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| North American Apollo CSM | |||
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| Description | |||
| Role: | Earth and Lunar Orbit | ||
| Crew: | 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot | ||
| Dimensions | |||
| Height: | 36.2 ft | 11.03 m | |
| Diameter: | 12.8 ft | 3.9 m | |
| Volume: | 218 ft3 | 6.17 m3 | |
| Weights | |||
| Command module: | 12,807 lb | 5,809 kg | |
| Service module: | 54,064 lb | 24,523 kg | |
| Total: | 66,871 lb | 30,332 kg | |
| Rocket engines | |||
| CM RCS (N2O4/UDMH) x 12: | 92 lbf ea | 412 N | |
| SM RCS (N2O4/UDMH) x 16: | 100 lbf ea | 441 N | |
| Service Propulsion System (N2O4/UDMH) x 1: |
22,000 lbf ea | 97.86 kN | |
| Performance | |||
| Endurance: | 14 days | 200 orbits | |
| Apogee: | 240,000 miles | 386,242 km | |
| Perigee: | 100 miles | 160 km | |
| Spacecraft delta v: | 9,200 ft/s | 2,804 m/s | |
| Apollo CSM diagram | |||
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| North American Apollo CSM | |||
Project Apollo was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States of America using the Apollo spacecraft, conducted during the years 1961-1972. It was devoted to the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth within the decade of the 1960s. This goal was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. The program continued into the early 1970s to carry out the initial hands-on scientific exploration of the Moon. As of 2005, there has never been any other human spaceflight beyond low earth orbit.
| Contents |
The Apollo Program was the second United States human spaceflight program, though its flights followed both the first such program (Mercury) and the third (Gemini). Apollo was originally conceived late in the Eisenhower administration as a follow-on to Mercury for advanced manned earth-orbital missions. It was dramatically reoriented to an aggressive lunar landing goal by President Kennedy with his announcement at a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961:
Having settled upon the Moon as a target, the Apollo mission planners were faced with the challenge of designing a flight plan attaining Kennedy's stated goal while minimizing risk to human life, cost and demands on technology and astronaut skill.
Three possible plans were considered.
| Grumman Apollo LM | |||
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| Description | |||
| Role: | Lunar landing | ||
| Crew: | 2; CDR, LM pilot | ||
| Dimensions | |||
| Height: | 20.9 ft | 6.37 m | |
| Diameter: | 14 ft | 4.27 m | |
| Landing gear span: | 29.75 ft | 9.07 m | |
| Volume: | 235 ft3 | 6.65 m3 | |
| Weights | |||
| Ascent module: | 10,024 lb | 4,547 kg | |
| Descent module: | 22,375 lb | 10,149 kg | |
| Total: | 32,399 lb | 14,696 kg | |
| Rocket engines | |||
| LM RCS (N2O4/UDMH) x 16: | 100 lbf ea | 441 N | |
| Ascent Propulsion System (N2O4/UDMH) x 1: |
3,500 lbf ea | 15.57 kN | |
| Descent Propulsion System (N2O4/UDMH) x 1: |
9,982 lbf ea | 44.4 kN | |
| Performance | |||
| Endurance: | 3 days | 72 hours | |
| Apogee: | 100 miles | 160 km | |
| Perigee: | surface | surface | |
| Spacecraft delta v: | 15,387 ft/s | 4,690 m/s | |
| Apollo LM diagram | |||
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| Grumman Apollo LM | |||
The Lunar Module itself was composed of a descent stage and an ascent
stage, the former serving as a launch platform for the latter when the lunar exploration party blasted off for lunar orbit where
they would dock with the CSM prior to returning to Earth. The plan had the advantage that since the LM was to be discarded, it
could be made very light and allow for the moon mission to be launched with a single Saturn V rocket. However, at the time that
LOR was decided, some mission planners were uneasy at the large numbers of dockings and undockings needed to make the plan
succeed.
To learn lunar landing techniques, astronauts practiced in the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), a flying vehicle that simulated the Lunar Module on earth.
The Apollo program included eleven manned flights, designated Apollo 7 through Apollo 17, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Apollo 4 through Apollo 6 were unmanned test flights (officially there was no Apollo 2 or Apollo 3); the Apollo 1 designation was retroactively applied to the originally planned first manned flight which ended in a disastrous fire during a launch pad test that killed three astronauts. The first of the manned flights employed the Saturn IB launch vehicle, the following flights all used the more powerful Saturn V. Two of the flights (Apollo 7 and Apollo 9) were earth orbital missions, two of the flights (Apollo 8 and Apollo 10) were lunar orbital missions, and the remaining 7 flights were lunar landing missions (although one, Apollo 13, failed to land).
Apollo 7 tested the Apollo command and service modules (CSM) in earth orbit. Apollo 8 tested the CSM in lunar orbit. Apollo 9 tested the lunar module (LM) in earth orbit. Apollo 10 tested the LM in lunar orbit. Apollo 11 achieved the first human lunar landing. Apollo 12 achieved the first lunar landing at a precise location. Apollo 13 failed to achieve a lunar landing, but succeeded in returning the crew safely to earth following a potentially disastrous in-flight explosion. Apollo 14 resumed the lunar exploration program. Apollo 15 introduced a new level of lunar exploration capability, with a long-stay-time LM and a lunar roving vehicle. Apollo 16 was the first manned landing in the lunar highlands. Apollo 17, the final mission, was the first to include a scientist-astronaut.
In the speech which initiated Apollo, Kennedy declared that no other program would have as great a long-range effect on America's ambitions in space. Following the success of Project Apollo, both NASA and its major contractors investigated several post-lunar applications for the Apollo hardware. The "Apollo Extension Series", later called the "Apollo Applications Program", proposed at least ten flights. Many of these would use the space that the lunar module took up in the Saturn rocket to carry scientific equipment.
One plan involved using the Saturn IB to take the CSM to a variety of low-earth orbits for missions lasting up to 45 days. Some missions would involve the docking of two CSMs, and transfer of supplies. The Saturn V would be necessary to take it to polar orbit, or sun-synchronous orbit (neither of which has yet been achieved by any manned spacecraft), and even to the geosynchronous orbit of Syncom 3, a communications satellite not quite in geostationary orbit. This was the first functioning communications satellite at that now-common great distance from the Earth, and it was small enough to be carried through the hatch and taken back to Earth for study as to the effects of radiation on its electronic components in that environment over a period of years. A return to the moon was also planned, this time to orbit for a longer time to map the surface with high-precision equipment. This mission would not include a landing.
Of all the plans only two were implemented; the Skylab space station (May 1973 - February 1974), and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (July 1975). Skylab's fuselage was constructed from the second stage of a Saturn IB, and the station was equipped with the Apollo Telescope Mount, itself based on a lunar module. The station's three crews were ferried into orbit atop Saturn IBs, riding in CSMs; the station itself had been launched with a modified Saturn V. Skylab's last crew departed the station on February 8, 1974, whilst the station itself returned prematurely to Earth in 1979, by which time it had become the oldest operational Apollo component.
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project involved a docking in Earth orbit between an un-named CSM and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. The mission lasted from July 15 to July 24, 1975. Although the Soviet Union continued to operate the Soyuz and Salyut space vehicles, NASA's next manned mission would not be until STS-1 on April 12, 1981.
Originally three additional lunar landing missions had been planned, as Apollos 18 through 20. In light of the drastically shrinking NASA budget and the decision not to produce a second batch of Saturn Vs, these missions were cancelled to make funds available for the development of the Space Shuttle, and to make their Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V launch vehicles available to the Skylab program. Only one of the Saturn Vs was actually used; the others became museum exhibits.
Another excerpt from Kennedy's Special Message to Congress:
The Apollo program was at least partly motivated by psycho-political considerations, in response to persistent perceptions of American inferiority in space technology vis-a-vis the Soviets, in the context of the Cold War and Space race. In this respect it succeeded brilliantly. In fact, American superiority in manned spaceflight was achieved in the precursory Gemini program, even before the first Apollo flight.
The Apollo program stimulated many areas of technology. The flight computer design used in both the lunar and command modules was, along with the Minuteman Missile System, the driving force behind early research into integrated circuits. The fuel cell developed for this program was the first practical fuel cell. Computer controlled machining (CNC) was pioneered in fabricating Apollo structural components.
Many astronauts and cosmonauts have commented on the profound effects that seeing earth from space has had on them. One of the most important legacies of the Apollo program was the now-common, but not universal view of Earth as a fragile, small planet, captured in the photographs taken by the astronauts during the lunar missions. The most famous of these photographs, taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts, is "The Blue Marble." These photographs have also motivated many people toward environmentalism and space colonization.
The Apollo program used four types of launch vehicles:
Something to note with Apollo flights is that Marshall Space Flight Center who designed the Saturn rockets referred to the flights as Saturn-Apollo (SA) whereas Kennedy Space Center referred to the flights as Apollo-Saturn (AS). This is why the unmanned Saturn 1 flights are referred to as SA and the unmanned Saturn 1B are referred to as AS.
The original pre-lunar landing programme was more conservative but as the 'all-up' test flights for the Saturn V proved successful missions were deleted. The revised schedule published in October 1967 had the first manned Apollo CSM earth orbit mission (Apollo 7) followed by and Earth Orbit Rendezvous of the CSM and LM launched on two Saturn 1Bs (Apollo 8) followed by a Saturn V launched CSM on a Large Earth Orbit Mission (Apollo 9) followed by the Saturn V launched dress rehearsal in Lunar Orbit with Apollo 10. In the Spring of 1968 the CIA informed NASA administrator James Webb that the Soviet Union was preparing a manned circum-lunar mission within the year. As the LM was delayed Webb opted to switch the planned Apollo 9 to a CSM only Lunar Orbit mission as Apollo 8. As a consequence this decision resulted in Neil Armstrong becoming the first man on the moon.
| United States Manned Space Programs | ||
| Mercury | Gemini | Apollo | Skylab | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project | Space Shuttle | Crew Exploration Vehicle |
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