Geography 2090A/B Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Project Gemini, Lunar Orbiter Program, Apollo Lunar Module
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16 Oct 2013
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Lecture 2
Space History – Sputnik to Apollo to Zond
- „Space Age‟ October 4, 1957
o Started with the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite, by the Soviet Union
- China invented rockets
- Line in the U.S. National Anthem about „the rockets‟ red glare‟
o Rockets used against U.S. forces by British army during War of 1812
o British learned to use them when they were attacked with rockets in India
o India learned about rockets from China
Pioneers of Spaceflight
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky developed the basic theories of rocket flight into space, multi-staged
rockets, etc. about 100 years ago (Russia)
- Hermann Oberth developed technical aspects of rocketry before WW2 (Germany)
- Robert Goddard experimented with liquid-fueled rockets (Massachussetts)
o Experiments became too dangerous for densely populated area so moved research to New
Mexico
- Most famous rocket and space clubs/societies
o British Interplanetary Society
o German Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (VfR, Society for Space Travel)
o Russian GIRD (Russian initials for the Group for Study of Rocket Propulsion)
Wernher von Braun
- Developed military rockets (V2 missiles) for Germany during WW2
o Launched from Peenemunde against targets in England
- As the war ended, he surrendered to U.S. forces and was taken to America to develop modern
missiles
- Ultimately designed the Saturn rockets which took Apollo astronauts to the Moon
Sergei Korolev
- “Chief Designer”
- Developed missiles and spacecraft for the Soviet Union, including the first satellites, lunar
probes and human space vehicles
- Most rockets launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan
- New spaceport (Vostochny Cosmodrome) being built in eastern Russia
- Korolev‟s design bureau now called Energia
o Builds Russia‟s crew-carrying spacecraft
First Satellites
- Made possible by the large missiles developed for intercontinental nuclear warfare
- Sputnik („fellow traveller‟) launched October 4, 1957
- Sputnik 2 carried a dog, Laika November 3, 1957
- First U.S. satellite Explorer 1 launched January 31, 1958
Early Moon Probes
- 1958 onwards
- Soviet Luna 1 probe January 1959
o First close flyby
- Luna 2 September 1959
o Struck the Moon first human artifact to reach another world
- Luna 3 October 1959
o Photographed the far side of the moon
- Ranger 7 1964
o First successful US lunar probe
o Took the first close-up pictures of the Moon before impacting on the surface
First Robotic Landings
- Luna 9 January 1966 (Korolev‟s team, Soviet Union)
o One more successful Luna of this type
- Surveyor 1 first US landing 4 months later (May 1966)
o Four more successful Surveyors of this type
- Landings revealed that the lunar landscape consisted of loose material of all sizes, dust to
boulders, broken up and redistributed by meteorite impacts over billions of years
Orbital Mapping
- Necessary to obtain global images to plan for human landings and to understand the moon better
- US flew five Lunar Orbiter missions in 1966 and 1967 to obtain global images
- Soviet Union flew experimental orbital cameras to the Moon, sometimes just to test equipment
for other planets, but never undertook a systematic program of global photography
o Used American images to plan for human landings
Vostok – First Person in Space
- Korolev‟s second triumph, after Sputnik
- Successful flight of Yuri Gagarin into orbit around Earth April 12, 1961
o Spacecraft was called Vostok (“east”)
- Several Vostok spacecraft followed
o First woman in Space Valentina Tereshkova
- Modified Vostok called Voskhod
o First multi-person spacecraft (carried a crew of three)
o Second Voskhod few two people including Alexei Leonov who understood the first
„spacewalk‟
Mercury and Gemini
- Alan Shepard First US astronaut May 5, 1961
o Flew a sub-orbital flight (up and down, not into orbit) in the „Freedom 7‟ spacecraft
- Six more Mercury flights extended these flights into orbit
- Gemini spacecraft
o Carrying a crew of two
o Extended the Mercury results by practicing all the tasks that would be needed by Apollo
o Astronauts conducted spacewalks, flew alongside and eventually docked with other
orbiting spacecraft, and stayed in space for up to two weeks
Apollo – The Human Landings
- US project to land people on the moon
- Apollo demonstrated its spacecraft in Earth orbit, then in lunar orbit, and finally in landings
- Six of the seven landing flights were successful
o Apollo 13 (the seventh) succeeded in returning its crew safely to Earth after an explosion
on the spacecraft during a trip around the Moon
- Revolutionized our understanding of the Moon by returning large collections of lunar materials
and leaving scientific instruments on the surface
Zond – A Challenge to Apollo
- Soviet Union planned human Moon landings but abandoned them after serious problems arose
with their large rockets
- Orbital and return module built for lunar landings flew several times without a crew, including
four flights looping around the Moon and back to Earth
- These spacecraft were called Zond, and then later evolved into the Soyuz spacecraft
- Soyuz spacecraft still used today to take crews and cargo to the International Space Station
- Zonds 6, 7, and 8 returned photographs of the far side of the moon
Automated Sample Collection – Soviet Response to Apollo
- Collect Moon samples with robots instead of people
o Cheaper and had no risk to human life
- Several early attempts failed, including one at exactly the same time as Apollo 11
o In 1970 they were successful with Luna 16
- Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 missions brought back three samples from different places (less
than Apollo)
- Soviets also drove two rovers on the Moon by remote control Lunokhods 1 and 2