Apollo 15 Overview

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Mission Objectives

 

The Apollo 15 mission was the first in a series of three missions of this type.  Compared with previous Apollo manned lunar landing missions, these mission are characterized by increased hardware capability, a larger scientific payload, and a battery-powered lunar roving vehicle.  The scientific objectives of the Apollo 15 Mission were:

 

•To perform selenological inspection, survey, and sampling of materials and surface features in a preselected area of the Hadley-Appenine region.

         (a) To collect a contingency sample

         (b) To collect Geologic soil and rock samples

         (c) To collect Core-tube samples

         (d) To collect Trench soil samples

         (e) To collect a drill-core samples

         (f) To collect a descent engine exhaust contamination sample

         (g) To conduct a Soil mechanics experiment

•To emplace and activate surface experiments including:

         (a) Heat Flow

         (b) Lunar Surface Magnetometer

         (c) Passive Seismometer

         (d) Cold Cathode Gage

         (e) Solar Wind Spectrometer

         (f) Suprathermal Ion detector

         (g) Lunar Dust Detector

         (h) Laser Ranging Retroreflector

         (i) Solar Wind Composition Experiment

 

 

Landing Site Description

 

The Apollo 15 lunar module (LM) landed on the mare surface of Palus Putredinis on the eastern edge of the Imbrium Basin.  The site is between the Apennine Mountain front and the Hadley Rille.

 

 

Surface Science

 

During a lunar stay of 66 hr 54 min 53 sec, a 33 min standup EVA and three periods of surface EVA totaling approximately 18.5 hr were performed.  Lunar surface activities invloved collecting a contingency surface sample, emplacing seven experimetns composing the Apollo lunar surface experiments package, deploying the laser ranging retrorefletor and solar wind composition experiments, accomplishing a lunar geological investigation (which involved collecting approximately 76 kg of lunar material including soil, rock, core tube, and deep drill core samples), and performing the soil-mechanics experiment (which requried penetration and plate-load tests on the Lunar surface and near an excavated trench to aid in defining the mechanical characteristics of the lunar soil). Traverses during the three EVA periods were enhances by use of the rover.  The total distance traveled was 27.9 km.

 

Source: Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report Mission Description