The successful completion of any scientific or engineering project on the Moon will depend, in part, on human ability to do useful work under lunar conditions. In making informed decisions about such things as the use of humans rather than robots for specific tasks, the scheduling of valuable human time, and the design and selection of equipment and tools, good use can be made of the existing experience base. During the six completed landing missions, Apollo lunar surface crews conducted 160 astronaut-hours of extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) and also spent a similar sum of waking hours working in the cramped confines of the Lunar Module. The first three missions were primarily proof-tests of flight hardware and procedures. The ability to land equipment and consumables was very modest but, despite stay times of no more than 32 hours, the crews of Apollos 11, 12, and 14 were able to test their mobility and their capability of doing useful work outside the spacecraft. For the last three missions, thanks to LM modifications which enabled landings with significant amounts of cargo, stay times more than doubled to three days. The crews were able to use Lunar Rovers to conduct extensive local exploration and to travel up to 10 kilometers away from their immediate landing sites. During these final missions, the astronauts spent enough time doing work of sufficient complexity that their experience should be of use in the formulation early-stage lunar base operating plans. 2 refs.
Working on the moon: The Apollo experience
1989
11 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Extraterrestrial Exploration , Space Flight , Apollo Project , Astronauts , Data Acquisition , Decision Making , Design , Equipment , Errors , Exploration , Failure Mode Analysis , Geology , Health Hazards , Historical Aspects , Lunar Materials , Moon , Performance Testing , Planning , Program Management , Research Programs , Soils , Tools , Training , EDB/320201 , EDB/990000 , EDB/640106
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