Bezos project finds space treasure at the bottom of the sea

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  • Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos led a "Bezos Expedition" that sent remotely operated vehicles (ROV) more than 14,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean to recover parts of two Saturn V F-1 rocket engines, which may have sent astronauts toward the moon.  Bezos claimed that the technology his crew used to recover the engines rivaled, in its own way, that of the Apollo technology itself.

    Bezos originally thought that his crew had located engines from the Apollo 11 launch, which propelled astrounauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on their journey to become the first men to walk on the moon. But Bezos' crew was not able to make a positive identification of the engine parts since the original serial numbers were either missing or partially missing.

    Bezos is also CEO of Blue Origin, a private company that is working on projects designed to launch humans into space at "dramatically lower costs and increased reliability".

    In this gallery, we'll take a look at what Bezos Expeditions found and some of the photos and details about the Saturn V F-1 engines. Here we see the F-1 engines working at full force to lift off Apollo 11.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Here's the nozzle from one of the engines sitting on the ocean floor.

    For each flight, five Saturn V F-1 engines had only about two-and-a-half minutes to lift the rocket 36 miles above the Earth, and reach a speed of 6,000mph. After the liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel mixture was spent, the engines fell back into the ocean at about 5,000mph.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • A thrust chamber.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • The thrust chamber recovered.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Gas generator and manifold.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Injector and LOX Dome.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Nozzle hat band.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Heat exchanger.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Turbine.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • The thrust chamber fuel manifold.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • The Saturn V stage structure.

    Photo by: Bezos Expeditions

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Back in the late '60s or early '70s, these workers prepared the engines for launch. Five F-1 engines were housed in the 138-foot tall first stage of the Saturn V rocket.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Here's a close up of the F-1 engine.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • The parts of an F-1 engine.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Engine stats.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • Here's a schematic diagram of the F-1.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

  • NASA's "garage" for the F-1 engines.

    Photo by: NASA

    Caption by: Andy Smith

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NASA's "garage" for the F-1 engines.

Caption by: Andy Smith

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