Why would a space craft designed to only ever operate in a vacuum need anything more than tape to affix reflective covers? Do you think that the solar wind is strong enough to blow these covers off?
Please recall that the Lunar Lander has to land and blast off from the surface of the moon. It must endure extreme vibration, several g-forces, and the shock of impact. Not to mention the engine would also be blowing up dust at high velocities.
No real space agency would hold the heat shield and other components together with tape. How ridiculous!
The LEM has to land, the 'descent stage' half stays behind, and the 'ascent stage' half blasts off, and yes, it's the moon, so the gravity is 1/8 of earth. The LEM's weight of 32,399 lbs would be 5,507 lbs on the moon, and the ascent stage itself would be 1,704 lbs (not including crew) so how much G-force are they going to deal with blasting off from the moon (considering it's 17% of Earths gravity)
I've seen tape handle plenty of vibration. I've done some tape jobs myself (duct-tape holding a machete sheath to my quad) that held up to a lot of vibration just fine.
Shock of impact? How hard do you really think they landed? Of course though, you don't believe they even landed in the first place, so I guess it's a moot point.
The insulation is held together with tape, but other components? I see plenty of framework and other bracing using struts, nuts and bolts, etc.
Do you have any real reason why aesthetic appeal should have been such a concern that using heavier and more solid looking exterior shielding would have been would have been justified, thus requiring more materials and parts, more designing, more fabricating, more framework, bigger rockets, more fuel, etc, etc.
Do you have any real justification for why tape was used to hold together the lunar lander? Of course not.
Yes. I've been over it a few times now.
A heat shield could have been welded, fastened, or integrated into the skin of the craft. Tape holding it is absolutely absurd.
Welding would have been more weight, more cost, more fabricating (welding soft materials to solid metal doesn't work well, so the heat shielding would have had to have been thicker plating of some kind). Fastening would have again required more solid plating of some kind. (although it could have been done with thin materials, but would have required more work to achieve even load distribution at the anchor points.)
Integrated? Sure it's integrated into the skin of the craft. The sun shielding material basically is the outer skin, and I don't know what's absurd about it. It's holding the material in place. You can see it in the very photos you provided.
Thanks, I did read the thread but I missed that link. Now that I've actually seen the picture I don't see scotch tape at all.
What I see is a lunar module with heat, dust and EM blankets being secured to the space craft using a special kind of copper tape.
Scotch is a brand.
Duct Tape is Scotch Tape, Packing Tape is Scotch Tape, and Copper Tape is Scotch Tape.
Indeed, 'Scotch' is a brand. Very good. So are 3M, Nashua, Ducks, and probably many more. 'Type' varies greatly though.