the apollo program probably man’s greatest achievement
TRANSCRIPT
The Apollo ProgramProbably Man’s Greatest Achievement
Preamble As you have hopefully gathered from being alive for 16-18
years, in the 1950s and 60s, the United States and Soviet Union were locked in a testosterone-fueled competition to prove which country was mo’ awesome: the Space Race.
In 1957, the Soviets launched the first satellite: Sputnik 1. All it did was orbit and send out a radio signal going “Beep!”
Sputnik Just a replica. Batteries lasted 22 days. Weighed 83kg.
Preamble Americans were unsettled by this demonstration of
technological superiority, so President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an order creating NASA, a federal agency for exploring space, in 1958.
They also invested heavily in science and engineering education. Yay!
The Space Race Begins! On May 25, 1961 President John F. Kennedy set the goal of
putting a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s, and returning him safely to Earth.
This meant spending money. Lots of money. Six weeks earlier, the Soviets had sent Yuri Gagarin into
orbit, so Americans were a little self-conscious about being in second place in the Space Race.
Yuri Gagarin
Vostok 1
Playing Catch-up Alan Shepard was the first American to fly above the
atmosphere, on May 5, 1961. Shepard said: “It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space
and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”
John Glenn, later a US Senator, was the first American to complete an orbit of the Earth, in May 1962.
Playing Catch-up Soviet firsts (1957-71): satellite, animal in space, robotic
lunar flyby, robotic lunar impact, soft landing on another world, photos from space, robotic lunar rover, man in space, woman in space, spacewalk, Venus flyby, Venus landing, automated docking, space station…
US firsts (1957-71): Photograph of Earth from orbit, Mars flyby, manual docking of two spacecraft…
The US was generally about a year behind, from 1957-1968.
“We Choose to Go to the Moon!” On September 12, 1962, JFK made this famous speech,
aiming to rally the public behind all the money being poured into the Apollo program.
“We choose to go to the Moon, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Saturn V (“Saturn Five”) To escape Earth’s gravity, what is the term for how fast you
need to go? For a fabulous prize, how fast is that? Your prize: my respect. It’s priceless! You’re going to need a ridiculously huge rocket. Meet the
Saturn V.
Saturn V 2,800 tons of America. That’s like a thousand elephants all strapped together, then
set on fire! Or 11,200 bottlenose dolphins, if you’re not into the metric
system. Could launch a 45-ton craft towards the Moon! Over 40 years later, still holds lots of records for being the
biggest, most powerful rocket ever built. Let’s watch a launch! And learn!
Apollo 1 Our atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, which just sits there doing
nothing much. NASA wanted to cut some weight from the spacecraft by just filling the capsule with oxygen (21% of our air).
On January 27, 1967, a spark from faulty wiring ignited the pure oxygen environment, incinerating the three astronauts inside.
Ed White (America’s first spacewalker), Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee became the first American fatalities of the Space Race.
Apollo 7 First manned test of the Command and Service Module
(CSM). No LM on this flight. October 11-22, 1968 Spent the entire time orbiting Earth. Demonstrated that the CSM would last long enough to go to
the Moon and back, and that the engines and thrusters worked properly.
Walter Schirra developed a cold a few hours into the mission…
Apollo 8 The US gambled, and in December 1968 flew to the Moon! Jim Lovell, William Anders & Frank Borman flew around the
Moon, and became the first people ever to see the dark side of the Moon with their own eyes (Pink Floyd are really overrated, stop trying to distract the teacher).
After 10 orbits, they headed back home. The crew later said they thought they had a 50:50 chance of
surviving the flight.
Apollo 8 Earthrise
Apollo 9 March 3-13, 1969. Test flight in Earth orbit. The LM was finally ready for testing! Rehearsed separating lunar module from command module
and then docking them again. Which Mr. Russell finds a lot scarier than he just made it
sound. What if they couldn’t dock? Yikes!
Here’s where you come in… Each pair will be assigned a flight, from Apollo 10-17. Tomorrow we will have computer lab time to research your
assigned flight. Use it wisely. I will give you each a sheet of guiding questions.
On block day of next week (Sep 24/25) your group will have to give a six-minute presentation to your classmates. And me. I’ll be at the back with a red pen and serious expression.
Aftermath After Apollo 17, with TV audiences getting bored (spoiler:
people suck), Apollo 18-20 were cancelled, and the program was brought to an end.
The Soviets had a robotic rover trundling around on the lunar surface for another year or so after Apollo 17, but never launched a manned mission to the Moon.
A couple of years later, in 1975, one of the spare Apollo craft was launched and rendezvoused with a Soviet Soyuz (“Union”) spacecraft. They docked, shook hands, and the Space Race was over.
Apollo-Soyuz (1975) Docking NASA photo gallery
Aftermath Today, with the Space Shuttle retired, we depend on the
Russians to launch all astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The US has a vastly superior unmanned exploration program, but we’ll look at that later in the semester. Be patient, you eager scholars! Golly!