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Lunar
Landings
Overview - Objectives
Students will learn about the manned
Apollo missions and some of the important contributions that
the Apollo program made. Students will put the Apollo missions
into historical perspective by looking at missions that came
before and ones that came after or are planned for the future.
Activities
1. Read and Research
Have students find out more about each
of the six Lunar Landing Apollo Missions and the one aborted
mission. Information about the crew, landing locations, a
mission summary and additional images for each of the lunar
flights are listed or provided at the Lunar
Landing Sites page and in the chart below. Students can
be divided into groups and one group assigned to research
each mission.
Have students record information on
a chart
(a sample chart is included here) including important facts
about the mission. If your class is divided into research
groups, the chart can be used for note taking as each group
presents its findings.
The Lunar
Exploration Timeline provides a quick look at all
missions starting with flyby missions in 1959.
2. Create a Presentation
Using the images on the sites listed
at Lunar Landing Sites,
students can create a multimedia presentation using HyperStudio,
PowerPoint or the web. (Photos from the NASA sites are in
public domain and can be used for educational purposes. Check
the copyright/use notices for specific details. ) Have students
read and use the ideas at the Report/Presentation
Page to help with this.
3. Map the Landings
Print out the Apollo
Landing sites map and the coordinates given to locate
each mission. (The mission numbers have been removed from
this Moon map
so that students can use a copy for a mapping exercise.)
A
chart of Apollo Lunar Landings which you can print out
for student use will provide them with the Latitude and Longitude
of each landing site. Used online, there is a link to each
mission as well as links to graphics and a QuickTime movie
for each of the landing destinations.
4. Lead students in a discussion to
help them try to determine the important scientific discoveries
made during the Apollo program's exploration of the moon.
NASA has listed Top
10 Scientific Discoveries on its web pages. Students may
have additional items they feel are important as well after
their research.
5. Importance of the Apollo Missions
Have students add to the list of the
importance of exploration of the Moon by researching the explorations
done since the Apollo
Missions . These missions includes the Soviet
Union Luna which had 20 missions (1959-76), Hiten
(1990), Clementine
(1994), and Lunar
Prospector (1998) . Students may want to look at ones
being planned for the future which include the SMART
1 (2002) mission planned by the European Space Agency
and the
Lunar-A (2003) and Selene
missions (2003), both planned by Japan.
The Lunar
Exploration Timeline provides a quick look at all
missions starting with flyby missions in 1959.
(In the chart below the URLs for each
mission are written out so that if the section is printed
for student use they can type in the appropriate sites. A
student /printer friendly version
which only includes this chart is also available.)
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Apollo
Missions
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Images
from Landing Sites |
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Apollo
11
Landed at Mare Tranquillitatis
(Sea of Tranquility) 0¡4'5"N, 23¡42'28"E
Mare Tranquilitatis was
the first site chosen because it is a relatively
smooth and level area. The LM landed safely some
6 km from the site originally selected due to
a high density of craters at the original site.
In the last seconds before landing, the LM was
manually piloted by Neil Armstrong to avoid a
sharp-rimmed ray crater which measured 180 meters
across and 30 meters deep. This crater was named
West.
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS11/a11.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo11info.html
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/tmp/1969-059C.html
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Apollo
12
Landed at Oceanus Procellarum
(Ocean of Storms) 3.036 S, 23.418 W
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS12/a12.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo12info.html
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Apollo
13
Mission aborted and did
not land on moon. The site selected was the Fra
Mauro crater . This site was used by Apollo 14.
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS13/a13.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo13info.html
Find more about the malfunctions/accident
at
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/ap13acc.html
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Apollo
14
Landed at Fra Mauro 3.65
S, 17.47 W
Site was a hilly region
about 30 miles (49.3 km) north of the Fra Mauro
crater--the same site selected for the aborted
Apollo 13 mission. The landing site was near Cone
Crater.
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS14/a14.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo14info.html
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Apollo
15
Landed at Hadley Rille/Apennine
Mountains 26.13 N, 3.63E
Site is at the foot of
the Apennine mountain range. The Apennines rise
up to more than 15,000 feet (4572 m) along the
southeastern edge of Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains).
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS15/a15.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo15info.html
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Apollo
16
Landed at Descartes Highlands
8¡ 59' 29'' S, 15¡ 30' 52'' E
Site was a hilly region
around Descartes crater in the lunar highlands.
The landing site had two basic terrains that were
explored and sampled: the Cayley Plains - a smooth
plains unit, and the Descartes formation made
up of hilly furrowed highland material.
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS16/a16.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo16info.html
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Apollo
17
Landed at Taurus-Littrow
20.18N, 30.76E
Site, Taurus-Littrow, takes
its name from the Taurus mountains and Littrow
crater which are located in a mountainous region
on the southeastern rim of the Serenitatis basin.
The actual target landing site was at 30¡ 44'
58.3" east longitude by 20¡ 9' 50.5"
north latitude -- about 750 km east of the Apollo
15 landing site at Hadley Rille.
http://www.nasm.edu/apollo/AS17/a17.htm
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo17info.html
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