A man on the moon
The Plan :
- The Nasa
- The Space race
- The Apollo program
- The technical aspects of Apollo 11 and the crew
- The trip to the moon
- After Apollo 11 missions
- Some anecdotes
- Questions
The NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent
agency of the United State government established the 1st October
1958.
Since 1958, most of the US space exploration have been led by the
NASA, below some of their programs :
- The X-15 rocket plane (1959 -1968) : they established the world
speed record (7'273 km/h) and they made important technical
improvements on the reaction control system .
- The project Mercury (1959-1963) : they sent the first American man
in the space, John Glenn
- The project Gemini (1961-1966) : they improved the long-duration
flights
- The Apollo program (1961-1972) : they landed several times on the
moon
- The Skylab program (1965-1979) : the first and only independently
built orbital station.
- Space Shuttle program (1972–2011): They sent over 300
astronauts in the space. There were two disasters, each killed 7
astronauts, so 14 in total.
- International Space Station (present)
The Space race
The Space race was a « competition » between the URSS and the USA
during the cold war. It started after the German invented the basic rocket
during the ww2. Both of them wanted to prove that they were the most
powerful, intelligent and technological advanced.
Here are some major dates of the space race:
- 4 October 1957 : First satellite ‘sputnik 1’
- 3 November 1957 : First dog in the space, Laïka, which died after 7
hours in space because of overheat.
- 12 April 1961 : Yuri Gagarine, the first man in space
- 16 June 1963 : Valentina Terechkova, the first woman in space
- 15 December 1964 : First European satellite (italian)
- 3 February 1966 : Luna 9 , a soviet probe landed on the moon
- 21 July 1969 : Appolo 11, first man on the moon
The Apollo program
Apollo’s program purpose was to land a man on the moon. The duration
of the program was of 11 years, from 1961 to 1972.
It costed 25.4 billion $. The first flight was AS-201 on February 26, 1966.
The first crewed flight was Apollo 7, on October 11-22, 1968 and the last
flight, Apollo 17 on December 7-19, 1972.
On a total of 19 missions:
-16 were a sucess,
- 1 a partial failure and
- 2 a total failure, which were: a fire in Apollo 1, as a result: 3 astronauts
died and Apollo 13 which couldn’t land on the moon because of technical
problems so they returned to the earth in the Lunar Module (used as a
safe cabin).
All in all, 7 lunar missions were conducted, out of it 6 landings on the
moon. 21 astronauts participated.
The technical aspects of Apollo 11 and the crew
The launcher was Saturn V, its weight was 3000 ton and it was 110
meters high, it could carry more than 118 ton. When Apollo 11 was
launched, it weighted 45 tons, upon mission’s return, the weight was only
5 tons at landing, because most of weight is represented by the
carburant for the launch. The crew consisting of 3 men, was in a small
capsule. So the entire rocket, made of different parts, weighted more
than 3045 tons (almost 15 times the Liberty Statue!!!).
The members of the crew were: Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), the
commandant, Michael Collins (1930-present) and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin
(1930-present). They were all pilots in the army and had made a Gemini
mission before in order to gain experience.
The trip to the Moon
On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 was launched and 12 minutes later, it
entered the Earth orbit. After one and a half revolution around Earth, the
engine, located in the launcher, gave last push in the direction of the
moon and then the remaining launcher parts separated from rocket.
Then the capsule Colombia docked with the Lunar Module. After 3 days
of travel they arrived into the orbit of the moon. Neil Armstrong and
Edwin Aldrin went in the LM and Collins stayed in the capsule. On
Sunday, the July 20th, 1969, the LM landed on the moon. 6 hours later,
Armstrong got out of the LM and said this well-known sentence "That's
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." They stayed out for
2 hours and 31 minutes. During this time, they collected rocks, deployed
scientific material and planted an American flag. When they were going
to live from the moon, Aldrin broke the start button but could repair it with
a pencil. After 3 days of travel back, the capsule landed in the Pacific
Ocean. They brought back 22 kg of lunar rocks and the scientific material
which helped a lot to learn more about the moon. The mission was a real
success.
After Apollo 11 missions
After Apollo 11, 6 other Lunar mission were made. 5 succeeded and one
failed, Apollo 13. The oxygen tank of the rocket had exploded so they
couldn’t land on the moon but went back to earth safely. During the last
mission, they even brought a lunar car along so they could go further
than in the other missions.
Some anecdote
-When they arrived on earth, the Apollo 11 crew was under quarantine
because they didn’t know if there was any bacteria or virus on the moon.
-They didn’t land in the correct place on the moon because of the moon
topography.
-Back to earth, they had to declare to the American customs that they
were coming from the moon.
-The Questions
1) Who invented the first basic rockets?
2) How many main programs does the Nasa have (from it’s beginning up
to today) ?
3) Who was the first man in space ?
4) The Apollo program consist of how many missions?
5) Who stayed in the capsule on the Lunar orbit during Apollo 11
mission?
