Word: astronautical
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Congratulations from Russian officials and astronauts have become progressively more cordial after each new U.S. space victory, and Apollo 8 Astronaut Frank Borman received one of the warmest welcomes ever accorded an American during his triumphant tour of Russia. By no means, however, have the Russians dropped out entirely. Just before the scheduled Apollo 11 shot, the Russians launched an unmanned spaceship toward the moon-in an obvious attempt to win some attention away from the U.S. Actually, some U.S. space officials believe that Moscow has decided to leapfrog the moon and head for the planets...
...this point, Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin will hastily check out the LM for any damage suffered in the landing. Should they discover any serious problems, such as leaking fuel or falling pressure in the cabin, they will abort the mission, blasting off immediately to rejoin Collins in the orbiting command module. If all is well, they will have a brief snack, sleep for four hours and eat a leisurely dinner. Only then will they struggle into their bulky space suits, visored helmets, boots and gloves. With their Portable Life Support System (PLSS) backpacks, which supply air conditioning and enough oxygen...
About 25 minutes after Armstrong emerges from the LM hatch, Astronaut Aldrin will pass an electrically powered Hasselblad still camera down a nylon conveyor (similar to a clothesline on pulleys), and then back down the ladder himself. The astronauts will move next to the opened storage area, called MESA, for Modularized Equipment Storage Assembly. Armstrong will detach the TV camera and place it on a stand about 30 ft. from the LM to provide a panoramic view of the surface activities. While Aldrin is setting up a solar wind experiment, consisting of a 1-ft. by 4-ft. aluminum-foil...
Other scientific benefits will flow immediately from the instruments that the astronauts will leave behind on the moon. As soon as Astronaut Aldrin sets up a seismometer on the lunar surface, for example, a command radioed from earth will activate it by releasing four suspended weights. In the future, whenever a quake or a meteor disturbs the lunar surface, the seismometer's frame will vibrate, while the suspended weights remain immobile. The seismometer, sensing the relative motion between the frame and the weights, will express it as digital data and transmit it to earth. The instrument is so sensitive that...
LOOKING down at the pitted surface of the moon from a height of 70 miles last December, Apollo 8 Astronaut Frank Borman described it as "vast, lonely and forbidding?a great expanse of nothing." But looks can be deceiving. As desolate as the moon appears, scientists have little doubt that man will soon work, play, and perhaps even prosper on his bleak satellite...