LUNAR EQUIPMENT CONVEYOR (LEC)
LUNAR EQUIPMENT CONVEYOR (LEC) The LEC was a flat, woven strap about one inch (2.5 cm) wide. There was a carabiner (or 'snap lock' or, simply, a 'hook') at each end. Initially, the LMP kept the carabiners in the cabin.. A simple pulley - a metal tube cut slightly longer than the strap width - with two metal hooks attached was used to secure the LEC to the ceiling of the LM cabin. Midway along the strap between the two carabiners, a seperate, short loop was attached to the main strap, possibly as a handle for the CDR's use when he took the LEC outside and almost certainly as a marker for the midpoint.
DISCUSSION The following discussion comes from the Apollo 11 review done with Neil and Buzz in Santa Fe in 1991:
(The LEC) was a piece of equipment that did not exist - was not planned - until we were someplace in the middle of our training cycle. And we were not confident about our ability to transfer articles to and from the cabin and the surface. I can't remember who devised this idea, but it was devised collectively by our EVA planning group. It was a jury-rig that we collectively devised." “Yeah, it did.” “It was a bit of a jury-rig, but it did the job.”
“It was a flat nylon strap, as I remember...” “I don’t remember. It may have been some kind of a cylinder with a hook.”
The Apollo 11 style LEC was used on Apollos 11 through 15; although, beginning with Apollo 14, the astronauts sometimes carried equipment up and down the ladder by hand. The Apollo 16 and 17 crews flew with only a simple lanyard with which they raised and lowered the Equipment Transfer Bag with its cargo of relatively fragile cameras at the side of the porch, as Buzz had suggested. None of the astronauts had clear memories of the LEC attachment hardware that was used in the cabin.
“It was needed. There wasn’t another solution to the problem. Didn’t it do the job reasonably well?”
“It wasn’t very professional.” “I guess one problem was that it tended to carry up dust? It didn’t have a pulley, you just lifted at the top. Or did it have a pulley?” “Didn’t it just go through the AOT guard, or did it have a pulley?” “From the 1969 Technical Debrief - “There are alternate ways of bringing things up, other than by the LEC. I think there is promise of being able to bring things up over the side (of the porch); straight up, versus making use of the LEC. We didn’t have the opportunity to exercise those.”
BROOKLYN CLOSELINE During a post-mission press conference, Neil referred to the Lunar Equipment Conveyor (LEC) as a "Brooklyn clothesline". In a 2004 e-mail, he referred to it as the "Irish Washerwoman" and wrote, "The LEC idea came from the clotheslines on pulleys outside the windows of New York apartments."
The LEC is a long nylon strap with a hook at each end so that it could be formed into a continuous loop. The strap ran around a pulley attached to a fitting in the cabin ceiling and out through the hatch to the Commander on the surface. Equipment could be attached to the hooks for transport between the cabin and the surface.
Far Left : Six photos that illustrate how the LEC was essebled.
LUNAR EQUIPMENT CONVEYOR 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
loop end PLSS Upper Donning Station pin hooks Pulley Keepers Carabiners or hooks
1.
2.
3.
5.
4.
Training photo shows Neil operating the LEC while Buzz watches. During the mission, Buzz was always in the cabin during LEC operations.