40 Years Ago
Published on Jul 16, 2009 at 9:38 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under NASA, history, space exploration.
40 years ago today a giant Saturn V rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on a trip of a lifetime. The astronauts were going to the Moon. The Saturn V rocket was an amazing piece of equipment. It was the largest rocket that was ever built (the Soviets had tried to build one similar in size, but it was not successful). I’ve already written about the Apollo 11 mission, so you can go look at that post for more information.
I didn’t want such a historic day to go by, though, without at least mentioning it. I remember watching the whole mission on TV. School was not in session, so I was home, and I was glued to the television anytime anything significant was going on. Naturally, there was nearly continual coverage of the mission. It is hard to put into words how significant this mission was in the history of human exploration.
The Apollo 11 mission itself was largely a full blown test of the Apollo systems. It demonstrated that we had the ability to get to the Moon, land, take off, and safely return to Earth. I use the term “safety” here, recognizing that the entire operation was really quite risky, and would likely not have been undertaken in today’s climate of intolerance to risk. But, in the 1960s, people were a bit more willing to allow NASA and the astronauts to take some risks.
But, as I said, the Apollo 11 mission was primarily a test of the systems. Yes, some science was done, and some instruments were left on the surface of the Moon. But, very little time was spent on the lunar surface compared with the later missions (about 2.5 hours). Some samples from the surface were collected, but nowhere near as many as on later missions. This was primarily a proof of the technology, and more extensive lunar surface exploration was done in later missions.
One of Apollo 11’s surface science experiments, the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment is still in operation. It consists of a set of corner reflectors that lasers from Earth can reflect off of to make very accurate measurements of the Moon’s distance from Earth. Even today, these reflectors remain and lasers sometimes still are used to make these measurements.
-Astroprof
Image courtesy NASA
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