Chemistry of the the Apollo 11 Mission

On 16th of July, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module, The Eagle have lift-off
from the Kennedy Space station and landed on the Moon. Although most of the
procedure have strong correlations with physics, the chemistry within the Apollo
11 mission also hold great importance, as the chemical reactions used are vital
to the success of the ascent and the decent Apollo lunar module.
The chemical reaction required for is crucial for the journey of the Apollo 11
crew. For both touch down and lift off to be successful, the reactions in the
propellant (which is composed of the fuel and the oxidiser) must react complete
under vacuum to produce ignition without manual help so that both astronauts
can stay within the spacecraft whilst the spacecraft is moving; these reactions
need to be extremely efficient so that a large proportion of the energy released
to produce thrust to cushion the landing (thus a crash landing can be prevented,
which protects both the astronauts and the sensitive scientific instruments
carried on-board), and for lift off to re-join the command module Columbia that is
orbiting the moon at the time. Another requirement for the reaction between the
fuel and the oxidiser is the large production of gases which also produce the
thrust needed to overcome the gravitational force of the spacecraft on the moon.
During the lunar mission, liquid fuels were used over solid fuels due to the
fact that liquid fuels does not produce solids in their reactions, and that it
produces higher energy density (measured in Joules per Kilogram, or Jkg -1),
leading to high specific impulse (specific change in momentum, hence larger
acceleration. This can be shown through newtons second law:

F=

(mv)
t

, where

v
=a
t

Where:
F= resultant force
m= mass
v= velocity
t = time taken
a= acceleration

Because energy can be obtained from a variety of equations, such as E=Fs ,

where E is energy and s is the displacement of the object, a high energy density
ultimately produces high acceleration needed to achieve the escape velocity
needed to leave the moon.
During the decent, a reaction between the oxidiser dinitrogen tetroxide
(N2O4) and aerozine 50 occurs; aerozine is a 50/50 mixture (by weight) of
hydrazine - 2N2H4, which is a very strong reducing agent, and unsymmetrical
dimethyl hydrazine - (CH3)2NNH2, or 1, 1-dimethylhydrazine as known by its
IUPAC name (though its often abbreviated as UDMH) as the oxidising agent. The
full displace formula of the two molecules can be shown below:

Unsymmetrical
Dimethyl
Hydrazine

Hydrazine

The similarity
between
the two molecules can be easily seen as unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine is
the derivative of hydrazine, where the two hydrogen branches are replaced with
two methyl groups. As hydrazine is a monopropellant, it acts as both fuel and
oxidiser producing gases and sufficient energy with the help of a suitable
catalyst, nevertheless, this is not the case for the lunar module of Apollo 11 due
to the reactive and unstable nature of hydrazine where it can unexpectedly
decompose in to ammonia, NH3, through thermal decomposition over an
extended period of time, making the fuel less reliable, and unsafe to store during
long, interplanetary missions. By adding the unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine,
a more stable molecule is made so that the chances of decomposition of
hydrazine can be reduced.
One of the reasons that aerozine is used during the Apollo missions is due
to the way that aerozine can exist in its liquid state without any thermal input.
This can be useful for storing aerozine as the reactant for the long term
compared to other types propellants, such as cryogenic propellants - the
propellants that are stored under extremely low temperatures, such as liquid
oxygen which are often used in rockets launched from earth to the atmosphere as cryogenic fuels often have low density, so it required large tanks for storage,
which is unsuitable for a small lunar module. Another benefit of using liquid fuels
is that reactants are not required to be vaporised before launch, meaning less
energy is required, making the launch cheaper are more efficient. This is
important for the Apollo missions as the long distances meant that fuel and
energy is scarce, hence by minimising the energy consumption as less fuel are
carried on the spacecraft, reducing its weight, which meant less thrust is
required for lift off.
Overall, a balanced equation of the reaction between the fuel aerozine 50
and the oxidiser dinitrogen tetroxide can be written for the both ascent and
decent of the Apollo Lunar module Eagle as shown by:
(CH3)2NNH2(l) + 2N2H4(l) + 3N2O4(l) 6N2(g) + 2CO2(g) + 8H2O(g)
1, 1-dimethylhydrazine + hydrazine
Dinitrog
+
+ water
en
tetroxid

nitrogen +
Carbon
Dioxide

This reaction is an extremely exothermic because aerozine is a hypergolic fuel; a

hypergolic fuel is a fuel that does not require an external source of energy or
ignition for spontaneous exothermic reaction with the oxidiser. Reactants which
are hypergolic fuels are often highly reactive and have a short ignition time to

release large amounts of energy required to launch the spacecraft in the time
given. Like many propellants, thrust is generated by the release of large volumes
of gas, shown by the equation above, where all products are gases due to the
amount of thermal energy released and the low boiling points of the products
produced.
In the case of this reaction, the oxidiser nitrogen tetroxide is stored separately
from fuel in two tanks for safety. During descent, the tanks are pumped into the
combustion chamber and the products are released from the nozzle of the
rocket. Like propellants for other missions, the reaction is extremely exothermic
due to the fact that dinitrogen tetroxide has very weak bonds, shown by the fact
that dinitrogen tetroxide will always decompose into nitrogen oxide (NO 2) in an
equilibrium reaction to form a mixture of both dinitrogen tetroxide and nitrogen
oxide. Because of this, it is very reactive therefore it reacts violently with the
fuel, forming nitrogen shown by the equation above.
Nevertheless, there are problems associated with the reactants used for the
Apollo missions which need to be carefully treated. Hydrazine, for example, is
highly flammable, corrosive to the skin, toxic if swallowed as it causes severe
damage to the organs. On top of this, hydrazine can also cause severe
environmental problems if leaked. However, as leaks with the reacts in general
are rare, (where hydrazine was safely handled for 30 years) the risk of leaks and
contamination on rocket propellant on the lunar surface are very low, and that
thorough checks can be done to avoid this risk.
To conclude, the chemical reactions within the propellants played a major role in
the Apollo lunar module; the goal of the reactions for both touch-down and lift-off
are the production of energy and thrust in a safe, controlled manner, and the
strong, exothermic nature of the reaction between dinitrogen tetroxide and
aerozine have achieved this goal, producing an extremely exothermic reaction
producing lots of energy and thrust, allowing the spacecraft to be launched away
from the moon, contributing to the overall success of the Apollo 11 mission.

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