COLEGIUL NAȚIONAL „BARBU ȘTIRBEI”

LUCRARE PENTRU OBȚINEREA

ATESTATULUI DE
COMPETENȚĂ LINGVISTICĂ

Profesor coordonator:

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Elev:

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IUNIE, 2020
COLEGIUL NAȚIONAL „BARBU ȘTIRBEI”

APOLLO 11

IUNIE, 2020
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction................................................................................................................................5

1. The beginnings............................................................................................................6-9

1.1. Motivation.........................................................................................................6

1.2. Crew..................................................................................................................7

1.3. Development..................................................................................................7-9

2. Mission....................................................................................................................10-15

2.1. To the Moon...............................................................................................10-11

2.2. On the Moon...............................................................................................11-13

2.3. Back on Earth.............................................................................................13-15

3. Aftermath......................................................................................................................16

Conclusion................................................................................................................................17

Bibliography.............................................................................................................................18

 
 ARGUMENT

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” are words Neil Armstrong
uttered that stood as a driving force behind the development of the space industry and the
further great discoveries on the realms beyond Earth. The 20th of July, 1969 marked the day
when the human race took its craft outside our mother planet, thus sparking off aspirations in
the hearts of the ones that followed the way three great explorers- Buzz Aldrin, Neil
Armstrong and Michael Collins paved.

For years, the science fiction novels theorized about what it was like on the Moon: adventures
took place there, colonies were established- the natural satellite of Earth was a place of
fantasy. But on the day humankind landed foot on the Moon, every dreamer saw his heart's
yearnings come true and further generations of space explorers were born, encouraged by this
great achievement-myself included; this milestone in the records of humanity became our
assurance that the sky is not the limit.

For these reasons, I chose this topic for my paper work, while intending to briefly describe
this tremendous chapter in the history of the United States and of the world. As Aldrin said
after his return on Earth, the Apollo 11 mission “(...) stands as a symbol of the insatiable
curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown”.

In the present work, the Apollo 11 mission will be described throughout four main chapters.
The “Introduction” chapter succinctly illustrates the journey to the Moon, setting the key
dates, notable figures and the main spacecrafts and modules involved. The next chapter,
called “The beginnings", states the motivation behind the Apollo mission in space, as well as
the crew members and describes in depth the preparation process, which involved choosing
the emblem and the spacecraft's modules’ names that will represent them. The “Mission”
chapter, the most comprehensive one, thoroughly depicts the journey to the Moon, along with
some hardships the three astronauts came across, experiments carried out on the lunar surface
and memorable quotes. Last but not least, the “Aftermath" chapter lists a few of the many
discoveries the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon led scientists to.
INTRODUCTION

Apollo 11 is the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon. Its crew consisted of
Commander Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin and Command Module Pilot
Michael Collins. Armstrong and Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module “Eagle” on July 20,
1969, 20:17 UTC, on a site they called “Tranquility Base”. The commander becomes the first
human being to step on the lunar surface on July 21, 02:56 UTC, followed by his colleague
19 minutes later. Altogether, the two spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon, out of
which about 2 hours and 15 minutes were devoted to the exploration of the lunar surface;
they collected 21.5kg of lunar material to be thoroughly analyzed on Earth. Meanwhile,
Collins flew the Command Module “Columbia” alone until the “Eagle” rejoined it in the
lunar orbit.

On July 16, 13:32 UTC, the Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 from Kennedy Space
Center, Merritt Island, Florida, giving wings to the fifth manned mission of NASA’s Apollo
program. The spacecraft encompassed three parts: a command module, a service module and
a lunar module. The command module had a cabin, shelter for a number of three astronauts
and the only part that returned to our planet. It was supported by the service module with
propulsion, electrical power, oxygen and water. Widely known as “Eagle”, the lunar module
had the honorable duty of landing the astronauts on the Moon and ascending back into its
orbit.

After the launch, Apollo 11 was separated by the rocket and traveled by itself for three days,
before entering the lunar orbit, when Armstrong and Aldrin moved into the lunar module and
landed on July 20 in the lunar site called “Sea of Tranquility”. When it was time to leave, the
two colleagues used “Eagle” to rejoin “Columbia”, jettisoning it before propelling the
command module back to Earth. On July 24, they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean from
where they were recovered by the aircraft carrier USS “Hornet”.

The Apollo 11 mission’s success meant the fulfillment of a national goal, proposed in 1961
by President John F. Kennedy, who stated the following: “I believe that this nation should
commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon
and returning him safely to Earth.” The first step on the Moon was broadcasted on live TV to
the audience from all over the world, and this event was described by Armstrong as “one
small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”.
1. THE BEGINNINGS

1.1. MOTIVATION

The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957,
which triggered fears around the world. On behalf of the Cold War, which involved the
United States and the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the American military
and technological superiority was challenged, as this unexpected achievement proved that the
Soviet Union could deliver nuclear weapons over considerable distances, thus gaining ground
in the ongoing war.

The event precipitated the Sputnik crisis, a period of public fear and anxiety in the West, and
led to the Space Race, to which President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by creating the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration- or NASA, as we know it- and initiating
Project Mercury. This was the first project of the Americans that bravely aimed to send a man
into the outer space, but the Soviets continued to progress quickly by making cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin the first person to orbit the Earth on April 12, 1961. The US could not be undone and
on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

The race was tight, therefore Kennedy proposed a bold challenge, beyond the technological
level as the world knew it back then, putting the US and the Soviet Union in alignment:
sending a crewed spacecraft to the Moon, as Kennedy declared on May 25, 1961 when
addressing the United States Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade [1960s] is out, of landing a man on the Moon and
returning him safely to the Earth.”

During another speech that he delivered before a crowd of about 40 000 people in the Rice
University football stadium in Houston, Texas, on September 12, 1962, Kennedy stated:
“There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are
hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful
cooperation may never come again”, thus hinting the current state of conflict between the two
nations. In order to justify the goal of the race, he explained: “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”,
along these lines reflecting the inquisitiveness of the human mind.

Although Kennedy proposed on various occasions that the two states would make the Moon
landing a joint project, he was refused, the idea being abandoned after his death. The
proposed mission was critiqued by many Americans as well, but the extraterrestrial dream
was not abandoned and the project already had a name: Project Apollo. Despite the fact that
the Soviet Union was willing to participate in the Space Race, it was impossible to keep up
due to various failures in the development of their launcher, N1. Moreover, although their
spacecraft Luna 15 reached lunar orbit before Apollo 11, a malfunction that occurred during
descent caused it to crash in Mare Crisium, a lunar mare.
1.2. CREW

Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930, Neil Armstrong was the Mission Commander
on Apollo 11 and the first man to walk on the moon during this mission. He had a B.S. in
aeronautical engineering, an M.S in aerospace engineering, making him an excellent and
well-prepared astronaut. He was also backup command pilot for Gemini 5 and Gemini 11, a
command pilot for Gemini 8 and a backup commander for Gemini 11. He became Deputy
Association Administrator for Aeronautics at NASA in 1970 before retiring in 1971.

The Command Module Pilot, Michael Collins, born in Rome, Italy, on October 31, 1930,
received a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He also was a
backup pilot for Gemini 7 and a pilot on Gemini 10; he resigned from NASA and the Air
Force in January 1970.

Edwin Aldrin, known as “Buzz”, was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, born in
Montclair, New Jersey, on January 20, 1930. He received a B.S. from the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, New York, and a Doctor of Science degree in Astronautics from
MIT. He also was a backup pilot for Gemini 9, pilot for Gemini 12 and backup command
module pilot for Apollo 8. He became the second man to walk on Moon during the Apollo 11
mission. He retired from NASA in July 1971.

Apollo 11’s crew forged an amiable working relationship. While they could not establish a
more personal relationship, as Aldrin and Collins described the crew as “amiable strangers”,
Armstrong stated that it worked very well together.

When the question “Which one of you gentlemen will be the first man to step on the lunar
surface?” came up during the first press conference after the announcement of the Apollo
11’s crew, it was stated that it had not been decided yet. Initially, matching what had been
done on Gemini missions, the lunar module pilot was expected to exit the spacecraft and
perform the spacewalk first. However, Aldrin was not chosen in this mission, and it was
heard that Armstrong would be the first because he was a civilian. Moreover, during a
simulation in which Aldrin left the spacecraft first, he damaged the simulator while
attempting to egress, due to the small space available for the maneuver and the lunar
module’s hatch location.

1.3. DEVELOPMENT

The Apollo 11 mission emblem was designed by Collins and was intended to be a symbol for
“peaceful lunar landing by the United States”. The bald eagle, the national bird of the United
States, holds an olive branch in its talons to represent their peaceful mission. Aldrin,
Armstrong and Collins decided that the eagle and the Moon would be in their natural colors,
and decided on a blue and gold border. In order to be understood by non-English speakers,
they went with “Apollo 11” instead of “Apollo Eleven”, and decided not to put their names
on the patch, so it would “be representative of everyone who had worked toward a lunar
landing”. When the Eisenhower dollar coin was released in 1971, the patch design provided
the eagle for its reverse side.

The lunar module was named “Eagle”, after the motif which was featured on the mission
insignia; the command module bore the name “Columbia”, referencing the giant cannon that
launched a spacecraft in Jules Verne’s novel “From earth to the Moon” and also a historical
name of the United States. In Collins’ book, published in 1976, he said “Columbia” was
related to Christopher Columbus.

The astronauts had personal preference kits (PPKs), small bags containing personal items of
significance they wanted to take with them on the mission. Five 0.23 kg PPKs were carried
on Apollo 11: three (one for each astronaut) were stowed on Columbia before launch, and
two on Eagle. Neil Armstrong’s PPK contained a piece of wood from the Wright brothers'
1903 Wright Flyer's left propeller and a piece of fabric from its wing, along with a diamond-
studded astronaut pin originally given to Slayton by the widows of the Apollo 1 crew.

Some structural aspects of the spacecraft were established early; it would have three major
components: a command module with a cabin for three astronauts and the only part that
would return to Earth, a service module which supported the command module with power,
propulsion, oxygen, water and a lunar module with two stages- a descent one for landing on
the Moon and an ascent one for placing the spacecraft back into the lunar orbit. Its launch
would be made possible by using a single rocket, Saturn V, under development at that
moment. It was decided that the “space rendezvous” would be used in this mission, which
means that two parts of the spacecraft would meet up in lunar orbit in space after navigating
separately.

The Apollo 11 mission was made possible because of the previous technologies and
techniques developed by Project Gemini and perfected throughout the years, after numerous
discoveries and failures. The Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967, in which three astronauts
died, halted Project Apollo, soon to be continued by Apollo 7 in October 1968, which
evaluated the command module in Earth orbit and by Apollo 8, which tested it in lunar orbit
in December. Following them, in 1969 Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 repeated the process, this time
with the lunar module, concluding the preparations for Apollo 11’s take-off.

NASA's Apollo Site Selection Board announced five potential landing sites on February 8,
1968. These were the result of two years' worth of studies based on high-resolution
photography of the lunar surface by the five uncrewed probes of the Lunar Orbiter program
and information about surface conditions provided by the Surveyor program. The landing site
had to be close to the lunar equator to minimize the amount of propellant required, clear of
obstacles to minimize maneuvering, and flat to simplify the task of the landing radar.
Scientific value was not a consideration. The final site selection was based on a few criteria:
the site needed to be smooth, with relatively few craters; with approach paths free of large
hills, tall cliffs or deep craters that might confuse the landing radar and cause it to issue
incorrect readings; reachable with a minimum amount of propellant; with good visibility
during the landing approach; a general slope of less than two degrees in the landing area.
The requirement for the Sun angle was particularly restrictive, limiting the launch date to one
day per month. A landing just after dawn was chosen to limit the temperature extremes the
astronauts would experience. The Apollo Site Selection Board selected Site 2, with Sites 3
and 5 as backups in the event of the launch being delayed.

The ascent stage of lunar module LM-5 arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on January 8,
1969, followed by the descent stage four days later, and Command and Service Module CM-
107 on January 23. The command and service modules were mated on January 29.

The third stage of Saturn V had arrived on January 18, followed by the second stage on
February 6, first stage on February 20, and the Saturn V Instrument Unit on February 27. The
launch complex was floodlit on the night of July 15, when the crawler-transporter carried the
mobile service structure back to its parking area. In the early hours of the morning, the fuel
tanks of the second and third stages were filled with liquid hydrogen. Fueling was completed
by three hours before launch. Launch operations were partly automated, with 43 programs
written in the ATOLL programming language.

Slayton roused the crew shortly after 04:00, and they showered, shaved, and had the
traditional pre-flight breakfast of steak and eggs with Slayton and the backup crew. They then
donned their space suits and began breathing pure oxygen. At 06:30, they headed out to
Launch Complex 39. Haise entered Columbia about three hours and ten minutes before
launch time. Along with a technician, he helped Armstrong into the left hand couch at 06:54.
Five minutes later, Collins joined him, taking up his position on the right hand couch. Finally,
Aldrin entered, taking the center couch. Haise left around two hours and ten minutes before
launch. The closeout crew sealed the hatch, and the cabin was purged and pressurized. The
closeout crew then left the launch complex about an hour before launch time. The countdown
became automated at three minutes and twenty seconds before launch time. Over 450
personnel were at the consoles in the firing room.
2. MISSION

2.1. TO THE MOON

The 363-foot-tall Apollo 11 space vehicle was launched by the Saturn V AS-506 rocket from
Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A at 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969.
Approximately one million spectators watched the launch of Apollo 11 from the highways
and beaches near the launch site, and about 3500 media representatives were present, out of
which two-thirds were from the United States, while the rest came from 55 other countries. It
lifted off with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.,
becoming the United States' first lunar landing mission and successfully completing the
national goal set by President John F. Kennedy eight years prior: to perform a crewed lunar
landing and return to Earth.

Apollo 11 entered Earth orbit at an altitude of 100.4 nautical miles (185.9 km) by 98.9
nautical miles (183.2 km), twelve minutes into its flight. After one and a half orbits, a second
ignition of the S-IVB engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon with
the trans-lunar injection burn at 16:22:13 UTC. About 30 minutes later, with Collins in the
left seat and at the controls, the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver was
performed. On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its
service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit. In the thirty orbits that followed, the crew saw
passing views of their landing site in the southern Sea of Tranquility about 19 km southwest
of the crater Sabine D. The site was selected in part because it had been characterized as
relatively flat and smooth by the automated Ranger 8 and Surveyor 5 landers and the Lunar
Orbiter mapping spacecraft and unlikely to present major landing challenges.

At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong entered Eagle, and began the final
preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 Eagle separated from Columbia. Collins, alone
aboard Columbia, inspected Eagle as it pirouetted before him to ensure the craft was not
damaged, and that the landing gear was correctly deployed. Armstrong exclaimed: "The
Eagle has wings!”

As the descent began, Armstrong and Aldrin noticed that they were passing landmarks on the
surface too early, which meant that Eagle was travelling too fast. This problem could have
altered the spacecraft's trajectory.

Five minutes into the descent burn, several unexpected 1201 and 1202 program alarms
distracted the crew. The program alarms indicated “executive overflows", meaning that the
lunar module guidance computer could not complete all its tasks in real time and had to
eliminate lower priority tasks, reestablishing the more important ones, thus preventing an
abort. The cause was a bug previously seen during testing of the first uncrewed lunar module
in Apollo 5, which consisted of an electrical mismatch between the rendezvous radar system,
provoking it to update an involuntary counter.

When Armstrong looked outside again, he saw that the computer's landing target was is a
boulder-strewn area, so he took semi-automatic control. He considered landing short of this
field so they could collect geological samples from it, but their horizontal velocity was too
high to do so. Their propellant supply was diminishing quickly, motivating Neil to land at the
first possible landing site. While repeatedly trying to find an adequate area, 30m from the
lunar surface the astronauts were announced that they only had 90 seconds of propellant
remaining. A dust cloud impaired Armstrong's ability to determine the spacecraft's motion,
therefore he focused on some large rocks that jetted out of the dust cloud so he could
determine their speed.

When a light informed Aldrin that at least one of the probes hanging from Eagle's foot pads
had touched the surface a few moments before landing, Armstrong was supposed to shut the
engine down in order to prevent the pressure caused by the engine's own exhaust reflecting
off the lunar surface to make it explode. Three seconds later, Eagle landed and Armstrong
finally shut the engine down.

Eagle landed at 20:17:40 UTC on Sunday July 20 with 98 kg of usable fuel remaining.
Information available to the crew and mission controllers during the landing showed the lunar
module had enough fuel for another 25 seconds of powered flight before an abort without
touchdown would have become unsafe, but post-mission analysis showed that the real figure
was probably closer to 50 seconds. Apollo 11 landed with less fuel than most subsequent
missions, and the astronauts encountered a premature low fuel warning.

Armstrong acknowledged Aldrin's completion of the post landing checklist with "Engine arm
is off", before responding to the CAPCOM, Charles Duke, with the words, "Houston,
Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Armstrong's unrehearsed change of call sign
from "Eagle" to "Tranquility Base" emphasized to listeners that landing was complete and
successful. Duke mispronounced his reply as he expressed the relief at Mission Control:
"Roger, Twan—Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to
turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."

2.2. ON THE MOON

Preparations for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to walk on the Moon began at 23:43 took
longer than expected, even though everything required had been neatly laid out in advance
during training on Earth, as on the Moon the cabin contained a large number of other items as
well. Six hours and thirty-nine minutes after landing, they were ready to go outside, and
Eagle was depressurized. Some of the highest heart rates recorded from Apollo's astronauts
occurred during the lunar module egress and ingress.

The television camera was set up by astronaut Neil Armstrong at a distance from the lunar
module, oriented so that the module and most surface activities would be in the field of view.
There were no difficulties setting up the TV camera; however, the cord would not lie flat and
created a tripping hazard. Apollo 11 used slow-scan television incompatible with broadcast
TV, so it was displayed on a special monitor, and a conventional TV camera viewed this
monitor, significantly reducing the quality of the picture. Despite some technical and weather
difficulties, ghostly black and white images of the first lunar EVA were received and
broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth. Copies of this video in broadcast format
were saved and are widely available, but recordings of the original slow scan source
transmission from the lunar surface were likely destroyed during routine magnetic tape re-use
at NASA.

While still on the ladder, Armstrong uncovered a plaque mounted on the LM descent stage,
bearing two drawings of Earth (of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres), an inscription and
signatures of the astronauts and President Nixon. The inscription read: “Here men from the
planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

At 02:56:15, six hours and a half after landing, Armstrong stepped off Eagle's footpad and
declared: “That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind", after describing the
lunar surface dust, regolith, as “very fine-grained" and “almost like a powder".

The lunar gravity, one-sixth of Earth's, was detailed by Armstrong as “even perhaps easier
than the simulations…It's absolutely no trouble to walk around.” However, as the fine soil
was quite slippery, the astronauts reported that they needed to plan their movements six or
seven steps ahead, and loping became the preferred method of movement.

The astronauts planted the Lunar Flag Assembly containing a flag of the United States on the
lunar surface, in clear view of the TV camera. Aldrin remembered, "Of all the jobs I had to
do on the Moon the one I wanted to go the smoothest was the flag raising. „But the astronauts
struggled with the telescoping rod and could only jam the pole 5 cm into the hard lunar
surface. Aldrin was afraid it might tumble in front of TV viewers, but he had enough time to
give "a crisp West Point salute". Before Aldrin could take a photo of Armstrong with the flag,
President Richard Nixon spoke to them through a telephone-radio transmission which Nixon
called "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House."

The extravehicular activity operations lasted approximately 2.5 hours and consisted of several
tasks having to be accomplished by the Apollo 11 astronauts, such as collecting lunar
samples, examining and photographing the lunar surface and deploying several experiments.
During this first visit to the Moon, the astronauts remained within 100 meters of the lunar
module, collected about 21.3 kg of samples and deployed 4 experiments: the solar wind
composition experiment, the laser ranging retroreflector, the passive seismic experiment, the
lunar dust detector.

The astronauts then collected rock samples using scoops and tongs on extension handles.
Many of the surface activities took longer than expected, so they had to stop documenting
sample collection halfway through the allotted 34 minutes. Aldrin shoveled 6 kilograms of
soil into the box of rocks in order to pack them in tightly. Two types of rocks were found in
the geological samples: basalt and breccia. Three new minerals were discovered in the rock
samples collected by the astronauts: armalcolite, tranquillityite, and pyroxferroite.
Armalcolite was named after Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. All have subsequently been
found on Earth.
The Solar Wind Composition Experiment consisted of an aluminum foil sheet, 1.4 meters by
0.3 meters, which was deployed on a pole facing the sun. On Apollo 16, a platinum sheet was
also used. This foil was exposed to the sun, allowing solar-wind particles to embed
themselves into the foil. The foil was then returned to Earth for laboratory analysis. This
allowed the chemical composition of the embedded solar wind to be determined more
accurately than would be possible if the measurements were made using remotely controlled
instruments on the Moon. Some variation in the composition of the solar wind was observed
in the measurements from the different mission. These variations were correlated with
variations in the intensity of the solar wind as determined from magnetic field measurements.

During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely. Although it has been
said "not since Adam has any human known such solitude", Collins felt very much a part of
the mission. In the 48 minutes of each orbit when he was out of radio contact with the Earth
while Columbia passed round the far side of the Moon, the feeling he reported was not fear or
loneliness, but rather "awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation".

One of Collins' first tasks was to identify the lunar module on the ground. To give Collins an
idea where to look, Mission Control radioed that they believed the lunar module landed about
four miles off target. On his first orbits on the back side of the Moon, Collins performed
maintenance activities such as dumping excess water produced by the fuel cells and preparing
the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return.

2.3. BACK ON EARTH

Aldrin entered Eagle first. The two sample boxes containing 21.55 kilograms of lunar surface
material were lifted to the lunar module hatch by hand, after an unsuccessful attempt to lift
them using a flat cable pulley device. After transferring to lunar module life support, the
explorers lightened the ascent stage for the return to lunar orbit by tossing out their life
support backpacks, bags of memorial items, lunar overshoes, an empty Hasselblad camera,
and other equipment. The hatch was closed again at 05:11:13. They then pressurized the lunar
module and settled down to sleep.

While moving inside the cabin, Aldrin accidentally damaged the circuit breaker that would
arm the main engine for lift off from the Moon. There was a concern this would prevent
firing the engine, stranding them on the Moon. A felt-tip pen was sufficient to activate the
switch; had this not worked, the lunar module circuitry could have been reconfigured to allow
firing the ascent engine.

After more than 21 and a half hours on the lunar surface, in addition to the scientific
instruments, the astronauts left behind: an Apollo 1 mission patch in memory of the
astronauts who died when their command module caught fire during a test; two memorial
medals of Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin; a memorial bag
containing a gold replica of an olive branch as a traditional symbol of peace; and a silicon
message disk carrying the goodwill statements by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson,
and Nixon along with messages from leaders of 73 countries around the world. The disk also
carries a listing of the leadership of the US Congress, a listing of members of the four
committees of the House and Senate responsible for the NASA legislation, and the names of
NASA's past and present top management.

After about seven hours of rest, the crew was awakened by Houston to prepare for the return
flight. Two and a half hours later, at 17:54 UTC, they lifted off in Eagle's ascent stage to
rejoin Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit. Film taken from the lunar module ascent stage
upon liftoff from the Moon reveals the American flag, planted some 8 m from the descent
stage, whipping violently in the exhaust of the ascent stage engine. Subsequent Apollo
missions planted their flags farther from the module.

Eagle rendezvoused with Columbia at 21:24 UTC on July 21, and the two docked at 21:35.
Eagle's ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit at 23:41. Just before the Apollo 12 flight,
it was noted that Eagle was still likely to be orbiting the Moon. Later NASA reports
mentioned that Eagle's orbit had decayed, resulting in it impacting in an "uncertain location"
on the lunar surface.

On the return to Earth, a bearing at the Guam tracking station failed, potentially preventing
communication on the last segment of the Earth return. A regular repair was not possible in
the available time but the station director, Charles Force, had his ten-year-old son Greg use
his small hands to reach into the housing and pack it with grease. Greg was later thanked by
Armstrong.

The aircraft carrier USS Hornet was selected as the primary recovery ship for Apollo 11 on
June 5. Hornet was then at her home port of Long Beach, California. On reaching Pearl
Harbor on July 5, Hornet embarked a unit which specialized in recovery of Apollo spacecraft,
specialized divers, a 35-man NASA recovery team, and about 120 media representatives. To
make room, most of Hornet's air wing was left behind in Long Beach. Special recovery
equipment was also loaded, including a boilerplate command module used for training. On
July 12, with Apollo 11 still on the launch pad, Hornet departed Pearl Harbor for the recovery
area in the central Pacific.

Weather satellites were not yet common, but US Air Force Captain Hank Brandli had access
to top secret spy satellite images. He realized that a storm front was headed for the Apollo
recovery area. Poor visibility which could make locating the capsule difficult and strong
upper level winds which "would have ripped their parachutes to shreds" according to Brandli;
posed a serious threat to the safety of the mission. NASA was advised to change the recovery
area. A new location was selected 215 nautical miles (398 km) northeast.

During splashdown, Columbia landed upside down but was righted within ten minutes by
flotation bags activated by the astronauts. A diver from the Navy helicopter hovering above
attached a sea anchor to prevent it from drifting. More divers attached flotation collars to
stabilize the module and positioned rafts for astronaut extraction.

The divers then passed biological isolation garments to the astronauts, and assisted them into
the life raft. The possibility of bringing back pathogens from the lunar surface was considered
remote, but NASA took precautions at the recovery site. The astronauts were rubbed down
with a sodium hypochlorite solution and Columbia wiped with Betadine to remove any lunar
dust that might be present. The astronauts were winched on board the recovery helicopter.
Garments were worn until they reached isolation facilities on board Hornet. The raft
containing decontamination materials was intentionally sunk.

After touchdown on Hornet at 17:53 UTC, the helicopter was lowered by the elevator into the
hangar bay, where the astronauts walked the 9.1 m to the Mobile Quarantine Facility, where
they would begin the Earth-based portion of their 21 days of quarantine. This practice would
continue for two more Apollo missions, Apollo 12 and Apollo 14, before the Moon was
proven to be barren of life, and the quarantine process dropped. Nixon welcomed the
astronauts back to Earth. He told them: "As a result of what you've done, the world has never
been closer together before."
3. AFTERMATH

The Apollo Moon rocks are mainly deposited in the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at the
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Most of them are stored in nitrogen to
keep them free of moisture and are handled only indirectly, using special tools. In November
1969, Nixon asked NASA to prepare about 250 presentation lunar sample displays for 135
nations, the states of the US and the United Nations. Each display included Moon rice-sized
particles of lunar soil and dust from Apollo 11, weighing about 50 mg and enveloped in a
clear acrylic button which magnified the grains of lunar dust. The displays were given out as
goodwill gifts by Nixon in 1970.

The 22 kilograms of moon rocks and lunar dust returned to Earth by the Apollo 11 mission
provided a treasure trove of material that opened the door to insights about another world by
concentrating information about the early days of the solar system and the formation of the
Earth, while contributing to a better understanding of the relationship between our planet and
its satellite. As instruments have become more advanced and techniques more refined,
scientists have continued to glean new information from the ancient moon rocks.

The discoveries that stemmed from these samples described the lunar surface as a mix of tiny
grains of dust and larger angular rocks. Some of the rocks sat on the surface, while others
were partially or completely buried in the dust. The moon is covered with regolith, which
includes fine gray dust and rock fragments, and Apollo 11 samples have also reported pieces
of volcanic glass, created by the patches of regolith that melted while exposed to
micrometeorites and solar wind irradiation. Lunar dust invaded the nooks and crannies of the
lunar module, the spacesuits of the astronauts and was easy to kick up, tending to adhere to
anything it touched because of its electric charge.

Rocks collected over the Apollo missions range from 3.2 billion years old to nearly 4.6
billion years old, helping scientists date the ages of the craters on the Moon and even on other
planets from the Solar System. It was discovered that they contained trace amounts of water,
delivered to the lunar surface by comets or meteorites striking the surface. The lunar rocks
composition has strong similarities to rocks on Earth, but is dramatically different from the
Martian ones and from the asteroid belt meteorites.

One of the experiments Apollo astronauts left on the lunar surface was the Laser Ranging
Retroreflector that measured the distance between Earth and its moon by lighting up the
mirrors with laser beams aimed from large Earth-based telescopes. It was also found out that
the Moon is receding from Earth at a rate of 3.8 cm per year. Another experiment, the Solar
Wind Composition Experiment, an aluminum foil sheet deployed on a pole facing the sun,
showed what kind of particles can be found in the solar wind, after it was exposed to the sun
for 77 minutes. Variations in the composition corresponded to variations in the intensity of
the solar wind. The Apollo 11 Passive Seismic Experiment, although it lasted only three
weeks, provided a first useful look at lunar seismology, while revealing insight into the lunar
layers. This experiment indicated that the interior of the Moon hides a small, solid core and a
60-70 km thick crust, resembling the Earth's structure.
CONCLUSION

Alongside encouraging the subsequent space exploration missions and pushing the
boundaries of the human mind, Apollo 11, the first flight that safely landed astronauts on the
Moon, gave the scientists back then an insight into efficient space propulsion and satellite
technology, considering the fact that Saturn V, the rocket that launched Apollo 11 into the
lunar orbit, is said to be the most powerful rocket ever built.

Furthermore, as weight and size directly influence the energy required in order to lift and
send the spaceships in the desired place, strict limits have been enforced, leading to great
changes regarding the dimensions of the electronics on-board without altering their
efficiency. In behalf of the need to miniaturize electronics required for space missions, the
entire industry was provoked to design smaller, more energy-efficient products, affecting
every aspect of life as we know it today, from health to transportation and manufacturing.

It goes without saying that an essential aspect of each space mission is the communication
between the spacecraft and the Earth controllers. It enabled the first step on the Moon to be
shown on TV to the entire world and it was critical for the survival of the crew on Apollo 13,
as they needed guidance from the staff on the ground without wasting much precious energy.
Thus, the antennas built on Earth were capable of receiving weak messages from space and
broadcasting loud ones. Moreover, they were strategically placed near each other so that the
spacecraft would be in touch with at least one of them no matter their position.

Last but not least, being in the outer space allowed us to look back on Earth, perceive and
fully understand our planet’s role in the Universe and its raw beauty, while raising awareness
of environmental matters. Thanks to the Earth-observing satellites, humans can identify
wildfires and which measures taken to slow their spread are the most efficient. In addition,
while being deprived of the life-supporting elements our blue planet is providing us with for
free and having to replace them with sophisticated technology that generates power, potable
water, air, human beings can grasp the importance of nature preservation.

The first walk on Moon will forever bear a great importance in the history of humankind, not
only because of the numerous contributions brought to every aspect of our daily life,
moulding it into the one we know today, but also because it made us confident in the
greatness we can achieve through hard work, devotion, courage and dreaming. I believe this
space exploration mission opened our eyes to the wide spectrum of possibilities we can take
advantage of regarding the discovery of our Universe.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Donovan, James, Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of
Apollo 11, Little, Brown and Company, March 12, 2019
 Fishman, Charles, One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon,
Simon & Schuster, June 11, 2019
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
 https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html
 https://www.space.com/apollo-11-moon-landing-science-legacy.html
 https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apollo-11