Jamestown

Jamestown
General Information
Owner	United States
Operator
Location	Moon, near Shackleton
Established	12 October 1973
Station Details
Type	Lunar outpost
Purpose	Research Exploration Mining
Crewed	Permanently
Facilities	Crew quarters Research facilities Several landing sites Mining sites Rocket testing site
Station patch

Jamestown is NASA's base station on the Moon. It was established in October 1973 on the rim of Shackleton Crater near the lunar south pole^W, not far from the landing site of Seahawk, the lunar module of Apollo 15. Being capable of housing 3 astronauts at the beginning, it grew continuously over the years and can now accommodate several dozen people. By 1994, it includes several mining and construction facilities. The base is designed to be a settlement and research station for astronauts on routine trips to the Moon.

History

1970s

This section is currently incomplete. You can help by expanding it! Click here to add more.

The base was launched by a modified Saturn V rocket and landed on the Moon on October 12th, 1973. The four descent engines, located on the sides of the base to help it land properly, were repurposed from the lunar modules, as well as the RCS thrusters. It was first occupied by the crew of Apollo 21, Molly Cobb, Robert Crippen^W, and Joseph Engle^W.

Jamestown was equipped with three bunk beds for the crew, lockers for personal belongings, a kitchen, a shower, a small lab, a board for planning new missions, and a video communication system by which the astronauts were able to talk with Mission Control and their relatives back on Earth. For entertainment, there was a small CRT TV monitor with a improvised VHS player that often broke down while running episodes of the "Bob Newhart Show", the only source of "sanity" for the crew of Apollo 22, due to the Apollo 23 tragedy, causing the grounding of the Saturn V fleet, and the delays of Apollo 24's crew.

1980s

By 1983, Jamestown had undergone two expansions, being carried mostly by the Sea Dragon, NASA's new super heavy-lift launch vehicle. The expansions included new living quarters, several rovers, and nuclear power supply. The large phase III expansion was controversial, after it was made public that the launch was carrying more plutonium for the base's nuclear power source. This mission also secretly carried a second reactor intended to make weapons grade plutonium, which caused tensions to a all-time high with the US and USSR, as the Soviets feared NASA would use the payload of Sea Dragon 17 as a weapon.

New crews varied between 4 and 5 personnel who stayed at the base for 6 month, resulting in dozens of astronauts living at the station at any time. Crew rotations were carried by Space Shuttles, which had replaced the Apollo program from the 70s.

On May 1983, the biggest solar flare event ever registered hit Earth and subsequently also the Moon. All astronauts had to seek shelter in the base' underground bunker, those too far away to make it in time as deep as possible in a fitting lava tube^W. During the event, Molly Cobb and ESA astronaut Wubbo Ockels were exposed to high radiation for a prolonged amount of time, after Wubbo crashed his roving vehicle and was rescued by Molly.

In fall 1983, an attack on the base by Soviet cosmonauts almost destroyed the base when damage to the reactor almost caused a meltdown, only prevented by the heroic sacrifice of Gordo and Tracy Stevens.

See also: Jamestown crisis and Attack on Jamestown

1990s

By 1992, Jamestown had undergone a large amount of extra expansions, as well as a hotfire testing ground for testing new rockets engines, including the K-32 NERVA for NASA's planned mission to Mars. Technicians were later sent to oversee the repair of the K-32 engine. This involved replacing it with a niobium alloy^W nozzle that would cool more effectively in the vacuum of space. This radiative cooling design would be optimal, as long as the nozzle wall thickness was within correct tolerances - too much could be lost in translation.

Beside the Sea Dragon, the new second generation Pathfinder shuttles were used to carry cargo to the colony, while the first generation Space Shuttles were still in use for periodic crew rotations.

In fall 1994, NASA's Sojourner 1 spacecraft launched from Jamestown for its journey to the red planet.

Features

The base features multiple crew facilities, spread out through the base. Many of them are inside the connecting hallways between modules. Many research facilities are also located in the base. The central module contains the Commander’s office, communications equipment, and general systems for the base, as well as the base’s two nuclear reactors. Looking over the external facilities is the Control Room, which houses major equipment for the outpost and commands the mining operation in Shackleton Crater. Other facilities include warm showers, a garage, workshop, galleys, exercise equipment, and air conditioning, the latter of which became an annoyance to Tracy Stevens, suffering many sleepless nights as a result.

Outside the pressurized portion of the base, several landing sites were built to land the LSAMs, among other craft. A large landing site is built specifically for the Sojourner spacecraft. Large solar fields are spread out through the hills around the base. Near the base houses the Jamestown Rocket Testing Site, which did a hot fire test of the K-32 NERVA in 1992.

Missions & crew

Apollo era
	Jamestown 1 / Apollo 21 Molly Cobb (Commander) Robert CrippenW Joseph EngleW		Jamestown 2 / Apollo 22 Edward Baldwin (Commander) Gordo Stevens Danielle Poole
	Jamestown 4 / Apollo 24 Ellen Wilson (Commander) Harrison Liu Deke Slayton
Space Shuttle era
	Jamestown 36 Cook Diaz Foster Sanders White Space Shuttle: Columbia		Jamestown 81 Ellen Wilson Young Murphy Lee Walker
	Jamestown 82 Allen Harris Heikkinen Stewart		Jamestown 83 Molly Cobb Miller Rodriguez Carl Cartwright
	Jamestown 84 Davis Johnson Wubbo Ockels Steve Pomeranz Taylor		Jamestown 85 Garcia Hayes Reed Eric Powell
	Jamestown 86 Howard Dr. Kouri Alex Rossi Mark Tremblay Williams		Jamestown 87 Foster Jones Peterson Doug Price
	Jamestown 88 Nick Corrado James Petersen Tuzell		Jamestown 89 Cook Paul Deweese Tracy Stevens Rogers Space Shuttle: Discovery
	Jamestown 90 Dubois Jacobs DeLeon O’Brien Smith		Jamestown 91 Natalie Bishop Jonathan Gatos Gordo Stevens Mark Tremblay White Space Shuttle: Columbia
	Unknown mission   (launched in 1990 ) Danny Stevens		Unknown mission   (launched in mid 1992 ) Aleida Rosales

Galleries

Jamestown base landing on the Moon

Location of the US & USSR Moon bases

Jamestown and Earth in the sky

Jamestown at night

Signpost on the Moon

Progression

First Moon base model, 1969

Jamestown base after landing, Oct. 1973

Jamestown base 1974

Jamestown base 1974

Jamestown base 1983

Jamestown base 1983

Jamestown & landing sites, 1983

Jamestown control room, 1983

Jamestown base 1992

Jamestown base 1994, before launch to Mars

Jamestown Rocket Testing Site

One of at least 4 landing sites

Sojourner landing site

Patches

Jamestown Patch used in the 70s and 80s

"Linus of Jamestown" patch, 1983

Jamestown 1992 Patch

Jamestown 1994 Patch

Moon Marines Patch

Alvarez Station Patch

Arcos Lunar Fuel Depot Patch

Behind the scenes

Concept art:

Jamestown phase 1 blueprints

Jamestown configuration 1980s

LSAM landing pad

Jamestown nuclear plant

Sojourner construction yard

Videos

For All Mankind - Tour of Jamestown Lunar Base

Trivia

Jamestown reference in The Expanse

In the science-fiction series The Expanse^W, there is a hidden reference to the For All Mankind Jamestown base. In episode 1 of season 5 of the series, character Amos Burton visits Luna, Earth's colony on the Moon, in the year 2355. While walking through a tunnel, an advertising is popping up on the wall, reading: "Explore historic Jamestown Base, est. 1973".

See also

• Linus of Jamestown
• Jamestown crisis
• Attack on Jamestown
• Jamestown Rocket Testing Site
• Shackleton Crater
• Zvezda
• Race to the Moon
• Moon