Further than ever
Three days after launch, on July 29, Apollo 15 entered lunar orbit.Cosmic
On board the ship were the mission commander, Colonel David Randolph Scott; Maj. Alfred Merrill Warden, command module pilot; and Lt. Col. James Benson Irwin, lunar module pilot.
Apollo 15 Crew
NASA
Apollo 15 marked a more ambitiousphase of the US lunar program. The Apollo missions from 11 to 14 were busy getting to the Moon and learning more about how to make precision landings. In turn, Apollo 15 was the first mission, the purpose of which was to carry out long research trips over the lunar surface and conduct scientific research both on the surface of the Moon and in its orbit.
Apollo 15 Templates
NASA
This mission requires more attention, more timewas devoted to scientific training of the crew. As part of their training, the astronauts conducted extensive field trips to lunar-like regions on Earth to study the geology and practice of the first deep drilling on the surface of the moon.
The journey from Earth was accompanied only byDue to minor problems, the Falcon LM undocked from the Endeavor just 25 minutes behind schedule. At the same time, the landing site was much more difficult than in previous missions. Where Apollo 11, 12 and 14 landed near the equator and in lowlands of the lunar mares, Apollo 15 landed on July 30 in higher latitudes, in the highlands of the moon's Apennine mountain range , on the edge of the Sea of Rains.
First mission with lunar rover
After deploying a new set to the surfacenuclear powered scientific instruments, astronauts raised the American flag and installed an improved high gain communication antenna. Then the astronauts turned their attention to the deployment of the lunar rover.
NASA has been planning to ship for over a decaderover to the moon. The mission was hampered by the lack of knowledge about the nature of the lunar surface and the primitive nature of robotics in the 1960s. It made autonomous operations impossible.
The Lunar Rover had a remote controlled TV camera.
NASA
After the astronauts arrived on the moon,NASA has awarded a contract to Boeing to build an electric vehicle that will allow researchers to travel far beyond the area around the lander. With the contract signed in October 1969, the company had just 17 months to design, build and test the rover. At the same time, it not only had to meet the mission requirements, but also be light enough and compact enough to fit inside the new lunar module payload bay.
The result was a four-wheeleda buggy-like vehicle, hence the nickname "moon buggy". It was 3 m long with a wheelbase of 2.3 m. On Earth, the rover weighed 210 kg, and on the Moon - only 34 kg. This was a problem. Engineers were tasked with building a vehicle, but they didn't know how it would perform in low gravity.
Lunar rover diagram
NASA
In three working trips, the Lunokhod overcame a totalcomplexity 27.76 km. Despite some early technical glitches, astronauts quickly became enthralled with the rover and realized how useful it was for exploring the moon - not least because the astronauts found it much easier to ride than walk. This way, the astronauts were using less oxygen.
During their travels, Scott and Irwin stopped to take photographs and collect 77.31 kg of geological samples. Among them, by the way, is the Stone of Genesis.
Genesis Stone from the Moon
The Genesis Stone is one of the most famouslunar soil samples (assigned number 15415) measuring approximately 90 mm and weighing 269.4 g, found by Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin on August 1, 1971 near the Spur crater in the Hadley Apennines region - Apeninne), located in the eastern part of the Swamp of Rotting (Palus Putredinis). The Genesis Stone is an anorthosite composed primarily (98%) of plagioclase, a rock-forming mineral in igneous rocks. In addition, its composition includes pyroxene, and also, in trace quantities, ilmenite and silica.
The Stone of Genesis. Photo by NASA
It was assumed that such a sample shouldbe a fragment of the ancient lunar crust and its discovery and study will clarify a number of fundamental questions about the origin and formation of the Moon, and the Solar System as a whole. That is why the geologists who took part in the training of the Apollo astronauts, in particular California Institute of Technology Professor Lee Silver, paid special attention to the search for anorthosites. The announcement by David Scott and James Irwin of the discovery of this sample caused wild jubilation among the geologists present in a specially designated room in the mission control center and no less wild joy among the astronauts themselves. Due to the exceptional scientific importance of the find and the quite obvious biblical allusions, the first anorthosite found received such a sonorous name, despite the fact that on the same day the astronauts found several more similar smaller samples.
The lunar rover has significantly expanded the range of research
NASA
After studying this sample on Earthexperts came to the conclusion, in particular in relation to the isotopes of strontium 86 and 87, that its age is 4.1 ± 0.1 billion years, and this means that the sample is much younger than the Moon, although it is quite ancient , apparently formed in the Donektarian (Hipparchovian) period. According to the generally accepted theory, the lunar crust was formed by the ascent of plagioclase in a magma ocean. However, the relationship of sample 15415 to this process is precisely unknown, since its age is too young to form in the primordial magma ocean. As for the question of the origin of the Moon, it remains open to this day.
In its original form, the Genesis Stonehas not been preserved because it was divided into a large number of fragments for research. Currently, some of the fragments of sample 15415 are stored in the 1979 Lunar Sample Building at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Another portion of the fragments was moved to reserve storage at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
Experiment and Memorial on the Moon
Another memorable aspect of the mission«Apollo 15» there were small demonstrations carried out by astronauts. In his spare time during a spacewalk, Scott conducted an experiment first proposed by Galileo centuries earlier. People on Earth saw the astronaut standing in front of a television camera, holding a hammer in one hand and a pen in the other. By releasing them simultaneously, they fell at the same speed. So Scott clearly showed that Galileo was right - how quickly something falls in a vacuum depends on the force of gravity, not on the weight of the object.
Memorial to the fallen cosmonaut
NASA
Also, a participant in the Apollo 15 mission placed ona small aluminum statue on the moon's surface along with a plaque bearing the names of 14 American and Soviet astronauts who died in space exploration.
Although Scott did this privately, not in front of cameras, he later showed a photo of the memorial at a post-mission press conference.
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