Post on 11-Jan-2016
Lunar Exploration:The Next Frontier
Lunar exploration timeline
1957 – 1976 AD
US & USSR Landings
Composition of lunar surface
1600 AD
Telescopic observations;
Physicalcharacteristics
2007 AD
Multinational effort to
return to the moon
500 BC
Naked eye observations; Size, Orbital
characteristics,Composition
1990-2006 AD
Chemical composition,
Magneticcharacteristics,
Presence ofwater
1800 AD
Photographic maps;
Origin of craters & maria
Greeks
• Anaxagorus, c. 450 BC - Moon reflects Sun’s light
• Democritus, c. 400 BC - Markings were mountains
• Aristarchus and Hipparchus, c. 200 BC - Measurements for size and distance
Early Understanding
• Distance to Moon– Greeks: 375,000 – 460,000 km– Present: 384,400 km
• Circumference: – Greeks: 14,000 km– Present: 10,916 km
• Orbital Period: 27.3 days• Nature
– Stone sphere with an irregular surface
The 17th Century
• Galileo Galilei – Started telescopic observation of the sky in 1610
• Robert Hooke - Experimentally modeled lunar craters
• Cassini - Best map of moon at the time
Pre-Space Program
• Grove Karl Gilbert – In 1893 correctly stated origin of craters and nature of maria, later proved by Ralph Belknap Baldwin
• Better maps thanks to photographry, culminating in 1935, with Fred E Wright’s lunar globes
Telescopic Discoveries
• Lunar surface marked by craters and maria.• No water and no discernable atmosphere.• Impact origin of craters.• Basalt composition of maria.• Photographic plates increase accuracy of maps.
Space Age Begins
• Sputnik 1, launched October 4, 1957, was the first artificial satellite
• Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin – On April 12, 1961
became the first man in space aboard the Vostok 1
– Spent 1 hour, 48 minutes in space
America’s First Steps• Project Mercury
– Ran from 1959 to 1963– On May 5, 1961, put Alan
Shepard into space for 15 minutes and 28 seconds, the first American in space
– Later John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth
• On Sept 12, 1962, President Kennedy rallied the American public behind the “space race”
Soviet Lunar Contact
• January of 1959, the Soviet Union sent their first mission to the moon - Luna 1 did not impact as intended, and was instead the first lunar flyby
• Luna 2 crashed as planned near Archimedes in Sept.
• Luna 3 returned the first photos (very poor) of the far side in October.
American Lunar Contact
• Ranger 4, launched in April,1962, is the first and still only contact with far side (intended to hit nearside!)
• Ranger 7 successfully crash landed in July, 1964; sent real-time high resolution photos of Mare Cognitum
Soft Contacts
• Luna 9 – Feb, 1966– First soft landing
• Surveyor I – June, 1966– First study of lunar rocks
and soils from a US soft lander.
New Perspectives
• Lunar Orbiter 4 – May, 1967– Most widely used lunar
images ever obtained
• Surveyor 6 – Nov, 1967– First spacecraft to take off
from Moon (hopped 8 ft for stereo views)
The Apollo Program• Apollo 1
– Jan 27, 1967– Fire kills three astronauts
Program continues cautiously, using first unmanned and later manned missions from 1967-69 to test all the moon landing technology.
Apollo 11
• Apollo 11– July 20, 1969– Neil Armstong, Buzz Aldrin,
and Michael Collins– "One small step for (a) man,
one giant leap for mankind."
The End of an Era
• Apollo missions continued landing men on the moon, closing with Apollo 17 in 1972. The Soviets never sent a manned mission to the moon.
• Luna 24 – USSR– 1976– last lunar probe for
25 years. Brought back samples of lunar soil.
New Insights
• Astronauts experienced no atmosphere and low gravity
• Seismic stations installed – crust about 10% volume
• 382 kg of rock and soil from Apollo and Luna missions
• Regolith consists of mineral dust and rock fragments; the marias are basalt
• Old rocks allow study of Solar System history
Current Programs
• Hiten – Jan, 1990– Japanese Lunar Orbiter– Failed to send back data.
• Clementine – US Lunar Orbiter– 1994– Multi-spectral imaging of
the entire lunar surface.
Current Programs
• Lunar Prospector – US, 1998– Global mapping of
radioactivity and elemental composition
– Discovered polar water ice
• Smart 1 – Europe, 2003– Tested the solar-powered ion
thruster
Future: 2007 and beyond
• Chang‘e 1 - Chinese lunar orbiter
• Chandrayaan 1 - Indian lunar orbiter and impactor
• SELENE, LUNAR-A – Japanese projects to study the Moon’s origin, evolution and tectonics.
The Vision for Space Exploration
• The US plans to return to the moon.
• The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, developed at Goddard Space Flight Center, is to be launched in 2008.
• A new Crew Exploration Vehicle is being designed, with new boosters to get it and additional payloads to the moon.
Future for the US
• In the next year:– Orbital research using Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter satellite– Develop Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV)– Carry out robotic exploration of lunar surface
• Complete ISS by 2010• First crewed flights by 2014• Extended human missions as early as
2015• Human exploration no later than 2020