Space Science: Exploring The Moon (1969)

[Music] [Music] the moon rises over the glittering lights of a 20th century city [Music] the same moon that early man measured time by and worshiped that poets glorified yet no one really saw the moon so to speak until galileo did in 1609 with his newly built telescope galileo drew the first map of the moon other men built telescopes and observed the moon and produced more detailed maps in this map of 1651 the system we use today for naming lunar features was established by the end of the sixteen hundreds astronomers knew that the moon kept one face permanently toward earth and they had named most of the major surface features the large dark planes were called seas through the mistaken notion that they contained water and they were given fanciful latin names like mare serena tatus the sea of serenity mari imbrium the sea of the sea of tranquility the circular depressions called craters that appeared in both the plains and the lighter colored highlands of the moon were named for famous men and women usually associated with science mathematics or philosophy like the craters archimedes and plato and the mountain ranges were generally named for land forms on earth like the caucasus mountains and the apennine mountains during the seventeen hundreds and the eighteen hundreds astronomers continue to observe and map the moon and or details with improvements in telescopes and the development of the diffraction grating and thermocouple the new science of selenography the study of the moon's surface advanced rapidly the greatest advance came in the middle of the 19th century with the development of photography with the telescope used as a camera the image of the moon was recorded on film for the first time in 1840 and before the century had ended lunar photography had become a recognized branch of research in the last years of the 19th century the first complete photographic atlas of the moon was produced it was followed by others as the 20th century brought more powerful telescopes and advances in photography the development of radio astronomy in the 1940s added another tool for the study of the moon and by the mid 20th century astronomers knew a great deal about the moon here is some of the information three and a half centuries of studies had produced the moon with a diameter of about two thousand miles has a mass one eightieth that of earth these two facts together mean that someone on the moon would weigh about one-sixth of what he weighs on earth craters observed through the most powerful telescopes range from nearly 200 miles in diameter to only one mile across astronomers were in general agreement that most were probably formed like the great crater in arizona by collisions with meteorites a number of similar craters on earth have been found but the action of wind and water has tended to hide them or erode them on the moon craters seem to have changed very little since they were first formed because as most scientists agreed the moon is without a significant atmosphere or surface water some of the craters like 57 mile wide copernicus show systems of rays of lighter colored material that perhaps had been ejected from the meteorites that produced the craters some lunar mountains are as high as the highest on earth they run in chains as earth mountains do these are the lunar alps rising nearly three miles at their highest some lunar mountain chains tend to be highly curved giving the lunar seas they surround their nearly circular shapes their curved shapes gave rise to the theory that the circular seas are really immense craters formed by collisions with meteorites of tremendous size the collisions may have brought forth lava from the interior of the moon that fill the immense craters and given them their general flatness and dark color the rougher highlands unaffected by the lava flow retain their lighter color studies with thermocouples indicated that the moon's surface temperature showed great variation from 200 degrees fahrenheit in sunlight to minus 250 degrees fahrenheit in the dark but while the surface varied widely in temperature radio telescopes that recorded radiation produced below the lunar surface showed the temperatures a few inches underground didn't vary much this helped substantiate theories that the surface of the moon was covered with dust but there was disagreement as to the depth of this dust layer there was also disagreement as to whether the surface of the moon was as unchanging as observers had long believed it to be this bright circular patch in the dark sea of serenity was once the deep crater lynnae which apparently disappeared in 1866 changes in brightness and color have been observed from time to time the floor of the crater plato seemed to some observers to become misty occasionally suggesting that gases of some kind are being released in 1958 the central peak of the crater alphonsus brightened for a short time a spectrograph that analyzed the light showed the presence of carbon gas astronomers concluded that they had witnessed a volcanic eruption on the moon not of lava but of gases there are valleys on the moon many when studied closely are seen to be made of chains of craters and not really valleys at all but other valleys show no craters like this one in the lunar alps perhaps it was caused by a great meteorite that sliced through the mountains the surface of the moon has wrinkles and cracks usually called ridges and faults by selenographers what appears as a white line is one of the best known faults on the moon the straight wall rising one thousand feet above the plane on which it stands perhaps a moonquake was the cause of this fault some of the ridges of the moon are long formations usually found near the borders of the seas the circular ridges were theorized to be the remains of ancient craters it seemed likely that lava had filled them but whether this was another indication that the moon was an active changing world could not be determined so nearly four centuries of study had produced a tremendous amount of information about the moon but all of it had come from observers on earth two hundred forty thousand miles away now in the middle of the twentieth century a new era began by means of rockets the instruments of the astronomers could be moved closer to the moon during the late 1950s and 1960s much information was collected from space probes spacecraft with their highly sophisticated instruments were sent past the moon around the moon and onto the moon in hard and soft landings to prepare for man's journey there information sent back to earth confirmed some theories proved others false and expanded our knowledge of the moon what was discovered spacecraft scan the surface of the moon with scientific instruments and television cameras for the first time concentric terraces were seen clearly within many craters tracks on crater walls indicated that rocks had rolled down them clear evidence that the moon is not a totally dead world instruments reported that the moon has no appreciable magnetic field without a magnetic field the moon is not shielded from the solar wind that high energy stream of protons produced by the sun the far side of the moon was photographed for the first time it showed a spectacular crater and a surface with fewer seas than the near side but otherwise it was not significantly different photographs also showed how earth looks from the moon to find suitable landing areas on the moon close-up photographs of its surface were made they showed that the closer the moon was approached the more craters could be seen craters mountains and planes faults and rails were seen as no one had ever seen them before photographs from spacecraft that soft landed on the moon showed a generally level but rough surface covered with rocks and tiny craterlets many less than an inch in diameter it was thought that the craterlets might have been caused by the steady bombardment of micrometeorites space dust in soft landings the support feet of spacecraft sank only a short distance into the moon's surface showing that the dust layer was just a few inches thick scientists theorized that the vacuum conditions of the moon had solidified most of the particles into a hard surface robot tools that dug into the moon showed a firm darker soil under a surface made up of fine grains of various sizes so man had placed his tools of study on the moon his next step was to place himself there during the 1960s preparations were being made to land men on the moon and provide them with the equipment and information they would need for survival exploration and return space suits were developed to shield men from the intense heat and cold of the moon and to give them an atmosphere to breathe in the lunar vacuum vehicles were designed to land the space travelers on the moon and then get them off again various types of vehicles tested means of carrying explorers across the surface of the moon devices that simulated the gravitational attraction of the moon only one-sixth that of earth were used to test equipment and techniques for living and working on the moon the full voyage from earth to moon was simulated in a little more than 10 years the space age brought to a close 400 years of preparation reported that eagle was gold we are go for apollo 11. astronauts report it feels good t-minus 25 seconds 20 seconds and counting t-minus 15 seconds guidance is internal 12 11 10 9 ignition sequence start 6 5 4 three two one zero all engine running liftoff we have a liftoff 32 minutes past the hour lift up on apollo 11. on july 20th 1969 the first men from earth landed on the moon [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] uh [Applause] they collected rocks and samples of lunar soil you're looking good here they set up a seismometer to study meteor impacts and moonquakes and other action on the moon's surface they erected a laser beam reflector to refine our knowledge of the distance between earth and its moon and so on the inhospitable airless surface of our planet's only natural satellite man's exploration of the moon took a great leap forward literally thousands of little one and stupid craters around the area we see some [Music] that are probably [Music] you