Important Aims Of Apollo 12 Mission

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32142, 11 November 1969, Page 7

Important Aims Of Apollo 12 Mission

The landing site of Apollo 12 on the Moon has been carefully chosen to be close to the i spot where Surveyor 3 soft-landed in April, 1967.

An important objective of: the Apollo 12 mission will be the examination of Surveyor 3 and the recovery of selected items from it The aim is two-fold: to find out how exposure to the solar wind and other radiations has affected the skin of the spacecraft and to check the condition of internal components after enduring the temperature extremes encountered on the lunar surface. The need for this kind of knowledge has become urgent Within a very few years final decisions will have to be made on important aspects of the design and construction of space vehicles which will be required to function faultlessly for

periods of up to 10 years. Experience has shown that some satellites have maintained Hawless performance for more than five years while others have failed within a matter of months. The comsat Syncom 3, launched 1 in 1964, still functions while one of the more recent Intelsot II models suffered a jammed antenna after only a year in an exactly similar orbit Some of the missions which demand ultra-reliability are those intended to explore distant reaches of our Solar System. In the years between 1976 and 1980 the outer planets will move into a special alignment which repeats only once every 179 years. Their orbital positions will permit a spacecraft to swing close by one planet and be flipped out to the next In this way a trip to Pluto via Jupiter and Saturn would take only seven or eight years instead of 41 and the duration of a trip to Neptune via Jupiter and Uranus would be halved to less than

nine years. These exceptional opportunities must be siezed at all costs: life is too short for the full length missions, especially where electronic components are concerned. Time until the flights is also short In less than seven years spacecraft will need to be designed, built and tested for an operating life which must exceed nine years

The manned flight to Mars which may be attempted in 1981 will require a complex space vessel which must perform flawlessly for at least two years otherwise spacemen may perish in utter isolation millions of miles beyond any chance of help. Closer in time are many other spacecraft which, to be economic, must be designed to have a long-life expectancy. The next generation of comsats, the Intelsat IV series able to relay several colour-TV channels simultaneously, are planned for an operational life in excess of seven years. Their detailed design is all but complete since the first of the series is due for launching in 1971.

At this moment the designers of all these future space vehicles would dearly

love to inspect a complex electronic and mechanical system which has been exposed to the space environment for a lengthy period but spared the rigours of unprotected re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The Apollo 12 mission presents the first opportunity to retrieve suitable objects for test and examination. During their second moonwalk the astronauts will climb down into the crater where Surveyor 3 landed and after carefully photographing it and its immediate surroundings they will use a pair of bolt cutters to sever the cable and supports of the Surveyor TV camera. When every supporting strut has been cut they will gently lift the camera clear and place it in the parts sack on Commander Conrad's back. He will carry it back to the Lunar Module for return to Earth. Among space engineers the interest in the Surveyor camera will be even greater than in the samples of lunar rock. First of all the camera will be tested to see how much of it is still in working order. When the tests have been completed the whole assembly will be meticulously dismantled and each piece tested individually, then in comparison with identical components from a twin camera which has never left the laboratory. Only in this way can adequate reliability data be gained to justify the expense of salvage and haulage across a quarter of a million miles of space. The next generations of spacecraft will benefit immeasurably if this operation succeeds. Apollo 12 will mark a significant improvement in man’s capability to work in the lunar environment. Not only will there be two moonwalking periods but each will be about one ,hour longer than the enthralling Apollo 11 moon walk. Further more. Astronauts Conrad and Gordon will travel as far as half a mile from the Lunar Module compared with the maximum distance of about 250 feet reached by Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong. On future Apollo landings the astronauts may walk as far as two miles from their lunar module. Beyond that distance they will begin to encounter severe communication problems. Two miles, roughly the distance to the lunar horizon, represents a practical limit for moon-walking excursions. Only when some kind of ground vehicle is taken to the Moon can extended travels be attempted. It has just been announced that the Boeing Company has won a contract to design, develop, test and deliver four lunar roving vehicles to be carried to the Moon on Apollo flights during 1971-72. The lunar rovers, as they have been called, will provide transportation for two astronauts and their equipment They will cost almost five million dollars each and will be stowed aboard the descent stages of their respective lunar modules for delivery to the Moon: These little moon-jeeps will allow lunar samples to be gathered from a wide area and greatly simplify the task of setting up extensive arrays of measuring equipment. However it is a shame to think that by the end at 1972 the Moon will be just another used-car yard.