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1 - Plot the places where each of the 29 spacecraft (listed in the table below) landed with a small cross. Label the Lunar landings with an L (e.g. L8 for Lunar 8), the Ranger landings with an R, the Surveyor landings with an S and the Apollo landings with an A.
Lunar (USSR), Ranger and Surveyor (USA) were UNMANNED landings whilst Apollo (USA) were MANNED landings
Name of Landing Landing
landing co-ordinates co-ordinates
vehicle (NS degrees) (EW degrees)
LUNAR 2 30 N 0 W
RANGER 6 9 N 21 E
RANGER 7 10 S 21 W
RANGER 8 3 N 25 E
RANGER 9 13 S 2 W
LUNAR 5 2 S 23 W
LUNAR 7 10 N 48 W
LUNAR 8 9 N 63 W
LUNAR 9 7 N 64 W
SURVEYOR 1 2 S 43 W
SURVEYOR 2 4 N 11 W
LUNAR 13 19 N 62 W
SURVEYOR 3 3 S 23 W
SURVEYOR 4 0 N 1 W
SURVEYOR 5 2 N 23 E
SURVEYOR 6 1 N 1 W
SURVEYOR 7 41 S 11 W
APOLLO 11 1 N 24 E
LUNAR 15 12 N 59 E
APOLLO 12 3 S 23 W
LUNAR 16 1 N 59 E
LUNAR 17 38 N 35 W
APOLLO 14 4 S 18 W
APOLLO 15 26 N 4 E
LUNAR 18 4 N 59 E
LUNAR 20 4 N 58 E
APOLLO 16 9 S 16 E
APOLLO 17 20 N 31 E
LUNAR 21 26 N 31 E
Putting a Man on the Moon
The Moon is 384,000 km from the Earth and the Earth's atmosphere runs out after 30 km. Rockets must be used to travel through empty space because all aeroplanes need oxygen from the air to burn in their engines.
The first rocket to land on the Moon was the LUNAR 2 space probe which arrived on 13th September 1959. It crashed. On 28th February 1966, LUNAR 9 made the first SOFT landing and sent four panoramic photographs of the Moons surface before it stopped working. Soon after, on 2nd June, Surveyor 1 landed and sent back 11,000 pictures in colour.
APOLLO 11 carried the first men to walk on the Moon. This spacecraft weighed 44,000 kg and the huge SATURN rocket had to be specially designed to lift it into space. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon closely followed by Edwin Aldrin.
M. Collins remained in the command module which continued to orbit the Moon. They brought back 22 kg of rock samples which geologists were later able to show were the same age as rocks on the Earth (about 3,000 million years). This has supported the scientists who believe that the Moon must have been knocked off the Earth, possibly by the impact of a huge meteorite.
Later Moon landings, both manned and automatic, have brought back over 380 kg of rock from various landing sites on the Moon. There is no water on the Moon but there are mountains, craters and MARIA'S ("seas"). The maria's are dark, flat regions caused by the flooding with molten rock of huge meteorite craters. There are mountains on the moon, some mountains are over 6,000 m high. There are millions of CRATERS on the moon; like the astronauts footprints, each crater looks the same for millions of years because there is no weathering on the Moon.
NOW ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS USING THE INFORMATION IN THE ABOVE PASSAGE
a. - Why don't scientists use aircraft to fly to the Moon?
b. - What was the name of the space probe to send back the first
detailed (black and white) pictures of the surface of the Moon?
c. - What were the American Saturn rockets used for?
d. - How old do geologists think the Moon is?
e. - What do the areas on the Moon called "maria's"
look like?
f. - Are there any real seas on the Moon?
g. - What are the most numerous structures on the Moon's surface
called?
3 - Write an article on the Moon landings trying to incorporate some of the following points:-
a. Curiosity drove people to go to the Moon (just like
Scott explored Antarctica)
b. The Moon's "day" lasts for 29 of our days
(spacecraft had to land in the
"morning" and leave before the end of the
"day". The temperature of the Moon
falls to about -1500 C at "night".)
c. There is no atmosphere on the Moon (humans have to
wear space suits and carry all the air they need to breathe. The Sun shines brightly
in a black sky in which stars can also be seen.
The earth looks like a moon but nearly four times the diameter.
d. The force of gravity is about 1/6 of that on Earth
(a human could jump a height of at least 6m. Could you run faster?).
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