reading, although you might be interested in goggling for "LEM Lunar Excursion Module Familiarization Manual" to get a feel for whether you'd like this.
Its interesting to flip through, but what's really lacking is any sort of commentary to explain exactly what you're reading, and what each part actually meant. The first part is the most interesting as it gave a high level idea to the astronauts about what they'd be doing.
The rest of the book is a lot of details without enough context to make it more than a tease. For example, this nugget from page 1-2:
"To satisfy the objectives of the FDTB, engineering data beyond that supplied by the basic LEM instrumentation will be required, This additional data will te accommodated on the development flight by the inclusion of special on-board DFL. This equipment will consist of a number of fm/fm telemetry links that radiate LEM-generated data not required for real-time display, and a single pm/fm unit for real-time control purposes."
So its pretty down in the details. There are not many illustrations, its manual created by engineers for the guys who needed this information.
Interesting reading, although you might be interested in goggling for "LEM Lunar Excursion Module Familiarization Manual" to get a feel for whether you'd like this.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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