Sheet from the Apollo 11 lunar module Activation Checklist flown to the Moon and showing configurations of the spacecraft’s circuit breakers prior to separation in lunar orbit from the command module, signed by lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, accompanied by signed letter from Aldrin describing his fixing of a broken circuit breaker on the surface of the Moon, 1969.

This is a historic document that was taken to the Moon surface inside the Apollo 11 lunar module by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin has signed it and explains in an accompanying letter how one of the circuit breakers depicted in the document had been broken and, if not mended, would have led to the two astronauts being stranded on the Moon. Aldrin’s solution was to jam a pen into the faulty breaker so closing the electrical circuit and solving the problem. The episode illustrates the oft overlooked reliance of highly sophisticated technological systems on mundane solutions in the event of failure. In this case the exoticism of space age technology is combined with the familiarity of a domestic do-it-yourself fix. The document is the only item in the Science Museum’s collections that has been to the Moon.