Apollo 11 verified the capability for human landing on the Moon, provided the first TV camera coverage of the lunar surface and the first lunar surface sample. The Lunar Module also had the first onboard flight computer, its guidance and navigation system, and the first flight software. The Apollo 12 mission utilized an upgraded flight computer with real time correction capability to allow more precise landing and allowed access to Surveyor III. Apollo 14 made extensive use of black and white cameras and was the first mission to visit the lunar highlands. The introduction of the unpressurized rover and extended life support equipment on Apollo 15, 16, and 17 (the J missions) allowed the most advanced versions of the Apollo methodology to be implemented on those missions. In addition to site characterization and sampling activities, all missions included objectives to emplace and activate an automated science experiment package that would characterize local, regional, and subsurface structures and environments as well as to continue reconnaissance for future missions, and to further investigate the lunar surface and near moon environment from orbit. Each mission included three 6–8 h EVAs in each of the 3 days on the surface. The cancelled Apollo missions, 18, 19, and 20, would have visited sites arguably more challenging and ‘grand’. Candidate sites included Marius Hills, with the highest concentration of volcanic features on the lunar surface, iconic Tycho or Copernicus Craters, well preserved craters with extensive ray system, Aristarchus Plateau, the most diverse region on the Moon, with its longest and deepest canyon, Schroter’s Valley. Proposed scenarios for visiting these sites as Apollo-like sorties, as well as more technologically advanced regional studies of farside features Tsiolkovsky Basin, and South Pole Aitken basin, are described in this chapter.

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Apollo Surface Missions

  • Pamela Elizabeth Clark

摘要

Apollo 11 verified the capability for human landing on the Moon, provided the first TV camera coverage of the lunar surface and the first lunar surface sample. The Lunar Module also had the first onboard flight computer, its guidance and navigation system, and the first flight software. The Apollo 12 mission utilized an upgraded flight computer with real time correction capability to allow more precise landing and allowed access to Surveyor III. Apollo 14 made extensive use of black and white cameras and was the first mission to visit the lunar highlands. The introduction of the unpressurized rover and extended life support equipment on Apollo 15, 16, and 17 (the J missions) allowed the most advanced versions of the Apollo methodology to be implemented on those missions. In addition to site characterization and sampling activities, all missions included objectives to emplace and activate an automated science experiment package that would characterize local, regional, and subsurface structures and environments as well as to continue reconnaissance for future missions, and to further investigate the lunar surface and near moon environment from orbit. Each mission included three 6–8 h EVAs in each of the 3 days on the surface. The cancelled Apollo missions, 18, 19, and 20, would have visited sites arguably more challenging and ‘grand’. Candidate sites included Marius Hills, with the highest concentration of volcanic features on the lunar surface, iconic Tycho or Copernicus Craters, well preserved craters with extensive ray system, Aristarchus Plateau, the most diverse region on the Moon, with its longest and deepest canyon, Schroter’s Valley. Proposed scenarios for visiting these sites as Apollo-like sorties, as well as more technologically advanced regional studies of farside features Tsiolkovsky Basin, and South Pole Aitken basin, are described in this chapter.