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Apollo 17

Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program, and was the sixth and last mission to date to land on the Moon. It was the first night launch, and the final mission, of the Apollo program.

Crew

- Eugene Cernan (flew on Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, & Apollo 17), commander
- Ron Evans (flew on Apollo 17), command module pilot
- Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (flew on Apollo 17), lunar module pilot

Backup crew

- John Young, commander
- Stuart Roosa, command module pilot
- Charles Duke, lunar module pilot

Support Crew

- Robert Overmyer
- Bob Parker
- Gordon Fullerton

Mission parameters

- Mass:
- Launch mass: 2,923,387 kg
- Total spacecraft: 46,678 kg
- CSM mass: 30,320 kg, of which CM was 5960 kg, SM 24,360 kg
- LM mass: transposition and docking stage 36,274 lb (16,454 kg), separation for lunar landing 36,771 lb (16,679 kg), ascent stage at liftoff 10,997 lb (4,988 kg)
- Earth orbits: 2 before leaving for Moon, about one on return
- Lunar orbits: 75
- Perigee: 168.9 km
- Apogee: 171.3 km
- Inclination: 28.526°
- Period: 87.83 min
- Perilune: 97.4 km
- Apolune: 314.8 km
- Inclination: 159.9°
- Period: min
- Landing Site: [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunar_sites.html 20.19080° N - 30.77168° E] or
20° 11' 26.88" N - 30° 46' 18.05" E

Docking

- Undocked: December 11, 1972 - 17:20:56 UTC
- Docked: December 15, 1972 - 01:10:15 UTC

EVAs

- Cernan and Schmitt - EVA 1
- EVA 1 Start: December 11, 1972, 23:54:49 UTC
- EVA 1 End: 12 December 07:06:42 UTC
- Duration: 7 hours, 11 minutes, 53 seconds
- Cernan and Schmitt - EVA 2
- EVA 2 Start: December 12, 1972, 23:28:06 UTC
- EVA 2 End: 13 December 07:05:02 UTC
- Duration: 7 hours, 36 minutes, 56 seconds
- Cernan and Schmitt - EVA 3
- EVA 3 Start: December 13, 1972, 22:25:48 UTC
- EVA 3 End: 14 December 05:40:56 UTC
- Duration: 7 hours, 15 minutes, 08 seconds
- Evans - Transearth EVA 4
- EVA 4 Start: December 17, 1972, 20:27:40 UTC
- EVA 4 End: 17 December 21:33:24 UTC
- Duration: 1 hour, 05 minutes, 44 seconds

Mission highlights

USS Ticonderoga USS Ticonderoga USS Ticonderoga USS Ticonderoga One of the last two men to set foot on the Moon was also the first scientist-astronaut, geologist Harrison Schmitt. While Evans circled in "America," Schmitt and Cernan collected a record 108.86 kilograms of rocks during three Moonwalks. The crew roamed for 33.80 kilometers through the Taurus-Littrow valley in their rover, discovered orange-colored soil, and left the most comprehensive set of instruments in the ALSEP on the lunar surface. Their mission was the last in the Apollo lunar program.

Introduction

Crew members were Gene Cernan, commander; Ron Evans, command module pilot; and Harrison Schmitt, lunar module pilot. The landing site for this mission was on the southeastern rim of the Mare Serenitatis, in the southwestern Montes Taurus. This was a dark mantle between three high, steep massifs, in an area known as the Taurus-Littrow region. Pre-mission photographs showed boulders deposited along the bases of the mountains, which could provide bedrock samples. The area also contained a landslide, several impact craters, and some dark craters which could be volcanic. A J-class mission, featuring the Lunar Rover, they conducted three lunar surface excursions, lasting 7.2, 7.6 and 7.3 hours. The mission returned 110.5 kg of samples from the Moon. The Command module is currently on display at NASA's Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas. The lunar module impacted the Moon on 15 December 1972 at 06:50:20.8 UT (1:50 AM EST) at 19.96 N, 30.50 E. On this mission the astronauts took a famous photograph of the earth known as "The Blue Marble".

Mission notes

- Schmitt, a geologist, was the first (and to date, only) scientist to walk on the Moon.
- Like the astronauts of Apollos 10, 12, 13, and 14 before it, the Apollo 17 crew were recovered in Pacific waters near American Samoa after splashdown, and were flown from the recovery ship to the airport at Tafuna where they were greeted with an enthusiastic (and well practiced!) Samoan reception before being flown on to Honolulu, thence to Houston.
- The plaque left on the ladder of the descent stage of Challenger read: Here Man completed his first explorations of the moon. December 1972 AD. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind. The plaque showed two hemispheres of Earth and the near side of the Moon, plus the signatures of Cernan, Evans, Schmitt, and President Nixon.
- Schmitt was originally due to fly on the cancelled Apollo 18 but following pressure from the science community was moved up to LM pilot on Apollo 17 in place of Joe Engle.
- Apollo 17 broke several records set by previous flights, including longest manned lunar landing flight; longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities; largest lunar sample return, and longest time in lunar orbit.

Quotes

"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17." — Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander. Last man to walk on the moon, 14 December 1972. "Okay, Jack. Let's get this mother outta here". - Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander. Last 'informal' words said on the lunar surface - one second before lunar liftoff.

Media

Reference

- [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/sc-query.html NASA NSSDC Master Catalog]
- [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo17info.html Apollo 17 Info by NASA]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_00a_Cover.htm APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff (NASA)]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4209/appb.htm Development of Manned Space Flight, American and Soviet NASA SP-4209]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/apsr/apsr.htm Apollo Program Summary Report]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/vol3/table2.45.htm Apollo 17 Characteristics - SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.html Apollo 17 entry at Apollo Lunar Surface Jurnal] - Provides an extensive insight of the mission, along with full transcripts and detailed interviews with the crewmembers.

External links

- [http://www.astronautix.com/flights/apollo17.htm Apollo 17 entry in Encyclopedia Astronautica]
- [http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0407/online_extra.html?c=Newsletters&n=2Q04_Insider2&t=internal September 1973 National Geographic Magazine article]
- [http://sourceforge.net/projects/nassp/ Apollo simulation for Orbiter spaceflight sim]
- [http://moon.google.com Apollo landing Locations at Google Moon] Category:Lunar spacecraft Category:Human spaceflights Category:Apollo program ja:アポロ17号

Manned space mission

Human spaceflight is space exploration with a human crew and possibly passengers, which is in contrast to robotic space probes or remotely-controlled unmanned space missions. On occasion, passengers of other species have ridden aboard spacecraft, although not all survived the return to earth. Dogs, not humans, were the first large mammals launched from Earth. The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961; Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made one orbit around the earth. Perhaps the highest of Earth orbits was Gemini 11 in 1966, which reached a height of 1374 km. The Space Shuttle on the missions to launch and service the Hubble Space Telescope has also reached high earth orbit at an altitude of around 600 km. The destination of human spaceflight missions beyond Earth orbit has only been the Moon. On the first such mission, Apollo 8, the crew orbited the Moon. Apollo 10 was the next mission, and it tested the lunar landing craft in lunar orbit without actually landing. The six missions that landed were Apollo 11-17, excluding Apollo 13. On each mission, two of the three astronauts involved landed on the moon; thus, in the late 1960s and early 1970s NASA's Apollo program landed twelve men on the Moon--returning them all to Earth. As of 2005 piloted space missions have been carried out by Russia, the People's Republic of China, and the United States. Missions carried out by the United States are both governmental (NASA) and civilian (Scaled Composites, a California-based company). Canada, Europe, India, and Japan also have active space programs. The Indian Parliament recently sanctioned funds to the Indian Space Research Organization for a human spaceflight by 2008 (although the programme has now been scaled down to start with an unmanned orbiting satellite for surveying--see Chandrayan). Japan has announced a program to place a person on the moon by 2025. Currently the following spacecrafts and spaceports are used:
- International Space Station (includes Soyuz TMA as an emergency lander; normal crew transport with the following two spacecraft)
- Soyuz TMA with Soyuz launch vehicle - Baikonur Cosmodrome
- Space Shuttle - John F. Kennedy Space Center
- Shenzhou spacecraft with Long March rocket - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
- Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne with Scaled Composites White Knight (the latter does not enter space itself) - Mojave Spaceport In an attempt to win the $10 million X-Prize, numerous private companies attempted to build their own manned spacecraft capable of repeated sub-orbital flights. The first private spaceflight took place on June 21 2004, when SpaceShipOne conducted a sub-orbital flight. With its second flight within one week, SpaceShipOne captured the prize on October 4, 2004. NASA uses the term "human spaceflight" to refer to its programme of launching people into space. Traditionally, these endeavours have been referred to as "manned space missions". The term "manned" is accurate in terms of gender when speaking of all U.S. spaceflight programs before the Space Shuttle program and Soviet spaceflights before Vostok 6. Although it only denotes gender in one of several definitions of the word, the term "manned" is considered sexist by some, and they may prefer to use the term "crewed"' or "piloted space missions."

External links

- [http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ NASA Human Space Flight]
- [http://www.thespacereview.com/article/352/1 The top three reasons for humans in space]
- [http://www.chrisvalentines.com/sts107/videoessay.html 20 Minute Video Essay on Human Space Exploration] Category:Human spaceflight

NASA

] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. It is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research.

Vision and mission

NASA's vision is "to improve life here, extend life to there, and to find life beyond." Its mission is "to understand and protect our home planet; to explore the Universe and search for life; and to inspire the next generation of explorers."

History

Space Race

:For additional background, please see the Space Race article Space Race launch of Redstone rocket and NASA's Mercury 3 capsule Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard Jr. on the United States' first human flight into sub-orbital space. (Atlas rockets were used to launch Mercury's orbital missions.)]] Following the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first man-made satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to U.S. security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. Several months of debate produced agreement that a new federal agency was needed to conduct all nonmilitary activity in space. On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), though the probably most important contribution actually had its roots in the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who is today regarded as the father of the United States space program. NASA's early programs were research into human spaceflight, and were conducted under the pressure of the competition between the USA and the USSR (the Space Race) that existed during the Cold War. The Mercury program, initiated in 1958, started NASA down the path of human space exploration with missions designed to discover simply if man could survive in space. Representatives from the U.S. Army (M.L. Raines, LTC, USA), Navy (P.L. Havenstein, CDR, USN) and Air Force (K.G. Lindell, COL, USAF) were selected/requested to provide assistance to the NASA Space Task Group through coordination with the existing U.S. military research and defense contracting infrastructure, and technical assistance resulting from experimental aircraft (and the associated military test pilot pool) development in the 1950s. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the 5-hour flight of Friendship 7. Once the Mercury project proved that human spaceflight was possible, project Gemini was launched to conduct experiments and work out issues relating to a moon mission. The first Gemini flight with astronauts on board, Gemini III, was flown by Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young on March 23, 1965. Nine other missions followed, showing that long-duration human space flight was possible, proving that rendezvous and docking with another vehicle in space was possible, and gathering medical data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.

Apollo program

Following the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs, the Apollo program was launched to try to do interesting work in space and possibly put men around (but not on) the Moon. The direction of the Apollo program was radically altered following President John F. Kennedy's announcement on May 25, 1961 that the United States should commit itself to "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by 1970. Thus Apollo became a program to land men on the Moon. The Gemini program was started shortly thereafter to provide an interim spacecraft to prove techniques needed for the now much more complicated Apollo missions. Gemini program.]] After eight years of preliminary missions, including NASA's first loss of astronauts with the Apollo 1 launch pad fire, and the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon (Apollo 8) at the end of 1968, the Apollo program achieved its goals with Apollo 11 which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969 and returned them to Earth safely on July 24. Armstrong's first words upon stepping out of the Eagle lander captured the momentousness of the occasion: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Twelve men would set foot on the Moon by the end of the Apollo program in December 1972. NASA had won the moon race, and in some senses this left it without direction, or at the very least without the public attention and interest that was necessary to guarantee large budgets from Congress. After President Lyndon Johnson left office, NASA lost its main political supporter, and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was moved to a position lobbying in Washington. Plans for ambitious follow-on projects to construct a space station, establish a lunar base and launch a human mission to Mars by 1990 were proposed but with the end to procurement of Saturn and Apollo hardware, there was no capability to support these. The near-disaster of Apollo 13, where an oxygen tank explosion nearly doomed all three astronauts, helped to recapture national attention and concern. Although missions up to Apollo 20 were planned, Apollo 17 was the last mission to fly under the Apollo banner. The program ended because of budget cuts (in part due to the Vietnam War) and the desire to develop a reusable space vehicle.

Other early missions

Although the vast majority of NASA's budget has been spent on human spaceflight, there have been many robotic missions instigated by the space agency. In 1962 the Mariner 2 mission was launched and became the first spacecraft to make a flyby of another planet – in this case Venus. The Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions were essential to assessing lunar conditions before attempting Apollo landings with humans on board. Later, the two Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars and sent color images back to Earth, but perhaps more impressive were the Pioneer and particularly Voyager missions that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune sending back scientific information and color images. Having lost the moon race, the Soviet Union had, along with the USA, changed its approach. On July 17, 1975 an Apollo craft (finding a new use after the cancelling of planned lunar flights) was docked to the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft, in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Although the Cold War would last many more years, this was a critical point in NASA's history and much of the international co-operation in space exploration that exists today has its genesis with this mission. America's first space station, Skylab, occupied NASA from the end of Apollo until the late 1970s.

Shuttle era

Skylab 1981 ]] The space shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia did so on April 12, 1981. The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than initially projected, and even after the 1986 Challenger disaster highlighted the risks of space flight, the public again lost interest as missions appeared to become mundane. Work began on Space Station Freedom as a focus for the manned space programme but within NASA there was argument that these projects came at the expense of more inspiring unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes. The Challenger disaster aside the late 1980s marked a low point for NASA. Nonetheless, the shuttle has been used to launch milestone projects like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The HST was created with a relatively small budget of $2 billion but has continued operation since 1990 and has delighted both scientists and the public. Some of the images it has returned have become near-legendary, such as the groundbreaking Hubble Deep Field images. The HST is a joint project between ESA and NASA, and its success has paved the way for greater collaboration between the agencies. In 1995 Russian-American interaction would again be achieved as the Shuttle-Mir missions began, and once more a Russian craft (this time a full-fledged space station) docked with an American vehicle. This cooperation continues to the present day, with Russia and America the two biggest partners in the largest space station ever built – the International Space Station (ISS). The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS following the 2003 Columbia disaster, which grounded the shuttle fleet for well over two years. Costing over one hundred billion dollars, it has been difficult at times for NASA to justify the ISS. The population at large have historically been hard to impress with details of scientific experiments in space, preferring news of grand projects to exotic locations. Even now, the ISS cannot accommodate as many scientists as planned. During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to Congressional belt-tightening in Washington, DC. In response, NASA's ninth administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs (Discovery Program). That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999.

NASA's future

Mars Polar Lander and the planned crew and heavy lift launch vehicles]] NASA's most publicly-inspiring mission of recent years has probably been the Mars Pathfinder mission of 1997. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching its own rover, Sojourner, to explore the surface of Mars in a way never done before at any extra-terrestrial location. Less publicly acclaimed but performing science from 1997 to date (2005) has been the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Since 2001, the orbiting Mars Odyssey has been searching for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on the red planet. NASA expects to continue exploring the Red Planet with more spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will reach Mars in 2006. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed the crew of six American and one Israeli astronaut, and caused a 29-month hiatus in space shuttle flights, triggered a serious re-examination of NASA's priorities. The U.S. government, various scientists, and the public all considered the future of the space program. On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, President George W. Bush announced a new plan for NASA's future, dubbed the Vision for Space Exploration. According to this plan, humankind will return to the moon by 2020, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The space shuttle will be retired in 2010 and the Crew Exploration Vehicle will replace it by 2014, capable of both docking with the ISS and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the ISS is somewhat uncertain – construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear. Although the plan initially met with skepticism from Congress, in late 2004 Congress agreed to provide start-up funds for the first year's worth of the new space vision. Hoping to spur innovation from the private sector, NASA established a series of Centennial Challenges, technology prizes for non-government teams, in 2004. The Challenges include tasks that will be useful for implementing the Vision for Space Exploration, such as building more efficient astronaut gloves.

Criticisms

Some commentators, such as Mark Wade, note that NASA has suffered from a 'stop-start' approach to its human spaceflight programs. The Apollo spacecraft and Saturn family of launch vehicles were abandoned in 1970 after billions of dollars had been spent on their development. In 2004 the U.S. Government proposed eventually replacing the Shuttle with a Crew Exploration Vehicle that would allow the agency to again send astronauts to the Moon. Despite the reduction of its budget following project Apollo, NASA has maintained a top-heavy bureaucracy resulting in inflated costs and compromised hardware. Crew Exploration Vehicle on October 31, 1998.]] Currently, the ISS relies on the Shuttle fleet for all major construction shipments. The Shuttle fleet has lost two spacecraft and fourteen astronauts in two disasters in 1986 and 2003. While the 1986 loss was made up with a Shuttle built from replacement parts, NASA does not plan to build another shuttle to replace the second loss. (But see also CEV.) The ISS, which was intended to have a crew of seven as of 2005, now has a skeleton crew of two, causing many intended research projects to be delayed. Other nations that have invested heavily in the space station's construction, such as the members of the European Space Agency, are fearful that the ISS's fate will soon match the fate of Skylab. As of 2005, however, all of the European and Japanese contributions to the ISS are years behind development schedule themselves.

NASA spaceflight missions

Human spaceflight

- Mercury program
- Gemini program
- Apollo program
- Skylab
- Space Shuttle
- International Space Station (working together with ESA, Rosviakosmos and JAXA)
- Project Constellation

Robotic space missions

- Earth Observing
- Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
- TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics)
- Lunar missions
- Ranger
- Surveyor
- Lunar Orbiter
- Clementine
- Lunar Prospector
- Mercury missions
- Mariner 10
- MESSENGER
- Venus missions
- Mariner 2, 5 and 10
- Pioneer Venus
- Magellan
- Mars missions
- Mariner 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9
- Viking 1 and 2
- Mars Observer
- Mars Pathfinder
- Mars Climate Orbiter
- Mars Polar Lander
- Mars Global Surveyor
- 2001 Mars Odyssey
- Mars Exploration Rovers
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
- Phoenix Lander (Planned for 2007)
- Mars Science Laboratory (Planned for 2009)
- Jupiter missions
- Pioneer 10
- Galileo
- Juno
- Saturn missions
- Cassini-Huygens together with ESA
- Multi-planet missions
- Pioneer 11 – Jupiter and Saturn
- Mariner 10 – Venus and Mercury
- Voyager 1 – Jupiter and Saturn
- Voyager 2 – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
- New Horizons (Planned for 2006) – Jupiter, Pluto and Kuiper Belt
- Asteroidal/cometary missions
- NEAR Shoemaker
- Deep Space 1
- Stardust
- Deep Impact
- Dawn (Planned for 2006)
- Proposed or canceled planetary-asteroid missions
- JIMO (cancelled)
- CRAF (cancelled)
- NetLanders (cancelled)
- Pluto Kuiper Express (cancelled; New Horizons is replacement)
- Titan Explorer (proposed)
- Neptune Orbiter (proposed)
- Sun observing missions
- SOHO – ESA partnership
- Ulysses – ESA partnership
- Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics
- Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership
- Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF)
- Other observatories
- COBE
- FUSE
- Infrared Astronomical Satellite
- James Webb Space Telescope – ESA partnership
- WMAP

List of NASA administrators

# T. Keith Glennan (1958–1961) # James E. Webb (1961–1968) # Thomas O. Paine (1969–1970) # James C. Fletcher (1971–1977) # Robert A. Frosch (1977–1981) # James M. Beggs (1981–1985) # James C. Fletcher (1986–1989) # Richard H. Truly (1989–1992) # Daniel S. Goldin (1992–2001) # Sean O'Keefe (2001–2005) # Michael Griffin (2005–)

Field installations

In addition to headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA has field installations at:
- Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
- Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
- John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
- Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
- Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York
- Independent Verification and Validation Facility, Fairmont, West Virginia
- Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California
- Deep Space Network stations:
- Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California
- Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, Madrid, Spain
- Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
- Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
- White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico
- John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
- Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
- George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
- Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana
- John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Awards and decorations

NASA presently bestows a number of medals and decorations to astronauts and other NASA personnel. Some awards are authorized for wear on active duty military uniforms. Current NASA awards are as follows:
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal
- NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Administrative Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Bravery Medal
- NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Service Medal
- NASA Exceptional Technological Achievement Medal
- NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
- NASA Public Service Medal
- NASA Space Flight Medal

Related legislation

- 1958 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration PL 85-568 (passed on July 29)
- 1961 – Apollo mission funding PL 87-98 A
- 1970 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and Development Act PL 91-119
- 1984 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 98-361
- 1988 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 100-685
- NASA Budget 1958–2005 in 1996 Constant Year Dollars

External links

General

- [http://www.nasa.gov NASA Home Page]
- [http://www.nasawatch.com NASA Watch]
-

Further research

- [http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html NASA History Series Publications]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/cover.html NASA Historical Data Books (SP-4012)]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/hhrhist.pdf Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program (large PDF – over 1,012 kb)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server]
- [http://www.eventscope.org Eventscope] Category:Independent Agencies of the United States Government ko:미국항공우주국 ja:アメリカ航空宇宙局 simple:NASA th:องค์การนาซา

Moon

:For other moons in the solar system see natural satellite. For the astrological meaning of the Moon, see Solar system in astrology. For other uses see Moon (disambiguation). The Moon is the planet Earth's only natural satellite. It has no formal name other than "The Moon", although it is occasionally called Luna (Latin for moon), or Selene, to distinguish it from the generic "moon" (natural satellites of other planets are also called moons). Its symbol is a crescent (Unicode: ☾). The terms lunar, selene/seleno-, and cynthion (from the Lunar deities Selene and Cynthia) refer to the Moon (aposelene, selenocentric, pericynthion, etc.). The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles). The Moon's diameter is 3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). The first manmade object to land on the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959, the first photographs of the otherwise occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3 that same year, and the first people to land on the Moon came aboard Apollo 11 in 1969.

The two sides

The far side is sometimes called the "dark side". In this case "dark" means "unknown and hidden" and not "lacking light" as percieved by the name; in fact the far side receives (on average) as much sunlight as the near side, but at opposite times. Spacecraft are cut off from direct radio communication with the Earth when on the far side of the Moon. One distinguishing feature of the far side is its almost complete lack of maria (singular: mare), which are the dark albedo features.

Orbit

The Moon makes a complete orbit about once every 28 days. Each hour the Moon moves relative to the stars by an amount roughly equal to its angular diameter, or by about 0.5°. The Moon differs from most satellites of other planets in that its orbit is close to the plane of the ecliptic and not in the Earth's equatorial plane. Several ways to consider a complete orbit are detailed in the table below, but the two most familiar are: the sidereal month being the time it takes to make a complete orbit with respect to the stars, about 27.3 days; and the synodic month being the time it takes to reach the same phase, about 29.5 days. These differ because in the meantime the Earth and Moon have both orbited some distance around the Sun. The gravitational attraction that the Moon exerts on Earth is the cause of tides in the sea. The tidal flow period, but not the phase, is synchronized to the Moon's orbit around Earth. The tidal bulges on Earth, caused by the Moon's gravity, are carried ahead of the apparent position of the Moon by the Earth's rotation, in part because of the friction of the water as it slides over the ocean bottom and into or out of bays and estuaries. As a result, some of the Earth's rotational momentum is gradually being transferred to the Moon's orbital momentum, resulting in the Moon slowly receding from Earth at the rate of approximately 38 mm per year. At the same time the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing, the Earth's day thus lengthens by about 15 µs every year. A more detailed discussion follows in the section titled Earth & Moon. The Moon is in synchronous rotation, meaning that it keeps the same face turned to the Earth at all times. This synchronous rotation is only true on average because the Moon's orbit has definite eccentricity. When the Moon is at its perigee, its rotation is slower than its orbital motion, and this allows us to see up to an extra eight degrees of longitude of its East (right) side. Conversely, when the Moon reaches its apogee, its rotation is faster than its orbital motion and reveals another eight degrees of longitude of its West (left) side. This is called longitudinal libration. Because the lunar orbit is also inclined to the Earth's equator, the Moon seems to oscillate up and down (as a person's head does when nodding) as it moves in celestial latitude (declination). This is called latitudinal libration and reveals the Moon's polar zones over about seven degrees of latitude. Finally, because the Moon is only at about 60 Earth radii distance, an observer at the equator who observes the Moon throughout the night moves by an Earth diameter sideways. This is diurnal libration and reveals about one degree's worth of lunar longitude. Earth and Moon orbit about their barycenter, or common center of mass, which lies about 4700 km from Earth's center (about 3/4 of the way to the surface). Since the barycenter is located below the Earth's surface, Earth's motion is more commonly described as a "wobble". When viewed from Earth's North pole, Earth and Moon rotate counter-clockwise about their axes; the Moon orbits Earth counter-clockwise and Earth orbits the Sun counter-clockwise. It may seem curious that the inclination of the lunar orbit and the tilt of the Moon's axis of rotation are listed as varying considerably. One must be reminded here that the orbital inclination is measured with respect to the primary's equatorial plane (in this case the Earth's), and that the axis of rotation's tilt is measured with respect to the normal to the satellite's orbital plane (the Moon's). For most planetary satellites, but not for the Moon, these conventions model physical reality and the values are therefore stable. The plane of the lunar orbit maintains an inclination of 5.145 396° with respect to the ecliptic (the orbital plane of the Earth), and the lunar axis of rotation maintains an inclination of 1.5424° with respect to the normal to that same plane. The lunar orbital plane precesses quickly (i.e. its intersection with the ecliptic rotates clockwise), in 6793.5 days (18.5996 years), mostly because of the gravitational perturbation induced by the Sun. During that period, the lunar orbital plane thus sees its inclination with respect to the Earth's equator (itself inclined 23.45° to the ecliptic) vary between 23.45° + 5.15° = 28.60° and 23.45° - 5.15° = 18.30°. Simultaneously, the axis of lunar rotation sees its tilt with respect to the Moon's orbital plane vary between 5.15° + 1.54° = 6.69° and 5.15° - 1.54° = 3.60°. Note that the Earth's tilt reacts to this process and itself varies by 0.002 56° on either side of its mean value; this is called nutation. The points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic are called the "lunar nodes": the North (or ascending) node is where the Moon crosses to the North of the ecliptic; the South (or descending) node where it crosses to the South. Solar eclipses occur when a node coincides with the new Moon; lunar eclipses when a node coincides with the full Moon.

Earth & Moon

The tides on Earth are generated by the Moon's gravitation (see tide and tidal force for a more detailed discussion). There are two tidal bulges, one in the direction of the Moon, and one in the opposite direction (figure 1). The buildup of these bulges and their movement around the earth causes an energy loss due to friction. The energy loss decreases the rotational energy of the Earth. Since the Earth spins faster than the Moon moves around it, the tidal bulges are dragged along with the Earth's surface faster than the Moon moves, and move "in front of the Moon" (figure 2). Because of this, the Earth's gravitational pull on the Moon has a component in the Moon's "forward" direction with respect to its orbit. This component of the gravitational forces between the two bodies acts like a torque on the Earth's rotation, and transfers angular momentum and rotational energy from the Earth's spin to the Moon's orbital movement. angular momentum Because the Moon is accelerated in forward direction, it moves to a higher orbit. As a result, the distance between the Earth and Moon increases, and the Earth's spin slows down (figure 3). Measurements reveal that the Moon's distance to the Earth increases by 38 mm per year (lunar laser ranging experiments with laser reflectors are used to determine this). Atomic clocks also show that the Earth's day lengthens by about 15 µs every year. However, the formation of tidal bulges on Earth is irregular and not directly related to the frictional energy loss which accompanies the tides. For example, continents on Earth may cause an increase in frictional energy losses and hamper the buildup of tidal bulges (figure 4). The energy loss of the Earth's spin (loss of rotational energy of the Earth) is related to both the energy transfer to the Moon, which depends on the geometry of the mass distributions on Earth (causing a gravity component which pulls the Moon forward), and also to frictional losses, which depends on the properties of the material moving around within tides. The transfer of angular momentum to the Moon's orbit, in contrast, depends only on the geometry of the mass distribution. In general, the angular momentum transferred to the Moon will not correspond to an equivalent energy transfer. There will be a surplus or a deficit in the transfer of angular momentum to the Moon, compared to the energy transfer (figure 5). Since both angular momentum and energy are conserved, there must be a mechanism on earth to store a surplus or a deficit of angular momentum. Candidates for this mechanism are the Earth's magnetic field and internal material currents of the Earth (figure 6). The lunar surface is also subjected to tides from earth, and rises and falls by around 10 cm over 27 days. The lunar tides comprise a mobile component, due to the Sun, and a selenographically fixed one, due to Earth (the Moon keeps the same face turned to the Earth, but not to the Sun). The vertical motion of the Earth-induced component comes entirely from the Moon's orbital eccentricity; if the Moon's orbit were perfectly circular, there would be solar tides only. The magnitude of the Moon's tides corresponds to a Love number of 0.0266, and supports the idea of a partially melted zone around its core. Moonquake waves lose energy below 1000 km depth, and this may also show that the deep material is at least partially melted. The Earth’s Love number is 0.3, corresponding to a movement of 0.5 metres per day; for Venus the Love number is also 0.3. (Source: Patrick Moore, The Data Book of Astronomy - June 2003 Updates)

Origin and history

magnetic field The inclination of the Moon's orbit makes it implausible that the Moon formed along with the Earth or was captured later; its origin is the subject of some scientific debate. Early speculation proposed that the Moon broke off from the Earth's crust due to centrifugal force, leaving an ocean basin (presumed to be the Pacific) behind as a scar. This concept requires too great an initial spin of the Earth. Others speculated the Moon formed elsewhere and was captured into its orbit. Two of the other theories include the coformation or condensation theory and the impact theory, which speculates that the Moon formed from the debris that resulted from a collision between the early Earth and a planetesimal. The Coformation or Condensation hypothesis posits that the Earth and the Moon formed together at about the same time from the primordial accretion disk, the Moon forming from material surrounding the coalescing proto-Earth, similar to the way the planets formed around the Sun. Some suggest that this hypothesis fails to adequately explain the depletion of iron in the Moon. Recently, the Giant Impact theory has been considered a more viable scientific theory for the moon's origin than the coformation or condensation theory. The Giant Impact theory holds that the Moon formed from the ejecta resulting from a collision between a semi-molten Earth and a planet-like object the size of Mars, which has been referred to as Theia. The geological epochs of the Moon are defined based on the dating of various significant impact events in the Moon's history. Analysis of craters and Moon rocks show that there was a late heavy bombardment by asteroids around the period 4000 to 3800 million years ago. Tidal forces deformed the once molten Moon into an ellipsoid, with the major axis pointed towards Earth.

Physical characteristics

Composition

More than 4.5 billion years ago, the surface of the Moon was a liquid magma ocean. Scientists think that one component of lunar rocks, KREEP (K-potassium, Rare Earth Elements, and P-phosphorus), represents the last chemical remnant of that magma ocean. KREEP is actually a composite of what scientists term "incompatible elements": those which cannot fit into a crystal structure and thus were left behind, floating to the surface of the magma. For researchers, KREEP is a convenient tracer, useful for reporting the story of the volcanic history of the lunar crust and chronicling the frequency of impacts by comets and other celestial bodies. The lunar crust is composed of a variety of primary elements, including uranium, thorium, potassium, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, titanium, calcium, aluminium and hydrogen. When bombarded by cosmic rays, each element bounces back into space its own radiation, in the form of gamma rays. Some elements, such as uranium, thorium and potassium, are radioactive and emit gamma rays on their own. However, regardless of what causes them, gamma rays for each element are all different from one another — each produces a unique spectral "signature", detectable by a spectrometer. A complete global mapping of the Moon for the abundance of these elements has never been performed. However, some spacecraft have done so for portions of the Moon; Galileo did so when it flew by the Moon in 1992. [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00131] The overall composition of the Moon is believed to be similar to that of the Earth other than a depletion of volatile elements and of iron.

Selenography

1992 photo.]] When observed with earth based telescopes, the moon can be seen to have some 30,000 craters having a diameter of at least 1 kilometers, but close up observation from lunar orbit reveals a multitude of ever smaller craters. Most are hundreds of millions or billions of years old; the lack of atmosphere or weather or recent geological processes ensures that most of them remain permanently preserved. In the lunar terrae, it is indeed impossible to add a crater of any size without obliterating another; this is termed saturation. The largest crater on the Moon, and indeed the largest known crater within the solar system, forms the South Pole-Aitken basin. This crater is located on the far side, near the south pole, and is some 2,240 km in diameter, and 13 km in depth. The dark and relatively featureless lunar plains are called maria, Latin for seas, since they were believed by ancient astronomers to be water-filled seas. They are actually vast ancient basaltic lava flows that filled the basins of large impact craters. The lighter-colored highlands are called terrae. Maria are found almost exclusively on the Lunar nearside, with the Lunar farside having only a few scattered patches. Scientists think that this asymmetry of lunar features was caused by the synchronization between the Moon's rotation and orbit about the Earth. This synchronization exposes the far side of the Moon to more asteroid and meteor impacts than the near, thereby allowing the maria on the near side to remain relatively undisturbed for many hundreds of millennia. Blanketed atop the Moon's crust is a dusty outer rock layer called regolith. Both the crust and regolith are unevenly distributed over the entire Moon. The crust ranges from 60 km (38 mi) on the near side to 100 km (63 mi) on the far side. The regolith varies from 3 to 5 m (10 to 16 ft) in the maria to 10 to 20 m (33 to 66 ft) in the highlands. In 2004, a team led by Dr. Ben Bussey of Johns Hopkins University using images taken by the Clementine mission determined that four mountainous regions on the rim of the 73 km wide Peary crater at the Moon's north pole appeared to remain illuminated for the entire Lunar day. These unnamed "mountains of eternal light" are possible due to the Moon's extremely small axial tilt, which also gives rise to permanent shadow at the bottoms of many polar craters. No similar regions of eternal light exist at the less-mountainous south pole, although the rim of Shackleton crater is illuminated for 80% of the lunar day. Clementine's images were taken during the northern Lunar hemisphere's summer season, and it remains unknown whether these four mountains are shaded at any point during their local winter season.

Presence of water

Over time, comets and meteorites continuously bombard the Moon. Many of these objects are water-rich. Energy from sunlight splits much of this water into its constituent elements hydrogen and oxygen, both of which usually fly off into space immediately. However, it has been hypothesized that significant traces of water remain on the Moon, either on the surface, or embedded within the crust. The results of the Clementine mission suggested that small, frozen pockets of water ice (remnants of water-rich comet impacts) may be embedded unmelted in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar crust. Although the pockets are thought to be small, the overall amount of water was suggested to be quite significant — 1 km³. Some water molecules, however, may have literally hopped along the surface and gotten trapped inside craters at the lunar poles. Due to the very slight "tilt" of the Moon's axis, only 1.5°, some of these deep craters never receive any light from the Sun — they are permanently shadowed. Clementine has mapped ([http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/clemen/clemen.html]) craters at the lunar south pole ([http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/clemen/2polar.gif]) which are shadowed in this way. It is in such craters that scientists expect to find frozen water if it is there at all. If found, water ice could be mined and then split into hydrogen and oxygen by solar panel-equipped electric power stations or a nuclear generator. The presence of usable quantities of water on the Moon would be an important factor in rendering lunar habitation cost-effective, since transporting water (or hydrogen and oxygen) from Earth would be prohibitively expensive. Clementine twisting the shadow due to the fact that cosmic rays are charged particles.]] The equatorial Moon rock collected by Apollo astronauts contained no traces of water. Neither the Lunar Prospector nor more recent surveys, such as those of the Smithsonian Institution, have found direct evidence of lunar water, ice, or water vapor. Lunar Prospector results, however, indicate the presence of hydrogen in the permanently shadowed regions, which could be in the form of water ice.

Magnetic field

Compared to that of Earth, the Moon has a very weak magnetic field. While some of the Moon's magnetism is thought to be intrinsic (such as a strip of the lunar crust called the Rima Sirsalis), collision with other celestial bodies might have imparted some of the Moon's magnetic properties. Indeed, a long-standing question in planetary science is whether an airless solar system body, such as the Moon, can obtain magnetism from impact processes such as comets and asteroids. Magnetic measurements can also supply information about the size and electrical conductivity of the lunar core — evidence that will help scientists better understand the Moon's origins. For instance, if the core contains more magnetic elements (such as iron) than Earth, then the impact theory loses some credibility (although there are alternate explanations for why the lunar core might contain less iron).

Atmosphere

The Moon has a relatively insignificant and tenuous atmosphere. One source of this atmosphere is outgassing — the release of gases, for instance radon, which originate deep within the Moon's interior. Another important source of gases is the solar wind, which is briefly captured by the Moon's gravity.

Eclipses

The angular diameters of the Moon and the Sun as seen from Earth overlap in their variation, so that both total and annular solar eclipses are possible. In a total eclipse, the Moon completely covers the disc of the Sun and the solar corona becomes visible to the naked eye. Since the distance between the Moon and the Earth is very slightly increasing over time, the angular diameter of the Moon is decreasing. This means that several million years ago the Moon always completely covered the Sun on solar eclipses so that no annular eclipses occurred. Likewise, in several million years the Moon will no longer cover the Sun completely and no total eclipses will occur. Eclipses happen only if Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up. Solar eclipses can only occur at new moon; lunar eclipses can only occur at full moon. See also Solar eclipse and Lunar Eclipse.

Observation of the Moon

Lunar Eclipse During the brightest full moons, the Moon can have an apparent magnitude of about −12.6. For comparison, the Sun has an apparent magnitude of −26.8. The Moon appears larger when close to the horizon. This is a purely psychological effect (see Moon illusion). The angular diameter of the Moon from Earth is about one half of one degree. Various lighter and darker colored areas (primarily maria) create the patterns seen by different cultures as the Man in the Moon, the rabbit and the buffalo, amongst others. Craters and mountain chains are also prominent lunar features. From any location on Earth, the highest altitude of the Moon on a day varies between the same limits as the Sun, and depends on season and lunar phase. For example, in winter the Moon is highest in the sky when it is full, and the full moon is highest in winter. The orientation of the Moon's crescent side also depends on the latitude of the observing site. Close to the equator an observer can see a boat Moon. [http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=393] Like the Sun, the Moon can also give rise to an optical effect known as a halo. For more information on how the Moon appears in Earth's sky, see Lunar phase.

Exploration of the Moon

Lunar phase prepares to descend towards the surface of the Moon. NASA photo.]] NASA standing next to boulder at Taurus-Littrow during third EVA (extravehicular activity). NASA photo.]] The first leap in Lunar observation was caused by the invention of the telescope. Especially Galileo Galilei made good use of this new instrument and observed mountains and craters on the Moon's surface. The Cold War-inspired space race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America led to an acceleration. What was the next big step is politically laden. In the US (and the West in general) the landing of the first humans on the moon in 1969 is seen as a culmination, indeed of the space race in general. But from a scientific point of view the first photographs of the until then unseen far side of the moon in 1959 constituted the second leap in Lunar observation. 1959 and Luna missions]] The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959 by the Soviet probe Luna 3. Luna 9 was the first probe to soft land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the Lunar surface on February 3, 1966. It was proven that a lunar lander would not sink into a thick layer of dust, as had been feared. The first artificial satellite of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 10 (launched March 31, 1966). The first robot lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17 1970 as part of the Lunokhod program. On December 24, 1968 the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first human beings to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes (as opposed to seeing it on a photograph). Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the American mission Apollo 11. The last man to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who as part of the mission Apollo 17 walked on the Moon in December 1972. See also: A full list of lunar astronauts. Moon samples have been brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (nrs. 16, 20, and 24) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (minus Apollo 13, which almost ended in a disaster). On January 14 2004, US President George W. Bush called for a plan to return manned missions to the Moon by 2020. NASA's [http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/cev.html plan] to accomplish that goal was announced on March 19 2005, and was promptly dubbed Apollo 2.0 by critics. The European Space Agency has plans to launch probes to explore the Moon in the near future, too. European spacecraft Smart 1 was launched September 27, 2003 and entered lunar orbit on November 15 2004. It will survey the lunar environment and create an X-ray map of the Moon. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2818551.stm] [http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36091] The People's Republic of China has expressed ambitious plans for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of lunar mining, specifically looking for the isotope Helium-3 for use as an energy source on Earth [http://space.com/missionlaunches/china_moon_030304.html]. Japan has two planned lunar missions, LUNAR-A and Selene; even a manned lunar base is planned by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). India will also try an unmanned orbiting satellite, called Chandrayan. From the mid-1960's to the mid-1970's there were 65 moon landings (with 10 in 1971 alone), but after Luna 24 in 1976 it suddenly stopped. The Soviet Union started focusing on Venus and space stations and the US on Mars and beyond. In 1990 Japan visited the moon with the Hiten spacecraft, becoming the third country to orbit the moon. The spacecraft released the Hagormo probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed rendering the mission scientifically useless.

Human understanding of the Moon

Myth and folk culture

The Moon as muse

The Moon has been the subject of many works of art and literature and the inspiration for countless others.

Astrology

Scientific understanding

A 5,000 year old rock carving at Knowth, Ireland may represent the Moon, which would be the earliest depiction discovered. In many prehistoric and ancient cultures, the Moon was thought to be a deity or other supernatural phenomenon. Among the first in the Western world to offer a scientific explanation for the Moon was the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, who reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former. His atheistic view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and eventual exile. By the Middle Ages, before the invention of the telescope, more and more people began to recognize the Moon as a sphere, though they believed that it was "perfectly smooth". sphere In 1609, Galileo Galilei drew one of the first telescopic drawings of the Moon in his book Sidereus Nuncius and noted that it was not smooth but had craters. Later in the 17th century, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi drew a map of the Moon and gave many craters the names they still have today. Francesco Maria Grimaldi. Surprisingly, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun at gamma ray wavelengths.]] On maps, the dark parts of the Moon's surface were called maria (singular mare) or "seas", and the light parts were called terrae or continents. The possibility that the Moon could contain vegetation and be inhabited by "selenites" was seriously considered by some major astronomers even into the first decades of the 19th century. In 1835, the Great Moon Hoax fooled some people into thinking that there were exotic animals living on the Moon. Almost at the same time however (during 1834–1836), Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler were publishing their four-volume Mappa Selenographica and the book Der Mond in 1837, which firmly established the conclusion that the Moon has no bodies of water nor any appreciable atmosphere. There remained some controversy over whether features on the Moon could undergo changes. Some observers claimed that some small craters had appeared or disappeared, but in the 20th century it was determined that these claims were illusory, due to observing under different lighting conditions or due to the inadequacy of earlier drawings. It is however known that the phenomenon of outgassing occasionally occurs. During the Nazi era in Germany, the Welteislehre theory, which claimed the Moon was made of solid ice, was promoted by Nazi leaders. The far side of the Moon remained completely unknown until the Luna 3 probe was launched in 1959, and was extensively mapped by the Lunar Orbiter program in the 1960s. From the 1950s through the 1990s, NASA aerodynamicist Dean Chapman and others advanced the "lunar origin" theory of tektites. Chapman used complex orbital computer models and extensive wind tunnel tests to support the theory that the so-called Australasian tektites originated from the Rosse ejecta ray of the large crater Tycho on the Moon's nearside. Until the Rosse ray is sampled, a lunar origin for these tektites cannot be ruled out. In 1997 the asteroid 3753 Cruithne was found to have an unusual Earth-associated orbit, and has been dubbed by some to be a second "moon" of Earth. It is not considered a moon by astronomers, however, and its orbit is not stable in the long term.

Legal status

Though several flags of the United States have been symbolically planted on the moon, the U.S. government makes no claim to any part of the Moon's surface. The U.S. is party to the Outer Space Treaty, which places the Moon under the same jurisdiction as international waters (res communis). This treaty also restricts use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning weapons of mass destruction (including nuclear weapons) and military installations of any kind. A second treaty, the Moon Treaty, was proposed to restrict the exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, but it has not been signed by any of the space-faring nations. Several individuals have made claims to the Moon in whole or in part, though none of these claims are generally considered credible (see Moon for sale).

Satellites

- Clementine mission - Observation and research satellite
- Smart 1 (or SMART-1) - a European Space Agency research satellite

Surface installations

Multiple scientific instruments were installed during the Apollo missions, some of them still function today. Among those were seismic detectors and reflecting mirrors for laser ranging. laser ranging laser ranging

References

- Ben Bussey and Paul Spudis, The Clementine Atlas of the Moon, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0521815282.
- Patrick Moore, On the Moon, Sterling Publishing Co., 2001 edition, ISBN 0304354694.
- Paul D. Spudis, The Once and Future Moon, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996, ISBN 1-56098-634-4.

External links

Moon phases

- [http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html US Naval Observatory: phase of the Moon for any date and time 1800-2199 A.D.]
- [http://www.moonphaseinfo.com/ Current Moon Phase]
- [http://www.bapuli.co.nr/moon.htm Display current moon phase as wallpaper in Windows]

Space missions

- [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/lunar_orbiter/ Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon]
- [http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_archive.html The Project Apollo Archive]
- [http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/clementine/clib/ Clementine Lunar Image Browser]

Scientific

- [http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm The Moon - by Rosanna and Calvin Hamilton]
- [http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/luna.html The Moon - by Bill Arnett]
- [http://www.inconstantmoon.com Inconstant Moon - by Kevin Clarke]
- [http://www.moonsociety.org The Moon Society (non-profit educational site)]
- [http://cps.earth.northwestern.edu/GHM/ Geologic History of the Moon by Don Wilhelms]
- [http://isthis4real.com/orbit.xml Can you put the moon into orbit? An interactive simulation - (Needs Firefox 1.5)]

Myth and folklore

- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_337.html Do things get crazy when the moon is full? by Cecil Adams]
- [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1.html Once in a Blue Moon - What is a blue moon? by Ann-Marie Imbornoni]
- [http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/folklore/10667 The Moon In Folklore - by Virginia Marin]
- [http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2004/04/05-0001.html The Rabbit in the Moon - by John Hardy]

Others

- [http://webgis.wr.usgs.gov/the_moon.htm USGS Planetary GIS webserver - the Moon]
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Apo-Perigee.htm The Moon at Apogee and Perigee] (striking photographic comparison)
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-01.htm The Full Moon Rising: I] (striking photo - NOT a composite)
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-02.htm The Full Moon Rising: II] (striking photo - NOT a composite)
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-03.htm The Full Moon Rising: III] (striking photo - NOT a composite)
- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_110.html Why does the Moon appear bigger near the horizon?] (from The Straight Dope)
- [http://www.badastronomy.com Bad Astronomy]: Dr. Philip Plait, an astronomy professor at Sonoma State University, California, runs this site to explain the many cases of incorrect astronomy (and physics) available to the public, including astrology and the Apollo moon landing hoax accusations.
- [http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/index.shtml The Lunar Navigator: Interactive Maps Of The Moon] features free, interactive online access to maps of the Moon's surface
- [http://www.moonpeople.com A comprehensive guide to the Earth's Moon] (Includes a discussion forum)
- [http://www.traipse.com/earth_and_moon/index.html Distance from the Earth to the Moon, illustrated]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org//e-notes/VRML/Globe/Globe.htm 3D VRML Moon globe] zh-min-nan:Go̍eh-niû ko:달 ms:Bulan (satelit) ja:月 simple:Moon th:ดวงจันทร์

Eugene Cernan

Eugene A. Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a former United States astronaut. He has been into space three times: as co-pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, when he became "the last man on the moon". He was also a reserve crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 missions. A native of Chicago, Illinois, a son of Slovak parents, received his father's name which was originally spelled as Ondrej Čerňan. Cernan grew up in the town of Maywood. He graduated from Purdue University, where he became a member of Phi Gamma Delta, in 1956, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He was commissioned into the Navy through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Purdue, and became a Naval Aviator flying jets. He also holds a M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1976, Cernan retired both from the Navy (as a Captain) and from NASA, and went into private business. Cernan is one of only three men to voyage to the moon on two different occasions (the others being Jim Lovell and John Young), and one of only twelve men to walk on the moon. Cernan orbited the moon on Apollo 10, and landed on the moon on Apollo 17. Apollo 17 While on the moon on Apollo 17 he and his crewmate Harrison Schmitt performed three EVAs for a total of about 22 hours of exploration. Their first EVA alone was over three times the length Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent outside the LM on Apollo 11. During this time they covered over 35 kilometers in the Lunar Rover and spent a great deal of time collecting geologic samples that would shed light on the moon's early history. As Cernan got ready to climb the ladder he spoke these words, the last ever spoken by a man standing on the moon's surface: "As we leave the Moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I'd just like to record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo Seventeen." He is the author of [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312199066/qid=1127812744/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6696297-1155240?v=glance&s=books&n=507846|The Last Man on the Moon], his memoirs of the Apollo program. "Yes, I am the last man to have walked on the moon, and that's a very dubious and disappointing honor. It's been far too long."

Trivia

- Drew his daughter's initials TDC (Tracy Dawn Cernan) in the lunar regolith
- Motto: Take the word 'impossible' out of your dictionary
- There is a planetarium named in Captain Cernan's honor -- the Cernan Earth and Space Center on the campus of Triton College in River Grove, Illinois.
- The first (Armstrong) and last (Cernan) men to walk on the Moon were engineering graduates from Purdue University

External links

- [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/cernan-ea.html Biographical data from US National Aeronautics and Space Administration]
- [http://www.triton.edu/cernan Cernan Earth and Space Center] Cernan, Eugene Cernan, Eugene Cernan, Eugene Cernan, Eugene Cernan, Eugene Category:Slovak Americans Cernan, Eugene ja:ユージン・サーナン

Gemini 9A

Gemini 9A (officially Gemini IX-A) was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 7th manned Gemini flight, the 13th manned American flight and the 23rd spaceflight of all time (includes X-15 flights over 100 km).

Crew

- Thomas Stafford (flew on Gemini 6A, Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, & Apollo-Soyuz), Command Pilot
- Eugene Cernan (flew on Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, & Apollo 17), Pilot

Backup crew

- James A. Lovell, Jr, Command Pilot
- Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., Pilot

Mission parameters

- Mass: 3,750 kg
- Perigee: 158.8 km
- Apogee: 266.9 km
- Inclination: 28.91°
- Period: 88.78 min

1st rendezvous

- June 3, 1966 - 17:45 - 18:00 UTC

Space walk

- Cernan
- Start: June 5, 1966, 15:02:00 UTC
- End: June 5, 1966, 17:09:00 UTC
- Duration: 2 hours, 7 minutes

Objectives

Apollo 11 Stafford and Cernan became the first backup crew to fly in space after the first crew of Elliott See and Charles Bassett died in a plane crash four months before the flight. They were to dock with an Agena like the Gemini 8 mission, but during launch of the Gemini 9 Agena on May 17, 1966, its Atlas booster malfunctioned and it failed to make it to orbit. On June 1, 1966 a substitute for the Agena was launched in the form of the ATDA (Augmented Target Docking Adapter). Basically the ATDA is the forward docking section of an Agena without the rear fuel tank and rocket engine. The highlight of the mission was to have been a docking with the ATDA. The docking was canceled, though, after Stafford and Cernan rendezvoused with the target to find its protective shroud still attached over the docking port, which made it look, in Stafford's words, like an "angry alligator." Cernan also was to have tested an Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU) a jet-powered backpack stowed outside in Gemini's adapter module, to which the spacewalking astronaut was to have strapped himself. But Cernan's spacewalk was troubled from the start. His visor fogged, he sweated and struggled with his tasks, and he had problems moving in microgravity. Everything took longer than expected, and Cernan had to go inside before getting a chance to fly the AMU. The device was not finally tested in space until Skylab, seven years later. The original Gemini 9 mission was intended to be a repeat of the shortened Gemini 8 mission. The crew would dock with an Agena Target Vehicle and perform an EVA. But once again the Agena caused problems like it had on Gemini 6A. Once again the Agena exploded during launch, but this time there was an alternative. The augmented target docking adapter or the ATDA had been designed and built by McDonnell, the manufacturers of the Gemini spacecraft. It was basically a short cylinder with a docking cone on the front. It had all the systems that the Gemini would need for rendezvous but lacked a propulsion unit. It was built using already tested equipment and

Apollo 17

Crew

Backup crew

Support Crew

Mission parameters

Docking

EVAs

See also

Mission highlights

Introduction

Mission notes

Quotes

Media

Reference

External links

Manned space mission

See also

External links

NASA

Vision and mission

History

Space Race

Apollo program

Other early missions

Shuttle era

NASA's future

Criticisms

NASA spaceflight missions

Human spaceflight

Robotic space missions

List of NASA administrators

Field installations

Awards and decorations

Related legislation

See also

Other space agencies

External links

General

Further research

Moon

The two sides

Orbit

Earth & Moon

Origin and history

Physical characteristics

Composition

Selenography

Presence of water

Magnetic field

Atmosphere

Eclipses

Observation of the Moon

Exploration of the Moon

Human understanding of the Moon

Myth and folk culture

The Moon as muse

Astrology

Scientific understanding

Legal status

Satellites

Surface installations

See also

Lunar location listings

References

External links

Moon phases

Space missions

Scientific

Myth and folklore

Others

Eugene Cernan

Trivia

External links

Gemini 9A

Crew

Backup crew

Mission parameters

1st rendezvous

Space walk

See also