Apollo 14 Lunar Landing Feb. 5
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,$ VOLUME XIII NUMBER 8 February 4 National Aeronaulics and Sp :e Administration ,, Ames Research Center. Moffeft Field. California AmesMagnetometer on Apollo 14 The Apollo 14 astronauts will hours of operation. chart local magneticfields on the The devicewill be carriedon the surface of the moon, in the hilly outside of the Lunar Module near upland region of the Fra Mauro one of the landinglegs. It will be landing site, using a highly spe- transferredto the Mobile Equip- cialized,Ames designedand built, meat Transporter (MET) for mov- portablemagnetometer. ing on the surface of the moon. The astronautswill transport To use the instrument,one of the the lightweightmagnetometer on the astronautswill set up the sensor two-wheeledpush cart which car- head on the tripod and deploy it ries all the mission’sportable ex- about 40 feet from the electronics periments. package and indicators,which are Ames’ Dr. Palmer Dyal, Special left on the MET. He then calls ProjectsOffice, proposed the por- out readings from three meters on table magnetometerexperimentand the electronicspackage over the is the principalinvestigator for the voice communicationlink to Mission Apollo 14 experiment.Co-investi- ControlCenter at Houston.Then he gators on the experiment are Dr. rotates the cubical sensor head on FIRST AMERICAN TO JOURNEY INTO SPACE . Al.an B. Charles Sonett of Ames, Dr. Gene the tripodto an oppositeposition Shepard, Jr., is pictured as he was recovered following his Simmons of M.S.C. and Dr. Robert to fine tune the sensor and its suborbitalflight, the first in the Project Mercury program,on DuBois of the Universityof Okla- electronics.Be then calls out the May 5, t961. February7. 1971, slightlyless than ten years later, honm. new indicatedreadings. Apollo 14 Spacecraft Commander Shepard will be recovered from The magnetometerconsists of: After repeatingthe process a the South centralPacific following America’s third lunar landing. a cube-shaped sensor head which secondtime to fully calibratethe measures about three inches on a instrumentin the lunarenvironment, side, an electronicspackage 7 1/2 he moves the tripodwith the sensor Apollo14Lunar Landing Feb.5 by 5 by 4 inches,containing three to other locations.There he makes indicator dials, a tripod, and a The Apollo 14 lunar module at pull-cart carrying experimentsand new observationsas he progresses cable reel with 50 feet of ribboo- press time, was scheduledto land geology tools during their lengthy on his lunar surface excursion. in the Fra Mauro craterregion for like electricalcable. The instru- During the Apollo 14 moonwalk, fieldgeology trek. ment is poweredby 42 tiny batteries a stay of about 33 hours, during Experimentsin the ALSEP are: astronautsAlan Shepard and Edgar which the landing crew will leave sindtarto those for pacemakerde- Mitchellwill coverabout 1.8 miles, Passive Seismic for long-term vices used in the treatment of the spacecrafttwice to set up scien- measurement of lunar seismic and be a little less than .9 miles tificexperiments on the lunarsur- certain types of heart defects. away from the lunar moduleattheir events;Active Seismic for relaying Enough power is available for 66 face and to continuegeological ex- to Earth data on the lunar crust; Continuedon Page 3) plorations.The two earlierApollo the Supratherma]]on Detectorand .~4aar landingswere Apollo 11 at Cold Cathode Ion Gauge for meas- FranquillityBase and Apollo12 at uring ion flux, densityand energy 5urveyur3 crater in the Ocean of in the lunar environment; and a ~tornls. Charged Particle Lunar Environ- Apollo 14 prime crewmen are ment Experiment for measuring ~paceoraft Commander Alan B. energy of solar protons and elec- <hepard, Jr., Command Module Pi- trons reaching the Moon and a h~t Stuart A. Roosa, and Lunar Portable Magnetometer for mea- M~dule Pilot Edgar D. Mitchell. suringvariations in the lunarnmg- ~hepard is a Navy captain, Roosa netic field in the geologytraverse n Air Force major and Mitchell will be carriedon the lunar cart. :t Navy COnliTZa.nder. "/’hecrew will set up a laserbeam Lunar materials brought back reflector,similar to the one left fr’rm~the Fra Mauro formationare by the Apollo ll crew, for tong- ~xPectedto yieldinformation on the term observatory measurementsof Car~yhistory of the Moon,the Earth Earth-Moon distance and motion and the solar system - perhapsas relationships. long ago as five billion years. While the comnmnder and lunar During their two Moonwalks, module pilot are exploringthe Fra 5hepard and Mitchell will set up Mauro area, the command module AMES-DESIGNED AND BUILT ,~ seriesof experiments,the Apol- pilot will be carryingoat several flightmodel of the k~ Lunar Surface Experiments Lunar Portable Magnetometer (LPM) is assembled in the Ames orbitalscience tasks in lunarorbit clean room by (1 to r} Principal Investigator,Dr. Palmer Dyle Package (ALSEP) and will conduct above, including photography of extensivegeological surveys of the and Joe F. DeRose of the Special ProjectsOffice, Space Science dim-lightphenomena and candidate Division,and Darrain L. Waters, Reliabilityand Quality Assur- area around the landingsite. The landingsites. ~rew will be aidedby a two-wheeled ance Branch. The LPM isbeing flown on Apollo 14launched from {Continued on Page 2) Cape Kennedy,Sunday, Jan.31. Page 2 Apollo|4 AmesHosts Plastics {Continuedfrom Page 1) EducationConference While Shepard and Mitchellare Ames hosted the Plastic Edu- exploringthe Fra Mauro area, the cation ConferenceJanuary 28 and command module pilot will be car- 29. The conference was co-spon- ryingout orbitalscinece tasks, in- sored by the Northern California cluding photographyof dim-light industry-Education Counciland phenomena and candidate landing Ames. High school administrators, sites. principals and instructors from Also, photos of earlier Apollo forty-fivecounties attended. landing sites will be aboard for The two-clay conference pur- correlationwith previoustracking posed to demonstrate to Bay Area data to improvetracking accuracy educatorsthe type of trainedper- techniques. sonnelneeded in the plasticsindus- The Apollo 14 flight profilein try. generalfoltows those flown by Apol- LloydJones, Office of the Direc- los ll and 12 with two major ex- tor, opened the conferencewith an ceptions:Lunar orbit insertionburn introductorywelcome. He was fol- No.2 has been combined with des- lowed by Garth A. Hull, Public cent orbit insertionand the docked Affairs Office, who explainedthe ASTRONAUT JACK R. LOUSMA . (left}conferred spacecraftwill be placed into a backgroundof the conference,and Robert J. Randle (center), Manned Machine Integration Branch 10 by 58-nauticalmile lunar orbit Andre Bogart, MaterialsResearch. and Emmett Lampkin {right), Human Performance Branch at by the service propulsionsystem. Conference Coordinator, who de- Ames recently. They discussed the Ames-Kolisman Space Sex- Lunar module propellantis con- fined the procedureof the confer- tant. which will be tested in NASA’s TOO-2 Sky Lab A Exper- served by combining these man- ence. in-lent. euvers and by using the service TOURS moduleengine to provide15 seconds To demonstrate the equipment of additionalhover time duringthe now in use, and the types of skills landing. needed in the plastics industry, AstronautLousma Visits Ames Also,additional tracking time in tours were conductedthrough Ames, AstronautJack R. Lousmavisited feasibilityof a light-weight,auto- the descentorbit providesmore ac- Hewlett-Packard and Arrow De- Amos, January 21, to confer with nomous, manual navigationsystem curateposition and velocitydata for velopment. These were followed Robert J. Randle, Man-MaehinoIn- which is independentof space-craft use in the landing.The otherchange by toursof classesin PlasticTech- tegrationBranch, and Emmet power and ground trackingsystems. is in the lunar orbit rendezvous. niquesat SequoiaHigh School. Lampkin, Human Performance A simple on-board system would be Many of the intermediatemaneuvers It was pointed out during the Branch. The three spent the day usefulfor increasedmission relia- leading up to rendezvousand dock- conference,that most schools,both discussing the Amos - Kollsman bility,for back up in primarysys- ing after LM ascent stage liftoff high schoolsand colleges,lack the Space Sextant,which will be tested tem malfunction,and in space abort have been omitted, and rendezvous necessary equipment and programs in NASA’s TOO-2 Sky Lab A Ex- where an emergency return vehicle will take place shortly before the to preparestudents for careersin periment. Major Lousnm is pres- may be weightlimited. end of the firstrevolution after as- plastics. ently actingas coordinatorfor the cent. GROUP SESSIONS experiment,between Manned Space- Film LibraryMoves Small group sessionswere held craft Center and Amos. The Amos Film Library was AmesPublic Affairs at Ames on the second day of the The sextantwas first developed consolidatedrecently with the NASA conference.The sessionscovered a by Don Smith. Guidance and Nav- Pasadena Office and has moved StaffAids Apollo 14 full range of topics dealing with igation,and firsttested aboard the from its former locationin Build- Three of the Ames Public Af- educationalpreparation for the plas- Gemini 12 with Astronaut Edwin ing 24L The office is now located fairs staff are working"behind tic industry.Each waspresidedover Aldren as Navigator. Mr. Smith at 2902 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara. the scenes" on the Apollo 14 mis- by one or two secondary school also did the initial work on the Films. now on loan, should