Working on the moon: The Apollo experience

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:7168757

Jones, E M

The successful completion of any scientific or engineering project on the Moon will depend, in part, on human ability to do useful work under lunar conditions. In making informed decisions about such things as the use of humans rather than robots for specific tasks, the scheduling of valuable human time, and the design and selection of equipment and tools, good use can be made of the existing experience base. During the six completed landing missions, Apollo lunar surface crews conducted 160 astronaut-hours of extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) and also spent a similar sum of waking hours working in the cramped confines of the Lunar Module. The first three missions were primarily proof-tests of flight hardware and procedures. The ability to land equipment and consumables was very modest but, despite stay times of no more than 32 hours, the crews of Apollos 11, 12, and 14 were able to test their mobility and their capability of doing useful work outside the spacecraft. For the last three missions, thanks to LM modifications which enabled landings with significant amounts of cargo, stay times more than doubled to three days. The crews were able to use Lunar Rovers to conduct extensive local exploration and to travel up to 10 kilometers away from their immediate landing sites. During these final missions, the astronauts spent enough time doing work of sufficient complexity that their experience should be of use in the formulation early-stage lunar base operating plans. 2 refs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/MA
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 7168757
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-89-3858; CONF-900442-3; ON: DE90003662
• Resource Relation: Conference: Engineering, construction and operations for space, Albuquerque, NM (USA), Apr 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
SPACE FLIGHT
APOLLO PROJECT
ASTRONAUTS
DATA ACQUISITION
DECISION MAKING
DESIGN
EQUIPMENT
ERRORS
EXPLORATION
FAILURE MODE ANALYSIS
GEOLOGY
HEALTH HAZARDS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
LUNAR MATERIALS
MOON
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PLANNING
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SOILS
TOOLS
TRAINING
HAZARDS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
PERSONNEL
SATELLITES
SYSTEM FAILURE ANALYSIS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
TESTING
320201* - Energy Conservation
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990000 - General & Miscellaneous
640106 - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmology