How NASA Saved The Moon Program The Same Way You Fix Your WiFi

Apollo 12 was the second US mission to the moon, aiming for the Ocean of Storms.The first successful mission to put man on the moon, Apollo 11, happened July 16, 1969. Months later, NASA sent another team on a mission calledApollo 11, a successful mission to put a man on the moon, happened July 16, 1969. A few months later, NASA sent another astronaut team on a mission calledApollo 12Apollo 12 explored the Ocean of Storms on the moon, a place where a NASA robot touched down two years before.

The Apollo 12 spacecraft took off during a terrible Earth storm. This caused the ship to get hit by lightning twice during its ascent to space.

Everything looked fine for the Yankee Clipper initially.The Yankee Clipper was hit by lightning twice in under a minute after launch.The Yankee Clipper carried astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad, Alan Bean, and Richard Gordon. Then, 36.5 seconds into ascent, lightning struck the ship. Conrad said over the radio, "What the hell was that?"

The three astronauts did not know they were hit. They only felt the spacecraft shake, and "almost all the warning lights on the instrument panel suddenly lit up like Christmas." In under a minute, all power seemed gone.

Another lightning bolt hit the Yankee Clipper at 52 seconds. After that, the instrument panel went dark.

The three astronauts hurtled toward space. Confused engineers on the ground had only ninety seconds to decide what to do.Astronauts and engineers had 90 seconds to decide what to do.No one knew what to do. The ship seemed fine despite the hit. Backup batteries would last the crew hours. But reaching orbit meant returning home without power was nearly impossible. Their other choice was to abort and land in the ocean.

For 20 seconds, ground personnel stayed silent. Less than a minute after the lightning hit, environmental control engineer John Aaron gave the order: "Try SCE to Aux."

John Aaron, a 24-year-old NASA engineer, managed the spacecraft's electrical grid. Aaron knew much about the system. He saw that flipping a switch could help.John Aaron's idea was so strange, his two bosses did not grasp the instruction.Aaron realized flipping a switch could save the mission.

Aaron remembered a switch.a switchThis switch, called the SCE (Signal Conditioning Equipment), turned the spacecraft's power to auxiliary, or backup, mode. Aaron knew the lightning voltage caused the issue. Auxiliary mode kept the SCE running on lower voltage, saving the ship from another strike and restoring the panel.

However, Aaron's order, "Try SCE to Aux," went past his bosses, Gerald Carr and Gerry Griffen. Aaron quickly explained his thought process. Carr then gave the order to the astronauts.

At first, the astronauts felt just asOnly Pilot Alan Bean understood Aaron's order.Aaron's bosses had a directive about the order. Alan Bean remembered which switch was the SCE from a simulation he did earlier that year. Aaron's sharp memory and Bean's memory saved the Apollo 12 mission.

Lights returned to normal. Aaron saw the problem: they needed to reset the fuel cells. This simple fix restored power to the Yankee Clipper.

Aaron's fast thinking is impressive. He knew what to do only because he saw a problem during a simulation.Aaron saw a problem during a simulation.This simulation spiked his curiosity. He told an interviewer:

"I was on the third shift one night, watching a test of the command module at Kennedy. [...] They cut all power to the vehicle to switch to battery. The numbers the system showed reacting to that, this pattern came up, and I got interested because they did not go to zero. They were at 6.7, 12.3. These were some strange numbers."

Why did that pattern of numbers appear? Because [...] when lightning hit Apollo 12, that exact pattern showed up. Aaron did not fully grasp what happened, but he saw a pattern and knew how to escape it.

Aaron's quick thinking did not make the mission 100% safe. Power returned, but they still could not make an accurate damage assessment.There were two big problems. Unseen issues from the lightning strike meant the spacecraft might not reach the moon. The parachute might also fail if it got damaged on the way back to Earth.The spacecraft might not reach the moon because of unseen lightning strike problems. It might not return safely if the parachute was damaged.

After judging all the risks, engineers and astronauts decided: go to the moon. Alan Bean's thinking, from an NPR interview, was:

If we sent the astronauts to Earth now, they would die sooner. Sending them to the moon lets them do other things for ten days before returning. If the parachutes fail, they still had ten days of adventure.

John Aaron credited luck and "natural curiosity" for being a good flight controller.exact wordson the subject were: "The way luck played into that was, again, luck and curiosity." If Aaron had not been interested in the numbers he saw in the simulation, he would not have seen the pattern or known what to do after the Yankee Clipper was hit. If he had not been at that simulation, he would not have known. Aaron continued his NASA interview by saying:

I saw an improper sequence during a pad test. Luck provided it happened during launch phase. I was the flight controller. Other EECOM members missed that pattern. Curiosity about how things work drove me to become a good flight controller.

Aaron became a legend after the Apollo 12 mission. Colleagues recognized his efforts. They gave him a nickname. It was supposedly the 'highest' of NASA's nerdy, punny compliments.Aaron earned the nickname "Steely-Eyed Missile Man" for his quick thinking..

Aaron saved Apollo 12. A year after the near-disaster, his smarts helped.Aaron's quick thinking helped rescue the Apollo 13 astronauts.Aaron also saved the Apollo 13 mission. Vice reports Aaron created the power-up sequence. This allowed the Command Module to return to Earth with low power, saving another group of astronauts. Steely-eyed missile man, that is.