Apollo 14

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Apollo 14
Mission insignia
Mission statistics[1]
Mission name: Apollo 14
Command Module: CM-110
Service Module: SM-110
Lunar Module: LM-8
Booster: Saturn V SA-509
Call sign: Command module:
Kitty Hawk
Lunar module:
Antares
Number of crew members: 3
Launch pad: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
LC 39A
Launch: January 31, 1971
21:03:02 UTC
Lunar landing: February 5, 1971
09:18:11 UTC
Fra Mauro
3° 38' 43.08" S,
17° 28' 16.90" W
(based on the IAU
Mean Earth Polar Axis
coordinate system)
Lunar EVA length: 1st: 4 h 47 min 50 s
2nd: 4 h 34 min 41 s
Total: 9 h 22 min 31 s
Lunar surface time: 33 h 30 min 29 s
Lunar sample mass: 42.28 kg (93.21 lb)
Landing: February 9, 1971
21:05:00 UTC
27°1′S 172°39′W
Duration: 216 h 1 min 58 s
Time in lunar orbit: 66 h 35 min 39.99 s
Mass: CSM: 29,240 kg
LM: 15,264 kg
Crew photo
L-R: Roosa, Shepard, and Mitchell
L-R: Roosa, Shepard, and Mitchell
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Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the Apollo program and the third mission to land on the Moon.

Contents

[edit] Crew

*Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.

[edit] Backup crew

[edit] Support crew

[edit] Flight directors

  • Pete Frank, Orange team
  • Glynn Lunney, Black team
  • Milton Windler, Maroon team
  • Gerald Griffin, Gold team

[edit] Mission parameters

[edit] LM - CSM docking

[edit] EVAs

[edit] EVA 1 start: February 5, 1971, 14:42:13 UTC

  • Shepard - EVA 1
  • Stepped onto moon: 14:54 UTC
  • LM ingress: 19:22 UTC
  • Mitchell - EVA 1
  • Stepped onto moon: 14:58 UTC
  • LM ingress: 19:18 UTC
  • EVA 1 end: February 5, 19:30:50 UTC
    • Duration: 4 hours, 47 minutes, 50 seconds

[edit] EVA 2 start: February 6, 1971, 08:11:15 UTC

  • Shepard - EVA 2
  • Stepped onto moon: 08:16 UTC
  • LM ingress: 12:38 UTC
  • Mitchell - EVA 2
  • Stepped onto moon: 08:23 UTC
  • LM ingress: 12:28 UTC
  • EVA 2 end: February 6, 12:45:56 UTC
    • Duration: 4 hours, 34 minutes, 41 seconds

[edit] Mission highlights

Apollo 14 LM is placed in LM Adapter. (NASA)
Apollo 14 LM is placed in LM Adapter. (NASA)
Launch of Apollo 14
Launch of Apollo 14
Alan Shepard on lunar surface. (NASA)
Alan Shepard on lunar surface. (NASA)
Panoramic Assembly of Fra Mauro - Apollo 14 Landing Site (Moonpans)
Panoramic Assembly of Fra Mauro - Apollo 14 Landing Site (Moonpans)
Depiction of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 14
Depiction of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 14
Command Module "Kitty Hawk" on display at Kennedy Space Center
Command Module "Kitty Hawk" on display at Kennedy Space Center

At the beginning of the mission, the CSM Kitty Hawk had difficulty achieving a hard dock with the LM Antares. Repeated attempts to dock went on for 1 hour and 42 minutes, until it was suggested that Kitty Hawk be held against Antares using its thrusters, then the docking probe would be retracted out of the way, hopefully triggering the docking latches. This attempt was successful.

On the way down, the LM "Antares" had two problems. First, the LM computer began getting an ABORT signal from the ABORT switch. NASA believed that the computer might be getting erroneous readings like this if a tiny ball of soldering material had shaken loose and was floating between the switch and the contact, closing the circuit. The immediate solution - tapping on the panel next to the switch - did work briefly, but the circuit soon closed again. If the problem recurred after the descent engine fired, the computer would think the signal was real and would initiate an auto-abort, separating the Ascent Stage from the Descent Stage and climb back into orbit. NASA and the software teams at MIT scrambled to find a more permanent solution - reprogramming the computer to ignore the signal - which Shepard and Mitchell were able to accomplish just in time.

The second problem was the failure of the radar to lock onto the moon's surface. Eventually, after cycling the landing radar breaker, it started working. Shepard landed the LM closer to its intended mark than any of the other five moon landing missions.

After landing in the Fra Mauro formation - the destination for Apollo 13 - Shepard and Mitchell took two moon­walks, adding new seismic studies to the by now familiar Apollo experiment package, and using a "lunar rickshaw" pull cart to carry their equipment. Roosa, meanwhile, took pictures from on board command module "Kitty Hawk" in lunar orbit.

The second moonwalk, or EVA, was intended to reach the rim of the 1,000­ foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater. However, the two astronauts were not able to find the rim amid the rolling terrain of the crater's slopes. Later analysis, using the pictures that they took, determined that they had come within 65 feet of the crater's rim.

Shepard and Mitchell deployed and activated various scientific instruments and experiments and collected almost 100 pounds (45 kg) of lunar samples for return to earth. Other Apollo 14 achievements included: first use of Mobile Equipment Transporter (MET); largest payload placed in lunar orbit; longest distance traversed on the lunar surface; largest payload returned from the lunar surface; longest lunar surface stay time (33 hours); longest lunar surface EVA (9 hours and 17 minutes); first use of shortened lunar orbit rendezvous techniques; first use of color TV with new vidicon tube on lunar surface; and first extensive orbital science period conducted during CSM solo operations.

On the way back to Earth, the crew conducted the first U.S. materials processing experiments in space. The Apollo 14 astronauts were the last lunar explorers to be quarantined on their return from the Moon.

Shepard and Mitchell named their landing site Fra Mauro Base, and this designation is recognized by the International Astronomical Union (depicted in Latin on lunar maps as Statio Fra Mauro).

[edit] Mission notes

  • Shepard is the only astronaut from Project Mercury (the original seven astronauts) to reach the Moon. Another of the original seven, Gordon Cooper, had originally been scheduled to command the mission, but according to Chaikin, his casual attitude toward training, along with problems with NASA hierarchy (reaching all the way back to the Mercury-Atlas 9 flight) resulted in his relief. The same went with James McDivitt, the commander of Apollo 9, who would have been either the prime crew Lunar Module Pilot or the backup crew commander.
  • Shepard smuggled a makeshift six iron golf club and two golf balls to the moon, and took several swings (one-handed, due to the limited flexibility of the EVA suit). He exuberantly, and somewhat whimsically, exclaimed that the second ball went "miles and miles and miles" in the lunar gravity, but later estimated it actually went 200 to 400 yards (180 to 365 meters). Mitchell then used a lunar scoop handle as a javelin, creating the first 'Lunar Olympics'.
  • Mitchell conducted some unauthorized extra-sensory perception experiments while en route to the Moon, with friends back on Earth. Due to a 40-minute delay in the launch, however, the experiment was thrown out of sync, with the friends attempting to receive Mitchell's messages before he sent them during sleep periods. The number of matches were reportedly less than would have been obtained by random chance - Mitchell felt "this (suggested) their subconscious minds knew something was wrong".
  • Shepard's moonwalking suit was the first to incorporate red bands on the arms and legs and a red stripe on the top of the lunar EVA sunshade "hood", so as to allow easy identification of the commander while on the surface; on the Apollo 12 pictures, it had been almost impossible to distinguish between the two crewmen, causing a great deal of confusion. This feature was on Jim Lovell's Apollo 13 suit, but because of the accident, this was not used. It was used on the remaining three Apollo flights and is used on both the U.S. and Russian spacesuits on both the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
  • As of 2006, Mitchell is the only surviving member of the crew; Roosa died in 1994 from pancreatitis and Shepard in 1998 from leukemia.
  • The mission was something of a personal success for Shepard, who had battled back from Ménière’s disease, regained his flight status, and made his first mission in space in ten years.

The mission's command module Kitty Hawk is displayed at the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Titusville, Florida and the lunar module Antares impacted the Moon 7 February 1971 at 3.42° S, 19.67° W.

[edit] Mission insignia

The oval insignia shows a gold astronaut pin, given to astronauts upon completing their first space flight, traveling from the earth to the moon. A gold band around the edge includes the mission and astronaut names. The designer was Jean Beaulieu.

The backup crew spoofed the patch with its own version, with revised artwork showing the Road Runner cartoon character on the moon, holding a U.S. flag and a flag labeled "1st Team," as a gray-bearded (for Shepard, who was 47 at the time of the mission and the oldest man on the Moon), pot bellied (for Mitchell, who had a pudgy appearance), red furred (for Roosa's red hair) Wile E. Coyote flies in place of the astronaut pin. The flight name is replaced by "BEEP BEEP" and the backup crew's names are given. Several were left as "gotchas" on the "Kitty Hawk."

[edit] Quotations

"And it's been a long way, but we're here." Alan B. Shepard, Jr, his first words on the moon. Unlike Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Apollo 12's Pete Conrad, Shepard had already gotten off the ladder and was a few meters from the LM.

"Think you're finks." Edgar B. Mitchell. (said in response to Cmdr. Shepard's suggestion to turn back during their second EVA, where they came within 65 feet (21 m) of the rim of the 1,000­ foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater that they were looking for)

"Tell Cernan, BEEP-BEEP my ass!" Al Shepard's response whenever one of the crew patches for the back-up crew would float out of a locker (Cernan, Evans and Engle had taken care to stash away patches in every single locker and compartment in the spacecraft)

[edit] Media

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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