Manufacturing the LEM

[docm]

Found this looking for an image of the LEM descent engine. Interesting....

http://www.ehartwell.com/LM/SCATManufacturing.htm

 

[bdewoody]

Good article. I hate it when I hear people spout that the Apollo astronauts were foolishly brave to trust in a vehicle built by the lowest bidder. They have no idea of how government bidding is done. I think Grumman was selected on reputation without any formal bids, as well as Rockwell who did the command and service modules.

 

[MarkStanaway]

I have just finished reading Tom Kelly's book 'Moon Lander - How we Developed the Apollo Lunar Module'. An excellent read which gives an insider's account of how Grumman got the LM contract and the challenge involved in building it.
If you read it in conjunction with 'Building Moonships - The Grumman Lunar Module' you have an excellent pictorial record of what Tom Kelly is talking about in his book.
Each LM was hand made and all workers involved with each one autographed a large sheet which was embedded between the thermal insulation layers on the descent stage and is now a permanent memorial on the lunar surface to their efforts.

 

[CalliArcale]

That was awesome! Thank you for sharing!

It is true, a lot of people interpret government bidding to mean that everything's built by the lowest bidder. They apparently also think the government is a total rube, wiling to spend a thousand bucks on a hammer, which is ridiculous -- and contradictory. The point of the bid process is not simply to get the cheapest product. Price is taken into consideration; the government would be fools not to consider that. But also considered are schedule and the perceived likeliness that the bidder will actually be able to meet requirements, deliver on time, and not go overbudget. Someone who bids $50 to deliver a Saturn V tomorrow may be the lowest bidder, but they're not going to win the contract. Proposed contract terms are also considered. One bidder may bid higher but offer firm fixed price, which may reduce risk to the customer (if it doesn't put the supplier into a bind later on when they are unable to complete within the agreed-upon budget, in which case a new risk arises).