Computer control of spacecraft systems assisted Armstrong during descent. At certain altitudes, an abort was no longer an option and an abort procedure could only be carried out with clearance from NASA. On 20 July, Armstrong detached Eagle from Collins and began its powered descent towards the lunar surface, eventually conducting his inaugural two and […]
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Mars has long been of interest to scientists and astronomers. As one of our nearest neighbors, this planet holds many mysteries to reveal. Mars is an extremely cold planet located much further from the sun than Earth. Mars, known for its fiery hue, stands as a powerful and brave symbol. Astronomy Mars, located fourth from
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Dreier used official NASA budget submissions to Congress and internal documentation describing appropriations for facilities and overhead expenses during FY 1961 to 1973 as the basis of his reconstruction of Apollo costs, then adjusted them for inflation using two inflation indices tailored specifically for aerospace projects. Exploring the costs involved in beating Soviet spacecraft to
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Apollo 9 was intended to perform an Earth-orbiting engineering test of the first crewed lunar module, known as LM. Other key objectives were checking of launch vehicle systems, procedures, crewing issues and crew. Mission goal was the first docking of two spacecraft carrying astronauts into space, known as Spider and Gumdrop respectively by astronauts themselves;
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In 1969, more than 500 million Americans watched on TV as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon. Although Richard Nixon was President at that time, Lyndon Baines Johnson had advanced space exploration with great effort during his term in office. LBJ made significant investments in NASA
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No doubt modern smartphones are far more powerful than the computers used on Apollo missions, yet such comparisons underplay the amazing technology employed by NASA during these missions to get us there. MIT-designed Apollo Guidance Computer was crashproof, operating according to a hierarchical system which allocated energy based on program importance; this allowed energy distribution
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On the third EVA, Cernan and Schmitt drove to Van Serg crater where they collected house-sized rock, took gravimeter readings, deployed more experiments, but ran out of both water and oxygen and had to retreat back to LM. Once inside, they relaxed. However, upon closer inspection they saw that the amount of sunlit land on
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Apollo relied heavily on aeronautical and hardware engineering for success; but software engineering also played an essential part. At its heart was the Apollo Guidance Computer located within both Command Module and Lunar Module spacecraft. At its time, this machine had the computing power of a pocket calculator and stored its code using core rope
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Southern Utah’s lunar-esque desert landscape seems tailor-made for Hollywood blockbusters, while also serving as an arena where some of the brightest minds in space simulation try out ideas about what life may be like on Mars. Near Hanksville lies the Mars Desert Research Station. This remote plot of land serves as an analogue of Mars
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