Lab 11 Assignment
Part 1: Exploring the Moon I- How many Apollo missions were there and what years did they take place? 1. Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967 2. Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968 3. Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968 4. Apollo 9 on March 3, 1969 5. Apollo 10 on May 18, 1969 6. Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969 7. Apollo 12 on November 14, 1969 8. Apollo 13 on April 11, 1970 9. Apollo 14 on January 31, 1971 10. Apollo 15 on July 26, 1971 11. Apollo 16 on April 16, 1972 12. Apollo 17 on December 7, 1972
Apollo 2 and 3 (these were no craft named)
Apollo 4 (Also called AS-501) on November 9, 1967.
Apollo 5 (also called AS-204) on January 22, 1968.
Apollo 6 (Also called AS-502) on April 4, 1968.
There were 17 in total.
II- How many of the missions orbited the Moon and how many landed? Which ones? * Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 orbited the Moon and returned. * Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and Apollo 17 landed on the Moon. A total of 6.
III- Unfortunately, there was an accident early on. Which mission was it?
The mission that suffered a tragic accident was Apollo 1.
Part 2: Venus
I- How many Venera Missions (Russian) were there? Over what time period did these missions occur? Did any of the crafts actually land on the surface? What happened? * Venera 1 in 1961 - Venera 8 in 1972 * Venera 2 and 3 in 1965 - Venera 9 and 10 in 1975 * Venera 4 in 1967 - Venera 11 and 12 in 1978 * Venera 5 and 6 in 1969 - Venera 13 and 14 in 1981 * Venera 7 in 1970 - Venera 15 and 16 in 1983
The missions that landed on the surface were: Venera 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and Venera 14. They were only able to send information for a short time because the extremely high temperature and pressure on the surface melted and crushed the landers.
Mars I- What were some of the early missions? What did they do and what did they see?
Early missions to Mars: * Mariner 3 (launch Nov. 5, 1964) * Mariner 4 (launch Nov. 28, 1964)
These were identical spacecraft designed to carry out the first flybys of Mars * Mariner 6 (launch Feb. 24, 1969) * Mariner 7 (launch Mar. 27, 1969)
These two missions completed the first dual mission to Mars, flying by over the equator and South Polar regions and analyzing the Martian atmosphere and surface with remote sensors, as well as recording and relaying hundreds of pictures.
II- “Spirit and Opportunity” were very successful probes. Locate some images that they sent back and describe what they look like and where they were located on the planet. What did they discover?
Spirit's discovery on Mars of basaltic rock at its landing site, Gusev Crater, strongly suggested the region was the product of a volcanic explosion during which magma and water had mixed. In my opinion, these looks like some pieces of plastic and rocks all over.
Spirit's discovery on Mars of basaltic rock at its landing site, Gusev Crater, strongly suggested the region was the product of a volcanic explosion during which magma and water had mixed. In my opinion, these looks like some pieces of plastic and rocks all over.
Iron Meteorite on Mars. Opportunity stumbled across a basketball-sized rock made of iron and nickel. It was the first meteorite ever discovered on another world. I could believe this will be a giant rock.
Iron Meteorite on Mars. Opportunity stumbled across a basketball-sized rock made of iron and nickel. It was the first meteorite ever discovered on another world. I could believe this will be a giant rock.
Spirit and Opportunity both discovered plenty of signs that liquid water once flowed across or percolated through the Martian surface long ago.
III- See if you can find out about future missions to Mars and what the goals will be. * NASA is designing and building the capabilities to send humans to the solar system, working toward a goal of landing humans on Mars. They will build the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, based on the design for the Orion capsule, with a capacity to take four astronauts on 21 day missions. * Another future mission is the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, scheduled for launch in late 2013, will be the first mission devoted to understand the Martian upper atmosphere.
Mercury I- What recent mission has arrived at Mercury? Can you find out what has been seen so far?
There have been no probes landed on the surface of Mercury. Mercury is currently being photographed and studied by the unmanned MESSENGER space probe, the second mission to Mercury, launched in 2004. After making three preliminary passes of the planet, it began orbiting Mercury in March, 2011.
II- What are some of the mysteries about this planet?
On Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, where temperatures can reach more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (425 degrees Celsius), there might surprisingly be ice. Ice is highly reflective to radar, and Earth-based radar suggests deposits of frozen water might be hidden in deep, dark craters at Mercury's poles that have never seen sunlight. Data released from the Messenger probe show that Mercury’s geography is unusually flat and that the planet has a curious, misaligned magnetic field. Unlike Earth’s core, Mercury’s appears to be encapsulated in a relatively thin crust of a sulfur-rich compound that’s floating atop a layer of molten iron.
III- There was one other mission several decades ago. Can you find out anything about it? What was it called?
The first spacecraft to visit Mercury was launched by NASA on November 3, 1973. It showed close-up pictures of the sun's closest planetary neighbor and also did investigations of Mercury's environment and surface. It was called Mariner 10.
Part 3: Exploring the gas giants
I- Write out a timeline of the Pioneer and Voyager missions. What years did they visit the gas giants? Pioneer’s Timeline
Pioneer 0 17 August 1958 Attempted Lunar Orbit (Launch Failure)
Pioneer 1 11 October 1958 Attempted Lunar Orbit (Launch Failure)
Pioneer 2 8 November 1958 Attempted Lunar Orbit (Launch Failure)
Pioneer 3 6 December 1958 Attempted Lunar Flyby (Launch Failure)
Pioneer 4 3 March 1959 Lunar Flyby
Pioneer P-3 26 November 1959 Attempted Lunar Orbiter (Launch Failure)
Pioneer P-30 25 Sept 1960 Attempted Lunar Orbiter (Launch Failure) Pioneer P-31 15 December 1960 Attempted Lunar Orbiter (Launch Failure)
Pioneer 10 3 March 1972 Jupiter Flyby (gas giant) Pioneer 11 5 April 1973 Jupiter/Saturn Flyby (gas giant)
Pioneer Venus 1 20 May 1978 Venus Orbiter
Pioneer Venus 2 8 August 1978 Venus Probes
Voyager’s Timeline DATE | MILESTONE | 1977 | Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 is renamed Voyager. | 1977 Aug.20 | Voyager 2 launched from Kennedy Space Flight Center. | 1977 Sept. 5 | Voyager 1 Launched from Kennedy Space Flight Center. Returns first spacecraft photo of Earth and Moon. | 1979 Mar. 5 | Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Jupiter. (gas giant) | 1979 Jul. 9 | Voyager 2 makes its closest approach to Jupiter. | 1980 Nov. 12 | Voyager 1 flies by Saturn. Begins its trip out of the Solar system. | 1981 Aug. 25 | Voyager 2 flies by Saturn. (gas giant) | 1982 | Deep Space Network upgrades two 26-m antennas to 34-m. | 1986 Jan. 24 | Voyager 2 has the first-ever encounter with Uranus (gas giant). Deep Space Network begins expansion of 64-m antennas to 70-m. | 1987 | Voyager 2 “observes” Supernova 1987A. | 1988 | Voyager 2 returns first color images of Neptune. (gas giant) | 1989 Aug. 25 | Voyager 2 is the first spacecraft to observe Neptune (gas giant). Begins its trip out of the Solar System, below the ecliptic plane. | 1990 Jan. 1 | Begins Voyager Interstellar Mission. | 1990 Feb. 14 | Last Voyager images – Portrait of the Solar System. | 1998 Feb. 17 | Voyager 1 passes Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space. | 2004 Dec. 15 | Voyager 1 crosses Termination Shock. | 2007 Sep. 5 | Voyager 2 crosses Termination Shock. | TBD | Voyager enters interstellar Space. |
II- We have recently visited Saturn with the Cassini Mission. What did Cassini find out about the Moons Enceladus and Iapetus?
Cassini completed its initial four-year mission to explore the Saturn System in June 2008 and the first extended mission, called the Cassini Equinox Mission, in September 2010. Enceladus & Iapetus are two of Saturn’s Many Icy Satellites. Enceladus' bright, relatively uncratered terrain is coated with water ice. Cassini's magnetometer discovers an atmosphere around Enceladus, evidence that gases may be originating from the moon's surface or interior. Cassini observed the dark-light difference when he discovered Iapetus. He noted that he could only see Iapetus on the west side of Saturn. He correctly concluded that Iapetus had one side much darker than the other side, and that Iapetus was tidally locked with Saturn. Cassini referred to Iapetus as one of the Sidera Lodoicea (Stars of Louis) after King Louis XIV (the other three were Tethys, Dione, and Rhea). III- What did the Huygens probe look at and what thing did it discover? IV- Name 2 other moons of Saturn that the Cassini craft studied and photographed. V- Make a basic sketch of Saturn and the location of the basic moon mentioned in this mission.
