Apollo Program Research Paper
I think I may be one of the few in this class that was around for the entire Apollo program for this reason I have decided to research more about the program and one of its experiments in general.
The Apollo Program was conducted from 1963 with the launch of AS-202 until 1972 when Apollo 17 completed its mission on December 19th. The purpose of the Project was to land a manned lunar module on the Moon from which they would conduct experiments, explore the surface, and take pictures of the lunar surface. These experiments included; “soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind experiments. “ I will explain one of these experiments shortly. What makes the entire project interesting is that …show more content…
An experiment was created to track the distance of the moon from earth. Astronauts left a mirror covered panel in the sea of Tranquility. The panel was arranged with 100 mirrors. The purpose of this panel was so that back on earth scientists would be able to pulse lasers off the mirrors and measure the distance much like sonar is used in mapping ocean bottoms here on earth. University of Maryland physics professor Carroll Alley was the lead Scientist on the Project. By taking these measurements, they were able to get an accurate distance to the surface of the moon, and check for any movement towards or from the …show more content…
So far, so good: Einstein's equations predict the shape of the moon's orbit as well as laser ranging can measure it. But Einstein, constantly tested, isn't out of the woods yet. Some physicists (Alley is one of them) believe his general theory of relativity is flawed. If there is a flaw, lunar laser ranging might yet find it.”
This experiment is now being used to check the theories of many of the astronomers throughout history
Sources:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/21jul_llr.html http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html Credits:
Among many early contributors to the the lunar laser ranging retroreflector array project, Prof. Alley credits Robert Henry Dicke, James Faller, Peter Bender, Douglas Currie and Bendix Corporation. A complete list may be found in Alley's account of the project, "Laser ranging to retro-reflectors on the Moon as a test of theories of gravity," published in Quantum Optics, Experimental Gravitation, and Measurement Theory, Eds. P Meystre and M.O. Scully, Plenum Publishing
The Apollo Program was conducted from 1963 with the launch of AS-202 until 1972 when Apollo 17 completed its mission on December 19th. The purpose of the Project was to land a manned lunar module on the Moon from which they would conduct experiments, explore the surface, and take pictures of the lunar surface. These experiments included; “soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind experiments. “ I will explain one of these experiments shortly. What makes the entire project interesting is that …show more content…
An experiment was created to track the distance of the moon from earth. Astronauts left a mirror covered panel in the sea of Tranquility. The panel was arranged with 100 mirrors. The purpose of this panel was so that back on earth scientists would be able to pulse lasers off the mirrors and measure the distance much like sonar is used in mapping ocean bottoms here on earth. University of Maryland physics professor Carroll Alley was the lead Scientist on the Project. By taking these measurements, they were able to get an accurate distance to the surface of the moon, and check for any movement towards or from the …show more content…
So far, so good: Einstein's equations predict the shape of the moon's orbit as well as laser ranging can measure it. But Einstein, constantly tested, isn't out of the woods yet. Some physicists (Alley is one of them) believe his general theory of relativity is flawed. If there is a flaw, lunar laser ranging might yet find it.”
This experiment is now being used to check the theories of many of the astronomers throughout history
Sources:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/21jul_llr.html http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html Credits:
Among many early contributors to the the lunar laser ranging retroreflector array project, Prof. Alley credits Robert Henry Dicke, James Faller, Peter Bender, Douglas Currie and Bendix Corporation. A complete list may be found in Alley's account of the project, "Laser ranging to retro-reflectors on the Moon as a test of theories of gravity," published in Quantum Optics, Experimental Gravitation, and Measurement Theory, Eds. P Meystre and M.O. Scully, Plenum Publishing