Apollo program (Apollo program)
Also known as the Apollo program, it is a series of manned missions to the moon from 196 1 to 1972.
1July, 1969 16, the giant Saturn V rocket was launched from the launch site at Cape Kennedy, USA, carrying Apollo 1 1, and began the first human space trip to the moon. American astronauts neil armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and michaeljohn collins flew Apollo 1 1 spacecraft, which covered a journey of 380,000 kilometers and carried the dream of the whole mankind on the surface of the moon. This is indeed a small step for one person, but it is a big step for all mankind. They witnessed the realization of the dream of spanning 5000 years from the earth to the moon.
Man's exploration of the moon
Mankind's exploration of the moon began in the 1950s, and the United States and the former Soviet Union launched a fierce space race against the background of the Cold War.
1957, the former Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial earth satellite.
1961April 12, the former Soviet "orient" spacecraft went into space. Wearing a 90kg spacesuit, yuri gagarin became the first aviation fighter in the world to go into space and see the whole earth from the universe. Gagarin's name, together with his charming smile, spread all over the world. It recorded a rich and colorful stroke for the epic picture of manned space flight.
Since then, manned space science has advanced by leaps and bounds. When the time was fixed at1July, 969 16, the United States took the lead in landing on the moon and fulfilled this dream of mankind. On the last flight of Apollo program-Apollo 17 February, 1972, 12 astronauts landed on the surface of the moon.
Man's understanding of the moon is becoming more and more rational. Every flight of Apollo carried out an extensive survey on the surface of the moon, and collected a large number of lunar rocks and soil samples, of which 440 kilograms of lunar rocks were brought back to Earth from the moon. During Apollo flight, many instruments were installed on the moon for scientific research, such as solar wind experiment and lunar seismic survey. The moon is no longer mysterious.
The moon is not as crystal clear as when we look up at her on the earth. His surface is uneven, full of large and small craters, and even a little scary. As a permanent satellite of the earth, she always revolves around the earth faithfully. The moon is 3476 kilometers in diameter, which is about 3/ 1 1 of the earth's diameter. The surface area of the moon is about114 of the surface area of the earth, slightly smaller than that of Asia. The moon is only 1/49 the size of the earth.
The surface of the moon has high vacuum, no magnetic field, stable geological structure, weak gravity and high environmental cleanliness, and the back of the moon is not disturbed by earth radio waves. It is of great political and scientific significance to establish a lunar astronomical observation base, a laboratory for biological products and new materials, an Earth observation station and an outpost for deep space exploration. The moon is an ideal place to study lunar science, astrochemistry, space physics, life science, earth observation science and materials science.
The establishment of an astronomical observatory on the moon is not limited by the earth's atmosphere, and the observation band can range from gamma rays to long radio bands. Interferometer array of any wave band can be set on the moon, and the quiet environment on the surface of the moon can ensure its measurement accuracy. Some astrophysical phenomena, such as supernova explosion and gamma ray explosion, can be observed and studied in different bands.
Although the moon is only one of hundreds of millions of stars, it is not an ordinary satellite that revolves around the earth forever. For human beings, the moon is not only an outpost for human beings to set foot in the vast universe, but also a resource storage warehouse for human beings to survive. The resources on the moon are of amazing value to mankind. In the basalt on the moon, ilmenite accounts for 25% by volume, and titanium is about 65.438+0 trillion tons. In the future, human beings can directly use this stone to produce water, liquid oxygen fuel and other resources. Uranium and rare earth, which are scarce on the earth, are also quite abundant on the moon. In particular, Helium -3, which is unique in lunar soil, will change the energy structure of human society. There are millions of tons of helium -3 in the soil on the surface of the moon, which is an efficient, clean and safe nuclear fusion fuel. 1 ton helium -3 generates enough electricity for all mankind 1 year. The moon is rich in metal resources such as silicon, aluminum and iron, and it is also a huge treasure house of mineral resources on the earth in the future.
Nowadays, the moon has become more and more important for the development of human space science and technology. The development and utilization of lunar resources has become an important topic in 2 1 century.
All this is the attraction and temptation of the moon. It is for this reason that the United States, the only country that has successfully landed on the moon at present, resumed its plan after stopping for 30 years. On June 6th+10/October 6th+April 6th, 2004, US President Bush announced the new space program of the United States ambitiously.
President Bush once said, "It is time for the United States to take the next step. Today, I announced a new plan to explore space and extend human existence to the whole solar system. tem。 We will use the existing programs and personnel to start this work quickly. We will make steady progress, one task at a time, one voyage at a time and one landing at a time. The last man who set foot on the surface of the moon said this when he left: "We leave as we came. God bless us, we will come back with peace and the hope of all mankind." . America will fulfill these promises. It's time for America to take the next step in exploring the universe. Today I announced our new plan to explore the vast universe. We will make use of the existing human and material resources to determine a clear plan. The man who finally set foot on the moon once said: We came and left, and God knows we will come back with the hope of all mankind. Yes, we will make this sentence come true. " )
Bush's plan includes that the United States will conduct a series of unmanned explorations on the surface of the moon no later than 2008, and then send people to the moon as early as 20 15 and no later than 2020, with the goal of continuously extending the time of living and working on the moon. Based on the knowledge and experience gained on the moon, the United States will prepare to send people to explore Mars and beyond. A new generation of manned spacecraft will be designed and built, and the space station will be assembled in the shortest time.
It provided $86 billion for NASA's budget for the next five years. The United States began to build a new round of moon program.
In addition to the United States, more and more countries began to be interested in the moon at the beginning of the new century. Russia, France, Germany, Japan, Israel and India all launched their own moon landing plans. The sooner they set foot on the moon, the greater the chance of understanding and developing the moon. In the Far East opposite the United States, a dragon that has been sleeping for a hundred years growls.
Looking at our blue planet from space, the Asian continent is so vast and China is so beautiful. Firm eyes and tall and straight body shoulder the flying of the Chinese dream ―― On June 5th, 2003, 10, 13, the roaring Long March V rocket carried the expectations of1300 million people, and Shenzhou 5 astronaut Yang Liwei was the pride of China.
China people's dream of flying for 40 years, carried by Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, has finally come true. The moon is a step closer to us. At this time, the excited people of China once again focused their eyes on the ancient myth-"the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon", and people could not help asking: "When will China people land on the moon and visit our relatives-Chang 'e girl who is far away from home?
The moon is calling, and researchers in China have been quietly devoted to exploring the moon for 10 years. As early as 1994, China's space scientists and technicians studied the necessity and feasibility of lunar exploration activities, completed the technical scheme of lunar exploration satellites in 1996, and completed the key technologies of satellites in 1998, and then carried out the demonstration work. After 10 years of brewing, we finally determined that the whole lunar exploration project in China can be divided into three stages: "around", "down" and "back". The first step to the moon will be to launch the lunar exploration satellite Chang 'e-1 in 2006 to explore the surface environment, topography, geomorphology, geological structure and physical field of the moon.
The second step, from 2007 to 20 10, aims at developing and launching spacecraft and landing on the moon in a soft landing way for exploration. The patrol car and automatic robot landing on the surface of the moon are used to detect the composition of rocks and minerals in the landing area to determine the heat flow and surrounding environment of the landing site.
The third step is to land on the moon from 20 1 1 to 2020, with the goal of lunar patrol survey and sampling return, providing data for the next manned lunar exploration and the location of lunar outpost.
China has accelerated the pace of space industry because the progress of space technology can also promote the development of a large number of high-tech industries, and the Apollo moon landing program in the United States is the best example. The Apollo Moon Landing Program not only trained a generation of high-level scientists, but also promoted the all-round development of computer technology, communication technology, measurement and control technology, rocket technology, laser technology, material technology and medical technology in the United States and the world in the 1960s and 1970s, and raised the overall scientific and technological level to a brand-new level. The entire Apollo moon landing program won more than 3,000 patents. In terms of economy, according to statistics, the average income from every $65,438+0 investment of Apollo program is about $5.
Science and technology are productive forces that have been verified again in the aerospace industry.
At present, human beings have broken into space and started to explore the moon. When we learned that China's lunar exploration project was progressing smoothly, we felt extremely gratified. The moon is not far from us. One day, we will feel the charm of the moon together.
China people may need 20 years or more to realize their dream of landing on the moon, but the moon is there, and she will never refuse the pace of human exploration.
President Bush said: "With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will be ready for the next step of space exploration and human missions to Mars and other planets." ("We should be fully prepared for human beings to land on Mars and use the experience and knowledge gained on the moon to explore the more distant universe").
Every mission
The Apollo program includes 1 1 manned missions, from Apollo 7 to Apollo 17, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Apollo 4 to Apollo 6 are unmanned test flights (there are no Apollo 2 and Apollo 3 officially).
Apollo 1
1967 65438+1October 27th. Astronauts wilkie Gleason, edward white and roger chaffee were killed in a fire tonight. At that time, the fire swallowed up their Apollo 1 spacecraft. It was originally planned to launch the spacecraft on February 2 1 day, and put them into Earth orbit 14 days. They died on the ground during the simulation exercise of this launch.
NASA officials said that it was probably the spark that ignited the pure oxygen in the cockpit of the Apollo spacecraft. Three astronauts sat side by side on the top of Saturn 1 rocket at launch pad 34 in Cape Kennedy as if they were really flying. A fire broke out at 6: 3 1 this afternoon.
They were trapped behind the closed hatch and could not use the Apollo safety system because they were blocked by the missile trailer. Emergency personnel tried to get close to them, but they were stopped by smoke billowing from the cabin. The air force and NASA collected all the information related to the fire. Officials said: "The loss of personnel and spacecraft has dealt a serious blow to Apollo's moon landing program. Faced with the difficulty of budget cuts, Apollo planned to land on the moon in the late 1960s.
Apollo 7
After many unmanned earth orbit flights, Apollo 7 finally carried three astronauts around the earth on board 1968 10 1.
Apollo 8
Apollo 8 took the first step of manned lunar exploration. The apollo 8 team, composed of Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, took off on February 26th, 20438+0 on the Saturn 5 rocket, which went from orbiting the earth to orbiting the moon. On February 2 1 day, members of the apollo 8 spacecraft flew from the Earth to the moon.
Apollo 9
Apollo 9 flew around the earth for a long time and further inspected the lunar module.
Apollo 10
Apollo 10 flew into the orbit around the moon and lowered the lunar module to within 15 km from the lunar surface to test its performance.
Apollo 1 1
1In July, 1969, Apollo 1 1 finally landed on the moon, which pushed the gradual Apollo moon landing program to a climax. Armstrong also became the first man to land on the moon, and the United States made the most brilliant achievements in lunar exploration. In addition, the study of moon rocks and dust brought back also played a great role. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the top ten discoveries of Apollo's moon landing program.
Apollo spacecraft 12- 17 From1969165438+10 to1972 65438+February, the United States launched Apollo/. Among them, except for Apollo 13, which was suspended due to the explosion of the liquid oxygen tank in the service cabin (two astronauts returned to the ground safely in the spaceship), * * * 12 astronauts all successfully landed on the moon.
Apollo manned moon landing project is divided into the following aspects:
First, the moon landing plan: including demonstrating the flight path of the spacecraft to the moon and determining the overall layout of the manned spacecraft. The lunar orbit rendezvous scheme is selected from three flight schemes of Apollo spacecraft, and the overall layout scheme of the spacecraft consisting of command module, service module and lunar module is determined accordingly.
Second, the auxiliary plan: the four auxiliary plans for flying to the moon are as follows: ① Rover detector plan (1961-1965): * * * Launch nine detectors and take photos of the moon's surface in different lunar orbits 18000. Understand. ② "Surveyor" detector plan (1966- 1968): * * * Launching five automatic detectors to make a soft landing on the lunar surface, and sending back 86,000 photos of the Zhang Yue surface through TV to detect the physical and chemical characteristics of lunar soil. ③ "Lunar Orbit Circulator" project (1966- 19677): * * * Three lunar orbiters were launched to take high-resolution photos of more than 40 pre-selected landing zones, and more than l000 small-scale high-resolution photos of the lunar surface were obtained, based on which about 10 projected landing sites were selected. ④ "Gemini" spacecraft plan (1965- 1966): successively launched 10 spacecraft each carrying two astronauts, conducted medical and biological research, operated the spacecraft, docked and conducted extravehicular activities training.
Launch vehicle: Apollo spacecraft was launched by Saturn launch vehicle with great thrust. The development of launch vehicles can be divided into two stages: ① Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B are developed to gain the development experience of large launch vehicles and carry out the flight test of Apollo spacecraft. (2) Develop Saturn V giant 3-stage launch vehicle as the vehicle for the spacecraft to land on the moon.
4. Flight test: Six unmanned flight tests were carried out at 1966- 1968 to identify the command module, service module and lunar module of the spacecraft in near-earth orbit and test the power device of the lunar module. 1968- 1969 Apollo 7, 8 and 9 were launched for manned flight test. It is mainly used for the simulation test of orbiting the earth and the moon and the descent of the lunar module from the orbit around the moon, the orbital maneuver flight and the simulated rendezvous, and the separation and docking of the lunar module and the command module. According to the time required for landing on the moon, the flight lasted 1 1 day to test the reliability of the spacecraft. Apollo 10 and 19 were launched on May 8, and the whole process of landing on the moon was carried out. They flew around the moon for 3 1 circle, and two astronauts descended to the height of 15.2 km from the lunar surface in the lunar module.
5. Apollo spacecraft: Apollo spacecraft consists of three parts: command module, service module and lunar module.
1. command module-the cockpit where astronauts live and work during flight, and it is also the control center of the whole spacecraft. The command module is conical, 3.2 meters high and weighs about 6 tons. The command module is divided into three parts: front module, astronaut module and rear module. Landing components, recovery equipment and attitude control engine are placed in the front cabin. The astronaut cabin is a sealed cabin, which contains necessities and life-saving equipment for astronauts' life 14 days. There are 10 attitude control engines, various instruments and tanks in the rear cabin, as well as attitude control, guidance and navigation systems, airborne computers and radio subsystems.
2. Service cabin-the front end is docked with the command cabin, and the rear end has the main engine nozzle of the propulsion system. The engine room is cylindrical with a height of 6. 7 meters, 4 meters in diameter and weighing about 25 tons. The main engine is used for orbit change and orbit change maneuver. The attitude control system consists of 16 rocket engines, which are also used to separate the spacecraft from the third stage rocket, dock the lunar module with the command module, and separate the command module from the service module.
3. Lunar module-consists of descending stage and ascending stage. When taking off from the ground, it weighs 14.7 tons, is 4.3 meters wide and has a maximum height of about 7 meters. ① Descending stage: It consists of landing engine, four landing legs and four instrument cabins. ② Upward upgrade: it is the main body of the lunar module. After the astronauts completed the lunar movement, they went up to upgrade and returned to orbit around the moon to meet the command module. The upper upgrade consists of astronaut cockpit, return engine, propellant tank, instrument cabin and control system. Astronaut seat; The cabin can accommodate two astronauts (but there are no seats) and is equipped with navigation, control, communication, life support and power supply.
4. Flying to the Moon-Apollo 1 1 Spacecraft realized the ideal of manned landing on the moon for the first time on July 20th-21,1969. Since then, the United States has launched six Apollo spacecraft, five of which were successful. A total of 12 astronauts landed on the moon.
Apollo/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/Spacecraft flies to the moon/KOOC-0/July 969/KOOC-0/6, Apollo/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/Spacecraft was launched by Saturn V rocket. When the third stage rocket was turned off, the spacecraft was sent into the low-altitude parking orbit around the earth. The third stage rocket ignited for the second time and accelerated, sending the spacecraft into the earth-moon transition orbit. The spacecraft separated from the three-stage rocket and began to approach the moon after flying along the transition orbit for 2.5 days. The main engine of the service module decelerated, and the spacecraft entered the orbit around the moon. Astronauts N.A. Armstrong and E.E. Aldrin entered the lunar module, drove it away from the mother ship and descended to the surface of the moon to achieve a soft landing. Another astronaut stayed in the command module and continued to fly around the moon. Astronauts who landed on the moon deployed solar arrays on the surface of the moon, installed lunar seismographs and laser reflectors, collected 22 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil samples, and then drove the lunar module to upgrade and return to orbit around the moon to meet and dock with the mother ship. Then they abandoned the lunar module, started the main engine of the service module to accelerate the spacecraft, and entered the moon-earth transition orbit. When approaching the earth, the spacecraft entered the reentry corridor, threw away the service module, made the dome-shaped bottom of the command module face forward, and slowed down under the powerful aerodynamic force. When entering the low altitude, the command module pops up three parachutes, further reducing the descent speed. The command module of Apollo 1 1 splashed down in the southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean on July 24th.