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Science 7 November 1969:
Vol. 166. no. 3906, pp. 733 - 738
DOI: 10.1126/science.166.3906.733
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Articles

Apollo Lunar Module Engine Exhaust Products

B. R. Simoneit 1, A. L. Burlingame 1, D. A. Flory 2, and I. D. Smith 3

1 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720
2 NASA-Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas 77058
3 NASA-White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Organic combustion products generated by the lunar module descent engine, which burns a 1:1 mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer, have been analyzed. The major gaseous combustion products found were ammonia, water, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitric oxide. The minor products were acetylene, hydrogen cyanide, ethylene, formaldehyde, propadiene, ketene, cyanous acid, hydrazoic acid, various methylamines, acetaldehyde, methyl nitrite, formic acid, nitrous acid, butadiyne, nitrilohydrazines, nitromethane, and nitrosohydrazines with other oxidized derivatives of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and hydrazine. The ion intensities of the various species in all mass spectra were estimated as the following concentrations: the gases (NH3, H2O, CO, NO, O2, CO2, and NO2), 87.7 percent; compounds of C, H, and O, 6.0 percent; and compounds of C, H, and N (with traces of O), 5.8 percent.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Volatile-Rich Lunar Soil: Evidence of Possible Cometary Impact.
E. K. Gibson Jr. and G. W. Moore (1973)
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Evidence for Compounds Hydrolyzable to Amino Acids in Aqueous Extracts of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 Lunar Fines.
K. Harada, P. E. Hare, C. R. Windsor, and S. W. Fox (1971)
Science 173, 433-435
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Lunar Organic Compounds: Search and Characterization.
A. L. Burlingame, A. L. Burlingame, M. Calvin, J. Han, W. Henderson, W. Reed, and B. R. Simoneit (1970)
Science 167, 751-752
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Search for Organic Material in Lunar Fines by Mass Spectrometry.
R. C. Murphy, R. C. Murphy, G. Preti, M. M. Nafissi-V., and K. Biemann (1970)
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Search for Organic Compounds in the Lunar Dust from the Sea of Tranquiblity.
C. Ponnamperuma, C. Ponnamperuma, K. Kvenvolden, S. Chang, R. Johnson, G. Pollock, D. Philpott, I. Kaplan, J. Smith, J. W. Schopf, et al. (1970)
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Search for Porphyrins in Lunar Dust.
G. W. Hodgson, G. W. Hodgson, E. Peterson, K. A. Kvenvolden, E. Bunnenberg, B. Halpern, and C. Ponnamperuma (1970)
Science 167, 763-765
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Organic Compounds in Lunar Samples: Pyrolysis Products, Hydrocarbons, Amino Acids.
B. Nagy, B. Nagy, C. M. Drew, P. B. Hamilton, V. E. Modzeleski, S. M. E. Murphy, W. M. Scott, H. C. Urey, and M. Young (1970)
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