Pittsburgh native James Irwin gives a military salute to the American Flag at the Hadley-Apennine landing site of Apollo 15 on the Moon, on 1971 August 2. Seen next to James Irwin is the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), which landed him and Dave Scott on the Moon, and the Lunar Rover [officially known as the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV)]; Apollo 15 was the first mission to use a Lunar Rover.
(Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By NASA Johnson Space CenterRestored by Bammesk - This file was derived from: AS15-88-11866 (21648389932).jpgOriginal by: Project Apollo Archive at https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21648389932/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91388729)
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
Fifty years ago, on 1971 July 31,
August 1 & 2, Pittsburgh native James B. Irwin became the eighth
human to walk on the Moon. Accompanied to the lunar surface by Dave
Scott, with Alfred Worden remaining in the Command Module, this was
the Apollo 15 mission to the Moon, which included the first use of an
automobile on the Moon called a Lunar Roving Vehicle.
It was 50 years ago today (July 26)
that Apollo 15 launched toward the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Apollo 15 was the first (of three flown) NASA “J Mission” to the
Moon, which provided for a longer stay on the Moon as well as more of
an emphasis on scientific exploration than earlier Apollo, lunar
landing missions. James Irwin was the Lunar Module Pilot for the
Apollo 15 mission, while David R. Scott (the seventh person to step onto the Moon) was mission Commander and
Alfred M. Worden was the Command Module Pilot.
Of course, the new part of the Apollo
15 mission was the introduction of the electric battery-powered Lunar
Roving Vehicle (better known as the Lunar Rover or 'Moon Buggy') on
the surface of the Moon. Originally conceived in the early 1960s as a
closed-cabin vehicle, somewhat like a normal automobile but with the
addition of a mini-laboratory (titled MOLAB for Mobility Laboratory),
weighing as much as 6,000 pounds / 2,700 kilograms, by the time the
contract was let to Boeing for three Lunar Rovers for three missions,
it had been decided that such a heavy vehicle was unnecessary since
Federal funding cuts would not permit the establishment of a lunar
base in the foreseeable future. So, a scaled-down, four-wheeled Lunar
Rover was developed weighing 460 pounds / 210 kilograms.
Each Lunar Rover could carry a maximum
payload of 1,080 pounds / 490 kilograms, including seating for two
astronauts along with equipment and lunar samples. The top speed for
the Lunar Rover was designed to be 8 miles-per-hour / 13
kilometers-per-hour, although on the last Apollo mission to the Moon,
Apollo 17, the speed reached 11.2 miles-per-hour / 18.0
kilometers-per-hour.
Each of the three Lunar Rovers, which
all remain on the Moon, drove an average of 18.6 statute miles / 30
kilometers, without incident. The Apollo 15 Lunar Rover traveled a
total of 17.25 statute miles / 27.76 kilometers within 3 hours and 2
minutes of travel time. The Apollo 15 Lunar Rover traveled a maximum
3.1 statute miles / 5.0 kilometers from the Lunar Excursion Module
(LEM) which landed James Irwin and Dave Scott on the Moon; the
longest single traverse was 7.75 statute miles / 12.47 kilometers.
Due to the newness of the Lunar Rover,
and the unknown reliability in the lunar environment, this limited
the usefulness during the mission. In case the Lunar Rover stalled,
the astronauts had to be close enough to walk back to the LEM.
Each Lunar Rover was tucked into Apollo
15's Lunar Excursion Module's Quadrant 1 Bay. To commemorate the
first driving vehicle on the Moon, the LEM, with the call-sign Falcon
(named after the U.S. Air Force Academy mascot), included a plaque
which read: "Man's First Wheels on the Moon, Delivered by
Falcon, July 30, 1971".
The Lunar Rover allowed James Irwin and
Dave Scott to do more scientific exploration and collect lunar
samples from a greater distance from the LEM, than previous missions.
The Lunar Rover was used on three separate Extra Vehicular Activity
(EVA) trips, with Dave Scott as the driver and James Irwin as the
navigator.
In addition to proving the concept of
the Lunar Rover, Apollo 15 achieved all of the mission objectives.
This included surveying and sampling an area of the Hadley Rille and
Apennine Mountains region of the Moon, installing lunar surface
experiments, and evaluation of the capability for Apollo equipment to
provide extended stay-time for astronauts on the Moon. According to
the “Apollo 15 Mission Report”: Apollo 15 "was the fourth
lunar landing and resulted in the collection of a wealth of
scientific information. The Apollo system, in addition to providing a
means of transportation, excelled as an operational scientific
facility."
James Benson Irwin was born in
Pittsburgh on 1930 March 17. He lived his first eleven years in the
South Hills section of the City of Pittsburgh, first in the Beechview
neighborhood and later a mile east in the Brookline neighborhood.
When James Irwin was eleven
years-old, the Irwin family moved to Florida.
His father was a steamfitter running
the power plant at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Institute, which includes
the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Museum of Art, the
main branch of Carnegie Library, and the Carnegie Music and Lecture
Halls. James Irwin wrote in his autobiography, To Rule the Night,
that he was enthralled by Carnegie Institute's world-class collection
of dinosaur skeletons. He wrote, "Some of my earliest memories
are of waiting for Dad in this tremendous place". Later in the
autobiography, he wrote how his imagination was stirred by his visits
to Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular
Science.
By age 12, James
Irwin had told his mother that he wanted to be the first person to
walk on the Moon! This would have been in 1942, just after the United
States had entered World War II. As mentioned, he was the eighth
human (of 12 Apollo astronauts) to walk on the Moon.
He attended middle school and high school in Salt Lake City, graduating from East High School in 1947. According to Delta College Planetarium Manager / Astronomer Mike Murray (who lived a few blocks from East High School, 2002 to 2015), East High School has a small historical display regarding James Irwin. Later in 1947, Jim Irwin attended the annual
church picnic, at the church he had attended in Pittsburgh, the Holy
Trinity Lutheran Church in Beechview.
James Irwin attended the U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science
degree in Naval Science in 1951. He went on to earn Master of Science
degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Instrumentation Engineering
from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1957; the University
of Michigan was the first U.S. college to offer an Aeronautical
Engineering degree, beginning in 1914.
James Irwin received flight training in
Texas, first at the Hondo Air Base and then at Reese Air Force Base.
In 1961, he graduated from the Air Force Experimental Flight Test
Pilot School (Class 60C). In 1963, he graduated from Aerospace
Research Pilot School (Class IV).
Before joining NASA on 1966 April 4
(when he was in the fifth group of astronauts selected by NASA, one
of 19 astronauts selected for Moon mission training), James Irwin was
Chief of the Advanced Requirements Branch at Headquarters Air Defense
Command. He also was a developmental test pilot for the Lockheed
YF-12 Mach 3 fighter-interceptor.
As a training instructor, James Irwin
suffered compound fractures, amnesia, and nearly lost one leg after
the crash of a training airplane flown by one of his student pilots;
the student also survived the crash. U.S. Air Force orthopedic
surgeon John Forrest was able to prevent the amputation of James
Irwin's leg.
While in the military, James Irwin
accumulated more than 7,015 hours of flying time (5,300 hours in jet
aircraft). He received the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, two
Air Force Commendation Medals, and an Air Force Outstanding Unit
Citation while with the 4750th Training Wing.
At NASA, James Irwin served as part of
the astronaut support crew for Apollo 10, the “dress-rehearsal”
in lunar orbit for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. He was then
assigned as back-up Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 12, the second
crewed mission to land on the Moon, before being assigned to the
Apollo 15 mission.
James Irwin accumulated more than 295
hours of space flight. More than 18 of those hours were in Extra
Vehicular Activity (EVA), outside the LEM on the Moon..
He retired from NASA and the U.S. Air
Force in 1972 as a Colonel. He had not been very religious since
about the age of 10. This all changed when he returned from the Moon.
He said that during the Apollo 15 mission, “I felt the power of God
as I'd never felt it before.” He also said, “Jesus walking on the
Earth is more important than man walking on the Moon."
In 1972 he created the High Flight
Foundation in Colorado Springs, which helped him spread the Christian
Gospel around the world. For nearly 20 years, he and his family
traveled the globe sharing his unique experience and a message of
hope and encouragement.
Starting in 1973, James Irwin led
several expeditions to Mount Ararat in Turkey, in his search for the
remains of Noah's Ark. He considered the biblical scripture in the
Book of Genesis to be real, literal history. During one expedition in
1982, he was injured during the descent down the mountain and had to
be carried on horse-back.
After a two-year, first marriage in
1952, James Irwin married the former Mary Ellen Monroe in 1959.
Although there were marital problems in the second marriage,
particularly during the NASA years, their marriage survived until
James Irwin's death in 1991. They considered James Irwin's
born-again, Christian faith, following the return from the Moon, had
helped to solidify the marriage. With his second wife, he had five
children: Joy, Jill, James, Jan, and Joe.
James Irwin was the first, and
youngest, of the Apollo astronauts to die. He passed-away from his
fourth heart attack on 1991 August 8 at age 61. NASA physicians
believed that space travel had nothing to do with his heart attacks.
They noted that a tendency for cardiac arrhythmias, during strenuous
exercise, had been observed during pre-flight testing.
The mother (Eleanor Alsnauer) and
maternal grandparents (Louis and Margaret Alsnauer) of the author
(Glenn A. Walsh) knew James Irwin when he was young. The Irwin family
lived just a couple blocks from the Alsnauer family in Pittsburgh's
Beechview neighborhood.
Both families attended the Holy Trinity
Lutheran Church on the edge of the Beechview Business District. James
Irwin and Eleanor Alsnauer both attended Lee Elementary School, just
a block up the hill from the Alsnauer residence. Even after the Irwin
family moved out-of-town, both families would continue to correspond,
including with annual Christmas cards.
The author remembers the Saturday
afternoon, in April of 1966, when his grandfather showed him the news
article, from the Tuesday, 1966 April 5 edition of The Pittsburgh
Press (Page 8),
reporting that James Irwin had been selected as one of the astronauts
to train for missions to the Moon. The author's grandfather knew
that the author had a great interest in the American Space Program,
even at the young age of 10.
James B. Irwin in his official NASA photograph.
(Image Sources: NASA, New Mexico State University)
Internet Links to Additional Information ---
James Irwin:
Link 1 >>> https://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/bio/Pghastronauts.html#irwin
Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Irwin
"Pittsburgh Native Named Astronaut."
The Pittsburgh Press 1966 April 5. Page 8.
Link >>> https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=djft3U1LymYC&dat=19660405&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
Apollo 15:
Link 1 >>> http://www.astronautix.com/a/apollo15.html
Link 2 >>> https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/landing-missions/apollo15.cfm
Link 3 >>> https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo15.html
Link 4 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15
Related Blog-Posts ---
"American Lunar Society Founder on 50th Anniversary: 1st Humans Orbit Moon." Mon., 2018 Dec.24.
"45th Anniversary: Apollo 8 Orbits the Moon Christmas Eve." Tue., 2013 Dec. 24.
"American Lunar Society Founder on 50th Anniversary: 1st Humans Walk on Moon !" Tue., 2019 July 16.
"45 Years Ago: Man Lands on the Moon !" Sun., 2014 July 20.
"50th Anniversary: NASA's Most Successful Failure." (Apollo 13) Mon., 2020 April 13.
Source:
Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower,
a project of Friends
of the Zeiss.
Monday, 2021 July 26.
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gaw
Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator &
Communicator:
Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/
Electronic
Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project
Director, Friends of the Zeiss: Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/
SpaceWatchtower
Editor / Author: Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/
Formerly
Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer,
original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a.
Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum
from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee, Andrew Carnegie Free Library
and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author
of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium,
Pittsburgh: Link >>> http://www.planetarium.cc Buhl Observatory: Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2016/11/75th-anniversary-americas-5th-public.html
*
Adler Planetarium, Chicago: Link >>> http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com
*
Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear: Link >>> http://johnbrashear.tripod.com
*
Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries: Link >>> http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc
