A Lunar Lookback

gulfnews.com | Saturday, September 8, 2012| Gulf News Gulf News | Saturday, September 8, 2012| gulfnews.com 24 SPECIAL FEATURE SPECIAL FEATURE 25 A lunar lookback Explorations through the years I A chronology of Lunar missions mankind has undertaken and will pursue in the near future. 1960s' Mission status O Success NEIL ARMSTRONG, THE FIRST MAN TO SET FOOT ON THE MOON, WILL BE BURIED AT SEA AND A MEMORIAL SERVICE WILL BE HELD ON SEPTEMBER 13. GULF NEWS LOOKS AT THE SUCCESSFUL, FAILED AND THE PLANNED MISSIONS TO THE EARTH'S NATURAL SATELLITE. THE LANDING OF THE APOLLO 11 IN 1969 STARTED A SPACE ODYSSEY TO UNRAVEL THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND... Failure Planned ...- 1964 Mar LUNA 1964A USSR 1964 Apr LUNA 1964B USSR 1959 Sep LUNA 1959A USSR 1959 Mar PIONEER 4 USA To the Moon and back Inbound I Mankind's thirst for knowledge 1959 Jan LUNA1 USSR and adventure had astronauts travelling across the vastness of space. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Earth's only natural satellite, the Moon - the second brightest object in the sky, next only to the Sun. Six hours later, mankind made its giant leap. A simplified representation of Apollo 1l's route to the Moon 1958 Dec PIONEER 3 USA - 1964 Apr ZOND 1964A USSR Outbound 1958 Dec 1964 Jul RANGER 7 USA · 384,403km JA 1958C USSR --- 1965 Feb RANGER 8 USA Note: Diagrams not to scale 1958 Nov PIONEER 2 USA ----. 1965 Mar COSMOS 60 USSR The Apollo 11 spacecraft Apollo Lunar Module The Moon is 3,474.8km in diametre. It is 1958 Oct LUNA 19588 USSR I Apollo 11, the historical mission that brought the first humans to the Moon. It was launched from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US, on July 16, 1969. The spacecraft had three parts: a Command Module, a Service Module, and a Lunar Module for landing on the Moon. 1965 Mar RANGER 9 USA about 1/4 the size of Earth 1958 Oct PIONEER I USA 1965 Apr LUNA 1965A USSR Size comparison 1965 May LUNA 5 USSR Average semi truck Apollo 11 Saturn V- Rocket that launched Apollo 11 Apollo 11 Lunar 1958 Sep LUNA 1958A USSR Module, on 1965 Jun LUNA 6 USSR the surface of the Moon F16m (approx.) - E174m (approx.) O 1965 Jul ZOND 3 USSR -110m (approx.)- 1958 Aug PIONEER O USA 1965 Oct LUNA7 USSR ****-- 1965 Dec LUNA B USSR Low-tech high-tech 1 So what kind of technology put man on the Moon? --- 1966 Jan LUNA 9 USSR Apollo Guidance Computer MacBook Pro -The Sea of Tranguility, Apollo 11's landing site 1966 Mar COSMOS 11 USSR (low specs) Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) Memory: 2K Storage: 32k (read-only) Memory: 8GB Storage: 256GB 1970s 2010s 00s 90s 1 Neil Armstrong 1969 Jul - Apollo 11 4 Alan Bean 7 David Scott The Moonwalkers 10 Charles Duke 1969 Nov - Apollo 12 1971 Jul - Apollo 15 1972 Apr - Apollo 16 I Astronauts who walked on the moon. Nobody else has walked since 1972 and nobody is expected to do so for at least another decade. 5 Alan Shepard 1971 Feb - Apollo 14 8 James Irwin 1971 Jul - Apollo 15 11 Eugene Cernan 1972 Dec - Apollo 17 2 Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin 1969 Jul - Apollo 11 3 Charles "Pete" Conrad 6 Edgar Mitchell 1969 Nov - Apollo 12 9 John Young 1972 Apr - Apollo 16 12 Harrison Schmitt 1971 Feb - Apollo 14 1972 Dec - Apollo 17 Lunar explorations influenced pop culture so much, it has its own dance move called The Moonwalk' popularised by Michael Jackson. 10 11 12 NOTE: Planned missions from 2015 onwards are not included in the timeline Sources: NASA, OMG Space, fastcodesign.com, lplusra.edu, computerweekly.com Images: NASA, supplied Research and inputs: SM Arshad. Dana A. Shams, Lizele Maria Rodrigues, Sachin Kuray, Dwynn Ronald V. Trazo Information Design: Dwynn Ronald V. Trazo/CGulf News assITY VNIT ky £961 *** 1964 Jan RANGER 6 USA 1963 Feb LUNA 1963B USSA 1963 Jan SPUTNIK 25 USSR 1962 Oct RANGER 5 USA 1962 Apr RANGER 4 USA 1962 Jan RANGER 3 USA 1966 Mar LUNA10 USSR 1961 Nov RANGER 2 USA 1966 Apr LUNA 1966A USSR 1961 Aug RANGERI USA 1966 May SURVEYOR 1 USA 1960 Dec PIONEER P-31 USA 1966 Jul EXPLORER 33 USA 1960 Sep PIONEER P-3 1966 Aug LUNAR ORBITER I USA NA 1960B USSR 1966 Aug LUNA 1 USSR FURVEYOR 2 USA 1960 Apr LUNA 1960A USSR 1966 Sep SURVE 1966 Oct LUNA 12 USSR 1966 Nov LUNAR ORBITER 2 USA 1959 Nov PIONEER P-3 USA nsE Der LUNA 13 USSR 1966 Dec 1967 Feb LUNAR ORBITER 3 USA 1959 Oct LUNA 3 USSR 1967 Apr SURVEYOR 3 USA 1967 May LUNAR ORBITER 4 USA 1959 Sep LUNA 2 USSR 1967 Jul SURVEYOR 4 USA 1967 Jul EXPLORER 35U 1967 Aug LUNAR ORBITERS 5 USA 1967 Sep SURVEYOR 5 USA 1967 Sep ZOND I1967A ISSE 1967 Nov SURVEYOR 6 USA 1967 Nov ZOND 1967B USSR 1968 lan SURVEVOR ZUSA 1968 Jan 1968 Feb LUNA 1968A USSR -1968 Mar ZOND 4 USSR 1968 Apr LUNA 14 USSR 1968 Apr ZOND 1968A USSF 1968 Sep ZOND 5 USSR 1968 Nov ZOND 6 USSR 968 Dec APOLLO 8 USA 1969 Jan ZOND 1969A USSE 1950s - 1969 Feb LUNA 1969A USSR -1969 Feb ZOND LIS-I USSR 1O6O Mar APOLLO 9 USA -1969 Apr LUNA 1969B USA 1969 May APOLLO 10 USA 1969 Jun LUNA 1969C USSR - 1969 A ZONDUS-2USSR 1969 Jul LUNA 15 USSR 1969 Jul APOLLO 11 USA -1969 Aug ZOND 7 USSR 1969 Sep COSMOS 300 1969 Oct COSMOS 305 USSR 1969 Nov APOLLO 12 USA 1970 Feb LUNA 1970A USSR -1970 Feb LUNA 197 197OB USSE · 1970 Apr APOLLO 13USA 1970 Sep LUNA 16 USSR - 1970 Oct ZOND 8 USSR .. 1970 Nov LUNA 17 USSR 1971 Jan APOLLO 14 USA 1971 Jul APOLLO 15 USA 1971 Sep LUUNA 1RUSE 7 Sep LUNA 19 LUSSR 172 Feb LUNA 20 USSR 1772 Apr APOLL0 16 USA 172 Nov SOYUZ L3 USSR - 1972 Dec APOLLO 17 USA -1973 Jan LUNA 21 USSR - 1973 Jun EXPLORER 49 USA 1974 Jun Luna 22 USSR 1974 Oct LUNA 23 USSR 1975 Oct LUNA 1975A USSR 1976 Aug LUNA 24 USSR 1990 Jan HITEN Japan 1994 Jan CLEMINTINE USA 1997 Dec ASIASAT 3/HGS-1 China . 1998 Jan LUNAR PROSPECTOR USA 2003 Sep SMARTI European Union 2007 Sep KAGUYA Japan - 2007 Oct CHANG'E I China 2008 Oct CHANDREAYAAN I Indi 2009 Jun LRO USA - 2010 Oct CHANGE'2 China 2012 GRAILUSA - 201 2012 ELE Romania EO Germany 2012 2012 LUNA-GLOB1 Russia CHANDREAYAAN2 India -2013 2013 CHANGE' 3 China ILN NODE I USA LUNA-GLOB 2 Russia ILN NODE 2 USA LUNA-GRUNT Russia MOONLITE Britain