Exploring the Moon

describe the nature and purposes of the Apollo space programme and its experimental packages (ALSEPs)

Why should we visit the moon? The Apollo space program cost a huge amount of money which could have been spent on so many other worthwhile projects. Was it worth it? This is certainly debatable but I believe it was. One reason is that the scientific advances that have been made have benefited mankind enormously. For example, If it were not for the striving to make electronic circuitry smaller and lighter we would not have integrated circuits. Where would we be now without small powerful cheap computers? As president John F Kennedy said in 1962 "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" On July 20, 1969, almost six years after JFK's death, Project Apollo's goal was finally realized when men landed on the Moon.

ALSEPS

Of course walking on the moon was a fantastic achievement but one of the most important objectives of the Apollo missions was to learn about the geology and conditions on the moon. To do this a range of scientific measuring instruments were set up on the moon.

ALSEPS - Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Packages, were left by Apollo missions 11 to 17 (but not 13) to do this job.

The packages consisted of the following:

• A central station which transmits data to Earth
• A power supply which gets its power from the heat generated by radioactive decay (an R.T.G.)
• A variety of experiment modules linked to the central station

The experiment packages included the following

Instruments to measure seismic activity including vibrations due to mortar explosions and a thumper

Instruments to measure the charged particles in solar wind

Instruments to measure the very thin lunar atmosphere

Instruments to measure the rate at which heat flows through the lunar rock

Instruments to detect a laser shone from Earth. This can measure the distance to the moon incredibly accurately

Instruments to measure the strength of the moon's gravity

pics NASA
Apollo 14's Suprathermal Ion Detector and Cold Cathode Guage	The planned layout of Apollo 14's ALSEPs package

Wiki has an excellent section on the ALSEPS which is where I got the information for this page.