I always found this kind of amazing too. There’s no question that the Lunar Module (LM) interiors do look a bit …. ummm … used. Here are a few close-up photos taken inside various Lunar Modules, and all of these photos were taken before flight:
I wouldn’t describe them as “filthy”, but there are definitely some components that look banged up or at least worn.
I think it’s a combination of a few factors:
- Nobody really cared about the spacecraft looking polished, as long as the construction was sound and there was no debris in the cabin. Unlike a new car, the LM was never going to spend time in a showroom, trying to attract a buyer. If the interior plastic or metal got smudged, scuffed, or discolored during manufacture, nobody cared. Stains, scratches, and smudges were no big deal.
- When a LM flew, everything in it had to work, and that required endless testing, including physical testing. By the time a Lunar Module flew, it had been shaken, subjected to a vacuum, and a fairly large number of people had already spent a lot of hours inside it, running every piece of equipment through its paces. A LM started its flight looking well-used because so many people had spent so much time in it.
- Once a piece of flight equipment such as a LM had passed its tests, no one was allowed to make any changes to it. Even if anyone had cared about appearances, replacing worn or scuffed parts at that point was not allowed.
