Studying the moon

The Ranger program was designed to have spacecraft that would fly by the moon, returning data enroute and up to their point of impact on the lunar surface. After six unsuccessful missions, Ranger 7 became the first successful Ranger. It returned 4316 television pictures with resolutions down to 3 feet, and it landed less than 10 miles from its intended landing site. There were two successful Ranger missions following the Ranger 7.

The Surveyor program was designed to softland a series of spacecraft on the surface on the moon, which helped to determine potential Apollo landing sites. The Surveyor 6, on November 17, 1967, became the first spacecraft to lift off from the lunar surface.

The Lunar Oribiter program’s primary objective was to obtain topographic data to help select suitable landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. By the end of the fourth orbiter mission 99 percent of the front and 80 percent of the back on the moon had been surveyed.

The Apollo Program

The Apollo spacecraft was an 82-foot structure launched atop a Saturn launch vehicle. It had five distinct parts, the three major sections being the command module, the launch escape system, and the spacecraft-lunar module adapter.

The command module provided the living and working quarters for the three-man crew. The command module was the only part to return to earth.

The service module contained the electrical power subsystem, environmental control subsystem, and the propulsion subsystems required for course corrections to put the spacecraft into lunar orbit and to return to earth. The lunar excursion module carried two men from the command module to the moon’s surface.

The first of the Apollo missions were the Abort missions. The Apollo Transonic Abort was a simulation of the Apollo LES under conditions were high dynamic pressures and transonic speed conditions exist. The Apollo Max Q Abort was the first test of an emergency detection system at abort altitude. The Apollo High Altitude Abort developed a high spin during early powered flight and eventually disintegrated.

The Apollo 1 flight was unmanned and suborbital. It evaluated heat-shield performance at a high heating rate. The command module was recovered. Apollo 2 and 3 also conducted unmanned tests.

The Apollo 4 mission tested heat shield and simulation of the new hatch at lunar re-entry velocity. The Apollo 5 mission was the first flight test of the Apollo lunar module. The Apollo 6 was the last unmanned Apollo flight.

The Apollo 7 mission was the first manned Apollo flight. It had eight successful SPS firings and seven live television sessions. Two photographic sessions and three medical experiments were conducted.

The Apollo 8 mission was the first to achieve lunar orbit. The mission included testing of support facilities, spacecraft navigation communications, and midcourse corrections.

The Apollo 9 mission was the first manned flight of the complete Apollo spacecraft including the Lunar Module. Two crew members conducted extravehicular activity.

The Apollo 10 mission was to conduct all phases of Apollo spacecraft operations except the actual lunar landing. The lunar module was descended to within 50,000 feet of the moon’s surface.

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned landing on a celestial body other than earth, touching down on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon, followed by Edwin Adrin 20 minutes later.

The Apollo 12 spacecraft landed 535 feet northwest of the Surveyor 3. The surveyor was examined, photographed, and its 17-pound television camera and other parts were recovered.

The Apollo 13 mission was aborted after an electrical short circuit caused an explosion and fire that resulted in failure of the spacecraft’s number two oxygen tank and loss of some electrical power. The lunar module Aquarius was used as a ‘lifeboat’ to get the crew back to the earth safely.

The astronauts of the Apollo 14 mission collected 94 pounds of lunar material for 187 projects in the US and 14 foreign countries.

During the Apollo 15 mission, extensive documentation of geologic features was accomplished and 173 pounds of lunar samples were collected. New lunar terrain data was obtained, along with 209 pounds of lunar samples during the following Apollo mission. Also during Apollo 16, soil samples were taken from Shorty Crater and for the first time orange-colored material was found in the soil.

The last human activity on the moon’s surface during the Apollo program came at 5:23 PM EST on December 13, 1972.

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