Apollo 11 Overview

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Mission Objectives

 

The Apollo 11 mission marks man's first lunar landing.  The scientific objectives of the Apollo 11 Mission were:

 

•To collect early in the extravehicular activity (EVA) a sample, called the contingency sample, of approximately 1 kg of lunar surface material that would ensure that some lunar material would be returned to earth.
•To fill rapidly one of the two sample return containers with approximately 10 kg of the lunar material, called the bulk sample, to insure the return of an adequate amount of material to meet the needs of the principle investigators.
•To deploy three experiments on the lunar surface:

               (a) A passive seismometer to study lunar seismic events

               (b) An optical corner reflector to study lunar librations, the Laser Ranging Retroreflector

               (c) A solar wind composition experiment to measure the types and energies of the solar wind on the lunar surface

•To fill the second sample return container with carefully selected lunar material placed into the local geologic context, to drive two core tubes into the surface, and to return the tubes with the stratigraphically organized material, called the documented sample.

         

 

 

Landing Site Description

 

The Apollo 11 lunar module landed in the southwestern part of Mare Tranquillitatis approximately 50 km from the closest Highland material and approximately 400 m west of a sharp rimmed blocky crater approximately 180 m in diameter.  Rays of ejecta from this crater extend past the landing site.  Rays from more distant craters including the crater Theophilus are also in the landing region.

 

 

Surface Science

 

The passive seismometer was deployed on the Moon and operated satisfactorily for 21 days and detected several seismic signals, many of which originated from astronaut activity or mechanical motions of the LM.  The Laser Ranging Retroreflector was deployed on the Moon and has been used as a target for Earth-based lasers.  The Solar Wind Composition experiment was successfully deployed and the foil collected at the end of the mission and brought back for analysis on earth.  A large number of samples were collected and returned to earth for analysis.  The Contingency sample, bulk sample, and documented samples were all successfully collected, in addition to two drive core samples.

 

Source: Apollo 11 Preliminary Science Report Mission Description