What flat cable pulley device helped lift Apollo 11 sample boxes into Eagle?

The flat cable pulley device that helped lift Apollo 11’s sample boxes into Eagle was the Lunar Equipment Conveyor.

The Lunar Equipment Conveyor, or LEC, was a simple flat-cable hauling device designed to move equipment between the lunar surface and the hatch of the lunar module. After completing their moonwalk, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin used it to raise film magazines and two sample boxes toward Eagle.

The boxes contained about 21.55 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil. The LEC was intended to reduce the difficulty of lifting bulky loads up the module’s ladder while the astronauts wore pressurized suits and worked with limited mobility.

The device was less efficient than hoped. Later Apollo crews generally preferred carrying equipment and samples by hand rather than relying on the conveyor. It is sometimes confused with the Modular Equipment Transporter, a two-wheeled cart used on Apollo 14, but that was a surface-transport aid rather than the cable pulley used at Eagle.