This paper will compare the data from Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 to identify advancements in efficiency as the missions progressed. The analysis will investigate if the Apollo missions had more mission success and efficiency each time a new mission was conducted. The mission’s success and efficiency will be measured by mission length, orbital activity, time on lunar surface and Moon rocks recovered.
The alternative hypothesis for this research paper is that Apollo missions that occurred later in time will have greater mission success and efficiency than the missions prior.
The null hypothesis for this research paper is that Apollo missions that occurred later in time will have the same or less mission success and efficiency than the missions prior.
Again, mission success and efficiency will be measured by time in orbit, mission length, time on lunar surface and Moon rocks recovered.
Apollo Missions Overview
Apollo 11
This mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon and is specifically known for having the first men walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (Dolling & Riley, 2009). A lesser known fact about the mission was that it was also the beginning of the Lunar Laser Ranging that currently gives accurate measurements of the distance to the Moon (Brock, 2020). The Apollo 11 mission orbited at an altitude of 118.65 miles, made 30 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 953,054 miles for 8 days, 3 hours, 18 minutes and 35 seconds (Loff, 2015). The mission launched on July 16, 1969 and landed at the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969 (Smithsonian, n.d.). The astronauts were on the Moon 21 hours, 38 minutes and 21 seconds and returned with 21.7 kilograms of Moon rocks from mare surfaces (Demidov & Basilevsky, 2014). All three of the astronauts on Apollo 11 had prior experience with one other space mission before Apollo 11 (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Apollo 12
This mission was the second mission to land on the Moon and was known for landing near an un-crewed space probe, Surveyor 3 (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). Also, something special about the landing site was that it afforded uniquely diverse mineral chemistry in its basaltic soil samples (Alexander, Snape, Joy, Downes, & Crawford, 2016). The Apollo 12 mission orbited at an altitude of 118.55 miles, made 45 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 952,354 miles for 10 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes and 25 seconds (Loff, 2015). The mission launched November 14, 1969 and landed at the Ocean of Storms on November 19, 1969 (Smithsonian, n.d.). The astronauts were on the Moon 31 hours and 31 minutes and returned with 34.4 kilograms of Moon rocks from mare surfaces (Demidov & Basilevsky, 2014). One of the astronauts had no prior spaceflight experience before the Apollo 12 mission, one had prior experience with only one other space mission, and the third had done two other prior missions (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Apollo 13
This mission is specifically known for the quote “Houston, we have a problem” because of an oxygen tank explosion that occurred, all on board survived (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). This mission was the first Apollo mission to be aborted and in the end, it took the spacecraft the furthest from the Earth than any other Apollo mission (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Apollo 13 mission orbited at an altitude of 118.99 miles, made 1.5 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 622,268 miles for 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds (Loff, 2015). The mission launched April 17, 1970 and never landed on the Moon (Smithsonian, n.d.). Two of the astronauts had no prior spaceflight experience before Apollo 13 and the third had three other prior missions (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Apollo 14
This mission is specifically known to have used the first modular equipment transporter (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Apollo 14 mission orbited at an altitude of 118.55 miles, made 34 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 1,150,321 miles for 9 days and 2 minutes (Loff, 2015). The mission launched January 31, 1971 and landed at Fra Mauro on February 5, 1971 (Smithsonian, n.d.). The astronauts were on the Moon 33 hours and 31 minutes and returned with 42.9 kilograms of Moon rocks from highland surfaces (Demidov & Basilevsky, 2014). Two of the astronauts had no prior spaceflight experience before Apollo 14 and the third had only one other prior mission (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Apollo 15
This mission was the first one to use a lunar rover and is very well known from all of video of the astronauts using it for their mission (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Apollo 15 mission orbited at an altitude of 99.7 miles, made 74 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 1,274,137 miles for 12 days, 17 hours and 12 minutes (Loff, 2015). The mission launched July 26, 1971 and landed at Hadley Rille/Apennines on July 30, 1971 (Smithsonian, n.d.). The astronauts were on the Moon 66 hours, 54 minutes and 53 seconds and returned with 76.8 kilograms of Moon rocks from mare and highland surfaces (Demidov & Basilevsky, 2014). Two of the astronauts had no prior spaceflight experience before Apollo 15 and the third had two other prior missions (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Apollo 16
This mission is specifically known for being the first Moon landing in the lunar highlands (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Apollo 16 mission orbited at an altitude of 107.5 miles, made 64 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 1,391,550 miles for 11 days, 1 hours and 51 minutes (Loff, 2015). The mission launched April 16, 1972 and landed at Descartes on April 21, 1972 (Smithsonian, n.d.). The astronauts were on the Moon 71 hours and 2 minutes and returned with 95.8 kilograms of Moon rocks from highland surfaces (Demidov & Basilevsky, 2014). Two of the astronauts had no prior spaceflight experience before Apollo 16 and the third had three other prior missions (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Apollo 17
This mission is specifically known for being the last of the Apollo missions and therefore having the last man to walk on the moon (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Apollo 17 mission orbited at an altitude of 105.86 miles, made 75 revolutions around the Moon and traveled 1,484,934 miles for 12 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes (Loff, 2015). The mission launched December 7, 1972 and landed at Taurus-Littrow on Dec 11, 1972 (Smithsonian, n.d.). The astronauts were on the Moon 74 hours, 59 minutes and 40 seconds and returned with 110 kilograms of Moon rocks from mare and highland surfaces (Demidov & Basilevsky, 2014). Two of the astronauts had no prior spaceflight mission experience before Apollo 17 and the third had two other prior missions (Smithsonian, n.d.).
Method
Data was collected on each of the Apollo missions, to include: Altitude of the spacecrafts orbit, number of times the spacecraft orbited the moon, the distance the spacecraft traveled, the total duration of the mission, the amount of time spent on the Moon, the amount of Moon rocks collected and returned to earth, and the combined number of missions the astronaut crew participated in prior to the mission.
Each of these datasets will be presented in a line graph that is oriented chronologically from earliest missions (left) to the latest missions (right). This orientation should show a trend in the data if there is one. The mean of the dataset will also be shown across the graph so each Apollo mission can be individually compared to the mean.
If the right side of the graph is above the mean and the left side of the graph is below the mean, then there is a positive relationship between the mission progress and the variable. If this is true, then the alternate hypothesis will be proven true. If this is not true, then the null hypothesis will be proven true. This could be represented in a couple of different ways. One way is that the left side of the graph is above the mean and the rights side of the graph is below the mean. Another is that both sides of the graph are above the mean or both sides of the graph are below the mean.
Consolidation of Data
The Apollo 13 mission was the only aborted mission in the Apollo series and the numbers presented within the dataset are outliers. Including them in the rest of the research would skew the data. Therefore, the Apollo 13 data will no longer be considered for this analysis and will not be represented in the total and mean section at the bottom of the table.
Chart 1: Moon Orbits
Chart 2: Distance Traveled
Chart 3: Mission Duration
Chart 4: Time on Moon
Chart 5: Moon Rocks Returned
Results
In each of the graphs, Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17 rises above the mean and Apollo missions 11, 12 and 14 are below the mean. Each graph shows a positive correlation between the Apollo mission sequence and whichever variable is being evaluated.
Summary
After reviewing the results, it can be concluded that the alternate hypothesis was proven to be true. The alternative hypothesis for this research paper is that Apollo missions that occurred later in time will have greater mission success and efficiency than the missions prior. The mission success and efficiency are measured by time in orbit, mission length, time on lunar surface and Moon rocks recovered. In all instances, Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17 had longer time in orbit, mission length, time on lunar surface, returned more Moon rocks than the mean of all Apollo missions, with the exception of Apollo 13.
References
Alexander, L., Snape, J., Joy, K., Downes, H., & Crawford, I. (2016). An analysis of Apollo lunar soil samples 12070,889, 12030,187, and 12070,891: Basaltic diversity at the Apollo 12 landing site and implications for classification of small‐sized lunar samples. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 51(9), 1654–1677. https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.12689
This article is produced from the Meteoritics and Planetary Science division of The Meteoritical Society. It is funded by Leverhulme Trust, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Royal Society University Fellowship. All of the contributors and funders are non-biased to the results and production of the article is a result of a necessity. The article details the lunar soil samples that were acquired during the Apollo 12 mission. The intended audience is scientist and researchers that are needing to determine if the samples from the site are representative of the mineral chemistries and chemical trends of their parent lava flows. This source will not be used for its scientific details on the mineral composition of the soil, but only to show a significant finding that resulted from the Apollo 12 mission. This article will be used a lot like how the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Smithsonian Museum sources are used, to produce factual information about the mission.
Brock, J. (2020). Millimetre Moon Measurement: 50 Years of Lunar Laser Ranging Since Apollo 11. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLIII-B3-2020, 1105–1110. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B3-2020-1105-2020.
This article is from The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, produced by Gottingen. The author is Mr. John Brock, lifelong enthusiast of lunar things and an Earth based land boundary surveyor trained in precise measurement for land title creation. Mr. Brock created this article to describe the history of the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment from its inception with the Apollo 11 mission to the current every day uses of the technology. The intension is to gather an audience that is eager to learn about space and teach them about the history and current state of how humans measure the distance to the Moon. This source will be used to detail some of the specifics within the missions that occurred during the Apollo 11 mission. This work illuminates the bibliography by gathering more information about one of the missions in the Apollo Moon exploration series. Unlike the other sources, this article does not expand on all of the other Apollo missions, only the ones that contributed to lunar measurements.
Dolling, P., & Riley, C. (2009). Apollo 11 - 1969 (Including Saturn V, CM-107, SM-107, LM-5). Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, 81(6). https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2009.12781fae.003
This article from Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology is published by Bradford Emerald Group and the source is a military database. The author, Dr. Christopher Riley, is an award winning writer, broadcaster and film maker with almost 30 films just on the Apollo missions. The author, Phil Dolling, is an award winning producer with many space based television programs and he also covered the 1999 total eclipse. The intended audience is anyone reviewing the Apollo space missions or anyone analyzing the 20th century feats in space exploration. The article specifically goes into how difficult the achievement really was during an era before the age of micro-computers. This work is not an overarching review of all of the Apollo missions, but a deep dive into the Apollo 11 mission and the era it was a part of. This work is different from the others cited because it lists specifics of one mission. It will illuminate the paper by providing insight into the times that the Apollo missions occurred in.
Demidov, N., & Basilevsky, A. (2014). Height-to-diameter ratios of moon rocks from analysis of Lunokhod-1 and -2 and Apollo 11–17 panoramas and LROC NAC images. Solar System Research, 48(5), 324–329. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0038094614050013
This article is produced by the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science and Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The script goes in to how there are various articles that go into the distribution of rocks on the Moon’s surface and the goal is not to replicate that, but to show the height to diameter ratio for those same rocks. The researchers use 91 panoramic photographs taken by Apollo astronauts and measures the rocks off of them. The intended audience of this is researchers that are in preparation to do missions or research in relation to the Moon and its rock formations. This work identifies where each of the Apollo missions worked on the Moon’s surface and where they were able to collect their rocks from. This information is embedded within this research paper for the purpose of understanding where the Apollo missions landed and took place. This source will illuminate my topic by adding depth to the research that is required to evaluate the missions.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Apollo. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www. britannica.com/science/Apollo-space-program
The authors and editors of this source are also the editors of the Encyclopedia of Britannica. To be an editor, they must first have extensive knowledge through an advanced degree or years of experience in the subject. Because of these credentials, the authors have the authority to speak on the subject and bias should not be a factor in the papers. The central objective of this article is to create a brief synopsis of the Apollo space program and to produce factual information on the missions it had. The intended audience of this article is anyone who is interested learning about or getting factual information about the missions. This article could also be used as information for research or scientific studies. This work will be used to gather a significant event that defined each of the Apollo missions. This significant event will be posted during the data collection section of this research paper.
Loff, S. (2015, February 19). Apollo. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov /mission_pages/apollo/index.html
This source is a website that is generated and maintained by NASA, which is the association that conducted the Apollo missions. Within this source, there are details and data on all of the Apollo missions, stories from significant figures in the missions and headlines that were generated from them. The qualitative information could potentially be biased in favor of NASA’s vision because it is produced by the association for the association’s website. Therefore, the only information that will be used from this source is quantitative data that is factual from the missions. This may be the best source to retrieve mission data because it is directly derived from the missions as they were conducted. From this source, mostly orbital information will be extracted, like the ships altitude, inclination, revolutions, time and miles travelled. This information will give a baseline for each mission that will allow a comparison between them all.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. (n.d.). Earth and Lunar Orbital Missions. Retrieved October 24, 2020, from https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/orbital-missions/
This source is a website that has been built and maintained by the Smithsonian Museum and is dedicated to historical events in Air and Space. The primary mission of the Smithsonian Museum is to completely and accurately document historic events and produce data for everyone to be able to access. The source is nonbiased toward the missions and there is no bias in the data they produce for the missions. The intended audience for these articles is anyone trying to attain accurate data on any of the Apollo missions. This source will provide a complete background for the Apollo landing missions as a whole and details on each specific mission from Apollo eleven to seventeen. The source may also provide insight to moon and astronaut studies that were conducted during the missions. This would create a good baseline or summary of the mission to be further explored in other sources.
