APOLLO REACHES THE MOON

By the time the Apollo missions arrived at the Moon, scientists knew that the Moon was a rock-strewn, battered world where very little happened. Sunlight, unfiltered by an atmosphere, irradiated its surface making it hotter than any landscape on Harth, and after sunset this heat was quickly radiated to space, making it colder than the depths of the Antarctic. Scientists had established that the surface was basically a rubble layer, called the regolith. that had accumulated over aeons by the incessant pounding of incoming hypervelocity meteoroids ranging in size from sub­microscopic dust to mountain-sized asteroids and comets. They were sure that volcanism on a large scale had created the maria but didn’t know whether it had also occurred in the highland regions. They had some theories, largely unsupported by hard data, to account for the Moon’s existence and for why Earth should have such a large satellite in comparison to its size.

“Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ole Moon look like from 60 miles?” Capeom Gerry Carr could not suppress his desire to ask the obvious question when the crew of Apollo 8 came around from behind the Moon on their first pass in orbit. CMP Jim Lovell had dreamed of this day from childhood, and took the opportunity to reply. It seems unsurprising now. but what he saw was very similar to the view anyone can see through a telescope, only from a much closer perspective. “Okay, Houston. The Moon is essentially grey, no colour; looks like plaster-of-paris or sort of a greyish beach sand.’’

Bill Anders later spoke of his impressions of the Moon’s far side. “The back side looks like a sand pile my kids have been playing in for a long time. It’s all beat up. no definition. Just a lot of bumps and holes.”

They were not telling the scientists anything that they did not already know from the pictures sent by Lunar Orbiter. Apollo 8 added little to our understanding of the Moon, as would be expected of a brief pioneering reconnaissance mission. Its role during the 20 hours it spent in lunar orbit was to give its crew and the mission control team experience of operating a manned spacecraft in the lunar environment. While they were there, they could also inspect two possible landing sites on the southern plains of Mare Tranquillitatis. Planners were keen for the crew to study them visually from orbit and to inform future crews of what to expect, given that they had arranged for these sites to have the same early morning illumination that the landing missions would expect. Apollo 10 likewise concentrated on operational matters, rehearsing the steps that would lead to a landing. Both crews had Hasselblad cameras, and obtained many photographs on 70-mm film of selected swathes of the lunar surface. Although these covered areas already imaged by Lunar Orbiter. Apollo had the great advantage of returning its film for processing.

With Apollo 11, a crewman was left alone to look at the lunar landscape while the focus of exploration moved to the surface.