Apollo+11+-++Mission+to+the+Moon

=__** Apollo 11: One Giant Leap **__ = The Apollo 11 was the eleventh mission in a series of eighteen called the Apollo Projects. Done by @NASA, this the mission put the first human on the moon, and it represented the end of “The Space Race”. The Apollo 11, along with astronauts Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins attained international dominance in space exploration while also achieving one of the most incredible astronautic feats to date. It was, simply put... **﻿ “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” ** media type="custom" key="9686962" width="120" height="120" align="right"__ **---Table of Contents---** __
 * 1. The Moon Debate**
 * 2. Making the Apollo 11**
 * 3. The Launch, Liftoff and Landing**
 * 4. Exploring the Moon and Returning Home**

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__ **1. The Moon Debate** __
The journey to the moon began on May 5, 1961 when President John F. Kennedy declared to Congress and the world America’s goal: **to take a man to the moon and back within the decade**. JFK issued this bold ﻿ statement a few years after the Soviet Union’s Sputnik Program launched the first satellite and the first living organism, a dog, into space in 1957. **Further achievements by the Soviets**, including the first man in space, spurred Congress and the President to further America’s own space program. Presidential, Congressional, and public urging for a manned space mission then birthed the Apollo Program and, subsequently, the Apollo 11 with its final aim set at the Moon. There was much debate about the benefit of such a mission considering its monumental cost, **40 million dollars**; this debate continued from 1963 to 1964, through several gatherings of Congress members and scientists, many of whom expressed dissent on the scientific value of the expedition. However, **America had its eyes on the skies**.

==__ **2. Making the Apollo 11** __ == The **unprecedented** task of landing on an astral body and returning to Earth demanded a huge work force. So, along with the three famed astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins, there were hundreds of thousands of people that worked to get those singular crafts to the Moon. It took an estimated 400,000 workers to carry out the entire mission. The numerous challenges involved with the mission pushed these people, and technology, **to a new level**. The first groundbreaking development was their decision on //how// exactly to perform the feat.

To save time and cost, NASA and its partners chose a more risky and indirect approach to the moon: the lunar-orbit rendezvous. There would be two separate spacecraft to be launched into lunar orbit, both atop a **gargantuan, three stage Saturn V rocket**. The command and service modules (the CSM) would be launched up into lunar orbit where it, and its lone astronaut passenger Michael Collins, would circle while the lunar module (the LM) **carried Neil and Buzz down to explore the moon**. After exploration, the LM, which the astronauts had dubbed //The Eagle//, would carry the two astronauts back up to //rendezvous in lunar orbit// with the CSM, a.k.a. //Columbia//. From there, Neil and Buzz would leave the //Eagle// and board the //Columbia//. In the //Columbia// (the CSM) alone there were two million parts and almost fifteen miles of wiring. The //Eagle// was a simpler design that focused almost purely on functionality. These two crafts were the first of their kind and were specially designed by Grumman Aerospace Corporation and North American Rockwell, in tandem with NASA and many of its subcontractors, for the dangerous conditions of the lunar orbit and landing. They are, arguably, **the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century**.  

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==<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">__ **3. The Launch, Liftoff and Landing** __ == <span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**July 16th, 1969** brought clear skies and sunshine to the primed launch pad in Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. After **eight years of work** and research, just five months before Kennedy’s deadline, the mission was ready to launch. The //Columbia// and //Eagle// were stacked atop the towering Saturn V rocket and they all held an estimated **600 million viewers** to their televisions. They watched as the immense **rocket blazed into the atmosphere**, the engines pumping out enough power to lift 500 elephants. Twelve minutes later, the Apollo 11 spacecrafts were in Earth orbit.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">After 1.5 orbits, taking two hours and forty minutes, the third part of the Saturn V rocket ignited and detached from the //Columbia// and //Eagle//. The two crafts then docked, joined and proceeded to **speed towards the moon** reaching **25,000 mph**. The journey towards lunar orbit took three days which the astronauts spent working, eating, sleeping, and observing all from the tiny quarters of the Command Module. Neil, Buzz, and Michael watched the earth shrink and the moon **loom ever larger** as they approached the next stage of their journey. <span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">-

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> When the ships achieved orbit around the moon, the //Eagle// took up its passengers, Neil and Buzz, and undocked from the CSM to **descend towards the surface**. The first crisis of the mission occurred in the final minutes downwards: suddenly, **alarms blared**. They meant that the ship’s computer was overworking. Neil Armstrong immediately contacted Mission Control in Houston, Texas. The astronauts, after an OK from Jack German the computer engineer, decided to go forth with the mission. They were not in danger, **yet**. During this, Neil was forced to manually steer the craft away from its predetermined landing site in order to avoid the treacherous terrain he saw there.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">In that precious time, the fuel supply for the descent stage had dropped to **critical levels**. The true emergency had begun; there was less than a minute of fuel left with which to land. If the //Eagle// ran out of descent fuel, the team was required to abort the mission. So, **eight years** of effort all depended on **one** **tank**. However, yet again, the crisis was averted and the lunar module finally landed- with just **twenty seconds** of fuel to spare.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">It was about 2:17 p.m and the //Eagle// had landed. From the surface of the moon, Aldrin stated "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and **contemplate the events of the past few hours** and to give thanks in his or her own way."

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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__**4. Exploring the Moon and Returning Home**__
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The two spent some six and a half hours preparing to get out of the LM. But, at about 8:49 p.m., Neil **Armstrong descended the ladder** and set foot upon the moon and uttered his **famous quote**. The two men tested out the moon’s gravity and then proceeded onto their exploration. Armstrong and Aldrin’s tasks were simple. They consisted of afew small experiments, such as planting a seismograph. However, the mission was **never truly for science**. Aldrin later stated that “We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to **explore the unknown** ... “. So, the two astronauts leapt about the moon, commenting on its look, feel, sky, and, later, even smell. They planted an **American Flag** 20 feet rom the LM’s landing site, all the while snapping numerous photos on two state of the art cameras. From the lunar surface, they even received a phone call from President Nixon. Their short time on the surface //was// **simple**, yet it was also **groundbreaking**. The crew returned to the //Eagle// and, after seven hours of rest, they launched off, rejoined with the CSM, and **sped back to Earth**. After the three day return trip, all three of the astronauts packed into the Service Module, jettisoned the Command Module, the final stage of the crafts, and reentered the atmosphere. They survived the fiery trip and their safe splashdown. And, At 11:45 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean, **the three ﻿﻿ astronauts were returned home**.

==__<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-size: 25px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Analysis ** __== ==<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hung in the sky, 238,857 miles away from our planet, the Moon has always affected us Earthlings. However, the Apollo 11’s successful lunar touchdown brought its effects even closer to home as technology, patriotism, politics, and willpower all rose up together to launch the crafts past the stratosphere. The mission may be over, but its work is not done. **==

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It takes an estimated $10,000 to get a single pound of anything into space- and you thought gas was high. This meant that the Apollo 11 **spacecrafts had to pack the most power, the most efficiency and the most technology into the smallest bundle possible**. The scientists and engineers of the Apollo Missions were charged with creating **whole new inventions** and systems that could meet the needs of **interstellar travel**. Their innovations brought about technological “leaps” that would have otherwise taken years: **freeze-dried foods**, **cordless tools**, **memory foam**, **climate control clothing**, and the very same **microchips** used in this computer are all direct descendants of Apollo 11 inventions. NASA partnered with Black and Decker to create a cordless, lightweight moon drill for collecting lunar rocks. Seven years later, the company developed this design and it ended up in the home as a line of cordless tools and the mobile mini-vacuum, **the DustBuster**. The wireless headset that Neil spoke his famous lines into: a Plantronic design and predecessor to the wireless headphones that **populate our eardrums today**. Outside the home, Nascar and firefighters have adapted the Apollo’s groundbreaking spacesuits to create comfortable fireproof garments for racers and rescue workers. **The Apollo’s effect is saving lives at this very moment.**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">However, the most noticeable, widespread effect from the Apollo missions was that which it had on computers. The computers of the 60’s were large, slow and bulky, not at all suitable for the space modules. So, a great team of programmers, designers and computer engineers from **NASA**, **IBM** and the **M**assachusetts **I**nstitute of **T**echnology (**MIT**) worked in tandem to create the on-ground Control Center computers as well as the life support monitors and guidance computers for all of the spacecrafts and suits. They were described as the most **complex**, **high-tech** inventions of the time. **They each had less power than a modern pocket calculator**. Yet, these designs took man to the moon, brought them back, and also pointed the way to the computer chips and circuits we all know and use. **Shrinking the computers** to a practical size for the modules led to further advances and further shrinking until all the power and memory that were in the machines that guided Neil, Buzz, and Collins can be fit into simple flash drives and toasters.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Indirectly, the Apollo 11’s landing brought technology and space travel to the forefront. America now had **dominance** in that field, but we also had to keep it. So, the development of new technologies **gained respect, support, and power from both the public and government**. This let the business of invention boom, leading to the growth and creation of the high-tech business district called Silicon Valley- the huge American hub for software development. Looking back on the times of the Apollo Project, it is agreed that never again has so much been discovered, developed and accomplished in so little time. **It was that fire that kept America at the forefront of the world.**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The fervor which possessed America to reach the moon was a combination of many things. The largest, however, was our **national desire** to be **#1**. The Apollo Project was our **lone runner** in the “Space Race” against the Soviets, and people wanted to see it win just like any other hometown favorite. The journey was not made in the name of science or even in the spirit of exploration. It was made in order to **prove our one, indivisible nation to the world**. When Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins came home, they became symbols of America’s ability to achieve anything that it set its mind to. This sentiment rang so strongly that in the 80’s, twenty years after Apollo 11, America’s new technological endeavor, the **space based missile defense shield**, instilled true fear into Soviet minds. The Soviets could hope for our failure, but they could not help but envision our success. A missile shield that would render the Soviet arsenal useless, the thought of it brought instability to the weapon-based Soviet government, and ultimately contributed to its collapse. America had already shown the world that **our dreams became reality**. So, just the promise of an astrological missile defense was enough to set the Soviets **quaking**. **The flag on the moon had become a most potent political partner.**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">America invested much national pride, money and effort into the moon landing, but, when it succeeded, **it became a triumph for all people world round**. The live televised broadcast of the moon landing, another technological wonder, was viewed by an estimated **600 million people**. Over **one billion** eyes, of all different **colors**, **shapes** and **sizes**, watched together as the first human took the first step onto another body in our universe. President Nixon called it “…the greatest week in the history of the world since Creation,” A boy, seven years old, coming from San Juan, Puerto Rico remembered “I kept racing between the TV and the balcony and looking at the Moon to see if I could see them...” Pictures show families from France, to Australia to Vegas crowded around their televisions or listening to their radios. Authorities from across the globe recalled the odd silence in the streets as **the world was paused**, all the residents stopping, wanting to be a part of **the day that a man walked upon the moon**. There was so much coverage and celebration to the mission that, within a day, it was estimated that **half the Earth’s population** knew of the mission’s success… The Apollo 11 brought **three astronauts** home; they were the **dreams of a country** and the **pride of a whole world**. On the immortalizing surface of the moon they left, not just an American flag, but also a single, coin-sized disk containing the greetings and blessings of **73** of the world’s countries. And, a few “small steps” away, on the feet of the lunar module, is a plaque. It shows a map of the world and a message that represents **the true meaning** of the Apollo 11: “HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">FOR ALL MANKIND <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">

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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Works Cited Dunbar, Brian. "NASA - Apollo 11." NASA - Home. NASA, 8 July 2009. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html>. Dyer, Alan. Mission to the Moon. New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2009. Print. Engel, Peter. "The First Lunar Landing." The First Lunar Landing. NASA, 22 Oct. 2004. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap11ann/FirstLunarLanding/toc.html>. Schyffert, Bea U. The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1999. Print. Sparrow, Giles. Spaceflight: the Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle--and beyond. New York, NY: DK Pub., 2009. Print. Thimmesh, Catherine. Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon. [Boston]: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Print. Dumoulin, Jim. "NASA Apollo Mission Apollo-11." Kennedy Space Center Science and Technology Home Page. NASA, 29 June 2001. Web. 04 June 2011. < http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-11/apollo-11.html>. Gaudin, Sharon. "NASA's Apollo Technology Has Changed History - Computerworld." Computerworld - IT News, Features, Blogs, Tech Reviews, Career Advice. International Data Group Inc., 20 July 2009. Web. 26 May 2011. < http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135690/NASA_s_Apollo_technology_has_cha nged_history?taxonomyId=11>. "Gravity: The Triumph of Apollo." Making the Modern World. ISB Fund of the Treasury and the Cabinet Office, 2004. Web. 26 May 2011. <http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/learning_modules/maths/06.TU.02/?section =1>. Launius, Roger. "Apollo 11 and the World « AirSpace." AirSpace. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, 15 July 2009. Web. 04 June 2011. <http://blog.nasm.si.edu/2009/07/15/apollo- 11-and-the-world/>. Launius, Roger D. "Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions." Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions. NASA, 1989. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/contents.html>. Shaw, Keith. "10 Gifts from Apollo." Network World. Network World Inc., 16 July 2009. Web. 29 May 2011. <http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2009/071609- moon.html#slide1>.