In July of 1969 the spacecraft Apollo 11 toke off for the moon

In July of 1969 the spacecraft Apollo 11 toke off for the moon. The objective of the mission was to "Perform manned lunar landing and return mission safely." Which was achieved. Apollo 11 was launched July 16 at 9:32:00 a.m. from KSC, Florida Complex 39-A. The commander of the mission was Neil A. Armstrong. The commander module pilot was Lt. Colonel Michael Collins. The lunar module pilot was Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. The first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was backup commander for the flights Gemini 5,Gemini 11,and Apollo 8. He was commanding officer for the flights Gemini 8 and Apollo 11. On July 16,1969 Apollo 11 lifted off. Their velocity after launching from earth was 35,579 feet per second. While they were in space Edwin E. Aldrin said that six hours of intermittent sleep in orbit can be as good as six hours of uninterrupted sleep on Earth. While in space they got the "2002" message at 6,000 feet. Houston radioed "Were go on that alarm." But engineer Steven Bales diagnosed the problem and recommended that the landing continue in a few seconds. They also had annoying ,computer related loses in communications with Earth. Because of uncertainties in both the gauges in the tanks and the estimates that could be made from telemeter data on the engine firing, the amount of time remaining until the fuel ran out was uncertain by about twenty seconds. If they got to low, Kranz would have to order a abort. It took a twelve-and-a-half minute decent burn to be able to land. When they were close to the moon and were getting ready the orbited it about 30 times. Before they landed on the moon they had to get ready. The astronauts had to wear specially designed suits that were very heavy and bulky. They were made of a white, non-flammable material called beta cloth, a Teflon-coated fiberglass. this suit was made with twenty-five layers of protective materials which made the whole suit weight over one hundred and eighty pounds. But on the moon it only weighted thirty pounds.

The Moon

They had landed in the sea of Tranquility. Their coordinates on the moons surface was .71 degrees North and 23.63 degrees East. At that spot they were 389,645 Km from Earth. After they were already to go Armstrong started down the ladder and he stepped on the moon. Aldrin radioed back to Houston saying "One small step for man one giant leap for man kind" Aldrin stayed in the craft and waited for about two and a half hours before he joined Armstrong on the moon. When Aldrin stepped on the moon he said is felt like a muddy dust and that he sank in about an inch. During their stay on the moon they collected forty-four pounds of rock, dirt, dust and other objects. They picked up these materials with specially made thongs, scoops, and shovels. They collected all of these materials so they can be observed at a lab. in Washington D.C. All the rock and soil materials were placed in vacuum tight containers. While the astronauts were on the moon they took photographs, collected materials samples, and set up many experiments. While they were on the moon at first they had a hard time walking but they finally got the hang of it. They spent twenty-one and a half hours on the moon.

While on the moon they did many experiments including the Laser Ranging Retroreflector, the Passive Seismic Experiment, and the Solar Wind Experiment

Passive Seismic Experiment

The Passive Seismic Experiment measured lunar shockwaves caused by moonquakes or impacts of meteoroids or of a man made object on the lunar surface. Lunar coastal tidal deformations could also be detected with two seismic assemblies one long period seismometers with a seismic frequency response of 0.004 to 3 Hz and two short period seismic frequency response of 0.005 to 20Hz. The last one was shut off in 1981.

Laser Ranging Retroreflector (LRRR)

The Laser Ranging Retroreflector was left on the moon by the Apollo 11 crew. It's a Retroreflector array wit a folding support structure for aiming and aligning the array toward Earth. The Laser Ranging Retroreflector was built of silica cubes. Laser ranging beams from Earth were reflected back. It's job was to reflect a beam of light back on a parallel path to it's origin. It faced Earth. It permitted precise measurement of the distance between Earth and the moon by Three inches.

Solar Wind Composition Experiment

The Solar Wind Composition Experiment consisted of an aluminum foil sheet, 1.4 meters by 3 meters, that was deployed on a pole facing the sun for a period of seventy-seven minutes, allowing solar wind particles to embed themselves into the foil. The foil was then returned to Earth for Laboratory analysis. This allowed chemical composition of the embedded solar wind to be determined more accurately than would be possible if the measurement were made using remotely controlled instruments on the moon, but limited the periods at which observations could be made. The isotopes of the light noble gases were measured, including helium-3, helium-4, neon-20, neon-21, neon-22, argon-26.

While on the moon the Apollo 11 crew also took a lot of photographs. The main reasons to take photographs was: 1. to obtain photographs of the transposition, docking, and lunar modules 2. to obtain photographs of the lunar ground back and the landing site from the low point of the CM's flight path 3. record the operational activities of the crew 4. obtain long distance Earth and lunar terrain photographs of the lunar surface.

After staying twenty-one and a half hours it was time to go. So they got all of the samples and rock and soil material together and they launched. On July 24,1969 They had to land the spacecraft. Their splashdown was canceled because of bad weather so they rescheduled for 346 Kilometers downrange. Their total duration time was eight days ,three hours, and eighteen minutes.

Stetson Troy Haverkamp

8th American History

Rossville Jr.High

Apollo11

May 2002

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