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Construction of Model 1 used in the LOLA simulator

Construction of Model 1 used in the LOLA simulator. This was a twenty-foot sphere which simulated for the astronauts what the surface of the moon would look like from 200 miles up. Project LOLA or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach was a simulator built at Langley to study problems related to landing on the lunar surface. It was a complex project that cost nearly $2 million dollars. James Hansen wrote: "This simulator was designed to provide a pilot with a detailed visual encounter with the lunar surface; the machine consisted primarily of a cockpit, a closed-circuit TV system, and four large murals or scale models representing portions of the lunar surface as seen from various altitudes. The pilot in the cockpit moved along a track past these murals which would accustom him to the visual cues for controlling a spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon.

 

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Credit: NASA

Image Number: 1963-L-00718

Date: June 1964

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Uploaded on June 19, 2019
Taken in June 1964