Starting this Friday, you can watch the conservation of historical Apollo Saturn V engines that were recovered from the bottom of the ocean. That is, if you live near or are planning to visit Hutchinson, Kansas.
Those of us who aren't going to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center anytime soon can check out these cool images of the preservation efforts, supplied by the museum. A team organized by Jeff Bezos picked up the artifacts, which blasted off from Florida and carried U.S. astronauts to the moon, after they spent more than 40 years lying on the ocean floor. The Bezos team still doesn't know precisely which Apollo mission these particular engines came from.
The corroded F-1 engines propelled the enormous Saturn V, still the largest and most powerful rocket ever built in the U.S. Each rocket produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust and reached a top speed of 10,000 km/hr. Bezos' Expeditions F-1 Recovery Project brought the artifact pieces to Kansas, where they are being carefully cleaned and preserved. Some of the relics are the size of a dime while others weigh more than 900 kilograms.
Working with aerospace engineers from Wichita State University, the museum is scanning all the components and building a virtual 3-D CAD model that will assist in reconstructing the engines. The researchers stress that they are not restoring the parts to their original condition, which would require meticulously erasing 40 years worth of accumulated oceanic damage. Instead, their intent is to conserve the artifacts in their present state and prevent them from degrading further. Once in good condition, the pieces will be displayed at other museums around the country.
The Cosmosphere has the largest collection of American space artifacts outside the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. and the largest Russian space artifact collection outside Moscow. The museum will have organized tours of the preservation efforts daily starting May 24.
H/T to CollectSpace.com, which has more great photos of the preservation process.
Images: Gavin Peters
Captions provided by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
