Faking the Moon Landing: The Strange History of NASA's First Lunar Simulators

Rucking_Fetard

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-strange-history-of-nasas-lunar-analogues?trk_source=popular

How do you prepare to land on the surface of the moon when no one has ever been to the moon before?


You use a flight simulator, of course. But it's 1961, and computer flight simulators don't exist yet, so you do what engineers at NASA did and build the ultimate dark ride: an analog flight simulator called Project LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, at the Langley Space Center.


LOLA was a system of massive glowing murals and scale model-orbs criss-crossed with ribbons of track. In total darkness, pilots would ride in carts along the tracks, poised at relevant angles from the ersatz moons, in order to practice translunar approach and orbit establishment. A field of simulated stars was front-projected onto screens by a four-axis “star ball” mounted over the cabin, completing the immersive effect.

Calibos

Another tidbit of related info is that Al Nagler of Televue Eyepieces fame designed the optics for the Lunar Lander simulator.

http://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=94&Tab=_bLevy#.U8iQFPldWPU