The broken lever on the Moon

The final minutes of the Apollo-11 moon landing were not without drama. During the last meters, the onboard computer declared several errors, unable to assimilate all the navigation information received, and Armstrong had to decide whether to ignore them or abort. In addition, the Lunar Module appeared to be heading towards a crater full of dangerous rocks, so the commander had to briefly ascend again to try to land in another safer place, while the low fuel alarm signaled that the landing could not be postponed any longer.

But all that happened and the Eagle module finally landed, safely, in a region of the Sea of ​​Tranquility. An epic seen by millions of human beings, many of whom had not stopped praying for the safety of the astronauts. What happened next is history. Armstrong stomped his boots on the dusty lunar soil, while declaiming his famous phrase: “This is one small step for a man, but one giant leap forward for humanity.” His partner Aldrin followed him shortly after, after a hasty collection of minimal samples and the taking of various photographs.

With the approval of NASA, and finally authorized to remain on the surface for the originally scheduled time, the two astronauts carried out all the planned activities. Aware of being in a ghostly and dangerous place, after about three hours of extravehicular activity, they both returned to the interior of their vehicle, amazed that, finally, everything had turned out well.

(Photo: NASA)

With the main objective of his mission accomplished, all that remained was to return home. To do this, his ship would have to respond appropriately and transport them to lunar orbit, where Collins was waiting with the Apollo ship. Somehow, after everything they had been through, no one expected any major problems to arise in this final phase of their journey. There was absolute confidence in the technical reliability of the lunar module, and in its ability to carry out its work without difficulties, as scheduled.

Thus, almost completing what until then seemed the greatest feat accomplished by humanity, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to take off from the surface of our satellite, on July 21, 1969, Houston time. To do this, the two astronauts began to conscientiously review all the steps to be carried out, clearly outlined in the detailed flight plan. All indicators had to show the expected figures, all levers and switches had to be placed in the appropriate position. And they devoted all their attention to this task.

However, during this phase of checks prior to takeoff, the crew members discovered, perplexed, that one of the levers on the control panel seemed to be completely broken. It probably broke against the bulky space suit of one of the astronauts, due to the limited space available. Murphy’s law then became clear: the main function of the lever was, nothing less, to electrically activate the take-off motor, and without the ability to move, this could not be carried out.

After so many days of travel and having met all expectations, a stupid breakage of a lever now threatened to leave them trapped forever on the Moon. Gawked by the situation they faced, the astronauts explained to the control center what had happened. Immediately, technicians on Earth set out to figure out how to solve the problem. First, they broke an identical lever in an analog system, and then tried to move its internal mechanism with the elements available on board the lunar module. After a time of fruitless searching, one of them verified that if the ball was removed from one of the Fisher pens that were in the vehicle to take notes, the hollow tip could be used to insert it into the hole and thus move the switch. Immediately, the “solution” was transmitted to the astronauts.

Fortunately, the improvised repair worked, and Armstrong and Aldrin were able to take off from the Moon on schedule and rejoin their companion Collins in orbit around the satellite. They had been saved by a simple pen!