Customer Reviews

Moon Machines

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gosh, what a great (albeit short) series this was!

Unlike most programs dealing with space flight, this series is about engineers rather than astronauts. Seeing the cleverness that went into the different elements of Apollo should make you proud of -- and optimistic about -- your species.

For me, the episode on the lunar rover is easily worth the cover price by itself, but the lunar suit comes a very close second.

What makes this collection of documentaries so fascinating and wonderful is firstly they focus on the technical side of the greatest human engineering feat ever achieved, secondly the stories are told by the engineers who were actually involved.
Each episode discusses the designs, trials and tribulations, and final culmination or 'moment of truth' when the system was utilized in the missions. The engineering detail is very good for a documentary and far better than anything I have seen before. The footage is also very good quality and fascinating.
The best thing however, is the people. In explaining the program they show a great deal of humility, intelligence, sometimes humour, and then there are moments where they explain what the stress, long hours and problem solving was doing to their personal lives, and finally they come to terms with their achievement.
If you are an engineer, scientist, or are of a technical disposition you will find this inspirational. There should be more documentaries like this.

As one who had the great good fortune to see these magnificent machines in action, I am very glad to see this sory by the men who made them. If you enjoyed "In the Shadow of the Moon" or "From the Earth to the Moon" DVD's you will love this one! This DVD is the perfect complement to "Apollo" by Charles Muray and Catherine Bly Cox.I also highly recommend "Angle of Attack" by Mike Gray that tells the inside story of North American Aviation's incredible problems in developing the second stage of the Saturn V - the incomparable S-II-C. "Apollo" by Murray and Cox was published 20 years ago, and it is a delight and just a superb account of how we went to the Moon in 8 years and 2 months after JFK hurled his challenge to the country and at the Soviets. This incomparable book tells the story through the people that solved unsolvable problems. This DVD actually has them telling the story in their own words. Of particular interest to the connoisseur is the seldom told tale of Apollo 4, and the near-disaster of Apollo . The sleuthing of the problems of Apollo 6 is still a tour de force of root cause analysis. The very next Saturn V that was launched after this near failure went to the Moon carrying Apollo 8. The human stories retold in this DVD make the unbelievable event come alive. For those of you who, alas, did not live through this incredible period - this DVD is a good tase of what it was like.

Years ago, I heard or read one of the Apollo astronauts deflecting hero worship. I don't remember which astronaut it was, and I certainly don't remember his exact words, but what he said was essentially this: "I'm just an ordinary man. I can't walk on the moon. But there were thousands of people who designed, built and operated these amazing machines that were capable of carrying human beings to the moon and bringing them back safely, and I was just lucky enough to be one of the guys who got to take that ride."

Though he certainly understates the contribution of the astronauts themselves, he's right about the thousands of people on the ground. This series of six programs looks at the machines and the men and women behind them: the Saturn V rocket, the guidance computers, the command and service module, the lunar module, the lunar rover, and the space suits.

I've been a space nut for a long time, but almost everything here is new to me. The programs are packed with information, from unseen archival film and interviews with the people who did the work. Production values are absolutely first-rate. I've seen a lot of documentaries about Project Apollo, and this is one of the best. I watched it all in a single sitting, and at the end of each episode, I caught myself saying aloud, "This is GREAT!"

I couldn't recommend it more highly.

This is easily the best series about Apollo to date. I heard last week that we spent the equivalent of one TRILLION dollars in 2009 dollars on the Apollo program. After you watch this, you will know why. These guys had to invent almost everything as they went. I really thought the Navigation episode was the best, but they were all great. I had never heard of "Rope Memory" until this - amazing.

I purchased this directly from Amazon for $17.49. It is a fantastic DVD, and well worth the purchase price. Although not in Dolby Digital or DTS, the sound quality is still very good, and the video quality is good for the 1960's footage, and excellent for the more recent interviews, which are in widescreen format.

I think the Apollo program is mankind's greatest achievement. As an engineer myself, I really appreciate the detailed technical explanations, and the opportunity to meet some of these incredibly talented and motivated engineers who took us to the moon 42 years ago.

Six-part documentary on six of the systems that were part of the Apollo Moon Project:

1) Saturn V Rocket
2) Command Module
3) Navigation Computer
4) Lunar Lander
5) Space Suit
6) Lunar Rover

Each episode contains commentaries by a dozen or so of the original Engineers/Managers/Technicians who worked on the specific systems, interspersed with videos relevant to the commentaries. Each episode captures at least 2 or 3 of the "problems" that had to be overcome to develop each of these critical systems, and captures the "most critical" and "high point" of the Apollo Mission, from the perspective of those who worked on the individual systems.

I watch these documentaries over and over... the Saturn V episode is my favorite.

It is my opinion that the way in which the Lunar Lander episode depicts that Von Braun "finally came around to accept" Houbolt's Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) was the "only way" to get the moon (within the 10 year goal set by Kennedy) is over-simplified & misleading, and really misses the facts in a number of ways... to see for yourself, one can read an account of Von Braun's own opinion on this subject, in an online article that contains two interviews with Dr. Von Braun (conducted August 25, 1970, and November 17, 1971); in which Von Braun clearly corrects the record on this subject... so, that Robert Seamans & this documentary (made in 2008/2009) would take - in my opinion - an unfair and outdated representation of the situation, apparently cooked up by the press in the late 60's for its "sensationalist" angle, is a bit misleading on this important/main historical subject from that particular episode.

For example:

Sample Excerpt from Interview #1:

In the Apollo Spacecraft Chronology, you are quoted as saying "It is true that for a long time we were not in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous. We favored Earth orbit rendezvous."

Von Braun:
Well, actually even that is not quite correct, because at the outset we just didn't know which route [for Apollo to travel to the Moon] was the most promising. We made an agreement with Houston that we at Marshall would concentrate on the study of Earth orbit rendezvous, but that did not mean we wanted to sell it as our preferred scheme. We weren't ready to vote for it yet; our study was meant to merely identify the problems involved. The agreement also said that Houston would concentrate on studying the lunar rendezvous mode. Only after both groups had done their homework would we compare notes. This agreement was based on common sense. You don't start selling your scheme until you are convinced that it is superior. At the outset, neither Houston nor Marshall knew what was the best approach. And the fact that Houston happened to study the lunar orbit rendezvous mode was purely coincidental. That mode didn't even originate in Houston-it was first proposed by John Houbolt of the Langley Center. The problem with Houbolt's original study was that his weight figures for the lunar module were based on certain operational assumptions that Houston considered absolutely inadequate for the mission. So, as Houston added realistic requirements to the Houbolt scheme it lost a lot of its original charm. In the end, everybody wondered whether the lunar orbit rendezvous mode would still look attractive by the time the necessary realism had been instilled in it.

Moon Machines is amazing in that the engineers, the people who made the Space Program what it is, share their experience, their deep passion,devotion and memories in this very well made documentary. My husband and I live in Huntsville Alabama, near the Marshall Space Centre and have had the opportunity to surround ourselves with some of our local NASA engineers, people who work for the supporting industry of space technology and developers through the Von Braun Astronomical Society ([...]) and have great admiration for the accomplishments that revolutionized the world of technology. Some of our members personally know the men and women who are in the Moon Machines DVD Series. Each Episode offers a fascinating look into how the the Saturn V and it's upper stages, the Command Module, the Lunar Module, The instrument Ring, the F1 engine, the J2 engines, how the space suits were developed, the gyroscope developed at MIT that guided the apollo capsule around the moon, and so much more! The Saturn V and the incredible, complex issues that had to be resolved in order to go! Again, told by the people who made the decisions and who together piled up all the stages of the Moon Machine Rocket, the most powerful still yet and fired it in one piece at Cape Canaveral watching millions of parts, wirings, new designs fire successfully!
Moon Machines is a must for your collection if you want to hear the story told by the people who devoted their lives as well as their family's to bring us into the Space Age.
You will guard this one preciously! We promise! And, by the way, told in very humorous ways at times too. Captivating for sure!

Annette and Joel from Huntsville Alabama

The material on this documentary is very interesting- worth multiple viewings to understand it all. You'll be saying to yourself "That's how they did it" over and over again. The background music is cool. If you've ever wondered how they developed the major machines needed to make the moon landings possible, this is the best documentary to date. The facts presented put alot of the moon landing hoax theories to rest. My favorite episode is the lunar Rover with the lunar lander in close second. Highly recommended.

This is simply the most fascinating impressing documentary on the miracle of the Apollo program I have ever seen- and I have seen most of them- as well as the real thing. Highly recommended!