Word: moons
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...heat, Apollo has shed considerable light on the moon. It has revealed that the moon-and presumably the earth-was under incredibly intense bombardment by great chunks of space debris in the first 600 million to 800 million years after its formation 4.6 billion years ago. But by 3.1 billion years ago this bombardment stopped. The evidence returned by Apollo shows that the moon's surface has remained virtually unchanged through those eons of time. Perhaps most important of all, exploration of the moon has shown that it is not a simple, uncomplicated sphere but a true planetary body...
Compulsion. Some astronauts were less affected by their trips in space than by the acclaim afterward. When he returned from the first lunar landing, Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong's moon-walking companion, found himself totally unequipped to play the hero's role during the countless public appearances required of him. Soon he was on his way to what he now calls "a good old-fashioned American nervous breakdown." In contrast, other astronauts seem to have taken full advantage of the acclaim: John Glenn made a run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, Wally Schirra appeared as a commentator...
BEFORE man's first lunar landing, most scientists thought of the moon as a Rosetta stone: an untouched repository of precious clues that would help reveal its origin and history, to say nothing of providing new insights about the evolution of the earth and other planets. Now, after five successful landings, many of their fondest hopes have been realized. The Apollo missions have brought back 594 lbs. of lunar rocks and soil, thousands of photographs and a flood of data that have changed some of man's basic concepts about the moon. But many of the mysteries remain...
Apollo samples show, for example, that the moon and earth have significantly different chemical compositions. That finding challenges the old idea that the moon was ripped from the earth. Yet scientists are still at a loss to explain how-or when-it was formed. Paleomagnetic studies of lunar rock indicate that the moon once had an unexpectedly strong magnetic field-and thus a large molten iron core. Yet equally valid data suggest that a core of significant size could not have existed. Even the ages of the rocks present new problems. The oldest specimens show that the moon...
Nonetheless, they expect the last mission to be the most scientifically productive. In Scientist-Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, they will finally have the services of a professional geologist on the moon. The Taurus-Littrow landing site contains what may be small, volcanically created cinder cones; they seem to be miniature versions of earthly features like Honolulu's Diamond Head. The cones may well be remnants of what NASA Geochemist Robin Brett calls "some of the last belches of lunar activity before the moon turned off." Finally, Apollo 17 planners have scheduled a program of experiments and observation far more sophisticated...