INSIDE: BUZZ ALDRIN REMEMBERS AP OLL O 11

Everything you need to know about our lunar neighbour

Edition
Digital

FROM THE
MAKERS OF
FOURTH
EDITION

APOLLO PROGRAM | THE FAR SIDE | CRATERS & MORE

 Welcome to the

We’ve been looking up at the Moon for millennia, but it was

always just out of reach. People made up stories about it,
associating it with deities or talking of the Man in the Moon
who watches over all, while others wondered what it would
look like up close. Then everything changed.
On 20 July 1969, man achieved what had previously been
thought impossible: two astronauts landed on the surface of
the Moon for the first ever time. More Moon landings followed
in a era since dubbed the golden age of space exploration, but
our curiosity is far from sated.
In Book of the Moon, find out what really happened when Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped outside their lunar module
and uncover what is being done to preserve that moment in
history before taking a tour of the craters and maria. Learn how
to take the perfect photographs of our lunar neighbour, and
discover what’s really on the Moon’s far side. All you have to do
is turn the page to be rocketed into space…
 Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

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Part of the

bookazine series
Contents
10 The Moon
THE MOON
34 Secrets from the far
10
side of the Moon
14 Gravity
40 Who owns the Moon?
16 What made our Moon?
48 Photograph the Moon
24 Is the Moon a planet?
50 Make a lunar analemma
30 Observer’s guide to
the supermoon 52 What if the Moon
exploded?
16
30 50

24 34

48

6
 Contents

92 98

132 MOON TOUR

56 Craters of the
Moon
76 Lunar maria

84 Other
landmarks

117

MOON LANDINGS

90 Project Apollo 108 Apollo 14 122 The Hidden Archives

of Apollo
92 Apollo landing sites 110 Apollo 15
128 Man’s return to
96 Apollo 10 112 Al Worden the Moon
132 Living on the Moon
98 Apollo 11 117 James Irwin
138 Preserving our
106 Apollo 13 119 Charles Duke space history
7
The Moon
10 The Moon 34 Secrets from the far
side of the Moon 24
14 Gravity
40 Who owns the Moon?
16 What made our Moon?
48 Photograph the Moon
24 Is the Moon a planet?
50 Make a lunar analemma
30 Observer’s guide to
the supermoon 52 What if the Moon
exploded?

16
10

76

8
“Discovering the Moon’s history
is a key step in understanding
how likely such events are in
the wider universe”

50 52

9
 Expl rer’s Guide
The Moon
Take a tour of our nearest neighbour and discover a
world much stranger than you thought Schroter’s Valley
Sea of Rains

The Moon’s diameter is 27 per cent of Earth’s, on the Moon, stretching it slightly and creating
which is freakishly large. Jupiter’s moon another drag that has synchronised its rotation,
Ganymede is larger in absolute terms, but so that it always presents the same face to Earth.
compared to its parent planet it is just a speck, The full Moon in the night sky looks flat,
with less than one-fiftieth of the diameter. The rather than darkening at the edges as you’d
disproportionate size of the Moon reflects its expect from a 3D sphere. This effect is caused
unusual origins. Most other moons are captured by the unusual properties of the lunar soil, or
asteroids, or leftover material from the ball of ‘regolith’, which reflects more light when the
dust and gas that coalesced to form the Solar Sun shines at a low angle, than when it is
System. But the Moon is made from the rubble directly overhead. Moon rock is about the
of another planet, called Theia, that collided with colour of a dry road, but a full Moon appears
Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. much brighter than that, because all the
When it was first formed, the Moon may tiny shadows cast by the regolith disappear
have been ten times closer to Earth than it is when the Sun shines from behind our Copernicus crater
today and would have caused tides on Earth viewpoint. The regolith can be up to
several kilometres high. Over billions of years, 20 metres (66 feet) deep on the Moon’s
the gravitational drag of the tides has slowed the highlands and in the early days of lunar
Moon’s orbit, causing it to spiral outwards from exploration there were real concerns that
us. Earth’s gravity also raises small ‘land tides’ spacecraft would simply sink into it.

4. Coast
How to get there The transfer burn is timed
so that by the time the
3. Transfer burn spacecraft reaches the
1. Lift off To reach the Moon, the top of its orbit, the Moon
The first 200km (124mi) spacecraft must fire its has travelled to the same
is the hardest. It takes engines to accelerate by point in space.
about 23 tons of fuel another 3.2km/s (7,200mph),
to propel each ton of stretching its circular orbit
payload into orbit, not into a long, thin ellipse.
counting the mass of the
empty rocket stages.

2. Parking orbit 5. Landing

Once it gets close enough,
Having accelerated to
the spacecraft fires its
7.8km/s (4.8mi/s), the
engines again to slow
spacecraft makes a couple
down just enough to be
of orbits around the Earth,
captured by the Moon into
a few hundred kilometres
an orbit, or even more for
up, to check all its systems
a direct landing.
are working correctly.

10
 The Moon

How big is the Moon?

The Moon is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System
and the biggest in comparison to its host planet

3,475km
(2,160mi) wide
Cleveland

Luna 2 impact site San Francisco

Sea of Serenity

Sea of Tranquility

Moon

How far is the Moon?

The Moon is currently 384,400km (238,855mi) away from Earth but is
gradually moving away at a rate of 3.82cm (1.5in) a year. If the Earth was
Tycho crater a basketball and the Moon a tennis ball – they would be 7.3m (24ft) apart.

Earth
7.3m
(24ft) apart
Moon

11
Top sights to see on the Moon
Seen from Earth, the most obvious features on the mountain formed where the crust rebounded from of the surface, like an exit wound. Without water
Moon are the ‘maria’ or seas. These are vast plains of the initial impact. Impacts can fling debris out over or wind, the landscape is unweathered, so every
solidified lava that originally bled for tens of millions hundreds of kilometres. These form spokes of lighter mountain is sharp and jagged.
of years from the puncture wounds of asteroid asteroid material overlaid on the darker lunar regolith. As well as mountains and craters, the Moon has
impacts. They are darker than the rest of the Moon’s Tycho crater in the southern hemisphere has rays twisting features that look like river valleys. Called
crust because of the iron compounds in the basalt that extend 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) from its rim. ‘rilles’, these may have been caused by lava tubes
minerals. The Moon long ago cooled and set solid all When the Soviet Union sent Luna 3 to photograph that cooled and sank into the regolith. Hadley Rille,
the way through, so it doesn’t have tectonic plates to the far side of the Moon for the first time, in 1959, where Apollo 15 landed, runs along the base of the
throw up mountain ranges like Earth’s. But asteroid they found it strangely lacking in maria. This is Apennine mountains. Schroter’s Valley is the largest
impacts can do the same job in a fraction of the because the crust is thicker on the far side, so lunar rille. It begins at a crater six kilometres (3.7
time. Large impacts create mountain ridges around asteroid impacts didn’t punch all the way through miles) wide and meanders for hundreds of kilometres
their rims, such as the Montes Rook which form a to the magma beneath. Instead the terrain is more in a strip that is ten kilometres (6.2 miles) wide in
ring 500 kilometres (310 miles) wide around the irregular, thrust into a jumble of spires by the places. In fact it’s so big that it has another smaller
Mare Orientale. Where an impact crater hasn’t been shockwaves from ancient impacts on the opposite rille formed by a second lava flow, running along it
filled in by lava to form a mare, there is also a central side that travelled through the Moon and burst out like a river meandering through a glacial valley.

Copernicus crater Apollo 11 landing site Tallest lunar mountain

A relatively young crater at ‘just’ 800 Chosen because it was fairly flat, Neil Armstrong Mons Huygens is part of the rim of the vast crater
million years old. The mountains in the nevertheless had to manually pilot 6km (3.7mi) from that filled with lava to become the Sea of Rains. It is
centre are almost as high as Ben Nevis. the intended landing site to avoid a boulder field. 5.5km (3.4mi) high.

Apollo 17 landing site

The last human footprints
on the Moon were left
by Eugene Cernan, the
commander of Apollo 17, as
he climbed back aboard in
December 1972.

12
 The Moon

The lunar orbit explained Last Quarter

The Moon spins on its axis at the same speed as it Half Moon
rotates around the Earth. This ‘tidal locking’ means
a day on the Moon lasts almost four weeks. As the Waning Crescent Waning Gibbous
day/night terminator creeps slowly across the surface,
Moon Moon
we see a different phase illuminated in the sky each
night, from new Moon to full Moon and back again.

The Moon’s orbit is oval shaped

New
Perigee Moon
363,400km/225,800mi (distance Full Moon
when closest to Earth)

Apogee
405,500km/252,000mi (distance
when farthest to Earth)
16km/h (10mph)
Speed of the 3,700km/h
Moon’s rotation (2,300mph)
Speed of the Moon
orbiting Earth

27.3 days Waxing Crescent Waxing Gibbous

The Moon takes Moon Moon
about 27 days to First Quarter
complete one orbit Half Moon

The Moon in numbers Weather forecast

100°C The Moon has virtually

0.1654g
no atmosphere, just a
sprinkling of evaporating
-153°C atoms. So there is no
wind to create weather
systems. In direct sunlight
the ground heats to over
Surface gravity. On the Moon 100°C (212°F) but in the
you would be one-sixth your Earth weight shade of a crater it can be
as low as -247°C (-413°F).

1,738km
Radius of the Moon – just
5,000
Height of the highest mountains on the
metres
over a quarter of Earth’s  Moon – taller than Mont Blanc
708
1972 30%
Increase in 135days
© Freepik.com; NASA

The last time brightness of

anyone stepped the Moon when to get to the Moon by Hours in a lunar day
foot on the Moon closest to Earth car travelling at 70mph – sunrise to sunrise

13
 The gravity
of the Moon’s
situation
Gravity is an ever-present force that shapes the
universe, but what about its influences on Moon?
It has been roughly four and a half billion years brought these pieces together, creating a moon that called tidal bulges. Without the tides, life would
since the Moon found the Earth, albeit in a vicious is the largest in the Solar System relative to its host have never been washed up on the beaches on the
collision. However, the bond between the two is planet. Since then, the Moon hasn’t left and Earth’s young Earth and life as we know it may have never
unbreakable and has been unmistakably influential side and has played a rough part in the evolution of even existed.
in the evolution of life on Earth. Without gravity, the planet and human civilisation. In a slightly more insignificant matter, the days
the Moon would have been gone a long time ago, Although the Moon is about one-quarter of the on Earth would have been much shorter as well.
but it is that strange attractive force that has kept size and is just over one per cent of the mass of In a phenomenon known as tidal braking, the
the big ball of space rock in our night sky for Earth, its gravitational influence can still be felt on friction between the ocean’s bulge and Earth’s
billions of years. our planet – the most evident and obvious example rotation energy is stolen from the Earth’s rotation
When the Solar System was just a baby, anchor of this is the presence of ocean tides. Ocean water and acts like braking pads in the process. As the
reined supreme as the planetesimals – minute covers about 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface Earth rotates faster than the Moon by a much faster
planets – were gathering material and colliding and it is all connected. There is a gravitational rate of 24 hours to 27 days, this drags the ocean
with the debris that was taking shape. After a few imbalance between the Sun, Earth and Moon bulge in a direction that compensates by robbing
hundred million years, the Moon eventually came that is the cause of bulges arising on the Earth’s the Earth’s rotational energy. As a consequence,
into existence and hasn’t left since. It is commonly surface. The area directly underneath the Moon the length of a day has been slowly getting longer
accepted throughout the scientific community will experience the attractive force of the Moon’s by 2.3 milliseconds per century at the present
that the epoch of the Moon came about when a gravity, whereas the opposite will not feel the same rate. By this logic, a day-night cycle in the early
Mars-sized body collided with Earth, vaporising attractive force and look to pull material away from Carboniferous period roughly 350 million years ago
the planet’s crust into space. It was gravity that the lunar side, causing separate bulges, which are would have been less than 23 hours.

14
 Gravity

NASA is actively studying the effects of

microgravity, but to a more extreme degree
than what is felt on the Moon
The receding Moon
If you think a receding hairline is bad, we could lose the Moon!
The aforementioned tidal braking means that we are
not just losing time, but also losing the Moon. With
tidal breaking, there is a loss of energy from the
Earth’s rotation and according to the laws of
thermodynamics, energy cannot be created A modern day full moon
or destroyed and just transferred. In this would pale in comparison to
case, the energy is being given to the one 4 billion years ago
Moon, which is slowly providing it
with the energy to break free of the
Earth’s gravity.
At the moment, the Moon is
receding from the Earth at a rate
of four centimetres (1.6 inches)
per year. This is roughly the
same time in which fingernails
grow, and as the Moon is on
average 385,000 kilometres
(239,000 miles) away from
Earth, it is extremely hard
to notice on relatively short
scales. According to studies
and simulations, 4 billion years
ago the Moon would have been
orbiting Earth at about 130,000
kilometres (80,000 miles) away.
If someone was lucky enough to
be alive at this point in the Earth’s
evolution, a full Moon would appear
three times larger than it is now.

LEFT: Earth’s gravity has tidally locked the

Moon, meaning that only one side of the
Moon is seen at all times

jumping hard enough in order to been studying the effects of microgravity on

break free of a planet’s, or in this the International Space Station. Throughout the
case Moon’s, gravitational shackle is years, they have found that microgravity can have
called the scape velocity. On Earth, adverse effects including decreasing muscle mass
this velocity is over 11 kilometres per (muscle atrophy) and the slow deterioration of
second (equating to roughly 25,000 the skeleton. There are also changes to the body’s
Since intelligent life as we know it has been miles per hour), whereas on our lunar cardiovascular system, eyesight and immune
around over this course of time, exploration of the companion the escape velocity is only just over two system and these are issues that organisations such
Moon hasn’t been possibility until half a century kilometres per second (4,500 miles per hour). This as NASA continue to study for human’s eventual
ago. It was 20 July 1969 when humans first set foot means less fuel is needed to break free, and hence return to the Moon and beyond.
on the Moon and felt the effects of its gravity up why the Apollo missions
close. Along with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, only required a Lunar
ten other men have experienced the gravity of the Module and not a Armstrong and Aldrin were the first two
Moon over the course of five other Apollo missions. huge rocket. people to experience the surface gravity
As the Moon is considerably smaller and less The long-term effects of the Moon in 1969

massive, its gravity in turn is much weaker – in of the lunar gravity

fact, it is about 83 per cent weaker than Earth’s, could prove harmful
meaning that any object on Earth would weigh on the Moon. If ideas
much less on the Moon. Take one of the astronauts; of the future do come
an average adult male’s weight on Earth would true, then one day there
be 89 kilograms (196 pounds), but on the Moon, will be a lunar base.
the astronaut would only weigh 15 kilograms (33 This will be a place on
pounds)! The common conception of the Moon the Moon for humans
© NASA/Bill Ingalls

is that astronauts hop around in the low gravity, to build, live and
looking like if they jumped too hard they wouldn’t colonise. In preparation
come back down to the ground! The concept of for this, scientists have

15
WHAT MADE OUR
MOON?Understanding how our lunar companion was formed
might just explain how we came to be here
Written by Colin Stuart

16
What made our Moon?

© Tobias Roetsch

17
It is the brightest thing in our night sky. Over Darwin – instead proposed that the Earth and Moon On the face of it, this idea makes a lot of sense. We
the course of history it has been revered as God, were once one body and that the latter formed from know from the dark patches on the lunar surface that
trampled on by 12 American men and immortalised material thrown off the spinning Earth. This, he said, parts of the Moon were once molten. The Moon also
in love-soaked poetry. The Moon is our steadfast would explain why the Moon was moving a little has a pretty small iron core – much smaller than the
companion, our only natural satellite as we endlessly further away from us each year. Supporters of this Earth’s – and it is less dense than the Earth. This fits,
orbit the Sun. Yet for an object that has received such idea even pointed to the lack of land in the Pacific too, because during an impact the lightest material
scrutiny, arguments still rage about where exactly the Ocean – which stretches across half of our planet – as would have been thrown the furthest, leaving the
Moon came from. the birthplace of the Moon. However, scientists later heavier stuff here on Earth. Astronomers have a name
A suitable explanation needs to take into account realised that any force capable of dislodging such a for this proposed Mars-sized impactor: Theia, named
what is perhaps the Moon’s greatest oddity: its size. large amount of Earthly material would likely have after the Titan who gave birth to the Moon goddess
It is the fifth largest moon in the Solar System, destroyed the rest of our planet at the same time. Selene in Greek mythology. And computer modelling
trumping most of the satellites of our much bigger So attention turned instead to the idea of a giant has been used to try and figure out what this impact
planetary neighbours. In fact, if you compare the size impact – one that occurred 4.5 billion years ago must have been like in order for it to form the modern
of moons to the size of their host planet, our Moon when the Earth was still forming. It must have been Moon. Traditionally, the best fit seems to come from
comes out at the very top of the list. Many of the this early because the rocks brought back from the a glancing blow – Theia clipping the Earth at an angle
smaller moons of the Solar System are thought to be Moon are that old. Astronomers have long believed of about 45 degrees – and at a relatively slow speed.
captured worlds – bodies that wandered too close to that the Solar System had a tempestuous infancy, The debris from the impact, mostly formed from the
a planet before getting snared in its gravitational pull. throwing around huge lumps of rock and metal leftover remnants of Theia, would have formed a
Given the size of our Moon, it’s hard to imagine that before eventually calming down. What if one of ring around the Earth, which then coalesced into the
is how it ended up circling the Earth. these objects – perhaps one the size of Mars – hit the Moon. But recent analysis of Moon rocks returned
As far back as 1879, George Darwin – the young Earth, with the Moon forming out of the hot, to the Earth during the Apollo missions appears to
astronomer son of the famous naturalist, Charles spinning debris? throw a spanner in the works.
It is all to do with isotopes. What sets different

“If the Moon was formed from a smashed chemical elements apart is the number of protons
present in the nucleus of their atoms. Oxygen, for
apart Theia during a blow with the Earth, example, always has eight. Add another proton and
you get an entirely different element (fluorine, in this
then it should have its own unique oxygen case). But several versions of the same element can
exist, each with the same number of protons but a
isotope. Yet it matches the Earth’s exactly” differing number of neutrons. Scientists call these

How the Moon wasn’t made

It was flung off a It was made elsewhere It was formed at the

rapidly spinning Earth and captured by Earth same time as the Earth
What is it? What is it? What is it?
An idea that was popular for decades was that the Many of the moons in our Solar System are The co-accretion idea is that the Earth and Moon
material that makes up the Moon was once part of thought to be captured objects – Phobos and formed together in the early Solar System from
Earth. It suggested the Moon separated from Earth Deimos around Mars are good examples. It isn’t the debris around the newborn Sun. Support for
while it was semi-molten and spinning rapidly, and inconceivable that Earth could have captured the the idea came from observations of double stars. If
many saw the Pacific Ocean as a void created by Moon, then, as this would explain why the Moon two distinct stars could form out of a nebula then
the departing material. Darwin backed up the idea and Earth appear to have different densities. it seemed at least possible that two worlds might
with solid and accurate calculations. Why it’s wrong coalesce side by side in orbit around a single star.
Why it’s wrong For Earth to capture a large Moon, both objects Why it’s wrong
By the 1930s, calculations showed that Earth would have to travel slowly – a collision was more While the oxygen isotopes may be the same,
© Tobias Roetsch

would have had to spin at an inconceivable rate to probable. It is also unlikely that the Earth’s gravity the densities of the Earth and the Moon and the
throw off enough material to form the Moon. would have been able to hold the Moon for so long. amounts of iron on each are different.

18
 What made our Moon?

1. Theia
approaches Earth
A Mars-sized object
is on an unalterable
2. Earth gets hit
The impactor hits the Earth
in a head-on collision,
vaporising both Theia and
How the
Moon was
collision course with
the early Earth. the mantle of the Earth.

made
4. Debris gathers
Smaller objects begin to condense
out of the vapour while continuing
to orbit around the Earth.

3. Material is
thrown out
The vaporised material
from both bodies mixes
and is thrown outwards
by the huge impact.

5. The Moon
takes shape
Many of the smaller
objects stick
together to form a
proto-Moon in orbit
around the Earth.
6. Our companion
is formed
Eventually, all the pieces
come together to form
the basis of the Moon
that we see today.

19
Moon rock
Hundreds of lunar rock samples
were brought back to the Earth
during the Apollo missions for
scientific study and research

analysis

The age of the Moon No sign of water

Analysis of lunar rocks suggests the The Moon rocks show no signs of
Moon is almost as old as the Earth, past interaction with water. All the
meaning the collision happened geology can be explained as rocks
within Earth’s first 100 million years. being under pressure.

Matching oxygen Differing potassium

isotopes isotopes
The relative abundances of the There is slightly more of one
three stable isotopes of oxygen are particular potassium isotope on the
the same on Earth and the Moon, Moon, pointing to it being vaporised
suggesting a common origin. during a head-on collision.

Astronaut Harrison Schmitt is seen covered in lunar dirt NASA astronaut Charles Conrad, commander of Apollo Wearing special germ-free clothing, Dr Robert Gilruth
while collecting samples during the Apollo 17 mission 12, holds two Moon rocks back on Earth (right) inspects lunar samples from the Apollo 17 mission

20
 What made our Moon?

different flavours of the same element ‘isotopes’.

Mars-sized Theia
Oxygen, for example, has three stable isotopes, with
approaches the
eight, nine or ten neutrons.
still-molten Earth
When it comes to planetary geology, the relative before the head-
amounts of each of these isotopes present on a on collision
celestial object are a key measurement, a bit like
a fingerprint. “Each body in the Solar System
has a unique oxygen isotope signature,” says Dr
Kun Wang, assistant professor of geochemistry at
Washington University in St Louis. And therein
lies the rub. Analysis of the Apollo samples shows
that Moon rocks have exactly the same oxygen
isotope signature as the Earth. If the Moon was
mostly formed from a smashed-apart Theia during a
glancing blow with the Earth, then it should have its
own unique oxygen isotope signature. Yet instead, it
matches the Earth’s signature exactly.
Scientists first discovered this as far back as 2001,
but many researchers believed that this apparent
similarity was just an artefact of the precision of the
experiments – that one day more accurate analysis
would be able to show that there was actually a tiny
difference after all. But the latest research has found
that even with much more precise measurements,
the oxygen isotope signature is still identical, and
therefore we know that the Moon cannot have
come from Theia alone.
Wang believes this points to a much more violent
collision, one that melted the outer layers of both
Earth and Theia. This material then mixed together
to form a vapour – a cloud of material – stretching
from our planet out to 500 Earth radii. The Moon
then condensed from this cloud, explaining why
both bodies now have the same oxygen isotopes.
“Once they mix together, it doesn’t matter what the
oxygen isotopes of the two bodies were before,”
says Wang. But if the notion of a more catastrophic
impact is to be accepted, it needs more than one
strand of supporting evidence. And so that is
exactly what Wang set out to find.
He analysed seven different Moon rock samples
from multiple Apollo missions, along with samples
of Earth rocks, measuring the different abundances
of isotopes of potassium using a technique ten
times more accurate than previously possible. Along
with his colleague Stein Jacobsen from Harvard
University, he published his results. He found that

Theia by numbers
1974 45°
the Moon rocks had a greater abundance of one
particular potassium isotope at the level of 0.4 parts

“But the latest

research has
found that even
6,000km
The width of the Theia impactor, which is
The year the
giant impact
hypothesis
Although new
research suggests a
head-on collision,
about the same size as Mars was first the old picture
with much presented at had a 45-degree
2000

The year
more precise 60-80° that the
name
a conference glancing blow

The axial tilt

measurements,
the oxygen isotope
of the Earth
after Theia
Theia was
proposed
by English 4.31 billion
geochemist The number of years ago it
signature is collided with Alex is thought Theia collided with
the planet Halliday the Earth to form the Moon
still identical”
21
per 1,000 more than the Earth. “Potassium is a lot computer simulations of the giant impact, with formation of the Moon are still very much in flux.
more volatile than oxygen, meaning it is more likely slightly different parameters each time. The one Quite how we came to have such a large Moon on
to vaporise and be mobile after the collision,” says that gave the closest match to the Moon’s current an inclined orbit is a puzzle still occupying teams of
Helen Williams, an Earth scientist at the University orbit suggests that Theia’s impact was actually a lot astronomers around the world. But it seems we are
of Cambridge, UK. So the potassium was more likely more calamitous for our planet than previous models getting closer.
to end up far away from the Earth and become have suggested. And that’s important, because discovering the
incorporated as part of the Moon. But for potassium The almighty wallop from Theia would have sent Moon’s history is a key step in understanding how
to be vaporised in the first place, the collision must the Earth spinning much faster – more than twice as likely such events are in the wider universe. And,
have vaporised both Theia and much of the Earth’s fast, in fact, as other previous models have suggested. in turn, that might help us answer a much bigger
surface. To Wang, that has all the hallmarks of a What’s more, the Earth would have been knocked question: whether we are alone in the universe.
head-on collision rather than a glancing blow. over almost on its side, with its axis tilted somewhere That’s because many scientists have speculated that
But even if he is right, there are still some between 60 and 80 degrees to the ecliptic (today it is the churning of the oceans by a Moon that was much
outstanding Moon mysteries in need of explanation only tilted by 23.4 degrees). closer to the Earth than it is today could have played
– none more so than the unusual tilt of the Moon’s This high inclination affected the Moon as it a key role in the early development of life on Earth.
orbit around the Earth. The Moon would have retreated from the Earth, forcing it into an orbit tilted Its gravitational pull also stabilises the Earth’s axis,
initially formed in an orbit matching the orientation at an angle of around 30 degrees to the ecliptic. “It keeping our seasons steady and reliable.
of Earth’s equator, and then as it moved further from then settled down to five degrees over the last 4.5 This flurry of recent research has put us one step
our planet, the gravitational pull of the Sun would billion years,” says Hamilton. At the same time, the closer to understanding how our Moon came to be,
have forced it into line with the orbits of the other Earth’s axis started to straighten up to its present and it may one day help us understand our place in
planets – a plane known as the ‘ecliptic’. position. It just goes to show that our ideas about the the universe.
Yet today’s Moon orbits at an angle of five degrees
to the ecliptic. “That might not sound like much,
but all the other big moons of the Solar System are
“The Theia impact would have knocked
inclined at less than a degree to their planets – so
the Moon really stands out,” says Douglas Hamilton,
Earth over almost on its side, with its axis
professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland.
A team led by Hamilton has recently attempted
tilted somewhere between 60 and 80
to explain this strange anomaly. They ran many degrees to the ecliptic”
We are still not certain
how the Moon ended up
in orbit around the Earth

Unlike Mars’ moon Deimos, our Moon wasn’t captured

as it passed by our planet

Moonset as seen by astronaut Tim Peake aboard the

International Space Station

22
 What made our Moon?

Lunar make-up
Crust

Lithospheric
mantle

Partially molten
asthenosphere

Core

© NASA; JPL-Caltech; University of Arizona; USGS; Bryce Edwards; Science Photo Library; Mark Garlick; Richard Bizley; Carlos Clarivan;
Maria
(lunar seas)

Found in Earth's:
Moon core Moon mantle Moon crust
Crust Core Mantle

Fe Orthopyroxene, Clinopyroxene, O Si Mg
Iron
OPx CPx  
Oxygen Silicon Magnesium

Ni Olivine Fe Ca Al
Nickel Iron Calcium Aluminium

23
 MIKE ALAN
BROWN VS STERN

IS THE MOON
A PLANET?
New Horizons’ scientists have fuelled debate by creating their own
definition of a planet, but it also has consequences for our Moon
Interviewed by David Crookes

Scientists on the New Horizons mission to Pluto objects and it crosses Neptune’s path, placing it be planets? Caltech’s Mike Brown doesn’t think
have long expressed their frustration at the into what was then a newly created category of so, believing the IAU definition to be correct. He
body’s demotion to a dwarf planet. On 24 August “dwarf planet” along with Ceres and Eris. Alan calls himself the ‘Pluto Killer’ and is aghast that
2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Stern, who has led New Horizons, has been vocal “the stupid Pluto stories are back”, as he wrote
decided to nail down the definition of a planet about Pluto’s “miscarriage of justice” for many on Twitter. But Brown, who co-discovered Eris in
but it controversially demoted Pluto, sparking an years and now he and a group of scientists have 2005, predicts there is a large planet in the outer
argument that continues to rage to this day. devised their own definition. They presented it Solar System 5,000 times the mass of Pluto.
According to the IAU, a planet needs to be at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference That, he says, is Planet Nine, claiming Pluto
round, orbit the Sun and, crucially, clear the but it came with consequences: it also defines will always be a dwarf. Here, Stern and Brown
neighbourhood around its orbit. Yet Pluto shares moons as planets. This now means there are tell All About Space just why they hold their
its orbital neighbourhood with Kuiper Belt two definitions, but which is right? Can moons differing opinions.

24
 Is the Moon a planet?

It’s getting on for 11 years since the IAU own attributes and not what it is next to. We don’t else that gets around them.” So you call that clearing
downgraded Pluto’s planetary status. But does the classify stars according to whether they are in groups the Solar System, or you call it something else. But
definition of a planet still make perfect sense in or galaxies or not, or whether they clear any orbit if you miss that simple most profound fact about
terms of the science that we know today? in a galaxy (and in fact none of them do). We don’t the bodies in the Solar System, then you’ve kind of
Mike Brown (MB): Yes. I would say we have learned classify asteroids and galaxies that way either. But the missed what the Solar System is all about. That is
absolutely nothing new about what a planet is astronomers of the IAU do this, in their very flawed what the IAU is trying to describe and that is why it
and nothing that would lead you to have to redo a planet definition, to limit the number of planets to a does matter. There is such a difference in our Solar
definition. It’s not impossible: we could make new manageable level, which is quite unscientific. System between these eight bodies and how they
discoveries that would challenge our current concept, Data is data. If there are a lot of mountains, so be got there and why, and all the other tiny bodies are
but none of those have been made so far. My it. If there are a lot of rivers or species or hundreds of flitting in and out or going around these bodies.
interpretation is that those who want to redefine it scientific elements, so be it. We don’t try to manage
feel like Pluto is in the news a lot these days and that the number to be small. Astronomers don’t try to In reports about defining what is a planet, Alan
this is their last chance. manage the numbers of galaxies or stars or any other has said that Pluto should be upgraded along with
Alan Stern (AS): The IAU definition of 2006 is not type of objects in the universe except one: planets. the Earth’s Moon, two moons orbiting Jupiter and
only antiquated but it was developed in a rush by a And this disastrous definition, which no one is happy two circling Saturn. The argument is that a planet
bunch of scientists from another field: astronomy. But with years later, means they still have to pay for it in should be defined by a body’s intrinsic physical
astronomers and planetary scientists are as different terms of their reputation. The controversy will not go properties rather than their extrinsic orbital
in terms of expertise as, say, neurology and podiatry away because they botched it so bad. properties. Are you able to elaborate?
in medicine. I know that as a planetary scientist, I MB: You know, I would say the definition that the AS: Very simply, we recognise whether or not
have very little expertise in black holes and galaxies. IAU adopted is poorly worded so I won’t defend that, something is or is not a planet based entirely upon its
Similarly, astronomers have very little expertise in but I will defend the concept that they were trying own characteristics and not what it is near to. So, for
real-world planets. But back in 2006, they really to describe. It really is very simple: if you look at our example, large moons of planets are recognised that
botched it up and they have created some headaches Solar System with fresh eyes, it is very difficult not way and, what’s more, we have recognised satellites
for educators, school children and the public who say, to say, “oh wow, look, there are eight things that are of planets that are themselves planets, historically, for
“what the heck, it doesn’t add up. Every sci-fi planet large and they gravitationally dominate everything centuries. If you do some Google searches, you’ll see
I’ve ever seen looks like Pluto. How can it not be a
planet?” The new definition actually works much
better with the things that we know and one of the
“In biology, we don't decide whether
nice attributes of it is that it is actually designed by
working experts in planetary science.
a cow is a cow based on whether it is
But isn’t the IAU’s definition now set as the one
in a herd or isolated” Alan Stern
that will be referred to by most people?
MB: Yes. Alan will argue until he can’t talk any more
that Pluto should be a planet and then people will see
his argument and say, “oh, is it going to be a planet
again?” and the answer is no. There is no groundswell
of movement to make it a planet again, just a very
vocal minority of people who want it to be so who
will continue to be vocal.
AS: It’s still open. Why am I getting interviewed five
or ten times a week on this topic, years after the IAU
vote? In the scientific community, why are papers
being written on it? Mike is trying to say, “don’t pay
attention, it’s a settled matter”, because he hopes to
keep the status quo. You’ll find planetary scientists
who agree with Mike but I think you’ll find a great
majority do not. You can search the literature on
Google Scholar, look up Pluto in technical papers and
see the word planet being used by my colleagues
routinely. And you can do the same for these
satellites, the moons of the planets and other worlds
in the Kuiper Belt. It’s just data. You don’t have to ask
for opinion. Just find what’s published.

Much of the definition and downgrading of Pluto

appears to hinge very much on whether a body is
able to clear the neighbourhood around its orbit.
But how crucial is that?
AS: It’s not important whatsoever: that’s only about
where an object is and what is next to it. So, you
know, in geology – to make an analogy – we don’t
classify mountains according to whether or not they
After months of testing and
are isolated or come as a group, or whether they are a 9.5-year journey over 4.8bn
in a linear range or any other association with regards km (3bn mi), NASA’s New
to what is next to them. Similarly, in biology, we don’t Horizons craft made its closest
decide whether a cow is a cow based on whether it approach to Pluto in July 2015
is in a herd or isolated. An object is really about its
 that professional planetary scientists call Titan and
How the International What the alternative Europa by the name planet. You’ll see it if you go to
Astronomical Union definition states scientific meetings. It’s the way that we describe these
things and you’ll find these references throughout the
defines a planet Alan Stern and other planetary scientists have put 21st and 20th centuries.
forward their own definition of a planet.
It must orbit the Sun It states: Is there great merit in this definition?
The Sun is the centre of the MB: No. This is precisely the argument that we had
Solar System and it pulls 11 years ago and it was rejected. It will get attention
planets into a curved orbit. Planet: a sub-stellar mass body because it is Pluto and people love the idea of
that has never undergone people fighting about Pluto, but it is not a good idea
nuclear fusion and that has because it ignores the Solar System. Some people say
It has to be round (ish)
A body needs sufficient sufficient self-gravitation to classification doesn’t matter but I would argue the
opposite as the way you classify things is what drives
mass so that its own gravity assume a spheroidal shape
squashes it into a nearly the questions that you ask.
round ball.
adequately described by a And so the question that we ask in the Solar
triaxial ellipsoid regardless of System is: how did the planets form? When we ask
It needs its own space its orbital parameters that question, we’re not asking about moons or tiny
It must “clear the bodies – we are separating out these planets from
neighbourhood around its In other words, it cares less about the orbit of a all other small bodies. We then ask: why there are
orbit” – that is, it must be body or the gravitational effect it may have on planets and small bodies? Why are there moons?
gravitationally dominant with other objects and concentrates entirely on what Nobody asks the question: why are there round
no other comparably sized it intrinsically is. It means Pluto along with Titan, things? And that’s because we know the answer to
bodies in its vicinity. Charon and our Moon are defined as planets. that. That’s just gravity.
I think, finally, Alan has admitted that this
[definition] has to include the Moon. For many years,

“This is just a nostalgic, desperate attempt they tried to have it both ways: they wanted to say,
“Everything round is a planet, except for moons.” And
to get Pluto to be a planet again and moons I would say, “You just said that it doesn’t matter what
it is, so how come the Moon is not a planet?” Now
are sort of the collateral damage” Mike Brown they have to admit that this definition makes the
Moon a planet, and then that just makes it silly. There
is nobody on Earth who is sad because the Moon
was declared to not be a planet 500 years ago. We’ve
moved on and it seems crazy to go back to it.
AS: It’s actually a very symmetrical definition to the
way that we treat stars, asteroids, galaxies and other
objects in space. We have satellite galaxies that are
galaxies; we have satellite asteroids that are called
asteroids; and we have binary stars that are both
stars – one goes around the other and even though
one is smaller than the other, we call them both stars.
And so these big round worlds with surface areas that
are large are routinely called planets, and one of the
things I like best about this definition is that it is well
aligned with other classification schemes. So asteroids
can orbit asteroids, stars can orbit stars and, lo and
behold, planets can orbit planets.

What about the argument that has been put

forward that says bodies orbiting other planets and
not just the Sun could be a method of determining
whether moons could be upgraded?
MB: It would include the Moon. It would include four
moons of Jupiter and it would include at least Titan,
probably more, and actually a lot of the moons of
Saturn. So there would be a dozen or more moons
that would suddenly be called planets. Another
thing that just strikes me as semi-ridiculous about
this proposal is that if this were important, if moons
should be planets, how come nobody proposed this
until Pluto was demoted?
This is really not about moons being planets, which
Mike Brown is known as the is just sort of an aside that has to happen too. This is
‘Pluto Killer’ for his involvement just a nostalgic, desperate attempt to get Pluto to be
in Pluto’s demotion from the a planet again and moons are sort of the collateral
status of planet to dwarf planet damage of the desperate attempt.

26
 Is the Moon a planet?

A composite of enhanced
colour images of Pluto (right)
and Charon (above), taken
by New Horizons in 2015.
The lead of the mission, Alan
Would New Horizons still have got off the ground if Stern, has created a new
Pluto were defined as a dwarf planet during funding? definition of planets

to talk about what was really going on there. It’s

“That definitely actually is very similar to entirely possible that whole decision-making process

the geophysical planet definition that we could have gone differently if they hadn’t made so
many mistakes in trying to roll out how it went.

are putting forward” Alan Stern And in the end, I think people just got irritated with
the desperate attempts to keep Pluto and just said
forget it. Let’s just finally have the correct scientific
One of the arguments against the 2006 definition concept is rock solid. People have just been trying to definition and forget all of the nostalgia that we need
is that it only recognises objects orbiting our Sun… take the definition apart and say we need to classify to keep Pluto around.
AS: Yes, that definition excluded planets around Pluto as a planet again. The definition could certainly AS: Very simply the IAU put together a committee
other stars and objects orbiting freely in space. Our be stated better but it’s still right. of experts in their field and they worked on it pretty
definition takes that all under the wing if you will and AS: It’s true, you know, near-Earth asteroids surround hard. They weren’t bending over backwards or doing
handles all of those cases very simply. the Earth. Jupiter has the Trojan asteroids and Pluto anything else and that definition actually is very
MB: That part of the definition is often misstated crosses Neptune’s orbit, and part of the flaw in the similar to the geophysical planet definition that we
and I think purposely misstated. The IAU definition IAU definition is that if you take it literally, which is are putting forward.
says that we are going to define planets in our own what we do in science because we have to be precise,
Solar System and that we are declining to yet make then it rules out all of the planets in the Solar System When Pluto was demoted, it meant that other
a definition for things outside of our Solar System because there is not one that doesn’t have other bodies were too. Mike, you co-discovered Eris
because we don’t know enough at this point. That’s objects around it. So they did a poor job and we’re and had a lot to lose at that time. Did you feel any
a reasonable thing to do but people, I think, have trying to clean that up. emotion when it was classified as a dwarf planet?
purposely misread that to say, “oh, they say there are MB: I have to say, I was shocked and pleased when
only planets around our Sun and not around other Before the 2006 decision, there had been a the decision was made because I knew it was
stars”, and that is an attempt to confuse people. proposal to include 12 planets and that would have inherently right. I was watching the decision on some
meant Pluto’s status remaining as it was, together live stream on TV and when the vote came in, I was
The argument against the IAU definition also says with the addition of Ceres, Eris and Charon. Were elated. It was a hard decision for astronomers to make
no planet in the Solar System can clear an orbit there some valid points in that argument? but it was absolutely the right one. I called up my
because small cosmic bodies fly through them. Is MB: It was a weird convoluted attempt at a definition wife and said, “They just did it; they actually made
that a valid point? to keep Pluto a planet. I was actually unhappy with the right decision. Pluto is not a planet anymore.” And
MB: So again, these are all the arguments that were that definition because they were trying to make it she said, “Does that mean Eris is not a planet?” And
put forward to try to confuse people. Obviously, the seem like it was not a big change. They said round I said, “Er, yes.” There was a little sad part of me for
astronomers who were voting on the definition of things are planets but the only ones that count are Eris but it was completely the right thing.
planets knew what they were talking about and so Pluto, Charon and Eris, which ignored the other
what they meant when they said clearing the orbit 200 round things that we know about in the Solar Rethinking what is or isn't a planet isn’t a new
clearly meant clearing of all of the other major bodies System because people would have found that to be thing. In 1801, Ceres was thought to be the eighth
– there are always going to be smaller bodies there. a little shocking. So they had a definition but then planet and it remained that way for half a century
I agree that the definition is poorly stated but the they didn’t believe their own definition enough until it was reclassified as an asteroid, and then it

27
 “When the IAU definition was made, I was make the argument that we’d like to go visit Pluto.
But it would have been harder and I think that’s okay.
clear that this closed the door on Solar We need to work hard if we are spending $1 billion of
taxpayers’ money to go fly a spacecraft out there.
System planets… I was wrong” Mike Brown Does a definition that opens the way for many
more objects to be defined as a planet mean that
was upgraded to the status of dwarf planet. asteroids: items that are clearly not planets. They are new discoveries are devalued in some way?
AS: Exactly. In science, we learn more and ideas fully funded because of the importance of them. MB: 11 years ago, I would not have guessed there
evolve. We are open to new data and ideas and MB: You have to justify missions based on good was a possibility that there was another planet out
boundaries move back and forth. In the 20th scientific arguments, not by trying to pretend there in the Solar System. In fact, when the new
century, we only knew of nine planets and you could something is something it’s not. If Eris, for example, IAU definition was made I think I was clear that this
memorise their names. But things have changed a had been declared one of ten planets, it would get closed the door on Solar System planets. Now I think
lot since the 1990s when many planets started being an inordinate amount attention and funding and I was wrong. There is evidence of a Planet Nine that
discovered around other stars. Since then, we’ve inordinate other things and that would be crazy. We is 5,000 times more massive than Pluto and when it
found distant worlds beyond Neptune and we know need to explain why they are important to study and is found, I think it will get the appropriate attention
every star that we look at has planets. So it’s an old, that they don’t have to be planets to be interesting. as an actual, important major body. But it also shows
antiquated, 20th-century view that we should be how important it was ten years ago to solidify our
able to name all the planets. Much like we do with Do you think New Horizons would have got off definition of the word planet. If we had 200 planets
mountains and rivers on Earth and the stars in the the ground if Pluto had been classified as a dwarf out there and we said, “We’ve found another one”,
sky, we just catalogue them. I think it’s wonderful planet when the mission was proposed? people would say, “That’s no big deal, there are 200.”
that we are discovering more of them and the public AS: I rather suspect it would have been funded. AS: I don’t look at it in terms of valuation. We don’t
get it. It’s like Star Trek, there are a crazy number of Nothing about Pluto would change simply by devalue stars just because we’re finding new ones.
them but you have to give up naming them all. changing the nomenclature. Nonetheless, the We don’t devalue the new discovery of species and
nomenclature is today antiquated and wrong and I there are thousands of species on Earth. When a new
Have these changing definitions affected science really appreciate it when journalists tell that story in element is discovered, we don’t say it is 115 times less
in any way – perhaps by making certain bodies a fair way. I think the tide has turned and even in important as hydrogen, the first element. This is an
less attractive so you’re not able to get as much textbooks now it is clear they are backtracking from anti-scientific approach that says somehow, because
funding for a study, for instance? the flawed IAU definition. you find more planets, they become less and less
AS: No, I don’t think so. NASA’s most recent selection MB: It’s not impossible. A lot of the justification they important. There is no analogy to it anywhere else
of missions – $1 billion worth of space exploration had early on was that this was the mission to the last in science. We are scientists and science needs to be
– includes Lucy and Psyche on missions to large planet; but I think that we now know enough to still informed by data.

Could the Moon be

defined as a planet?
The alternative
definition suggests
so, while the IAU’s
definition does not

© Shutterstock; Getty images; Win McNamee; Don Bartletti; NASA; ESO; Claus Madsen; JHUAPL; SwRI; NOAA

28
“THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR A MAN,
ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND…”
Discover the missions that paved the way for Apollo 11’s historic journey, the
astronauts who followed in Neil Armstrong’s first footsteps, and the brave
crews that risked their lives in the name of exploration and space science.

ON SALE
NOW

Ordering is easy. Go online at:

Or get it from selected supermarkets & newsagents

 Observer’s guide to the
SUPERMOON
Make the most of the lunar surface as the Moon makes its
close approach to the Earth

© Stephen Spraggon; Alamy

30
 Observer's guide to the supermoon

Enthusiasts of observing our nearest celestial How to spot the Apollo 11 Moon landing site
companion always look forward to the rise of
Find the centre of the Moon
what's called the supermoon. This phenomenon
occurs when our lunar companion makes its closest
approach to Earth on its elliptical orbit, which is
known as perigee, when it’s also in its full phase.
1 Begin right in the middle of the Moon
and move up the centre line until you’re
about level with the crater Copernicus.

Move to the right

At such a time, the Moon can look larger and
brighter than it normally does – especially when it
is seen rising above the horizon. This is an optical
illusion, which causes our lunar companion to seem
2 Move your gaze over to the right
until you come across a big dark sea.
It should have another sea of about the
same size joining it to the top left.
bigger than it really is when it is high in the sky.
Find the Sea of Tranquility
With the effects brought about by our celestial
sphere aside, the supermoon will appear seven per
cent bigger than a standard full Moon and around 12
per cent larger than when the Moon is at apogee –
3 The bottom of the Sea of Tranquility
is split into two sections. The Apollo
11 landing site is the left-hand area.

Locate the approximate

the point in its elliptical orbit when it’s furthest from
the Earth.
Whether you’re observing the surface of the Moon
with a telescope or binoculars, or simply enjoying the
4 landing site
Although you won’t see any detail
due to the landing site itself being very
small, it is located around 20km (12.4mi)
spectacle with the naked eye, a supermoon makes south-southwest of the crater Sabine D.
an enjoyable sight to behold, with some astronomers
reporting that the slight increase in size allows them
to observe some of the lunar surface’s finer details
with ease. On the evenings where this astronomical
phenomenon takes place you’ll find that the Moon
will appear brighter by quite a few per cent, washing
out craters, lunar maria and other fascinating
features. To remedy this, we recommend that you
use a Moon filter with your telescope so that you can 01 02
knock down brightness and boost contrast through
the field of view.
While a full Moon is perhaps the worst time to
gaze upon the lunar surface, there is a plus side: it
does give you the most comprehensive view of the 04 03
Moon’s litany of maria – sprawling, dark regions more
commonly known as seas. These vast plains do not
contain any water, but were once oceans of lava
present in our satellite’s younger days. Along with
the Sea of Tranquility – the site of the historic first
Moon landing – there are seas of Cleverness, Nectar,
Clouds and many others. Smaller plains are known as
‘lacus’ or lakes, with wistful names like the Lakes of
Softness, Dreams, Perseverance and Solitude. Other

What causes a supermoon?

When a full Moon coincides with perigee
– the point in its orbit where it is closest to
Earth – our Moon appears slightly larger
than usual. Here's what happened in 2016 Perigee Apogee
When the Moon is at When the Moon is at
17 October its closest to Earth its furthest from Earth
PERIGEE
APOGEE

Nearest to Earth:
357,000km (221,830mi)

31 October
Furthest from Earth:
7% larger than at 406,000km (252,276mi)
an average distance
14 November
12% larger Nearest to Earth: Average distance
than at apogee 356,000km (221,200mi) between Earth and Moon:
Moon appears 27 November 384,400km (238,855mi)
20 to 30% Furthest from Earth:
brighter than at apogee 406,000km (252,276mi)

31
related features include the ‘sinus’ or bays (such as into glass beads, which then fell back to the surface. tall, it is more than half the size of Mount Everest
the Bays of Rainbows, Roughness and Dew) and If you look closely in the area around Tycho, you’ll here on Earth). The famous Italian astronomer Galileo
‘palus’ or marshes (including the Marshes of Decay see long, thin ‘rays’ stretching outwards like the Galilei was able to use these shadows to work out the
and Sleep). The largest of these features are visible spokes of a wheel and those glass beads glinting in mountain heights for the first time.
with the unaided eye and can be enhanced with a the sunlight. Other popular targets for amateur Moon-watchers
pair of low-power binoculars. Slightly further towards the lunar limb you’ll are volcanic rilles. While their exact origin is unclear,
After the lunar seas, it’s the craters you’ll notice find the crater Clavius. Consisting of one large, old they are likely either ancient transport routes for the
next – huge pits created when space debris piled crater whose floor is peppered with holes from later Moon’s bygone lava flows or cracks in the lunar crust.
headlong into the lunar regolith. These craters come impacts, it shows that the Moon was hit at many One of the most famous rilles is the 100-kilometre
in two basic types: simple and complex. Complex points during its history. Depending on the time (62-mile) long Rupes Recta (also known as the
craters boast an additional central peak, and one of of the month you are looking, you might also see 'Straight Wall'), which forms part of the Mare
the most popular and accessible of these is Tycho, shadows stretching out like tentacles on the crater Nubium not far from Tycho in the Moon’s southern
which is also one of the youngest. Just over 100 floor; they are being cast by the towering rim of the hemisphere. Moving to the northern hemisphere,
million years ago, the southern area of the Moon crater, which forms a Moon mountain range that is you’ll also find Hadley Rille near Mons Hadley in
was struck and the energy of the impact melted several kilometres high. Even higher mountains are the rugged Montes Apenninus mountain range.
some of the rock, throwing it high into the lunar sky. found around the edge of maria, with the largest It was here that the Apollo 15 astronauts placed a
Instantly hitting ice-cold space, the ejecta solidified being Mons Huygens (at 5.5 kilometres or 3.4 miles small aluminium sculpture known as ‘The Fallen
Astronaut’, in honour of those who had lost their lives
in space exploration endeavours.
“The Moon’s slight increase in size in the sky However you choose to view the supermoon,
whether you go hunting for seas, lakes, bays, craters,
allows astronomers to observe some of the marshes, rays, mountain ridges or rilles, or if you
prefer to watch it rise above mountains, houses or
lunar surface’s finer details with ease” trees, you’re guaranteed to have spectacular sights.

How to make a
supermoon mosaic
Make a memory that lasts
and capture a high-definition
shot of a mega-Moon
The Moon is so close that getting a single, detailed
image of all of its wonders is no mean feat. Instead,
a lot of astronomers create a ‘Moon mosaic’ – a large
image made up of several images stitched together.
One of the easiest ways to achieve this is by
attaching a webcam to your telescope. You can even
Find your location Set up your equipment
buy specialised Moon imaging equipment such as
Meade’s Lunar Planetary Imager, which plugs straight
into your computer via USB. A location where you’ll
have a clear view of the Moon for several hours is
1 Ideally you want a place far from street lighting
that will give you an uninterrupted view of the
Moon for several hours – the last thing you want is the
Moon disappearing behind a tree halfway through your
2 You’ll need a telescope in order to capture the
finer detail on the lunar surface. Set it up in the
usual way and attach your chosen imaging equipment
(either a DSLR camera, webcam or dedicated lunar
also favourable. If you’re successful, you could show imaging! Make sure it is fully dark too – changing light imager). A red filter can also cut out some atmospheric
off your creation by printing it onto a canvas. conditions can be troublesome. disturbance, leading to sharper images.

Find the optimum settings Take the shots/video Process your mosaic
3 It is key that your images are in focus. To get the
best focus, move your telescope to the edge of
the Moon to get light and dark. Take a few test shots
and zoom in to check for absolute focus. You should
4 Whether recording videos (AVI is best) or taking
static shots, start at the top of the terminator
and systematically work your way around the lunar
surface. Splitting the Moon up into 20-30 sections
5 Use software like RegiStax to get the best frames
from your videos. You can then use a piece of
stitching software such as iMerge in order to build up
your mosaic. Once you have your mosaic, polish it off
also experiment with exposure times to ensure that no is probably about right. It doesn’t matter if the areas by sharpening the contrast in photo editing software
part of the Moon is saturated. overlap a little. such as Photoshop.

32
 Observer's guide to the supermoon

Top supermoon targets Feature type:

Crater
Minimum optical aid:
Naked eye
Whether you’re using a telescope, binoculars or the naked eye, Lunar Sea Binoculars
Mountain range Telescope
there are plenty of sights to be had on the lunar surface

Mare Frigoris Montes

Plato (Sea of Cold) Apenninus Mare Serenitatis
Archimedes (Sea of Serenity)

Sinus Iridium (Bay Mare Tranquillitatis

of Rainbows) (Sea of Tranquility)

Mare Imbrium Mare Fecunditatis

(Sea of (Sea of Fertility)
Showers)
Mare Crisium
Aristarchus (Sea of Crises)

Copernicus Langrenus

Kepler

Grimaldi

Oceanus
Procellarum
(Ocean of
Storms)
Mare Nectaris
Mare Nubium (Sea of
(Sea of Clouds) Nectar)

Mare Humorum Stevinus

(Sea of Moisture) Mare Vaporum
Tycho (Sea of Vapours)
Mare Insularum
Clavius (Sea of Islands)
© NASA

Tycho crater Montes Apenninus Calvius crater

33
 SECRETS FROM THE
FAR SIDE
MOON OF
THE

Often referred to as the dark side of the Moon, it’s

about time we went back – according to NASA’s
lunar astronauts and planetary scientists
Written by Nick Howes

34
 Secrets from the far side of the Moon

Timeline The Moon shows us its smiling Man in the Moon

face every month, illuminated by the Sun to
varying degrees over the course of its orbit around
us. However, thanks to its orbital dynamics, we
1959 only ever get to see that one hemisphere from
Lunar 3 spacecraft Earth. The other hemisphere – the ‘far side’ – is
takes the first constantly concealed from us.
photograph of the
Well, that's not strictly true. Libration, which
lunar far side
is the gentle ‘wobbling’ of the Moon in the sky
caused by changes in its position in tis elliptical
(i.e. non-circular) orbit around Earth, means that
1962 we can catch glimpses of small slivers of the far
NASA’s side – we can actually see 59 per cent of the Moon’s
Ranger 4 surface from Earth at different times of the year.
space probe But until the first space missions to the Moon flew
becomes around our natural satellite, what lay beyond on Cernan, Young and Stafford on board Apollo 10
the first the far side was a mystery.
spacecraft to It’s often mistakenly thought that the far side Charlie Duke, who was the Lunar Module pilot on
impact the of the Moon is in darkness. Rather, it experiences the Apollo 16 mission, told All About Space. “It was
far side of
day/night cycles just like the near side. When we early morning during the Moon day at the Apollo
the Moon
see half of the Moon being illuminated by the Sun, 16 landing site, which was called Descartes. We
giving it a half or crescent shape in the sky, half of were the fifth mission to land on the Moon and I
the Moon on the far side is being illuminated at the can say that it really is a dramatic place.”
same time. When the Moon is new, the far side is Our first glimpse of the mysterious far side
1965 in full daylight instead. When the Moon is full, it’s came early in the space race, courtesy of the Soviet
Soviet probe
night-time on the far side. The reason we only see Union’s Luna 3 spacecraft almost 60 years ago.
Zond 3
the one face is because of a phenomenon known as In 1959, barely two years after placing Sputnik 1
transits 25
pictures of ‘tidal locking’. The Moon rotates on its axis roughly in orbit, Russian engineers managed to send the
the lunar once every 27 days, which is the same amount spacecraft, which was crude by today’s standards,
far side of time it takes to orbit the Earth. This means it into orbit around the Moon and, for the first time,
is rotating at a rate that means we always see the we got a good look at the mysterious far side.
same face, more or less, as it moves around Earth. Luna 3 took film images of the far side in total,
“There are two weeks of daylight and two which were photographically developed, fixed and
weeks of night on every spot on the lunar surface,” dried on board – remember, this was long before
1966 to
1967
Lunar Orbiter
program
“There are two weeks of daylight and two
provides
majority of weeks of night on every spot of the lunar
coverage of
lunar far side surface. It's a dramatic place” Charlie Duke
Apollo Capsule program
manager George Low
1967 (left) alongside Wernher
Prominent impact Von Braunm, the
basin Mare Orientale designer of the Saturn V
photographed by Luna
Orbiter 4

1968
Apollo 8 astronauts
see the lunar far side
for the first time
©NASA

35
multi-mega-pixel cameras. Ironically, the film used controversy in what was known as the height of the In the meantime, NASA was progressing its
had been stolen from American spy balloons, as it Cold War era. Apollo Program at a phenomenal rate. Following the
had to be sturdy and radiation-hardened. We already had an inkling of one of those vast declaration by President Kennedy that the United
The spacecraft, using a combination of two new craters, which is actually one of the very few States would place a man on the Moon and return
camera systems – one wide field and one narrow- mare on the far side. The subtlest hint of Mare him safely to the Earth by the end of the 1960s,
field but higher resolutio – and a crude on-board Orientale, one of the largest impact craters known, by December 1968 NASA were ready to send three
scanner, could then send transmit the processed seen on the limb of the Moon, had been known of people – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders
images, which were spot scanned from the since it’s ‘discovery’ by Julius Franz in 1906 and can – all the way around the Moon and back for the
photographs, back to the receiving station in the be seen during good librations when that portion of Apollo 8 mission. They became the first humans in
former Soviet Union. While only 17 of the 29 taken the Moon swings around towards us. history not only to escape from low Earth orbit, but
were transmitted successfully back to Earth, of The view from Luna 3 showed how vast an to see the elusive far side.
which just six were considered good enough for impact crater Orientale was, resembling a bull’s This is how Lovell famously described the lunar
publication, they proved to be a revelation. eye. It was almost 900 kilometres (560 miles) surface: “The Moon is essentially grey, no colour,
Those 6 images covered 70 per cent of the across – pretty much the length of the UK, give or looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a greyish beach
Moon’s far side and opened up a whole new take – and was caused by the impact of an asteroid sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. There’s not as
perspective on the lunar surface. It was almost impact, thought to be around 64 kilometres (40 much contrast between that and the surrounding
immediately evident that the dark patches that miles) wide just under 4 billion years ago, and the craters. The craters are all rounded off. There’s quite
make the face of the Man in the Moon on the near resulting giant crater, termed an impact basin, was a few of them, some of them are newer. Many of
side are almost completely absent on the far side. subsequently filled with volcanic lava. them look like – especially the round ones – look
These dark patches are basaltic plains called mare, In 1965, another Soviet mission, Zond 3, flew like [they were] hit by meteorites or projectiles of
created by volcanic activity on the Moon billions of by the Moon with a far better camera than Luna some sort.”
years ago. 3 possessed and with the ability to conduct When their spacecraft flew around the far side of
Instead, the far side was littered with craters, more detailed science observations, including the Moon, the signal to Earth was cut off for around
even more so than the near side, and some of those spectroscopy. Zond 3 produced 23 very detailed ten minutes. This loss of signal was a daunting
craters were the size of small countries. The Soviets photographs of the lunar far side, which enabled time for the flight crew and mission control, alone
started naming many of the features they were one of the first detailed maps of the entire lunar and truly cut off from Earth, venturing where no
seeing for the first time, an act which caused some surface to be constructed. human had ever gone before. As they came back
around from the far side, a collective sigh of relief
was breathed by many of the flight team at Mission
“The computer told us that we were out Control in Houston. Charlie Duke describes what it
was like to be flying over the far side of the Moon.
of contact with the Earth and that we had “The computer told us that we were out of
contact with the Earth and that we had loss of
loss of signal” Charlie Duke signal,” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, there was

Charlie Duke became the youngest person

to walk on the Moon during Apollo 16

36
 Secrets from the far side of the Moon

Two sides to the Moon

We can't see the far side from Earth, but Mare Frigoris
the lunar faces are impressively different
Aristoteles
Plato Alpine
Endymion
Valley
Lunar plains

Ca
Visible with the naked eye,

uc
as
maria – latin for seas – are Mare Imbrium

us
Schroeter's
visible. They are soldified
Valley

es
pools of ancient lava. Archimedes

nin
Mare
Aristarchus Mare

en
Serenitatis

Ap
Crisium
Eratosthenes
Carpathians
The highlands Reiner
Lunar highlands have been Kepler Mare
Vaporum Mare
dated at 4.4 billion years and
are unlikely to have formed Copernicus Tranquillitatis
from tectonic activity. Oceanus
Procellanum
Mare
Grimaldi
Fecunditatis
Theophilus
Ptolemaeus
Mare Mare
Orientale Albategnius Nectaris
Heavily cratered Mare
Mare Nubium Altair
Compared to the near Homorum Arzachel Scarp
side, the Moon's far side
is incredibly rugged with Rheita
Straight Wall
Gamov Southern Valley
next to no flat lunar maria. Emden
Tikhov Tycho Highlands
Schickard
Compton D'Alembert
Impact craters
Campbell Rowland Made from asteroids and
Bridgman Clavius comets crashing into its surface,
Wiener Landau there are roughly 300,000
Kurchatov craters wider than one kilometre
Cockcroft
Mare Charlier on the near side alone.
Lorentz
Jollot Moscoviense Kovalevskaya
Carle Poynting
Mach
Fitzgerald Not-so-dark side
Lomonosov Often incorrectly called
Kekule Fersmanng the dark side of the Moon,
the far side experiences
two weeks of sunlight.
Mendeleev
Hertesprung
Michelson
Keeler
Korolev
Chaplygin Heaviside

Altken

Mare
Van de Orientale
Milne
Mare Graff
Tsiolkovski
Mare
Ingenil Apollo
Jules
Verne Leibnitz Mendel

Poincare Minkowski
Planck Seeing the far side
From Earth, it's possible to One of the hundreds of rocks collected during the
Minnaert
observe a small proportion of Apollo missions, which are still being researched
Antoniadi the far side during libration -
©NASA

to this day. This being one of the most famous, the

nine per cent is visible. “Genesis Rock” from Apollo 15

37
 A base on the Moon Lunar bases
In the future, it's hoped that humanity Bases on the surface would need
to be protected from radiation
will set up camp on the lunar surface and micrometeroids. Building a
Moon base inside a crater would
Building an
provide some shielding. observatory
We would need to make
Humans in low gravity facilities for astronomical
Colonising the Moon’s surface means
observations on the
that we can find out how the human
Moon from lunar
body responds to long periods of low
materials without the
gravity that is one-sixth the Earth’s.
need to launch these
We could then use this information
into space.
to plan a viable a colony on Mars.

Launching rockets
A lunar base could serve as a site Transport on the Moon
for launching rockets, using fuel The ability to transport cargo and
that has been locally manufactured, people to and from modules and
to Mars. It’s easier to launch from spacecraft would be essential on
the Moon since the gravity is lower. the Moon. Rovers are likely to be
useful for terrain that is not too
steep or hilly, while permanent
railway systems could be used
the sunrise, it was the most dramatic sunrise I’ve What the Apollo 10 crew heard through the radio to link multiple bases and flying
ever seen. In Earth orbit, you see the Sun’s glow on systems baffled them. They described it as being vehicles for-hard-to-reach areas.
the horizon or the planet’s atmosphere and it gets almost like that made by an electronic instrument
brighter and brighter. The Moon is different though called a Theremin, often used in creepy science
– there’s instant sunlight with long shadows on the fiction B-movies of the 1950s and 60s, as well as
lunar surface. The far side of the Moon was very on the Beach Boys song ‘Good Vibrations’. Research
rough back there. I would not have wanted to land has since proven that the sound was nothing more
on the backside of the Moon.” than an interference effect from those 1960s radio
After the success of Apollo 8, Apollo 9 went communications systems on board.
back into vital low Earth orbital testing of the lunar With the onset of the Moon landings, two
module, so the next astronauts to visit the far side astronauts would travel to the surface while a third
were Gene Cernan, John Young and Tom Stafford remained onboard the command module to orbit
on board Apollo 10 in May 1969, just two months the Moon along, though all of them got chance to
before the historic landing of Apollo 11. orbit the Moon and see the far side before landing.
However, while flying over the far side of the The solo orbital journeys of Michael Collins (Apollo
Moon, the trio of astronauts encountered something 11), Dick Gordon (Apollo 12), Stuart Roosa (Apollo
strange, which in the last few years NASA has been 14), Al Worden (Apollo 15), Ken Mattingly (Apollo 16)
forced to re-explain thanks to conspiracy theory and Ron Evans (Apollo 17), who were the unsung
documentaries airing on American television. The heroes of the Apollo missions, are some of the
facts had been well known since the 1970s. bravest feats ever achieved by astronauts. They
These strange events on Apollo 10 were manifest would spend days making quite detailed lunar
in the form of some very odd sounds. The radio observations from orbit, mapping features nobody
system on board the Apollo spacecraft were crude had ever seen before.
Al Worden is often quoted as saying that his
© NASA; Adrian Mann;

by modern standards, though state of the art at

the time. The command and lunar modules were time alone was some of the best he had during the
relatively noisy environments according to most of Apollo 15 mission.
A replica of the Russian Luna 3
the astronauts, with bumps and bangs combined “It was nice to be rid of those guys, as you can at the Museum of Aeronautics
with the whirring of fans and engine noise. imagine, being stuck in something the size of a

38
 Secrets from the far side of the Moon

In an emergency
A short transit time of three days,
“The far side, the views at certain times,
which astronauts could improve on,
allows emergency supplies to quickly
when the Sun and Earth are blocked out,
reach a Moon colony from Earth or
allow a crew to quickly leave the
are like nothing you could imagine”
Moon and head back to our planet. Charlie Duke
family car for over a week, it got pretty crowded and scientific community have wanted to put radio
up there. Once Dave [Scott] and Jim [Irwin] left, telescopes and optical telescopes on the far side.
Lunar machines I felt like I had some real space to start to do my Observatories on the far side would be shielded
With a round-trip communication important work of mapping the lunar surface. But from not only man-made radio interference from
delay to Earth being less than three the far side, the views at certain times, when the Earth, but also the glare of daylight on our planet.
seconds, it allows near-normal Sun and the Earth are blocked out, are like nothing The telescopes could be built inside craters to
voice and video conversation and you could imagine. The sheer number of stars you avoid solar radiation, and would provide us with
allows some kind of remote control see is incredible, it’s like a sheet of white, and you an unprecedentedly clear insight deep into the far
of machines from our planet. know that every single one of them is a Sun in its reaches of the universe.
own right.” We also have little true understanding of the
A question often asked of the Apollo astronauts processes that make the far side so vastly different
and flight teams is, why were all the missions just in appearance to the near side. Why it is so scarred
to the near side? with impact craters and so lacking in volcanic mare
“We wanted to be in contact with the Earth, so is even more puzzling when you consider that when
we weren’t able to land on the far side of the Moon,” the Moon formed, it was much closer to Earth, and
says Charlie Duke. Should something have gone may not have necessarily been tidally locked at
wrong while the astronauts were on the surface, that time, meaning there would have been nothing
they would not have been able to communicate special about the hemisphere we dub the far side.
directly with Earth. This would not be such a Today, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
problem today, as satellites could be put into lunar has mapped the near side and far side of the Moon
Moon farms
A lunar farm would be stationed orbit to relay communications. in exquisite detail. When humans do eventually
at the Lunar North Pole, allowing The far side is of growing interest to scientists, return to the Moon, the far side must be a goal for a
for eight hours of sunlight per and potentially future planned human missions. landing. Understanding it will give us more insight
day during the local summer by Indeed, the possibilities for the far side of the Moon into not only the Moon’s past, but also perhaps the
rotating crops in and out of the though are vast. For many decades the astronomical Moon’s relationship with Earth our own past.
sunlight. Beneficial temperature,
protection from radiation and
insects needs for pollination would
need to be artificially provided.
What the far side holds
China’s Chang’e 4 mission explores the hidden side of the Moon
3 January 2019 saw the start of a historic mission the projected lifetime, as a lot of missions have
as the China National Administration (CNSA) had done recently. Unfortunately, with every lunar
successfully placed a lander and rover on the night both of these Chinese mechanical explorers
far side of the Moon. With the help of Queqiao – power down to survive the freezing cold that can
translating to ‘Magpie Bridge’ from Chinese – the reach roughly minus 190 degrees Celsius (minus
Chang’e 4 is able to relay data back to Earth even 310 degrees Fahrenheit), with radioisotope heater
though it's on the Moon's far side. units keeping them warm.
The Chang’e 4 lander and
Yutu-2 rover were projected to
last for three lunar days, or 29
Earth days, using this time to
analyse the composition and
temperature of the hidden
lunar surface, while also
studying solar activity and even
conducting biological studies.
In fact, Chang'e 4 even had
temporarily exciting biological
results with the first ever
biological matter grown on the
Moon in the form of cotton
seeds sprouting, although they
unfortunately didn't last the
lunar night.
The Chang’e 4 lander and
Yutu-2 rover have surpassed
© CNSA

39
 Whotheowns
MOON? Outside the confines of the Earth’s atmosphere,
All About Space uncovers who can stake claim on
other bodies in the Solar System and beyond
Written by Christopher Newman

40
 Who owns the Moon?

For the first time since the Apollo era, human space Astronaut Dale Gardner jokingly holds
exploration is capturing the zeitgeist, with science fact up a “For Sale” sign in space, but is it that
and fiction blurring in a flurry of media excitement. easy to stake claim on an object in space?
Private companies are seeking investment to mine
asteroids and groups of individuals are looking to
raise money to embark on the colonisation of Mars.
Never in human history has outer space seemed so
accessible or replete with possibility.
But along with the formidable technical and
engineering challenges facing such ventures are more
prosaic issues regarding the rules and regulations for
human space endeavour. As humanity moves away
from low Earth orbit, the existing laws governing
space activity will come under increasing scrutiny. It
is a good time, then, to look at how the law regarding
space activity has evolved and how it could respond
to space mining and, beyond that, the colonisation
of other planets. If space mining and colonisation
provide the rich resources that they promise, a robust
legal framework will be needed. Otherwise, the dream
of space entrepreneurs could become mired in conflict
and litigation.
At first glance, 25 November 2015 might not
appear to be particularly noteworthy in respect of
human space activity. Yet, the signing of the Space
Resource Exploration and Utilization Act (part of the
Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act) on
this date means that it may well be one of the most
significant days in the history of space mining. This
piece of legislation, passed by the United States, is the
first attempt by a nation at putting in place a legal
framework for dealing with resources obtained by
private companies from outer space mining.
When the laws governing space activity were
drawn up in the first years of human space
exploration, there was no conception that this type of
activity would ever move beyond the pages of science
fiction novels. In the late 1950s, under the umbrella
of the United Nations, the Committee on the Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) established the rules
that would lay down the basis of the regulation of
space activity for the next 60 years.
The early formulations of space law, through
UN General Assembly Resolutions, established a
well-defined consensus preventing nations from
claiming outer space for themselves, as well as
the need for outer space to remain peaceful (if not
entirely demilitarised) and specified that nations
are responsible for their own space activities. The
central trunk of space law is based on a treaty signed
by over 100 members of the United Nations. Known
colloquially as the Outer Space Treaty – or OST – of
1967 (the full title is somewhat lengthy: The Treaty
on Principles Governing the Activities of States in
the Exploration and Use of Outer Space Including the
Moon and Other Celestial Bodies), it provides the basic
framework in international law for all space activity
and spawned a further four treaties.
Written at a time of tension between the USA
and the Soviet Union, it is clear that those drafting
the treaty wanted to prevent outer space becoming
another theatre of conflict between the two dominant
superpowers. Individual nations were made
Private companies such as ULA,
responsible for their space activities and retained
SpaceX and Blue Origin are able to
responsibility for licensing jurisdiction and control operate legally in space thanks to
of spacecraft and personnel. Significantly, the use the Outer Space Treaty
of nuclear weapons in space was banned, which

41
initially attracted the most attention and reflected the the Moon by the Apollo astronauts is therefore purely claim for land must be accompanied by an intention
concerns of the time. symbolic – the United States, nor any other nation, to occupy that land, and – currently – there is no
Addressing this desire for peaceful expansion can ever own the Moon. way for you or other people in possession of these
in space, Article I of the Outer Space Treaty is Neither the Outer Space Treaty nor the other space certificates to actually live on their lunar acre or star.
aspirational in nature. It states that the exploration treaties of the United Nations make any distinction The International Institute of Space Law, writing in
and use of outer space shall be carried out for the between the Moon and other celestial bodies such as 2006, makes the legal position clear: no one owns the
benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall planets, asteroids, comets or even the Sun, seeking Moon, and it certificates that claiming a lunar acre or
be the province of all mankind. While this is difficult instead to make the whole of outer space a ‘galactic naming a star do not have any legal effect.
to translate into a specific legal duty, it does at least commons’. Still, this has not stopped opportunistic Given that the Outer Space Treaty was drafted at a
provide guidance as to the spirit in which space businesses selling certificates promising lunar real time when space exploration required a superpower
exploration should be undertaken. Article II of the estate or the naming of a star. You may even have budget, it is unsurprising that it makes no mention
Outer Space Treaty is, however, much more explicit bought one yourself, or given or received one as a of private space companies. The fact is, the Outer
and is crucial to understanding the current legal gift. Unfortunately, your claim to a plot of land on the Space Treaty requires activities of "non-governmental
position in regards to space mining. The treaty says Moon or your right to name a star face two seemingly entities in outer space to require authorisation and
that outer space and celestial bodies are “not subject insurmountable problems. ongoing supervision" – in other words, companies
to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by First, without legal recognition of a national such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch
means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” court (and as already explained, such recognition Alliance must obtain permission from the United
In practical terms, the position in international law is is expressly prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty) States government before they can launch rockets into
that no nation can lay territorial claim to the Moon or these claims cannot be enforced. The second problem space. Companies in other countries must also do the
any other celestial body. The Stars and Stripes left on involves your intention to take possession. Any legal same from their own nation’s government.
In the same way, selling plots of lunar land or

“Unfortunately, your certificate saying the naming rights of stars is also a commercial
space activity and would require permission from
you own a plot of land on the Moon the government to be legal (it’s quite telling that no
nation has ever licensed or approved such ownership
isn’t worth the paper it is written on” schemes). The upshot of this is that, unfortunately,
your certificate saying you own a plot of land on the
Moon isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
But when it comes to the mining of outer space, the
legal position is significantly more ambiguous. Mining
companies and commercial entities have no interest
in laying claims of ownership or sovereignty on the
celestial bodies; they desire merely to exploit the
environment and extract minerals and other natural
resources from the likes of asteroids.
Providing they are appropriately authorised by
their state, the Outer Space Treaty allows private
individuals and organisations to conduct activities
in outer space and on celestial bodies. Where things
become unclear is in regards to what can happen to
the resources that are mined. The most crucial issue
is whether companies can take ownership of the
resources that they mine and, more importantly, make
money from them. The trouble is, as we have already
seen, taking possession of the resources would require
legal recognition that the mining companies own
those resources, which may run contrary to Article II
of the Outer Space Treaty.
By 1979, the United Nations recognised that this
might cause an issue and therefore the last of the big
international space treaties, the Moon Agreement,
was created. This stipulated that the Moon and
other celestial bodies were "the common heritage
of mankind" and any mining there should be
administered by an international regime, mirroring
the approaches taken in respect of the mining of
minerals from the Earth’s seabed. Yet there was no
specific detail on how resources would be distributed.
So far, only 16 states have signed the Moon
Agreement and, significantly, no countries with an
active human space programme (USA, Russia, China)
have signed up or even indicated broad approval. The
Moon Agreement is, therefore, a failed treaty, and
According to international law, no without any significant international support, it is
one can lay territorial claim to the unlikely to gain any traction.
Moon or any other celestial body, The failure of the Moon Agreement leaves a
so the flag is purely symbolic
significant gap in the regulation of space activity.

42
 Who owns the Moon?

The Space Race

It was the growth of the rivalry between the United States USSR
and the USSR that saw the need for the Outer Space Treaty USA

24 April 1990
The Hubble Space
Telescope is sent into
space and into Earth orbit
to image the universe
15 November Low E
1988 arth
orb
The first and only it
flight of the Soviet 20 November 1998
Buran spacecraft The launch of the
first element of the
International
Space Station

1993
1992

1994
20 February
1991

1995
0

6
1986
199

199
198

7
A basic module

199
9

of the orbital

98
19
88

19
station Mir
19
87

19
86 50
19
19
85 51
19
198 2
12 April 1981 4 195
The world’s first
1983
space shuttle, 1953
Space Shuttle
Columbia is 1982 1954
launched 4 October
1981 1955
1957
Launch of
1980 1956
the very
20 August & first artificial
5 September 1979 1957 Earth satellite
1977
1958
The spacecraft 1978
Voyager 1 and
Voyager 2 are 197
7 195
9 31 January
launched on a 196 1958
6
journey outside 197 0 Launch of the
the Solar System 19 first American
75 61 artificial satellite
19
19
74

62
19

19
73

12 April 1961
6
19

196

3
2

17 July 1975
197

The first manned space

196
1

4
197

1970

1966

The very first docking flight of Yuri Gagarin

1969

1967
1968

between United States’ Apollo

and the Soviet Union Soyuz 20 February 1962
The first orbital manned
14 May 1973 3 June flight (John Glenn)
Launch of the very 1965
first American space America’s first 16 June 1963
station, Skylab astronaut is The first flight
19 April 1971 sent into space of female
The world’s first 18 March 1965 cosmonaut
space station Alexey Leonov Valentina
Salyut-1 is launched becomes the first Tereshkova
person to enter
open space
10 November 1970 20 June 1969 31 March 1966
The first planetary
The landing of The launch of the
rovers land on the Moon
astronauts on very first satellite
the Moon of the Moon

43
Without it, the legality of mining currently depends
on a positive interpretation of Article II of the Outer
Space Treaty, with a private company subject to
appropriate state oversight. In other words, a company
may get away with mining resources in outer space
so long as their activities are supervised by their
government. The key word there is ‘may’: as long as
things remain ambiguous it will do little to reassure
potential investors in mining companies that their
Colonising the Moon
investment is safe! These investors would want Our lunar companion could serve as a stepping stone
to be able to enjoy the financial rewards from the in surviving on other worlds in the Solar System
mining, free from any form of legal challenge as to
the ownership of any minerals. It is at this point that
the US Government has stepped in with the Space
Resource Exploration and Utilisation Act 2015. This
allows US companies to claim ownership rights to the
materials they mine in space and provide permission
for them to transport and sell those resources.
Not everyone likes this new law, however. Although
its proponents claim that it is consistent with the
Outer Space Treaty in that the mining companies
aren’t claiming territory for themselves, what happens Launching rockets
if two mining companies, perhaps operating in two A lunar base could serve as
different nations, claim the resources on the same a site for launching rockets
asteroid, leading to dispute? In addition, some of to Mars, using fuel that has
these celestial bodies are of scientific importance been locally manufactured.
and there’s nothing in the new law to prevent these It’s easier to launch from the
Moon than Earth since the
bodies from being ruined. Also, if you’re not an
gravity is lower.
American citizen or company, then you are excluded
from recognition under the Act.
Nevertheless, these objections are currently just
hypothetical – the real challenge won’t come until
mining companies begin work and start to put the
law to the test. When humans start to move deeper
into space, colonising as well as mining, we will need
new laws and treaties that build on the Outer Space
Treaty in order to successfully govern these colonies.
These laws will no longer be about regulating
specific activities, they will be the foundations of a
new society. Social planning, dispute resolution and
criminal justice will all need to be considered when
thinking about a long-term future away from Earth.
Even before those considerations are addressed in any
longer-term approach to regulating space settlements,
the Outer Space Treaty presents a number of key Humans in low gravity
Colonising the Moon’s surface
challenges for space colonists.
means that we can find out
As with mining, the issue of sovereignty and
how the human body responds
ownership will feature highly in any discussion to long periods of low gravity
regarding the legal status of space colonies. As has that’s one-sixth that of the
already been stated, any mission, whether public or Earth’s. We can then use this
private, will need to be authorised by the government information to plan a viable
of the country from which it launches. A colony a colony on Mars.
will, by definition, be occupying a celestial body
and hence claiming it as their territory, which is in
violation of the Outer Space Treaty. It is likely that,
in the short term, a resolution similar to the one
employed by the US in respect of space mining may
well overcome this.
This does not, however, provide a long-term Lunar machines
solution. Who is going to tell colonists that the With a round-trip Building an observatory
celestial body, upon which they have lived for communication delay to Making facilities for astronomical
decades, is not really theirs? In addition, there are Earth being less than three observations on the Moon from
environmental issues, not recognised at the time of seconds, it allows near- lunar materials would remove
normal voice and video the need to launch building
drafting the Outer Space Treaty, which will play a
conversation and allows materials into space. The lunar
significant role in determining human conduct when some kind of remote control soil can be mixed with carbon
building a home in outer space. Article IX of the Outer of machines from our planet. nanotubes to construct mirrors.
Space Treaty says that countries must conduct their

44
 Who owns the Moon?

In an emergency
Close to home A short transit time of three
Thanks to its proximity days, which astronauts
to Earth, at an average could improve on, allows
distance of 384,400km emergency supplies to
(238,855mi), the Moon quickly reach a Moon colony
is the most obvious from Earth or allow a crew
place to colonise. to quickly leave the Moon
and head back to our planet.

Lunar bases
Bases on the surface
would need to be
protected from radiation
and micrometeroids.
Building a Moon base
inside a crater would
Moon farms
A lunar farm would be
provide some shielding.
stationed at the lunar north
pole, allowing for eight hours
of sunlight per day during
the local summer achieved
by rotating crops in and out
of the sunlight. Beneficial
temperature, protection from
radiation and the insects
needed for pollination would
need to be artificially provided.

Transport on the Moon

The ability to transport cargo and people to
and from modules and spacecraft would be
essential on the Moon. Rovers are likely to be
useful for terrain that is not too steep or hilly,
while permanent railway systems could be
used to link multiple bases and flying vehicles
would be used for hard-to-reach areas.

45
space activities “so as to avoid their harmful
contamination and also adverse changes in
the environment of the Earth resulting from
the introduction of extraterrestrial matter
Why we should
and, where necessary, [to] adopt appropriate
measures for this purpose.” However, critics say
that these provisions are unduly interested in
mine asteroids
protecting the activities of states rather than the Asteroids provide natural resources to fuel the
space environment. Even the contamination exploration of space and the prosperity on Earth
caused must be ‘harmful’ and the scope of this
is not defined. Is leaving litter on Mars harmful
as our population continues to grow
in itself, or does it only become harmful when
it destroys the environment of any hypothetical
Uses of water in space
microbes that might live there?
The environmental impact of human space
Water-rich asteroid
A single asteroid could produce enough fuel
activity is only beginning to be felt in low Earth for every rocket launched throughout history
orbit, with swarms of space debris polluting the Fuel for rockets
space lanes and creating hazards for spacecraft
in orbit around our planet. Any legal framework One single 500m (1,640ft)
in respect of space colonies will need to be water-rich asteroid Air to breathe
mindful of the potential damage to the delicate An asteroid of this size would
space environment, but mining and ultimately produce over £3.47 trillion ($5
trillion) worth of water for use
colonisation will unquestionably have an
in space. It currently costs about
Water to drink
environmental impact. Any new treaties will
£13,892 ($20,000) to send a litre
need to reflect this if humanity is to avoid of water from Earth to deep space.
polluting outer space.
Much of the discussion surrounding the legal
issues of space exploration and exploitation
is speculative and subject to advances in
technology, simply because we haven’t done
much of it yet. So far, the Outer Space Treaty
has remained the central trunk of international
space law, guiding our behaviour in space. Even
the American legislators in 2015 were still keen
to emphasise compatibility and continuity with
the Outer Space Treaty. For any student of space
law, the first question to be addressed remains
the same as it has been for the last 60 years:
does the proposed activity offend against any
provision of the Outer Space Treaty?
Ultimately, however, there is one key
assumption that the legal framework governing
space is based on: that life will not be detected
on any of the celestial bodies in the near Infinitely rich
future. But even the discovery of microbial, Asteroid mining will
non-terrestrial life forms will fundamentally provide an almost
affect the legal regulation of all space activities. infinite supply of
Humans landing on the Moon acted as the platinum metals
catalyst for change leading to the drafting and water that can
of the Outer Space Treaty. The discovery of support us both on
and off the Earth.
extraterrestrial life would cause a fundamental
rethink in the way that human space activity
is conducted.
© Adrian Mann; NASA; ESA; T.M. Brown (STScI); SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA

For example, would alien life forms have

rights that would be recognised in human law?
Could colonists keep them as pets, or bring
them back to Earth where they could invade Plantinum-rich asteroid Uses of platinum
terrestrial environments in much the same way This type of asteroid contains more platinum metals on Earth
that transporting different species of plant to than we have currently mined from the Earth to date
other countries can? It’s impossible to answer Reduces the cost
these questions now; we must wait for these of electronics
situations to become reality before they can be One single 500m (1,640ft)
challenged in law. With the law regarding space platinum-rich asteroid Transport that
mining and colonisation still being very far A 500m (1,640ft) platinum-rich asteroid is
worth about £2 trillion ($2.9 trillion), which requires electricity
from settled, humanity’s expanding frontier in
is more than our yearly output of platinum.
space is going to be equally challenged by the
Currently, 28 grams (one ounce) of platinum To create a
expanding frontier in law.
is valued at over £1,042 ($1,500). greener Earth

46
DISCOVER THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
OF SPACE EXPLORATION
From the formative years of Sputnik through to modern-day innovations like
Perseverence, embark on a journey across the history of humanity’s missions
into space, and glimpse what is in store for the future.

ON SALE
NOW

Ordering is easy. Go online at:

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How to…

Photograph the Moon

with your smartphone
You too can take great-looking images of the
lunar surface using your mobile device

You’ll need:
✔ Smartphone
✔ Telescope
✔ Low-to-medium
power eyepiece
✔ Moon filter that fits the

@ Nikos Koutoulas
eyepiece
✔ Optional phone bracket

You’ve probably seen photographs This is because the camera’s software What really helps here is a not only yourself, but your friends and
of the Moon in magazines and on can’t cope with the extreme contrast smartphone adaptor, which fits around family too. And, capturing the features
the internet which reveal all of its between the dark night sky and the the telescope’s eyepiece and gives a of the Moon will be much easier, and
craters, mountains and other features, very bright features of the Moon. This bracket to hold the smartphone nice much more enjoyable.
but did you know that you can take can be improved by using the exposure and steady. It makes lining up the
similar quality pictures just with your
smartphone camera?
controls, which you may have in your
camera app, but these can still be of
smartphone’s camera over the eyepiece
much easier.
Tips & tricks
Most smartphones have very high limited help. Once you’ve done this you will be
quality imaging devices built into The best way to get really good able to concentrate more easily on the
Download software
Download and use an imaging app other
them, as well as software that can give images is by using your smartphone phone’s screen and make any necessary than the standard one that's already
you some control over how they take camera in combination with a adjustments with positioning and built into the smartphone.
the pictures, but many people just telescope. It doesn’t have to be a large exposure to create a good image.
leave them on the automatic settings. telescope, either – even a modest If the Moon is nearly full when you
Experiment
Play around with the exposure controls
However, if you have previously tried amateur scope should give a reasonable are photographing it, you may find it is
of your software to see what difference
to hold your smartphone’s camera up image. It is possible to just hold your still too bright to get all of the surface it makes to your images.
to a bright Moon in the night sky and smartphone’s camera over the eyepiece features clearly in view. This is when
attempted to take a picture, you’ve of a telescope and click the shutter, but you may need to use a Moon filter, Take lots of images
Don’t take just one or two photographs,
probably been disappointed with the you will soon find that this can be a which will drop the light levels and
take dozens. Each image will be slightly
result, as the images often come out very hit and miss technique. Just lining make the imaging process easier to different and will help you to find the
showing a bright over-exposed disc and the camera up with the telescope’s control. For a small investment, you will best software controls.
little else. eyepiece can be quite tricky! be taking great images that will impress

48
 Photograph the Moon

Shooting with an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry

Taking good pictures of the Moon is all about being methodical. Here’s how to do it…
The important thing to do when taking images telescope or eyepiece. If the Moon is very bright on
of the Moon through a telescope is to take your your chosen night of viewing, screw a Moon filter to
time and get each step right. This can make the the eyepiece. But if the Moon is only a thin crescent,
difference between a mediocre image and a great you may not need one. If you follow the simple steps Send your photos to
one. If you are using a smartphone bracket, for here, it should minimise any problems and maximise photos@spaceanswers.com
example, make sure it’s securely attached to the your chances of taking some really great pictures.

1 2 3
Find the Moon Assess the lunar phase Secure the bracket
Make sure your telescope is pointing at the Is the Moon very bright? Is the Moon full? Make sure the smartphone bracket is properly
Moon. You will probably need to adjust it later, You may have to screw a Moon filter to the secured to the telescope and adjust it to bring
but this will only be a small adjustment. eyepiece, but do this before attaching the bracket. the camera’s aperture directly over the eyepiece.

4 5
Attach your smartphone Make adjustments
Once you are happy that everything is in place, put your smartphone in Make any adjustments necessary to get a good image of the Moon on your
the bracket and start up the camera app of your choice. smartphone’s screen, including moving the telescope if necessary.

6 7
Find the right exposure Start shooting!
Once the image of the Moon fills the screen of the smartphone, adjust Take lots of images and tweak the settings between each picture to see if
the exposure settings of your camera software to get a good clean image. you can get a really crisp image showing lots of detail. This will also help
Make sure it isn’t under or overexposed. you to find the optimum settings for achieving a great photo.

49
How to…
Make a lunar analemma
Perhaps you’ve heard of a solar analemma, but did you know you can

© Peta Jade; Getty Images

get the same type of image from the Moon? Find out how…

an analemma only exists as an abstract at least bright twilight. Use the wide-
You’ll need: idea and as a compilation of images
within one photograph, and this is the
angle lens for the background shot
and to get the positions of the Moon Tips & tricks
✔ DSLR camera only way to see it. in each phase, as this will be the
✔ Tripod The trick to creating a lunar image upon which you will build your Pick your spot
✔ Wide-angle lens analemma is to understand that the composite. An attractive building or You’ll need to return your camera to the
same spot every day, so make sure that
✔ Telephoto lens Moon returns to the same position in mountain range can look good for the
it is easy to get to.
the night sky around 51 minutes later background, but remember to leave
each day. Therefore, if you image the plenty of room in the sky in which to Use a tripod
An ‘analemma’ is a composite picture of Moon around 51 minutes later each superimpose your lunar images. Use a sturdy tripod to reduce camera
usually the Sun, taken over the period successive day over the course of one The telephoto lens is used to get shake, especially if there is a wind or
strong breeze at your location.
of a year, which shows its shifting lunar month, or 29.5 days, it will trace more detailed images of the Moon.
position in the sky as the seasons out the figure of eight curve when the During image processing these Use a DSLR camera
progress. It can take a year to create an images are combined. This pattern is shots will be superimposed onto the A DSLR enables you to change the lens
image like this, so as you can imagine, due to its elliptical orbit and its tilt. background in exactly the right spots. easily from wide-angle to telephoto.
it takes some dedication. However, you You’ll need a good, sturdy tripod If you don’t get a whole month of
Check the time
can create the same effect with the and a way of marking its position, so clear skies, you can always take a shot Make a note of the time of your
Moon in just 29.5 days, if you’re lucky that you can put it in the exact same of the correct phase the following first shot and add 51 minutes each
enough to have an entire month of spot each day. You’ll also need some month and work that into your final successive day during the lunar month.
clear night skies! image processing software and a little image. Bearing this in mind, it may still
The image gives you an extended skill in its use to get a good final image, take some time to build up your final
Use a remote shutter
Create sharper images and reduce
figure of eight pattern and can make a especially as the thin crescent phases analemma, but the result will certainly vibration and image blurring by using a
very attractive picture. As with the Sun, will need to be taken in daylight, or be worth it. remote shutter release.

50
 Make a lunar analemma

Building your composite

Create a dazzling image of the Moon's movements across the sky
Use a wide-angle lens for the background and Moon reason for this is to make the Moon look more ‘real’.
position shots and then swap to the telephoto lens In the wide-angle shots it will seem very small and
or ‘zoom in’ and take some more detailed images of insignificant. You’ll also need to vary the length of
the Moon. You’ll use your image processing software exposure to cope with the differing light conditions.
to superimpose these details onto the position of Take a few images at various settings to increase
the Moon in your wide-angle image later on. The your chances of getting a good shot each day.

Take a background image Keep track of the time Experiment with your settings
1 Choose a good location and background for your
image and take some well-composed shots. Be
sure to leave plenty of sky in the images, as this will
2 Keep an observation diary of the exact time of
your first shot and note down the phase of the
Moon each night. This will help keep track of your
3 Take multiple images each night and vary the
settings of the exposure time and ISO each time
you photograph the Moon. This will ensure you get at
be filled with your analemma over time. shots and assist while creating the composite later on. least one good shot per night for your analemma.

Adjust your viewing time each day Get more detail Edit your images

4 Don’t forget to add 51 minutes to the time

of viewing for every successive day that
you photograph the Moon during the lunar
5 Use a telephoto or zoom lens to get more
detailed images of the Moon. These details will
be superimposed onto the position of the Moon in
6 Once you’ve got all of your shots across the
lunar month and selected the best ones,
combine all of the images into a composite using
month. Your observation diary will help with your wide-angle shot using your software later on. computer software such as Photoshop. This will show
keeping track of this. Don’t make the lunar disc too large though. up the analemma.

51
 T I F T H E
WHA

M O O N ?
E X PL O DE D cou ld cea se to exist an
d
the Moon r nearest
Find out howh could go on without ou
if life on Eart space
neighbour in llaghan
nathan O'Ca
Written by Jo

“First of all, how would the Moon explode? It might This would occur on time-scales of hundreds of
disintegrate due to a giant impact, such as a head-on thousands to millions of years. Without the mass
collision of sufficient energy to break up the Moon. of the Moon, lunar tides would no longer exist.
A condition of the produced debris would depend However, the Earth and its oceans would still
on the conditions of impact, a high-velocity impact experience tides caused by the Sun. They would be
would mean lots of vapour, which would then of a much lower magnitude, but would still occur
rapidly re-condense into billions of cooled droplets twice per day. There would be an immediate mass
of glass. A low velocity collision would include large extinction of some organisms as intertidal species
fragments tens to hundreds of kilometres in size and that depend on alternating periods of high and low
much of the debris would melt. tide would struggle to survive and adjust to the
INTERVIEWBIO “The debris circling the Earth at lunar distance much smaller solar tides. The missing Moon would
would not be stable, most of it would wander off result in spin axis instabilities for the Earth and the
Dr Paul Spudis into solar orbit, while some of it would stay in orbit obliquity (the angle from the path of the Sun in the
Dr Spudis is a lunar geologist
for the Lunar and Planetary around the Earth and re-accrete into a larger body. sky) would oscillate wildly."
Institute at NASA. He is
an advocate of using the
Moon as an exploration If the Moon exploded into
port to the rest of the Solar small pieces, it's possible
System. In his prosperous that over time they would
time at NASA he has, among form a ring around Earth,
other projects, worked on much like Saturn has today
the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter mission.

52
What if the Moon exploded?

NASA

53
Moon Tour
56 Craters of the Moon

76 Lunar maria
54
84 Other landmarks

55
 Craters of the Moon Take a tour of the lunar craters on the Moon’s surface

Tycho
crater
Find one of the Moon’s
most famous craters,
48 years after it was
immortalised in a classic
science-fiction film

W
hichever way you look at the full it, some reaching to the top of the disc. This feature slope gently and are terraced, with many clumps of
Moon – with the naked eye or through is Tycho, and those lines are rays of debris, which material spread across the floor. The crater’s central
binoculars or a telescope – all you’ll were created when the crater was born in a meteorite peak really stands out, too, though not as starkly as
see are areas of light and dark. That’s impact 108 million years ago. it did on the famous image taken by NASA’s Lunar
because at full Moon, with the Sun blazing overhead, The crater is 85 kilometres (53 miles) across and Reconnaissance Orbiter in June 2011. That landmark
features on the lunar surface cast no shadows and almost five kilometres (three miles) deep. The ‘central image revealed the mountain’s slopes are streaked
show no surface relief. The rugged lunar highlands are peak’ mountain that rears up from the centre of its with rock-spills and strewn with huge stones, with
splashes of white, and the lower, lava-filled ‘seas’ are hummocky, pitted floor is almost two kilometres (1.2 an enormous single boulder, the size of Buckingham
patches of blue-grey. But around full Moon is actually miles) high. The longest rays stretching away from Palace, sitting right on its summit.
a great time for beginners to find what many people it end more than 1,500 kilometres (932 miles) away, Tycho is one of those features that looks different
consider the most famous lunar crater: Tycho. roughly the same distance as from London, UK, to every time you view it. When its eastern rim and
Tycho was named after the famous 16th-century Lisbon in Portugal. To see Tycho properly you’ll have western slopes are first kissed by sunlight, it looks like
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, a larger-than-life to wait until the crater is illuminated by the Sun at an empty eye socket staring back at you, but as the
character best known for wearing a gold-silver nose an angle, not from overhead, as its appearance will days pass, more details become visible. In those rare
after his own was cut off in a duel. But the crater’s change dramatically. moments of perfect viewing, you’ll see so much detail
greatest claim to fame is that it featured in the sci-fi When the Moon wanes and doesn't rise until 10pm, that you’ll imagine you’re flying over it.
film 2001: A Space Odyssey; it was where the enigmatic it looks like a classic crater – a pit with steep walls, a
black Monolith was found by lunar researchers, mountain peak jutting up out of its centre, and rays
triggering Dave Bowman’s ill-fated mission to Jupiter.
Unlike some famous lunar features, finding Tycho
of debris shooting away from it on all sides. However,
Tycho will be at its very best when the terminator of
Top tip!
is an easy task. Just look towards the bottom of the the waxing Moon silently sweeps over and past it. The full Moon can be a dazzling sight through
lunar disc when the Moon is full, rising mid-evening With the morning Sun’s slanting rays illuminating a telescope, so don’t look at it for longer than a
in the east, and you should see what looks like a bright Tycho at a steep angle, even a small telescope couple of minutes at a time. You can use a Moon
spot. Binoculars or a small telescope will reveal the will reveal a wealth of detail inside it. At high filter to improve contrast and cut down any glare,
light spot has lots of narrow, bright lines radiating from magnifications you’ll see that the crater’s inside walls which often washes out intricate surface details.

56
 Craters of the Moon

Posidonius
crater
Observe one of the Moon’s
most recognisable asteroid
impact craters this month

O
ne of the Moon’s most sublime and asteroid impact craters, the more eroded topography prominent, clear-cut, bowl-shaped crater, Posidonius A,
recognisable craters, Posidonius, can be of Chacornac suggests that it predates the formation sits slightly west of the floor centre at 12 kilometres (74
viewed to good advantage when it is of Posidonius by several hundred million years. miles) wide – this is easily seen through small optical
illuminated by a local evening lunar Sun. However, both craters are thought to have formed instruments. East of Posidonius A there are a number
Two weeks later, the Moon lies low above the western after the Serenitatis basin, as their outlines appear of small valleys; the linear rilles of Rimae Posidonius,
horizon as the dusk skies are darkening, but vigilant impressed over the basin’s outline and both are filled the most prominent of which cuts 50 kilometres (31
telescopic observers may still be able to make out with Serenitatis lava flows. Chacornac is likely to have miles) across the centre of the floor, and it is cut across
Posidonius near the lunar sunrise terminator, despite been formed some time before the nearby Imbrium itself at a right angle by a smaller rille. Another longer
the Moon’s low twilight altitude. basin was formed, while Posidonius is thought to have rille makes its way along the floor near the inner
Measuring 95 kilometres (59 miles) across, been formed shortly after the Imbrium basin impact western wall. The best views of the Rimae Posidonius
Posidonius is a prominent crater that lies at the around 3.8 billion years ago, one of the final episodes are to be obtained through a 150mm telescope at a
northeastern border of the large near-circular Mare of the Late Heavy Bombardment period, when the high magnification.
Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity) and at the entrance to inner Solar System was a veritable cosmic shooting A prominent curving ridge crosses the eastern
Lacus Somniorum (Lake of Dreams), an irregular, gallery of asteroids, comets and other debris from the part of Posidonius’ floor – a huge block of crust
lava-filled plain that forms a short arc parallel to the formation of the planets. appears to have slipped away from the main eastern
northeastern shoreline of Mare Serenitatis. When Posidonius is one of the Moon’s more unusual wall. Chacornac appears much more irregular than
illuminated, the Posidonius crater is easily identified large craters, possessing a low but complete and clear- Posidonius, with a crustal imprint that’s obviously
through small optical instruments and even steadily cut rim (north and northeastern parts of which are less fresh. Like Posidonius, it has an eastern central
mounted 7x50 binoculars. However, the complex overlain by numerous smaller craters – Posidonius crater named Chacornac A (at five kilometres, or 3.1
nature of Posidonius is only revealed under good J, B and D). No traces of the initial external impact miles, wide) and several rilles (Rimae Chacornac)
seeing conditions and through telescopes larger than remain visible because of later lava flooding in Mare that run northwest-southeast across its floor – easily
80mm at a magnification of higher than 50x. Serenitatis and Lacus Somniorum. visible through a 150mm telescope at high power and
Most noticeable is the fact that the southern rim The interior of Posidonius presents a variety of under a low illumination. Together, Posidonius and
© NASA

of Posidonius is joined with the disintegrated crater, complexity, though visibility is dependent on seeing Chacornac present a highly interesting lunar sight
Chacornac. While both Posidonius and Chacornac are conditions and the instrument/magnification used. A when illuminated.

57
Eratosthenes
Mid-sized, yet impressive, make the most of this well-defined
asteroid impact that's set among the lunar mountains

E
ratosthenes is a 59-kilometre- (37-mile-) impact ridges shows up well around Eratosthenes. around in search of sustenance. In reality, the spots
wide crater located at the western end of Owing to the crater’s great age, much of the external on Eratosthenes’ floor are composed of dusky surface
the majestic curved sweep of the lunar sculpting around it has been hidden by later lava material and are as motionless as its central peak.
Apennine Mountains (Montes Apenninus) flooding by Mare Imbrium to its north and Sinus The patches do vary in their apparent tone, but so
on the southern shore of Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains). Aestuum (Bay of Billows) to its south, but a fair do countless other albedo features in response to the
This crater, set among a splendid mountain backdrop, amount of impact topography remains to be seen changing angle of sunlight.
is often overlooked by virtue of its proximity to the through relatively small instruments under a low Sun. When Eratosthenes is illuminated, you may just be
larger crater Copernicus, which lies less than 300 Eratosthenes’ floor displays a central mountain able to locate the crater to the northeast of Copernicus,
kilometres (186 miles) to the southwest and is often massif surrounded by a hummocky landscape that is embedded within the impact rays of Copernicus,
visible at the same time. However, Eratosthenes itself stained with numerous dark spots and other variations but the lack of shadows makes this a difficult
is such a spectacular feature when illuminated by a in albedo. Unusually for such a large formation, identification for a first-time observer. The lunar sunset
morning or evening Sun that its rugged topography is Eratosthenes is barely visible under high angles of terminator then moves slowly from the east during the
delightful through a mid-to-high magnification. illumination – the crater’s wall vanishes more or less following days, and hints of topographic detail within
Eratosthenes is a typical mid-sized lunar impact completely, but its central peaks and dusky floor Eratosthenes gradually reveal themselves as the
crater, and its prominence is accentuated by its patches can be discerned at local lunar midday. shadows deepen. When the lunar morning terminator
startling position at the southern end of the lunar A century ago, Eratosthenes attained a certain is encroaching upon Eratosthenes, the crater makes
Apennine Mountains. Formed by an asteroid amount of notoriety through the observations and for a really splendid sight, preceding the mighty
collision that took place less than 2 billion years ago, opinions of astronomer William Henry Pickering, Copernicus on the sunrise terminator to its west.
Eratosthenes is around 1 billion years older than its who observed the crater many times between 1919 A few weeks or so after this sees Eratosthenes
near-neighbour Copernicus. As Eratosthenes first and 1924. His vivid imagination convinced him that illuminated, and the crater appears resplendent at the
becomes illuminated by an early morning Sun (usually the dark spots on the crater’s floor varied in intensity western end of the Montes Apenninus, while nearby
around a day after first quarter phase), the magnificent and, in addition, that the spots seemed to move Copernicus is also an extremely prominent feature.
mountain arc preceding it forms a beautiful frame to around throughout the lunar day. Pickering, a fan of Low-medium and high magnification telescopic
the southern margin of Mare Imbrium. life on the Moon, speculated that the dark patches views are highly recommended; there are plenty of
When illuminated by a low morning or evening were vast swarms of lunar insects or herds of small subtle features on the Moon in the area nearby to see,
Sun, a prominent system of concentric and radial animals constantly on the move, crawling or hopping including chains of craters, domes and ridges.

Top tip!
When the lunar
terminator is
encroaching upon the
Eratosthenes crater,
it really makes for a
splendid sight.

58
 Craters of the Moon

Cassini
crater
Use autumn’s crisp, clear
nights to find a lunar crater
named in honour of one of
astronomy’s most respected
planetary observers

© NASA
Cassini crater

T
he Moon’s ‘celebrity’ craters attract lots of The Cassini crater is just 57 kilometres (35 miles) with the naked eye at any time, a pair of binoculars
attention because they are so easy to spot wide with a lava-flooded floor. However, this floor is might just show it as a small, light ring to the lower
and are dramatic in an eyepiece. But the not flat; a pair of smaller craters (Cassini A and B) have right of the dark oval of Plato. But if you wait until the
smaller, less dramatic craters – the ones been blasted out of its floor by impacts, and several terminator sweeps towards it, its walls and craters will
without huge mountain peaks jabbing up from their much smaller craters spatter Cassini’s interior. While be much more obvious.
centres or bright rays of debris surrounding them – B is unremarkable, A is quite an impressive crater in We lose sight of it a couple of days later, but Cassini
can be just as fascinating if you take the time to get its own right – it’s a deep, steep-sided oval pit some 15 reappears a week or so later when the Moon is just
to know them. kilometres (nine miles) wide, with an area of jumbled, past first quarter and the first rays of lunar dawn are
One such crater is Cassini, which is perhaps the hummocky terrain to its east, ploughed up by the creeping over it. Then you have a few days to spot
only noteworthy feature in the unremarkable lunar impact which caused it. craters A and B nestling inside Cassini’s walls, before
plain known as Palus Nebularum, just to the south of Cassini’s walls are narrow and low, without any of overhead illumination from the Sun reduces the whole
the famous Alpine Valley. As you might have guessed, the complicated terracing or ledges seen in the walls crater to a featureless bright stain on the Moon’s disc.
Cassini was named after astronomer Giovanni Cassini, of those ‘celebrity’ craters like Copernicus and Tycho,
who, in 1675, was the first to observe the widest gap and some observers think they make it look like a
within Saturn’s rings, later named the Cassini Division
in his honour. In addition, Cassini discovered four of
ring dropped on the surface of the Moon. Using high
magnification to view Cassini on a still night will show
Top tip!
Saturn’s major moons – Iapetus, Tethys, Rhea and that the crater sits on top of a broad rampart of ejecta The Moon can be a dazzling sight through a
Dione – and also observed markings on Mars, too. material, like a castle standing on top of a low hill. telescope, so don’t look at it for longer than a
couple of minutes at a time. Use a Moon filter to
© NASA

So it was no surprise when the Cassini probe, which So, when can you see it? When the Moon is almost
orbiting Saturn for 13 years, was named after him. full, Cassini can be hard to spot. Too small to see cut down any glare and improve contrast.

59
Theophilus crater
Get to know one of the most striking but overlooked impacts on the lunar surface

© NASA
A
s November slides into December, turbulent has a relatively flat, lava-flooded floor, pitted with and shows virtually no surface relief. But a couple
weather fronts often sweep across the many far smaller ‘buckshot’ craters. A quartet of of week later, the crater becomes prominent as the
country, scrubbing the atmosphere clean 1.4-kilometre- (0.8-mile-) high mountainous peaks rise Moon wanes. During the next evening the terminator
of haze to produce the first frosty nights of up from Theophilus’ floor and viewed with a high rolls over the crater and it is plunged into darkness. It
the year, with brittle air perfect for lunar observations. magnification, they give the impression of a single reappears two weeks later as the first rays of sunlight
On these beautifully still nights, the Moon seems peak hacked into four pieces. The tallest two peaks, strike its walls. The Moon will be a beautiful slender
brighter and is a dazzling sight through binoculars or a on the western side, cast dramatic triangular shadows crescent, low in the southwest after sunset.
telescope. It’s always tempting to look at your favourite when the Sun’s light strikes them at low angles. Like When Theophilus looks its best, sunlight bathes
lunar features, but why not track down something many other craters its size, Theophilus has a sharp rim its pitted floor and central peaks. At certain times,
you’ll almost certainly have seen before but not spent and gently sloping walls. These are broken up with the Moon will be close to Mars in the sky, and the
time looking at properly? terraces, ledges and shelves on the eastern side, while dark part of the Moon’s face should glow with lovely
Sandwiched between northern Sinus Asperitatis much of the floor on the crater’s western side has been grey-blue ‘Earthshine’, but don’t let that distract you
and the dark stain of Mare Nectaris to the southeast, covered by landslides. from enjoying Theophilus at its best! When the Moon
Theophilus is one of the most striking craters on Like the great crater Ptolemaeus, Theophilus is also approaches first quarter again, Theophilus will sink
the Moon. Named after the 23rd pope of Alexandria, one half of a double crater. It was blasted out of the back into the lunar glare once more.
the crater is best seen four or five days after new Moon by an impact that obliterated the northeastern
Moon and just before last quarter, when it is close to
the terminator. During full Moon, when the Sun is
corner of another crater, Cyrillus. Although no major
ejecta rays are visible stretching away from Theophilus
“When the
overhead, the crater’s features are washed out and it
looks more like a white smoke ring than a pit, but it is
– not even at full Moon – considerable amounts of
material were scattered across the Moon when it
Sun is overhead,
still easy to see. formed. Some of this material was collected by the the crater's
Theophilus is a classic ‘Tycho class’ crater, closely
resembling ‘celebrity’ craters like Copernicus,
crew of the Apollo 16 mission, which landed in the
Descartes Highlands region in April 1972. features are
Eratosthenes and Tycho itself. At 100 kilometres (62
miles) wide and 3.2 kilometres (two miles) deep, it
So, when’s the best time to see it? With the Moon
approaching full, Theophilus is fully illuminated washed out”
60
 Craters of the Moon

Langrenus crater
It’s time to find one of the Moon’s best hidden gems

T
he Moon has many ‘celebrity’ craters, like to Copernicus when viewed from above: it is a roughly Moon, down at the 4 o’clock position on the Moon’s
Copernicus, Tycho and Eratosthenes, which circular crater, with shallow walls that are more than face as darkness falls. Around full Moon, Langrenus
are big and bright enough to be obvious to 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) wide and broken up into will be a very noticeable bright mark beneath Mare
the naked eye. However, these celebrities more than half a dozen slumped terraces and ledges. Crisium through binoculars, looking like a bright
owe their fame to a stroke of good fortune: the bodies The walls are especially rugged and rippled on its smash pattern left in an icy puddle after a stone has
that blasted them out of the lunar surface millennia western side. Stark mountains jut up out of the crater’s been thrown onto it.
ago struck the face of the Moon pointing right at Earth. floor with three-kilometre- (1.9-mile-) high peaks; The best nights to see the crater are a few days later,
There are other craters just as big and interesting as these cast long, jagged shadows across the floor when when the Moon is starting to wane and the terminator
Copernicus, but they are reduced to B- or C-List status sunlight hits them at a low angle after sunrise or begins to creep towards Langrenus from the west.
because they were blasted out of areas not so well- before sunset. Beyond Langrenus’ walls, out on the With the Sun’s rays slanting across the crater at a
placed for observation. Instead, we see them at an lunar plain, several rays of bright debris spread away shallow angle, it will really stand out from the surface
angle, foreshortened by the curve of the Moon’s limb. westwards from the crater, but again their appearance and look more like an actual crater. At this time,
Langrenus is one such crater. is diminished by the angle of viewing. view it through your telescope with medium to high
A 137-kilometre- (85-mile-) wide, six-kilometre- (3.7- One of the most striking things about Langrenus is magnification, to see its central mountains and the
mile-) deep hole, punched into the Moon by a massive the unusually high albedo – reflectivity, or brightness shadows they cast across its floor.
asteroid impact millennia ago, Langrenus would rival – of its floor. Its floor is very noticeably brighter than However, after this, Langrenus is smothered by
great Copernicus in beauty if it had been formed near the surrounding terrain; it is more of a grey-white darkness and it doesn’t emerge again until the Moon
the centre of the Moon’s face. Sadly, it was blasted out colour than the dark, ash-grey tones of the mare will be a beautiful thin crescent, low in the southwest
of the eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis, the ancient and landscape around it. This means that although after sunset. The crater will show some surface
sea directly to the south of the dark eye socket of the crater is reduced to an oval or lozenge shape by relief for the next few nights until all its shadows are
Mare Crisium, and so Langrenus’ beauty and apparent foreshortening, it is at least a bright one and, unlike washed away by the rising Sun.
size are both greatly diminished as it is almost on the some craters, it is easy to see whenever sunlight is Langrenus is also known as a hot spot of transient
Moon’s limb. falling on it. lunar phenomena – sudden brightenings that may be
© NASA

Photographs taken by Apollo crews and lunar Langrenus can be found as a small, bright oval caused by releases of gas from beneath the crust – so
orbiters show Langrenus is very similar in appearance shining near the western limb of the first quarter make sure to keep an eye out.

61
Aristarchus
crater
Spend a night looking at
the brightest major feature
on the Moon

Top tip!
Don’t be put off
looking at the
Moon when it’s full,
as it’s a great time
to see bright rays
surrounding the
youngest craters!

M
any astronomers will tell you that the Herodotus crater and the Schroter’s Valley, the crater is later when the Moon is full, even just your naked eye
full Moon is the absolute worst phase a favourite of lunar observers and photographers alike. will be able to pick out Aristarchus as a very obvious
of the whole lunar month to look at our It has also been photographed by lunar explorers, both bright spot.
nearest celestial neighbour; after all, all robotic and human. It was snapped during several Binoculars will enhance its brightness considerably,
you can see are the Moon’s major light and dark areas Apollo missions, most notably Apollo 15, and more turning the dot into a small tadpole or comma
– its flat seas and rugged highlands, respectively. That’s recently NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sent of striking silvery-white against the lunar disc,
a little unfair. While it’s true that you can see a lot of back stunning images of the insides of the crater’s surrounded by a splash of fainter rays. Through a
stark and fascinating surface relief on the Moon when shiny walls, boulder-strewn floor and bright central telescope at full Moon, Aristarchus is transformed
it is a crescent, or first or last quarter, at full Moon you peak. It helps that it is a favourite target for lunar into a fascinating splodge of white at the centre of an
can see things not obvious at any other time. observers and photographers alike. elaborate and beautiful web of silvery-white debris
For example, at full Moon it’s much easier to Aristarchus is in one of the regions where observers rays, as if someone has dropped a small pot of white
appreciate how the mare are connected to each other claim to have seen transient lunar phenomena, or TLP, paint on the Moon and it has burst open.
(forming the classic “Man in the Moon”) and it’s also which is the term that Patrick Moore has coined for The crater remains visible as a white dab on the
easier to appreciate the huge difference in albedo short-lived lights, colours or changes in appearance grey lunar surface until the terminator sweeps towards
(reflectivity, or brightness) between the rugged, of the Moon’s surface. Some lunar experts think TLP it once again. At this time, Aristarchus will look like a
mountainous highlands and the dark, flatter lowlands. might be brief releases of gas coming up from beneath proper crater again, complete with terraced walls, flat
But the best thing about full Moon is that it allows us the Moon’s surface, but it is an area of some debate, to floor and central peak. This will be the time to look at
to see how incredibly far the rays of bright debris spray say the least. Aristarchus through the highest-powered eyepieces
away from the youngest impact craters on the Moon, When the Moon is just a couple of days old, you have for your telescope, as you’ll be able to see
such as Copernicus and Tycho. And full Moon is the Aristarchus can’t be seen as it is still deep in lunar detail inside and around it that is not visible at any
very best time to look at the brightest feature on the night. It’s not until the terminator finally sweeps over other time.
whole Moon – Aristarchus. the crater that it emerges from the darkness. Then, Make the most of the view on this evening and into
A quick Google search for “Aristarchus” will turn up in the northwest quadrant of the disc at around the next morning because a day later the terminator
up countless amateur sketches and images of the the 10pm position, it will look like a small ding in a will have rolled over the crater, plunging it into
crater; as it has interesting near neighbours, including car windscreen through a small telescope. Three days darkness again.

62
 Craters of the Moon

Plato crater One of the Moon’s greatest craters

is an excellent lunar target

K
nown to pretty much all lunar observers, Following the solidification of the volcanic flows inner western wall and the western part of its floor
Plato is one of the Moon’s most iconic and that spread across Plato’s floor, a number of small are bathed in streams of sunlight through low points
recognisable craters. Sunk deep below the impacts have made their presence known. These in the crater’s eastern rim. As the shadow cast by
level of the mighty lunar Alps, Plato is a are so small as to be unresolvable through a small Plato’s eastern rim recedes over the next day or two,
near-circular depression around 100 kilometres (62 telescope, even at shallow angles of illumination. the edge of the shadow projects into several points,
miles) in diameter, whose flat, dark floor lies more The five main craters found on Plato’s floor range shortening rapidly as the Sun climbs higher. A full
than two kilometres (1.2 miles) below its rugged between 1.7 and 2.2 kilometres (1.1 and 1.4 Moon sees the crater fully illuminated, but
mountain surroundings. miles) in diameter. its presence is clearly visible by virtue
Because the Plato crater lies in the Moon’s When illuminated by a low Sun of its dark floor, set amid the bright
northern hemisphere, fairly close to the Moon’s at around the first or last quarter nearby mountains.
northern edge, a degree of foreshortening produced lunar phase, these craters can Following the full Moon,
by the curvature of the Moon means that the crater just be discerned through shadows are cast onto Plato’s
doesn’t appear circular from Earth; we see it as a 100mm telescope – their floor by its eastern flanks. In
distinctly oval. In addition, libration – the apparent raised rims shine brightly the late lunar evening, the
rocking motion of the Moon about its axis during the against the dull tone of Plato’s crater’s eastern flanks are
lunar month – affects the amount of foreshortening floor and they cast noticeable surrounded by the darkness of
that does take place. shadows. Under a high Sun, as the terminator, while its inner
Although Plato was created by a substantial at full Moon, Plato’s floor craters eastern wall gleams as a bright
asteroid impact several billion years ago, no traces appear as small bright dots that crescent in the rays of the setting
of the crater’s original secondary impact formations can be challenging to see through a Sun as the floor darkens. One long
can be observed. After formation, the crater’s floor 100mm telescope. Piles of material have shadow cast by a high part of the rim (to
was quickly submerged by dark basaltic lava flows. slumped from the crater’s inner wall, and a large the north of the major landslide mentioned above)
Subsequent impacts and volcanic activity in the triangular block of the inner western wall has broken touches the base of the eastern wall. Several more
surrounding mountainous area and beyond masked away and slipped towards the floor, leaving a large long shadow fingers soon project across the crater
the secondary impact formations around Plato – dent in the crater’s rim. floor, and the whole of Plato’s interior, apart from the
features that undoubtedly included prominent bright When illuminated by an early morning or late inner eastern wall, is plunged into darkness within
rays, chain craters and linear furrows. These features evening Sun, the shadows cast onto the floor by just a few hours. The appearance of Plato’s shadows
are not observable today; instead, we are left with an Plato’s walls are fascinating to observe. Lit by the constantly change from one lunation to the next,

© NASA
imperfect, though extremely prominent depression, lunar morning Sun, the crater’s western flanks because of the effects of libration and the change in
set within the lunar Alps. remain in shadow, joined with the terminator, its the direction of the Sun’s illumination that it causes.

Top tip!
Many craters, like Plato,
are best observed during
certain phases of the Moon.
In particular, Plato is an
excellent target during the
first quarter Moon. If you
choose to observe Plato
during a full Moon, use a
Moon filter to block out glare.

63
Aristoteles,
Eudoxus
and Montes
Caucasus
Take the opportunity
to observe two of
the Moon’s most
prominent craters and
mountain ranges

t’s time to take a look at a notable visual portion – features that are easily visible under the internal terracing is less ordered and its floor is

I partnership – one that is easily viewed through

virtually any optical equipment. It involves two
very prominent craters and a majestic mountain
range that runs from north to south across several
hundred kilometres of the Moon’s upper northeastern
right illumination conditions using a relatively small
telescope, specifically under 60mm.
The rim of Aristoteles is clear cut, displaying a
scalloped effect that is seen in many other large
impact craters of a similar size; such an effect is
somewhat blockier. The impact structuring around
Eudoxus is less grand, partly because of the rougher
nature of the surrounding terrain, with more
concentric rather than radial structures being evident.
Aristoteles and Eudoxus are the bright jewels
quadrant, between the latitudes of 50 degrees and 30 caused by large units of rock that have broken in a handle holding the south-pointing, highly-
degrees north. away from the crater wall and then have slid down serrated ‘dagger’ of Montes Caucasus. This is an
Prominent craters Aristoteles (84 kilometres, or 52 it to some extent. Under a morning or evening impressive mountain range that makes a north-
miles) and Eudoxus (64 kilometres, or 40 miles) form illumination, a broad range of impact structuring south wedge more than 500 kilometres (311 miles)
a striking duo when seen through any telescope, can be discerned in Aristoteles’ vicinity, taking the long, and separates eastern Mare Imbrium from the
particularly when they are illuminated by an early form of a mass of radial ridges that extend out from northwestern Mare Serenitatis. Peaks reach heights
morning or late evening Sun. Indeed, the crater pair the rim for tens of kilometres. Buried within this of 6,000 metres (19,685 feet) in places and the range
can be spotted whenever they are illuminated by the structure on the crater’s eastern wall is Mitchell appears particularly prominent when illuminated by
Sun – even through binoculars at full Moon – since (30 kilometres, or 19 miles), a crater that predates (roughly) a first or last quarter Moon.
both take the form of bright, well-defined rings when Aristoteles, providing a good example of a smaller
viewed under a high illumination. crater that is overlapped by a larger one.
Aristoteles, the larger and more impressive of
the pair, has a slightly polygonal outline, along
South of Aristoteles, the terrain becomes much
rougher. At 100 kilometres (62 miles) to the south,
Top tip!
with broad inner walls that display some of the Eudoxus makes an interesting neighbour – both Prominent craters Aristoteles and Eudoxus form a
most extensive terracing within any lunar crater. Aristoteles and Eudoxus are easily encompassed striking duo when observed through a telescope,
Its floor is depressed below the mean level of the within the field of view of a high magnification particularly when an early morning or late evening
surrounding terrain, forming a flattish base around eyepiece. Although it superficially resembles Sun illuminates them. A Moon filter will improve
40 kilometres (25 miles) in diameter, with two small Aristoteles, close examination of Eudoxus will show contrast, toning down any glare that often washes
mountain peaks protruding from the southern a number of differences. For example, Eudoxus’ out intricate features of the lunar surface.

64
 Craters of the Moon

Endymion crater
Get to know one of the Moon’s lesser known impact features

© Damian Peach; Science Photo Library

S
everal of the Moon’s impact features are so to the edge of the Moon means that our view is magnifications you’ll see its far walls are terraced and
large they are visible to the naked eye. Round greatly foreshortened. On the plus side, its location slump in places.
Mare Serenitatis, which forms the left eye of means that we can sometimes see it more clearly When a beautiful crescent Moon hangs low
the ‘Man in the Moon’, is the most obvious, than others, thanks to the lunar libration, or its slight in the west after sunset, Endymion is already
followed by Mare Imbrium and bright young craters wobbling, which swings features close to (or even fully illuminated, with the terminator – the line
such as Copernicus, Tycho and Aristarchus. But around) the limb into view. between night and day – having swept over it a
scattered here and there are smaller, less obvious Through a small telescope, Endymion looks like little beforehand. By the time the Moon reaches first
features, bigger than the average craters but smaller little more than a dark, oval spot, high above Mare quarter, Endymion is losing definition, as the Sun’s
than the great lava-filled seas, which are worth Crisium, almost at the Moon’s limb. However, larger rays fall on it almost from overhead, shrinking the
hunting down when the phase is right. One of these telescopes reveal it to be a crater with a classic dark, shadows cast by its walls.
is Endymion, a small, roughly circular crater found flat floor. Images taken by lunar orbiters show that By full Moon, the crater is reduced to a mere dull
near the very ‘top’ of the Moon. the floor is peppered with countless tiny craters, as if grey oval near the top of the lunar disc. But just a
Endymion’s mythological roots are rather blasted by a shotgun, but they’re so small it’s unlikely day later the terminator will be creeping towards it
confused; depending on which account you read, the you’ll see them through your telescope. Up towards again, and its walls will be hit by more slanting rays
crater was named after either a shepherd or a king. the top of the crater, you’ll see the Endymion Triplet of sunlight, briefly bringing them back into view for
However, most of the stories agree that Endymion – a trio of craters arranged in a short line on the floor, a mere day or so before the terminator rolls over the
was so handsome and dreamy that Selene, the Titan pointing towards the crater’s centre. They remind crater and plunges it into darkness again. Endymion
goddess of the Moon, became so besotted with him many observers of a mirror image of Orion’s Belt. will then be hidden from view until dawn breaks
that she begged Zeus to put him into an eternal sleep Studies by lunar orbiters and ground-based over the crater’s walls and it reappears.
so that he would never age and she could drool over observers show that Endymion is 122 kilometres So why not try to drag your eyes away from
him forever. (75.8 miles) across and 4.9 kilometres (3 miles) deep. your favourite lunar features and track down the
If Endymion was farther away from the limb we Even from 384,400 kilometres (238,850 miles) away Endymion crater? While it might not be the most
would be able to see its true round shape, and it we can see that its walls are quite steep, and they dramatic or attractive feature to look out for on the
© NASA

would look not unlike Ptolemaeus, or even a slightly can look very dramatic under the right conditions, Moon, once you’ve seen it, you’ll definitely keep going
lighter version of Plato. However, its close proximity when the crater is close to the terminator. Under high back to it.

65
Messier and Messier A
These two small craters are an intriguing sight through a telescope
ook at the Moon through a powerful a perfect night. It is actually one of a pair of craters, sense: look at Messier through a telescope and it is

L telescope, a simple pair of binoculars or

even just your naked eyes, and you can
tell it had a violent past. Countless craters
spatter its surface, each one a wound blasted out of
the crust by the impact of a piece of rock or metal
close to the crater Messier, which is more oblong in
shape. However, Messier A is the more striking of
the two because a pair of long, narrow debris rays jut
away from it to the west, making it look like a comet.
In fact, its comet-like appearance is quite
strikingly elongated, which is what you would expect
a crater caused by a low-angle, grazing impact to look
like. So when can you see these intriguing craters?
When the Moon is a slim crescent, low in the west
after sunset, Messier and Messier A will not become
that came barrelling in from deep space. Most are appropriate, because Messier A and its near visible until the very young, crescent Moon is to the
so old that they’re now just pits, empty eye sockets neighbour were named after the French observer upper left of Mars and Mercury and the terminator
staring sightlessly from the Moon. But a few craters Charles Messier, the 18th-century comet hunter who sweeps over central Mare Fecunditatis, bathing the
are young enough that they are still surrounded by compiled a catalogue of clusters, galaxies and nebulae Messier pair in sunlight. The craters then remain
systems of rays, bright lines of debris thrown out in the sky so that he wouldn’t mistake them for new visible until the terminator rolls back over them,
across the lunar surface when they were formed. comets. There has always been speculation about plunging them into darkness once more. By then
The largest ray systems, streaking away from the how Messier and Messier A were formed. the Moon will be at its waning gibbous phase in the
giant craters like Copernicus, Kepler and Tycho, are Some observers favour a ‘double impact’ morning sky, to the upper right of Saturn.
obvious to the naked eye on a clear night when the scenario, in which a pair of objects hit the Moon When magnified through a larger telescope you’ll
Moon is full. But here and there, dotted across the simultaneously, creating a pair of craters. Another, easily be able to see the gap between Messier A’s twin
Moon, you can find smaller, less famous craters with and rather more romantic, theory is that a single rays, and it should remind you of a classic comet tail,
smaller systems of rays, which are just as beautiful as body hit the Moon at such a shallow angle that after airbrushed on to the Moon’s grey-white surface.
their larger counterparts. One such crater is Messier forming Messier it actually bounced back off the
A, a hole blasted out of Mare Fecunditatis (the Sea of surface of the Moon, like one of the Dambusters’
Fertility) around 1 billion years ago.
Lying just south of the equator, Messier A is a mere
bouncing bombs bouncing off a reservoir – or, more
recently, the Philae lander – and came down a second
“Messier A is
nine kilometres (5.6 miles) across, which means you
really need a telescope to see it, although it might just
time, blasting Messier A out of the Moon and sending
a huge spray of material away from it, forming the
a mere nine
be glimpsed through a powerful pair of binoculars on long, bright rays we see today. This actually makes kilometres across”

66
 Craters of the Moon

Clavius crater
Find one of the largest lunar impacts, made famous in a science
fiction film that helped shape the Space Age
© NASA

I
f you’re a fan of the classic 1968 science fiction Clavius at its majestic best; our view of it is cruelly As is the case with all lunar features, you’ll get
film 2001: A Space Odyssey, this lunar ‘celebrity foreshortened by the curvature of the Moon. your best views of Clavius when it is near or on the
feature’ will need no introduction. No, not However, even a modest pair of binoculars will terminator – the line between night and day. Then,
the bright-rayed crater Tycho, where the alien reveal a lot of fascinating detail in and around it. the sunlight will be slanting in at an angle, casting
monolith was unearthed; Tycho is 430 kilometres They will, for example, help you pick out a quartet long shadows and highlighting the topography of
(267 miles) to the north of our destination. We’re of smaller craters nestled within Clavius’ shallow the crater and its surroundings. When the Moon will
going on a tour of the vast crater Clavius. walls, arranged in a curving chain which arcs have just passed first quarter, Clavius will reveal itself
Clavius is so huge that it is easily visible to the upwards from the southern rim to the north. Very – look for the Moon low in the southeast after sunset,
naked eye when it lies near the terminator, appearing conveniently, the craters in the arc get progressively just to the left of the planet Saturn. Over the next few
as an obvious notch between the areas of light smaller in diameter the farther north they are, evenings Clavius will look better and better, quickly
and dark. Clavius’ diameter of 225 kilometres (140 making this chain very useful as a test of an emerging from the gloom of the long lunar night.
miles) makes it the third largest crater on the side instrument’s resolving power on a clear night. Fully illuminated by the low Sun its features will
of the Moon that faces Earth. Binoculars and small Binoculars will also show that those crater walls really stand out. By full Moon, Clavius will be past its
telescopes reveal a wealth of detail in and around the bear the scars of two huge ancient impacts: the oval, best, pretty much washed out by the light of the Sun
crater. The first time you see Clavius with even a little hummock-floored Rutherford Crater to the south and blazing directly above it. The crater vanishes from
magnification, you will understand why this four- the rounder, flatter Proctor crater to the north are view when darkness crashes over it once more.
billion-year-old crater is a favourite object for many both easy to see at just 10x magnification. As you look at Clavius through your binoculars or
lunar observers. It is through a telescope that Clavius truly comes telescope, just think back to that classic scene from
Far away from any of the famous dark seas or to life. At higher magnification its floor appears 2001 when the shuttle is landing at Clavius Base.
historic Apollo landing sites, Clavius lies deep in the spattered with countless craters, but you’ll need really Back in 1968, as NASA prepared to land men on the
rugged and bright lunar southern highlands, 930 high magnification to see those. Clavius’ northern Moon, it seemed possible – if not likely – that there
kilometres (578 miles) from the Moon’s south pole, walls show themselves as extensively terraced and would be such a facility in the year 2001, some 33
and is surrounded by countless other craters – large rippled. It's as if a section of that wall collapsed at years in the future. Today, half a century later, we’re
© NASA

and small – on all sides. Its southerly latitude and some point, sending a great tsunami of rock and dust probably no closer to building such a base as we were
proximity to the pole sadly means that we don’t see sloshing towards the crater floor. back in 1968 – a very sobering thought indeed.

67
 Top tip!
Copernicus looks
the most impressive
just after first
quarter or just after
last quarter Moon.
At full Moon, it is
just a bright spot.

Copernicus
crater Bow down before the
Monarch of the Moon

A
sk any group of Moon observers – absolute and more than 93 kilometres (58 miles) wide, which Another of Copernicus’ claims to fame is that it
beginner or more experienced – to name means its opposite walls are as far apart as London is relatively near one of the Apollo landing sites. In
their favourite lunar crater and the chances and Clacton-on-Sea. November 1969, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean guided
are most of them will nominate the same However, the impact didn’t just excavate a hole; the Apollo 12 lunar module Intrepid down to a landing
feature: Copernicus. it sent an enormous debris cloud of dust and rocks site a little over 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of the
Copernicus has a nickname – ‘The Monarch of the billowing up into the sky and across the lunar huge crater. Their incredible precision landing placed
Moon’ – and if you’ve only ever seen photographs of landscape. Some of that material fell back down to them within walking distance of the unmanned
the crater but have never seen it with your own eyes, the Moon, spraying across it and leaving bright rays Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed two and a half
you would be forgiven for thinking that sounds a of ejecta splashed on the landscape. These debris rays years earlier. The astronauts removed pieces of the
bit pompous. But, just as every amateur astronomer are so bright and so long – the longest stretches for probe and brought them to Earth for in-depth study.
remembers their first view of Saturn and its rings over 800 kilometres (497 miles), the distance between Copernicus is fully illuminated when the Moon is
through a telescope or their first display of the London and John O’Groats – that they can even be a waning crescent glowing in the east before dawn.
northern lights, they never forget the first time they seen with the naked eye when the Moon is full, With the Sun’s light slanting in at a low angle from
saw Copernicus through a telescope. In fact, the crater looking like white chalk lines drawn on the Moon’s the west, it will stand out from its surroundings and
is one of the first things a beginner will see through rugged grey-blue face. will be an impressive sight in a telescope. Magnified
a pair of humble binoculars because it stands out so The crater itself lies just south of Montes Carpatus 100x or more it looks like an empty eye socket staring
starkly on the Moon, even when viewed under 10x (Carpathian Mountains) a short range of mountains back at you from across space. However, it will only
magnification through a shaking pair of binoculars on on the southern shore of Mare Imbrium. Copernicus be visible until the terminator sweeps over, plunging
a chilly October night. is roughly circular in shape, and its walls are terraced the lunar surface into darkness. The crater will then
Copernicus was formed in fire and fury. Some on all sides with a wide shelf dropped down on the be hidden from view until it emerges into the sunlight
time between 800 million and 1 billion years ago, the western side, and landslides in several places. The again, when the Moon is just past first quarter. As the
Moon collided with a large asteroid and the explosion crater’s floor is quite flat, with a plain of ancient lava nights pass the crater’s appearance will change, its
caused by the impact blasted an enormous hole out pocked here and there, and much smaller, much sharp outline and interior details blurring away as the
of the area of the Moon we now know as Oceanus younger craterlets. In the centre of the crater a trio of Sun climbs higher in the lunar sky. When the Moon
Procellarum, or the Ocean of Storms. The gaping pit mountains protrude from the lava plain, the tallest reaches full, Copernicus will be reduced to a flattened,
left behind was almost four kilometres (2.5 miles) deep with a peak of one kilometre above the crater’s floor. light disc streaked by impressively bright rays.

68
 Craters of the Moon

Top tip!
To find Eddington
crater, use Oceanus
Procellarum as your
guide. The impact
is a bay within this
lunar mare, with the
more prominent crater
Seleucus resting east-
southeast of it.

Eddington crater
Challenge yourself by locating one of the
trickiest impacts on the lunar surface

M
ost of the lunar features we are profiling appeared to have shifted as their light was bent To see Eddington, you will almost certainly need a
are very easy to find, if not with the around our star, Eddington helped prove Einstein’s telescope, as only really powerful binoculars will spot
naked eye then at least through a pair famous General Theory of Relativity to be accurate. it. Through a telescope’s eyepiece, it will look like a
of binoculars or a small telescope. They Eddington crater is an impressive 125 kilometres vertically stretched, grey-white horseshoe against the
are large, bright craters, wide, dark seas or towering (77 miles) wide, and over 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) deep. darker lunar surface, very close to the Moon’s curved
sunlit mountain ranges. This target, however, is going If it was near the middle of the Moon’s disc, it would limb. Eddington is not far from the much brighter and
to provide you with much more of a challenge: it is be very easy to see, appearing larger than Copernicus much more obvious rayed crater Aristarchus.
small, tucked away almost on the Moon’s limb and so and almost as large as Ptolemaeus. However, because Being so close to the western limb, Eddington can
tricky to spot you probably won’t find it the first time it is very close to the lunar limb as seen from Earth, only be seen when the Moon is at, or past, full. It is
you look. it is greatly foreshortened. It is also affected badly by fully illuminated when the Moon rises in the evening
Eddington crater is named in honour of British libration, the rocking backwards and forwards of the sky, and as the month progresses and a waning lunar
astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the first Moon as it orbits the Earth: sometimes it is pushed phase slips into the morning sky, the terminator will
astronomers to figure out the nuclear processes towards us, and appears larger, other times it is pulled sweep relentlessly towards the crater, covering it.
that take place in the hearts of stars. Born in the backwards and shrinks in size. The impact will then remain unobservable until it is
picturesque Lake District town of Kendal, Eddington Whenever you look for Eddington crater, you’ll see bathed in the Sun's rays once more.
was a contemporary of Albert Einstein, with the great it looks more like an incomplete ring than a full circle,
physicist calling Eddington a “genius”. The author of like most craters do – this is because it was flooded
many popular astronomy books, and a regular radio
broadcaster, Eddington spent a lot of time doing what
by a tsunami of molten lava many millennia ago. As
the tidal wave rolled up Eddington’s southern rim and
“This is because
we refer to now as outreach – it could be said that he
was the 1920s and 1930s version of Professor Brian
spilled down into it, the crater was flooded, burying
its southern walls and any central mountain peak it
it was flooded
Cox. He is perhaps best known for travelling to the might once have had, leaving behind a horseshoe- by a tsunami of
island of Príncipe, off the coast of Africa, in May 1919 to
observe a total solar eclipse. During totality, Eddington
shaped remnant with a flat, dark floor. Only a handful
of small craters now pock that dark floor, the largest of molten lava many
millennia ago”
© NASA

observed stars that popped into view around the which is Eddington P, that is a mere 12 kilometres (7.5
eclipsed Sun. By measuring how much their positions miles) across.

69
 Top tip!
Kepler will be at
its best at one day
past full, where
the impact is fully
illuminated and
looking its best.

Kepler crater
Get to know one of the brightest features on
the lunar surface

T
he Moon is a spectacular sight through asteroid barrelled in from deep space and slammed Unlike some of the other major lunar features,
any telescope – even a small one with into the Moon’s surface, blasting a 32-kilometre- (20- no spacecraft – crewed or robotic – have yet landed
low magnification – but not when it’s mile-) wide and 2.6-kilometre- (1.6-mile-) deep hole out close to Kepler, so its material has not been sampled.
full. Hearing that often surprises people; of the lava plain of Oceanus Procellarum. Like its near However, the crater has been photographed
they think that ‘bright equals best’ when looking at neighbours, Kepler is notable because a huge amount extensively over the years by many satellites and
something through a telescope, but the opposite is of debris was thrown out of it, which sprayed up Apollo spacecraft, so we have very detailed imagery
true. When the side of the Moon pointing towards into the sky and splashed back down onto the lunar of it to study. In 2013, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance
the Earth is fully illuminated by sunlight, our planet’s surface, leaving bright streaks and rays painted across Orbiter (LRO) flew over Kepler and its cameras took
natural satellite is so bright that it’s almost impossible it. The longest of Kepler’s rays stretches for more than breathtakingly high-resolution images of debris flows,
to look at through a telescope eyepiece. If you can 300 kilometres (186 miles) across the landscape. There avalanches of dust and rocks snaking and slithering
manage being dazzled by it for more than a few are more rays to the west of the crater, which suggests down its slopes, just like we have seen on Mars. The
seconds, all you can see is a flat plate with grey and the asteroid which formed it came in from the east LRO images clearly show the debris flowed towards,
white patches splattered on it. at an oblique angle, spraying debris away from the around and even over obstacles in its path.
If you look at the full Moon through a modest pair impact site. So, when can you see this fascinating feature?
of binoculars, or with just the naked eye, you will Through a telescope at high magnification, Kepler When the Moon is just one day past full, Kepler is fully
notice there are four very bright white spots with is revealed to be a fascinating feature. It has a roughly illuminated and looking at its best straight away.
what appear to be bright lines streaking away from polygonal shape, with outer walls that are sharply
them – they look like the holes stones make in ice defined and smooth-sloped. The inside of the crater
when thrown onto a frozen-over pond. These spots
are in fact craters, which are relatively young when
is more complicated as its inner slopes are terraced,
leading down to a hummocky, crumpled floor dotted
“Kepler is notable
compared to the Moon’s other impacts. One of these
young craters is Kepler, which can be found on the
with smaller craters. Meanwhile, its central peak is
neither very central or much of a peak, little more than
because a huge
western side of the Moon’s face, below and forming a rough mound of material on the northwest part of amount of debris
a triangle with the equally youthful, but brighter and
more obvious craters Copernicus and Aristarchus.
the floor. To the north, large landslides have slumped
down from the walls, and to the west a crescent- was thrown
Kepler was formed around 1.1 billion years ago in
what is known as the Copernican Era, when a huge
shaped ridge stands out starkly when the Sun’s light
strikes it at an angle. out of it”
70
 Craters of the Moon

Menelaus crater
How to find the impact at the end of one of the
longest rays on the Moon

M
any well-known craters on the Moon Menelaus also seems to be the source of a single, they look like scratches on the Moon. Higher
are famous for being at the centre of bright and very long ray that stretches away from it magnifications at the right phase of the Moon show a
complicated systems of rays. When they and crosses the whole of the Sea of Serenity, but even complicated network of criss-crossing features, small
were formed, Copernicus, Tycho and though the crater and the ray line up perfectly there pits and troughs.
Aristarchus all splashed bright rays of debris for huge is still a lot of debate about the relationship between So, when is the best time to see this controversial
distances across the lunar surface. Elsewhere on the the two. Known by some observers as ‘the crater and its fascinating neighbours this
Moon, smaller, lesser-known craters have systems of Bessell Ray’, because it appears to be month? When the Moon will be full, so
rays too, and one of them, Menelaus, is the source of superimposed over the small crater Menelaus will be fully illuminated by
possibly one of the Moon’s longest and brightest. Bessell, which lies to the northeast the Sun and will look like a bright
Menelaus is a small crater, stretching just 27 of Menelaus, this ray is a striking spot on the southern end of Mare
kilometres (17 miles) across and barely three sight at full Moon and easily Serenitatis, at around the seven
kilometres (1.9 miles) deep, but when the Moon’s phase visible in binoculars. The mystery o’clock position. However, as the
is just right it is easily visible in binoculars and small of the ray's origins probably won’t Sun sinks lower in the sky, the
telescopes. Slightly oval in shape, it lies on the edge be solved until robot probes or crater will be looking like a pit
of the low Haemus Mountains, a curving mountain human explorers land on the Moon again, and then the terminator – the
range that can be found on the southern shore of the and can directly compare the ray’s line between day and night – will
Sea of Serenity. material to the that of Menelaus. start to pass across the crater, and it will
Through binoculars the crater is quite Through a small telescope, Menelaus have vanished from view the following day.
unremarkable, little more than a sharp-edged pit itself shows some interesting detail. Its inner After that point, Menelaus crater will then
blasted out of the ground, looking like the hole a walls are subtly terraced, with multiple small, narrow be in total darkness for two long weeks before it
nuclear warhead would leave behind in a cheesy ledges, and its floor is very hummocky, with many reappears as the terminator approaches it once more.
science-fiction film. But no warhead created Menelaus; mounds and hills there to observe. If the Moon is The crater will slowly come under full sunlight
the crater was blasted out of the Moon by a chunk of in the right phase, a telescope will also allow you to again and will remain visible until the Moon is full
solar system debris. The object came in at a shallow see a network of fascinating cracks and troughs in once more. The very best time to see the crater will
angle, resulting in the crater’s oval shape. The impact the flat, grey plain of the Sea of Serenity just to the be when sunlight is striking it at a low angle and
making it stand out most impressively against the

© NASA
scattered debris all around the crater, and created northeast of Menelaus, known as ‘Rimae Menelaus‘
smaller secondary craters, too. (‘rimae’ means gaps, or fissures). At low magnification lunar surface.

Top tip!
Look for Menelaus
when it is close to the
terminator – that’s
when the crater and
its surroundings will
look their best.

71
Schiller
Take a look at a fascinating
lunar mystery

E
veryone loves a good mystery, and crater. That’s partly because being so far south and so surface. However, images taken from above suggest
astronomy is full to bursting with them. close to the Moon’s limb we see it at quite an oblique that Schiller really is not one, but two craters that
Astronomers are kept awake wondering: angle, so it appears foreshortened. Overhead views formed at the same time, when multiple meteoroids
What caused the Big Bang? When did taken during the Apollo missions, or more recently by slammed into the Moon almost simultaneously. How
Saturn’s rings form? Was there ever life on Mars? The surveying orbiters, show Schiller really is an elongated many? It was most likely a pair, but it could maybe
Moon has many mysteries, too – how exactly was feature. It’s often described as ‘lozenge-shaped’ by have been as many as four meteoroids, according
it formed? Will people ever live there permanently? experienced lunar observers, while others have to some researchers. But Schiller isn’t unique in this
Could it be terraformed to become a second Earth? compared it, rather less kindly, to a leech or a slug! respect; the Orcus Patera crater on Mars looks very
However, as puzzling as these questions are, the If you look at Schiller closely through a larger similar, and Venus has a crater called Graham, which
nature and history of the major features on the telescope using higher magnification on a night when also appears elongated.
Moon’s surface are mostly well understood. Thanks the air is still, you will see quite a lot of detail. You’ll However it was formed, Schiller is fascinating to
to centuries of telescopic study and decades of be able to make out its rim, which is sharp and well look at. So when can you see it? It should start to pop
exploration with space probes and crewed landings, defined, and its walls, which rise some four kilometres into view as the terminator begins to sweep towards
we know how its dark seas and impact craters formed, (2.4 miles) from its floor, are terraced with various it – that’s when its walls will start to cast shadows,
and why there are far fewer seas on the far side than shelves and ledges. There are two low ridges sticking making it stand out from the surface. The Moon will
on the Earth-facing side. But some features on the up out of its floor on the western end, but the crater be in its last quarter phase and low in the sky before
Moon are more puzzling. Here and there we can see floor on the eastern end is very smooth and flat, with dawn, just to the left of the planet Mars.
bright debris rays following odd paths only a couple of craterlets pocking it. When the The best time to see Schiller is when the Sun’s rays
away from craters, and even strange, Sun is hitting Schiller at an angle it really are striking the crater at a low angle, making it much
bright swirls on the dark maria. is a fascinating sight, but at full Moon more obvious. However, when the terminator rolls
There are also a handful of it blends into the background and over the crater, plunging it into darkness, it's lost from
craters that simply look strange. becomes quite hard to find. view until the cycle repeats again.
One of these is Schiller, a So, where’s the great mystery?
179-kilometre- (111-mile-) long, Well, we’re not quite sure how
71-kilometre- (41-mile-) wide
impact feature down in the
Schiller was actually formed.
At first glance, especially at low
Top tip!
south, not far from Tycho. magnification, it’s easy to think that As with all mountains, valleys and craters on
Through a telescope, Schiller it was created when a single chunk the Moon, you will be able to get your best
looks more like a short, stubby of space debris struck the Moon at a views of this fascinating feature when it is
valley than a typical round or oval low angle, ploughing a long scar out of its close to the terminator.

72
 Craters of the Moon

Top tip!
Timocharis will be
at its best as the
lunar terminator
approaches it.

Timocharis
Find a crater that had its mountain
obliterated by an asteroid impact!

E
ven a casual glance at the Moon through philosopher Timocharis, who, working from the now stares out of the heart of Timocharis like an
a telescope, or just a humble pair of famous Library of Alexandria, measured lunar star empty eye socket.
binoculars, is enough to tell you that it has occultations very accurately and also observed Venus So, when can you see this fascinating but little-
been absolutely pummelled and pulverised occulting a star. known crater? Timocharis is very hard to see when
in its distant past. Everywhere you look on the Moon Timocharis is a relatively young crater in lunar the terminator – the line between lunar night and
you will see impact craters, the pits and holes left terms – we know this because it is not surrounded day – is be almost on top of it. However, when the
behind from a piece of space debris – an asteroid, a by any major rays or splashes of debris. When the crater emerges into the sunlight, it will be easy to
comet, or just one of the countless billions of chunks Moon is full you can see some subtle rays spreading spot, looking like a small, round pit or hole above
of rock that were left circling the Sun after it was away from the crater, but they pale in comparison larger Eratosthenes. When the Moon reaches full,
born 5 billion years ago. Some are enormous and to those that can be found sploshing away from its Timocharis will have blended into the background
are surrounded by dramatic patterns of rays made aforementioned neighbours. and will look just like a dark spot with a slightly
of rock and dust that sprayed across the landscape Through a telescope at high power, Timocharis lighter circular rim.
when they were formed. Others are much smaller is revealed to be a much more complicated feature Timocharis will start to appear more prominent
and less imposing, but there are many more of these than it first appears. The crater is roughly polygonal again when the terminator begins to approach
than there are ‘celebrity’ craters. And some of these in shape, with sharply defined outer walls – a classic it. When the terminator sweeps over the crater,
small craters have fascinating stories behind them, lunar crater in that sense – but the inner slopes of its plunging it into darkness, we will lose sight of it.
and incredible stories to tell. walls are broken up into multiple terraces and ledges, Little Timocharis might not be the most
One such crater is Timocharis, a small crater in all of which appear to have slumped down towards impressive crater on the Moon, but it’s a reminder
Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Showers, the vast dark the floor. This means that when sunlight strikes that every feature on the surface of Earth’s satellite is
plain of ancient frozen lava that represents one of the Timocharis from a steep angle it can look like a target worth looking at, and has its own story to tell. All we
eyes of the ‘Man in the Moon’. Timocharis is just 34 or bullseye on the lunar surface. need to do is listen.
kilometres (21 miles) across and three kilometres (1.8 Look closely through your telescope eyepiece and
miles) deep, so it is dwarfed by its near neighbours, you will see that Timocharis is home to a central
mighty Copernicus to the southwest – 96 kilometres
(60 miles) wide – and Eratosthenes – 59 kilometres
mountain peak – or rather, it used to. Where a
towering mountain once stood, there is now a small,
“He named it in
(37 miles) wide – directly to its south, which it forms a deep crater because some time after Timocharis honour of the
tight triangle with.
Timocharis was given its name in 1651 by the
was formed, an asteroid came hurtling in from deep
space, and like Robin Hood splitting a competitor’s Greek astronomer
and philosopher”
© NASA

lunar observer and cartographer Giovanni Riccioli. arrow, it slammed into the mountain at its centre,
He named it in honour of the Greek astronomer and obliterating it and leaving behind a single crater that

73
Harpalus crater
This destination is the star of one of the most
famous sci-fi films ever made

T
his crater was the uncredited star of a film more dramatic and jagged than the ones the Apollo Photos taken from directly above by orbiting probes
that was released 18 years before 2001: A astronauts would gaze out on and explore decades show Harpalus is roughly circular, with shallow,
Space Odyssey and stunned audiences with later, they were still far more realistic than anything terraced walls, a trio of low mountains rising up from
its realistic depiction of space exploration painted or shown on screen before. When Destination its hummocky floor and a system of rays spreading
– Destination Moon. Of course, many lunar features Moon came out, 19 years before Apollo landed on the away from it. In this way it looks rather like a smaller
and landmarks have been featured in science-fiction Moon for real, it took audiences on a thrilling mission version of Copernicus. If you look at Harpalus through
films and TV shows over the years. Some of the very to a real crater that you can find for yourself on the a small telescope when it is at its best, you will be able
first science-fiction films were silent movies that Moon: Harpalus. to see right into it and will be able to make out details
showed people visiting the Moon in glorified artillery Sitting almost in the centre of the Sea of Cold, a on its walls and floor, including a small crater there.
shells fired from huge cannons, to meet either bizarre- long, narrow stain just above the beautiful crescent- So when can you see this crater at its best? You’ll
looking aliens or dancing girls. shaped Sinus Iridum in the far northerly reaches of the need to wait until the terminator passes over it,
In the aforementioned classic 2001, astronauts Moon, Harpalus is physically a fairly small crater. Just allowing the Sun to shine on its raised rim – before
excavated an enigmatic alien monolith from deep 40 kilometres (25 miles) across and three kilometres that point, it will be fully hidden in shadow. When
beneath the crater Clavius. In Star Trek: First Contact (1.8 miles) deep, it is less than a third as wide as the crater is in full sunlight, it will bevery easy to see
the USS Enterprise’s time-travelling First Officer Riker Copernicus and just one-eighth the size of Clavius. in a small telescope. It should even be visible – just
waxes lyrical to warp drive inventor Zefram Cochrane Visually it is an unremarkable feature, not helped –through a good pair of binoculars. The crater will
about gazing up at the terraformed Moon in his by the fact that its close proximity to the lunar north remain fully illuminated until the terminator will
century and seeing the lights of cities shining there, pole means that our view of it from here on Earth is return and begin to sweep back over it again, cutting
and Lake Armstrong too. The Moon has even been greatly foreshortened, so it usually looks like more of off the sunlight.
visited by Spongebob Squarepants! an oval than a circular feature. However, the Moon’s
But in 1950, the film Destination Moon was the libration – the axial wobble it has which causes it to
first to attempt to show the Moon and the view from
it realistically by featuring the stunning artwork and
occasionally but regularly tilt features around its limb
towards us and then away from us again, meaning we
Top tip!
models of artist Chesley Bonestell. Many consider can sometimes see a little way ‘around the edge’ of Look for Harpalus when it is close to the
Bonestell to be the original – and still the best – ‘space the Moon – sometimes causes Harpalus to be tipped terminator, the line between lunar night and
artist’. Although his lunar landscapes were much towards us, allowing us a much better view. day. It will stand out much more clearly here.

74
 Craters of the Moon

Albategnius
Gaze down into an ancient walled plain that puts some of the
Moon’s better-known features to shame

T
here are many features on the Moon that crew of Apollo 16 took some beautiful images of it as need to look at it through your own telescope to
have acquired ‘celebrity’ status because they they orbited the Moon on the fifth and penultimate decide if you agree.
are genuinely impressive. Others aren’t given Apollo mission to land on the surface of our planet’s Albategnius’ walls are, like those of most large
the same credit or attention because they are fascinating natural satellite. craters on the Moon, very complicated features in their
overshadowed by their more impressive neighbours. Although Albategnius looks like a large crater at first own right, with multiple terraces and ledges breaking
One such feature is a walled plain called Albategnius, glance it is actually classed as a ‘walled plain’, so it is them up in every direction and criss-crossed and cut
which can be found almost in the centre of the Moon’s more like a small sea surrounded by high walls than into by valleys and gorges here and there.
face as we see it from Earth. a simple crater. It is approximately 130 kilometres (81 So, when can you see this intriguing if overlooked
If you’re not familiar with this feature, that’s no miles) across, surrounded by jagged walls that tower feature for yourself? Like everything on the Moon,
huge surprise. Albategnius is overshadowed by three more than four kilometres (2.5 miles) above the lunar Albategnius is invisible in shadow. It doesn’t emerge
huge and very famous features directly to its west: surface, and has lots of smaller craters spattered across from the darkness until the terminator sweeps over
Ptolmaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel. Linked together, its deep floor, around 40 of them. it, surrendering it to the sunlight. A day later the plain
and a striking sight in both a small pair of binoculars To the north of the crater floor, a tightly clustered will be fully visible, its high walls standing out starkly
and a large telescope, these three craters are very trio of these craters runs from west to east, itself against the surface with the Sun’s rays striking them
popular observing targets, which is why presenting a very interesting sight through at a low angle.
poor Albategnius, just to their east, is a small telescope. Albategnius also By the time the Moon is full, with the Sun blazing
usually overlooked. It’s a shame, has another major crater inside its directly overhead, the plain will have been reduced
because it is a fascinating and walls. Look down to the southwest to a mere dark patch. As the days pass and the
rewarding feature. and you’ll see the crater Klein, terminator creeps back towards it from the east,
Having said that, not everyone a 43-kilometre (27-mile), steep- Albategnius will become more and more prominent
has ignored Albategnius. In 1610, walled pit. again, until it is swallowed up by the darkness once
Galileo observed it through In common with many large more and is lost from our view.
his first telescopes and was so craters, Albategnius has a central So why not take a look at Albategnius for yourself?
impressed by its appearance peak, a mountain that stabs up True, there are larger and more dramatic features
that he drew it, including it on his from its floor. Its summit is over 1.5 around it, but if you can drag your eyes away from
famous sketches of the Moon. In kilometres (0.9 miles) above the floor those and dare to stray from the well-worn path that
modern times Albategnius has been and topped with a small crater of its you usually follow across the Moon, you’ll no doubt
© NASA

observed and photographed in rather own. Some observers think the mountain find Albategnius to be an incredibly rewarding ‘off the
greater detail by many lunar probes, and in 1972 the range has the shape of a ghost or an angel – you’ll beaten track’ destination.

75
 Lunar maria
Explore the Moon’s seas and how they got their names

Mare Crisium
Fully exposed in morning sunshine,
Mare Crisium offers spectacular bright views

D
espite their name, the prominent lunar to a considerable extent. As the Moon waxes (grows In the northeast lies the narrower Dorsa
features known as ‘seas’ (‘maria’ in Latin) in size) in the evening skies, libration greatly favours Tetyaev (150 kilometres, or 93 miles, long) and Dorsa
aren’t stretches of liquid water. They’re vast Mare Crisium, while the remainder of the lunar cycle Harker (200 kilometres, or 124 miles). As the Sun
pools of dark lava that flooded low-lying sees Mare Crisium gradually being pushed ever-closer climbs higher, numerous light-coloured rays cross
areas (mainly impact basins) several billion years ago. to the Moon’s edge. Mare Crisium’s mottled surface, notably those from the
These lava flows have long since solidified. It was only The neat, oval-shaped Mare Crisium produces bright impact crater Proclus (28 kilometres, or 17 miles,
in ancient times – long before telescopes were first a noticeable ‘dent’ on the morning terminator of across) just beyond its western border. Several impact
invented – that these dark patches, so clearly visible the young lunar crescent, visible without optical craters dot its surface – Picard, Peirce and Greaves can
with the unaided eye, were speculated to be marine aid to those with keen eyes. Fully exposed to the be seen under a midday illumination.
regions. But for more than 400 years we have known morning sunshine a day later, Mare Crisium makes A couple of days after full Moon, Mare Crisium’s
that the Moon’s seas are decidedly solid areas: no a spectacular sight through any optical instrument, western border casts shadows as its eastern reaches
waves lap at their shores and no wind billows across looking like a large flooded crater (which is exactly begin to darken with the nearing sunset terminator,
their expanses. what it is). Mare Crisium has lofty western mountain the mountains of its eastern border glinting in the
Mare Crisium (the Sea of Crises) is the most ‘self- borders whose clean-cut cliffs shine brilliantly in the setting Sun. A considerable breach exists in the eastern
contained’ sea on the Moon’s nearside. Viewed from morning light. mountain border where the mare lavas have flowed
above, it is markedly oval; measuring 570 by 450 Under a low illumination, a concentric system of into outlying craters and valleys, notably Mare Anguis
kilometres (354 by 280 miles), its longest axis is wrinkle ridges comes into view. These ridges average (Serpent Sea), one of the smallest lunar maria which
oriented east-west. Viewed from Earth, Mare Crisium’s about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the mare border, is an irregular, dark patch measuring about 200
position near the Moon’s eastern edge causes its east- forming a disjointed internal ring. Dorsum Oppel, kilometres (124 miles) from north to south.
west axis to be ‘squashed’ – foreshortening makes it the most prominent of these wrinkles, links with the A large mountainous headland, Promontorium
appear longer along its north-south axis. The apparent flooded crater Yerkes (36 kilometres, or 22 miles) in the Agarum, projects into Mare Crisium from its
shape of Mare Crisium and its nearness to the eastern west and curves around the northwestern periphery southeastern shore. There’s far more to glimpse in and
edge of the Moon is a good naked eye guide to the of the mare for 300 kilometres (186 miles), where it is around Mare Crisium throughout its two weeks in
extent of lunar libration. intercepted by half a dozen narrow wrinkles that cross the Sun during each lunation – it truly is a fascinating
Libration, the apparent slight rocking of the Moon the mare from the northwestern border. feature to study.
from side to side during the month, allows a total of
59 per cent of the Moon’s surface to be seen over time,
while the remaining 41 per cent of the Moon (the true
far side) is always unobservable. Libration affects the
way in which we view lunar features, especially those
lying nearer to the Moon’s edge, and whenever Mare
Crisium is on show, those with a keen naked eye will
be able to determine the state of the Moon’s libration.
Libration favouring the eastern edge of the Moon
will show Mare Crisium to good effect, while a strong
libration favouring the Moon’s western edge will push
Mare Crisium near the Moon’s edge, foreshortening it

Top tip!
Mare Crisium will make a spectacular sight
through any optical instrument, as it is fully
exposed to the morning sunshine and will
appear as a large, flooded crater. A Moon filter
will improve contrast, toning down any glare
that often washes out intricate features.

76
 Crators Lunar
of the Moon
maria

Mare Humboldtianum
A favourable libration makes this elusive
lunar sea an intriguing target

N
ow it’s time to turn to the very edge mean lunar limb out of sight – the latter applies to Humboldtianum in 1837 by German astronomer
of the Moon and take a look at one Mare Humboldtianum. and selenographer Johann Mädler in honour of his
of the most elusive lunar seas visible Under an unfavourable libration (where the compatriot, the naturalist and explorer Alexander
from Earth – Mare Humboldtianum. Moon’s southwestern limb is well-seen), Mare von Humboldt. Obviously, Humboldt’s explorations
Located on the Moon’s northeastern limb, Mare Humboldtianum is shunted onto and beyond of unfamiliar terrestrial continents in the late 18th
Humboldtianum is a dark patch of lava some 270 the northeastern limb, rendering it virtually and early 19th centuries formed a symbolic analogy
kilometres (170 miles) across on the lunar nearside, unobservable. However, a favourable libration to Mädler’s own lunar surveys, and therefore
whose eastern edge just touches the 90 degrees east (combined with a favourable illumination) brings Mare Humboldtianum represented a physical
line of longitude. the Moon’s northeastern limb regions into view, and link between the known and (then) unknown
Since the Moon rotates once on its axis in Mare Humboldtianum is pretty easy to spot, even hemispheres of the Moon. Viewed from above, Mare
precisely the same time as it takes to revolve around through binoculars. Humboldtianum appears as a broad crescent, and
Earth (keeping the same face turned towards us), it The latter circumstance takes place in early it was first pictured from space by the Soviet probe
might be thought that Mare Humboldtianum should March, so it’s a great opportunity to take a look Luna 3 back in October 1959.
always be on view whenever it is illuminated by the at one of the Moon’s smaller and lesser-known A favourable libration of the Moon’s northeastern
Sun. But this isn’t the case, owing to a phenomenon seas. First, a little historical perspective. Mare limb between the Moon’s age from 3 to 13 days in
known as libration. Humboldtianum is a dark patch of lava (270 its waxing phases enables Mare Humboldtianum to
Libration produces an apparent slow rocking kilometres or 170 miles across) that fills the central be seen very well.
motion of the Moon, a phenomenon that allows a regions of a much larger ancient impact basin The best evenings to spot the Mare
total of 59 per cent of the Moon’s surface to be (around 650 kilometres or 404 miles across) Humboldtianum is when libration is at its
seen over time, while the remaining 41 whose eastern reaches extend well onto maximum for the feature. Binoculars will easily
per cent of the Moon – the true far the Moon’s true farside. The basin- realise it as a dark patch near the northeastern
side – is perpetually hidden from forming impact took place around 3.8 (upper-right) edge of the Moon, and a telescopic
our gaze. Libration has a number billion years ago. view will show considerable detail, although it is
of causes, but the main effect is Later impacts have scarred illuminated by a relatively high Sun and no shadows
caused by the Moon’s elliptical Humboldtianum, with light will be cast by any of its relief features.
orbit around Earth combined coloured ejecta from local
with the steady rotation of the
Moon on its axis each lunar
impact craters and the huge
200-kilometre- (124-mile-) wide
Top tip!
month. Libration can bring crater, Belkovich that intrudes You should observe this lunar sea during the
features on the mean far side upon Mare Humboldtianum’s libration of the Moon’s northeastern limb in
into our telescopic sights, and northeast flank, straddling the the Moon's waxing phases. A Moon filter will
improve contrast, toning down any glare that
© NASA

it can also work the other way, mean lunar near and far sides.
pushing features that are near the The feature was named Mare often washes out intricate features.

77
Mare Undarum
A favourable libration provides an ideal opportunity to view
the lava-filled craters on the Moon’s eastern edge

E
arlier on, we took a look at Mare Crisium (the Located around 100 kilometres (62 miles) southeast (224 miles) from east to west, it occupies the libration
Sea of Crises), a vast oval-shaped dark plain of Mare Crisium lies Mare Undarum (Sea of Waves), zone. Extreme librations see the mare disappear
near the Moon’s northeastern edge – a lunar which is a collection of lava-filled craters. Like Mare around the limb nearly completely, but it can usually
sea (or maria in Latin) so sizeable that it can Crisium, Mare Undarum is positioned firmly on the be glimpsed as a narrow elongated dark area on the
easily be seen with the keen, unaided eye as a dusky Moon’s nearside and it therefore always remains eastern limb during the first half of the lunation up
spot near the lunar limb. Mare Crisium may be looked visible whenever it is illuminated, despite the effects of to Full Moon. Located on the eastern limb, Mare
at as a very large impact crater, whose libration. Mare Undarum’s outline is rather Smythii is around 200 kilometres (124 miles) across
central plains have been covered irregular, roughly 100 kilometres (62 and viewed from above it assumes a roughly circular
by lava that has welled up from miles) from north to south and 200 (though poorly-defined) outline.
beneath the lunar crust at some kilometres (124 miles) from west Although the whole of Mare Smythii is presented
point in time after impact. to east. Even at the extreme of towards the Earth during a favourable libration, its near
A phenomenon known as libration, Mare Undarum can be limb position makes it appear very foreshortened. Like
libration – an apparent slight seen in its entirety – although Mare Marginis, the sea comprises of many large, lava-
rocking of the Moon from side foreshortened to some degree – filled craters and it can disappear beyond the eastern
to side during the month – near the Moon’s edge. However, limb during an unfavourable libration.
enables Mare Crisium to appear two eastern seas lie much further
more prominent from time to
time. However, Mare Crisium lies
east than Mare Crisium on the
lunar disc, both of which are sizeable
“Extreme librations
entirely on the Moon’s nearside and
its oval shape can always be observed
lunar marias that actually straddle the
line of 90 degrees east – which separates the
see the mare
when the area is illuminated. But there also exists
a cluster of smaller lunar seas also visible, which are
mean nearside and farside of the Moon. These features
are Mare Marginis (the Border Sea) and Mare Smythii
disappear around
located to the east of Mare Crisium. None of these seas (Smyth’s Sea). the limb nearly
take the classic oval form of Mare Crisium, for each is
somewhat patchy and irregular in outline.
Mare Marginis lies due east of Mare Crisium.
Irregular in outline and measuring 360 kilometres completely”
78
 Lunar maria

Mare Imbrium
Explore the Moon’s Sea of Showers

O
ne of the most iconic images in the history Mountains to the east, the dark-floored crater Plato to Mare
of space exploration dates back to 1902. In the north and horned crescent basin of Sinus Iridium Imbrium
his 1902 film Trip to the Moon, one of the catch the observer’s eye as they gaze at Imbrium remains in
first sci-fi films ever made, pioneer film- through even a small telescope. When sunlight strikes darkness until
maker Georges Méliès fired a bullet-shaped capsule to Mare Imbrium at a shallow angle, it reveals that its the terminator first
the Moon from a giant cannon, and that iconic image seemingly-flat floor is wrinkled and rippled like an touches the peaks
shows how it landed in the poor Man in the Moon’s un-ironed sheet. of the Appennine Mountains on the impact plain’s
right eye. Today when we look up and see the Man in Because it offers so much fascinating and diverse eastern rim. A few days later, Imbrium is half-
the Moon staring back at us, his right eye thankfully geology, over the years several major space missions illuminated and a couple of days after that, it is all
seems to have healed – and we now know it as Mare have landed within Mare Imbrium’s borders. In bathed in sunlight and its features will stand out.
Imbrium, the Sea of Showers. 1970, the Russian Luna 17 probe landed the first This will be the best time to see the trio of
Like all the major lunar seas, Imbrium is an impact Lunokhod rover on the Moon inside Mare Imbrium. prominent craters on its eastern side – Archimedes
basin – a wide, lava-filled wound caused by the impact The following year the crew of Apollo 15 set down and its smaller more northerly neighbours Autolycus
of an enormous body many billions of years ago. next to the meandering 1.6-kilometre- (one-mile-) wide and Aristillus – and the ridges and wrinkles on its dark
Lunar scientists estimate that Imbrium was blasted channel Hadley Rille. Here Dave Scott and James floor: Imbrium then remains in the light for ten days
out of the lunar crust around 3.9 billion years ago, by Irwin spent almost three days studying the Moon’s until the sweeping of the terminator across the face of
a protoplanet 250 kilometres (155 miles) wide. One geology and collecting rock samples, including the the Moon begins to surrender it to the long lunar night
cataclysmic impact excavated a hole 1,225 kilometres bright 'Genesis Rock'. They also enjoyed long, bumpy and the Appennine Mountains go dark once more.
(760 miles) wide, which we call Mare Imbrium today. drives across the lunar surface in the first lunar rover
Although it looks impressive from Earth through a to go to the Moon. More than 40 years later, wheels
telescope, studies from the many crewed and robotic
spacecraft which have flown over it have revealed
left tracks across Mare Imbrium again when the
Chinese Chang’e 3 lander set down on the sea’s dusty
Top tip!
Mare Imbrium is a truly fascinating place. A vast surface and the Yutu rover trundled down its ramp Observe Mare Imbrium as soon as the
mottled plain of ancient frozen lava, dotted with huge and out onto the boulder-strewn surface, sending back terminator reaches it for the best views of the
craters, Imbrium is bordered by the jagged Apennine hundreds of beautiful images. subtle features like wrinkles and small craters.

79
Mare
Orientale
Catch a fleeting glimpse of one of the Moon’s
Top tip!
If you have a Moon filter, use it when looking
for Mare Orientale. The contrast will make the
most incredible features feature much easier to see.

M
ost of the lunar features we visit on our the youngest impact features on the Moon, blasted preferably a telescope, and even then only as an area
tours are pretty obvious and easy to out it around 3.8 billion years ago by an asteroid broken up into light and dark lines close to the lunar
see – huge pit-like craters, long chains more than 60 kilometres (37 miles) wide. limb. Even so, just seeing the enigmatic Eastern Sea
of jagged mountains, vast dark seas, That brutal collision painted an enormous bullseye at all is a thrill, so cross your fingers for clear skies at
etc. This target is much more challenging and much target on the Moon – a 327-kilometre- (203-mile) wide that time.
harder to see. In fact, you’ll only be able to glimpse dark sea, or mare, of frozen lava, surrounded by three Where exactly should you look? The easiest
it for a couple of days. Why? Because it is a feature concentric rings of crater-pocked mountains that way to find Mare Orientale is to go back to basics
usually invisible from Earth. make the whole feature more than 900 kilometres and imagine the Moon’s face as a clock face. Mare
Mare Orientale and its surrounding rings of (559 miles) across. Just imagine if Mare Orientale had Orientale will tilt towards us, so when libration is
mountains form one of the largest, most dramatic been formed on the side of the Moon facing Earth at its most pronounced, aim your binoculars or
features on the Moon. If it was on the Earth-facing – our natural satellite would resemble a huge eye, telescope towards the 8 o’clock position where you
side of our celestial companion it would dominate staring down at us from the sky. Now imagine seeing will see the dark-floored crater Grimaldi. Beneath and
its face, and would quite possibly have affected the that painted red, bloodshot during a total lunar to the left of Grimaldi, right on the limb, you will see
development of many of our cultures and religions. eclipse. It’s fascinating to wonder how much fear what looks like a number of dark lines, almost like
Unfortunately, it was blasted out of the Moon just far would that have caused, and how such an ominous scratches on the Moon – these are Mare Orientale and
enough around the western limb that it is usually sight would have affected our species’ cultures and its numerous mountains.
hidden from our view. However, occasionally the religions, isn’t it? Of course, the more magnification you use with
libration – or wobbling – of the Moon allows us to Sadly, our observing windows for this fascinating your telescope, the more detail and structure you will
sneakily peek a short distance around the western feature are few and far between – and brief, too – so see – but no matter how high you go, you won’t be
limb, and offers lunar observers a tantalising, fleeting any opportunity to catch even a fleeting glimpse of able to see the circular shape of the feature. However,
glimpse of this fascinating feature. Mare Orientale should be grasped. When the Moon’s in a way that doesn’t really matter. What does matter
Only the wide-with-wonder eyes of Apollo libration woozily swings the western side of the is that you will be seeing something that is usually
astronauts and the clicking cameras of robotic Moon towards us and Mare Orientale, its surrounding hidden from our view. You’ll be able to feast your
spacecraft have seen, and photographed, Mare mountain rings will become visible – eyes on something that most sky-watchers, and
Orientale in all its glory. They gazed down at one of but only through a good pair of binoculars or many Moon observers, have never seen.

80
 Lunar maria

Sea of Tranquility
Explore the dark sea that has accommodated previous Apollo missions

T
he Sea of Tranquility, also known as in Latin tiny craters from impacts over the years as well as of Tranquility
as Mare Tranquillitatis, is one of the best ridges, grooves and volcanic channels from previous where the
known lunar features around due to it being geological activity. However the stepping on the smaller, yet still
easy recognisable and it being the landing surface has been described as like walking on powder, distinct, crater
site for the historic Apollo 11 landing. This mare – the as the face of the Moon is covered in very, very fine- Moltke lies. Just
name given to large, dark, basaltic plains – was formed grained rock. northwest of Moltke
from the ancient eruptions of lunar volcanoes roughly This site is probably most notable as the area where is the landing site, and if the telescope and user’s
4 billion years ago, before the Moon settled into the Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on eyesight is good enough, the three incredibly small
ball of rock seen today. 20 July 1969 aboard Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Eagle. craters – Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins, the latter
The Sea of Tranquility stretches approximately 870 When they stepped off Eagle, they became the first named after Michael Collins who was commanding
kilometres (540 miles) in diameter, which is roughly humans to step foot on a different celestial body, and the Command Module orbiting the Moon on the
the same distance between San Francisco and San this all occurred at Base Tranquility, as they named mission – can be found.
Diego in California, United States. It is not hard to spot it. After approximately six hours collecting samples Before this courageous feat of exploration, Mare
this mare when the area is illuminated, and you can and taking photographs, they left behind an American Tranquilliutatis has been the subject of a couple of
find it using a modest pair of binoculars. flag, as well as a patch honouring the fallen heroes investigations. For instance, in 1965, NASA’s Ranger
It would be best to observe this region when of Apollo 1 and the rest of the Lunar Module, with a 8 spacecraft obtained the first close-up images of the
the Moon is at a high level of illumination as the plaque on the leg of Eagle that read: “Here men from Moon and finished its mission by crashing into the
surrounding white-greyish land will emphasise the the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July Sea of Tranquility.
dark basaltic area. In terms of location, it can be found 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” Another NASA lunar exploration mission visited the
along with another connecting mare, Mare Serenitatis Spotting the landing site is an enjoyable task, as is same basaltic sea, but the Surveyor 5 made a much
or Sea of Serenity, flaunting a snowman figure with an finding the other five Apollo landing sites, and this can more controlled landing in 1967. Due to the fact that
opposing colour scheme to it. Other notable features be done with the use of a decent telescope capable of this region has become one of the most explored
around it include the much smaller Mare Nectaris or resolving craters of the surface. As for finding the spot areas of the Moon, it has managed to capture the
Sea of Nectar. As this area is much darker, its harder where Apollo 11 touched down, it would be easier to imagination of people worldwide, and its presence has
to decipher any craters or distinguishable landmarks, find the nearby crater Theophilus first. After this crater been used in many different works of art from songs
but its contrast in colour makes for an enjoyable view, is located, follow an imaginary line up towards the Sea to books.
particularly around the rim of the seas.
It is thought that this region was formed during the
‘pre-Nectarian’ period, which is a timescale spanning
between 4.5 and 3.9 billion years ago. Fast-fast-
forwarding to present day, this land is peppered with

Top tip!
Finding the Apollo 11 landing site is easier
when the Moon is finely illuminated in order to
distinguish the small number of nearby craters.

“Spotting the
landing site is
an enjoyable task,
as is finding the
other five Apollo
landing sites, and
this can be done
with the use of a
decent telescope”
81
 Top tip!
If you look at Mare
Serenitatis when
it is close to the
terminator, you will
see more detail and
surface relief to it.

Mare Serenitatis
When the Moon is full, enjoy views of one of
the lunar surface’s ancient lava seas

L
ook at the full Moon with your naked eye or Today we know that vast lava plain as Mare it. First, a small, round crater just below its centre – this
a pair of binoculars on a frosty winter’s night Serenitatis, one of the most obvious features on the is 16-kilometre- (ten-mile-) wide Bessel. Looking at it,
and you will see areas of light and dark. The Moon’s surface. We also know that Serenitatis is you’ll notice the second feature; the crater sits in the
light areas are known as the ‘lunar highlands’ approximately 674 kilometres (419 miles) across at its centre of a bright ‘ray’ that looks like a white chalk
and they are the oldest landscapes on the Moon, widest point, and more than 2 kilometres (6,500 feet) line, pointing down towards the 27-kilometre- (18-
regions of mountainous, rugged terrain. The dark areas deep at its deepest point. Although the sea itself is very mile-) wide crater Menelaus on the south ’shore’ of the
are the lunar ‘seas’, much younger than the ancient flat and smooth, its surroundings are not. Its western sea. This is the ‘Bessel Ray’, thought to be a splash of
highlands. However, these seas are not like the edge is marked by the jagged crater-pocked material from the impact that blasted the crater Tycho
huge stretches of water found on Earth. Appenninus and Caucusus Mountains, thousands of kilometres away to the south.
Instead, they are enormous plains of and more tortured, broken terrain lies Scanning Serenitatis through a telescope’s
ancient, frozen lava. on its southern border. high-power eyepiece will reveal it is marked with
At full Moon you will be able Although no crewed or many wrinkles, ridges and crags, including a long,
to see this Moon Tour target, uncrewed spacecraft have landed meandering ridge which runs from north to south on
Mare Serenitatis – the Sea of on the vast plain itself, in 1972 the sea’s eastern side. There are also around a dozen
Serenity. Mare Serenitatis was the final Apollo mission, Apollo other craters scattered across it, but they are all small
formed around 3.8 to 3.9 billion 17, touched down on its south- and of no real significance.
years ago, when the Moon was eastern border, near the Taurus- When the Moon is almost full the sea will be in
experiencing a period of intense Littrow Valley. The lunar module view until the terminator – the line between night
and heavy bombardment. As the Challenger carried astronauts Eugene and day – begins to slide across it. As the darkness
Moon, still young itself, was being Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt down to encroaches, it will only be half-visible, before being
pummelled by countless planetesimals, the surface, where they drove a lunar rover for completely swallowed up by the relentlessly increasing
asteroids and chunks of space debris left tumbling almost 40 kilometres (25 miles), visiting different sites shadow. It will remain hidden from view until the
around the infant Sun after the birth of our Solar and collecting a wide variety of rocks. A year later the terminator’s advance across the Moon allows sunlight
System, an enormous, Moon-shuddering strike blasted Russian Luna 21 robot probe, carrying the Lunokhod 2 to bathe the sea’s shore once again. Then, when the
a huge impact basin out of the lunar surface. This rover, touched down in the same area. waxing Moon hangs low in the western sky after
basin then filled with lava that sloshed over its floor, Looking at Mare Serenitatis through a small sunset, the whole of Serenitatis will be in full view
covering it and any features on it. telescope, you immediately notice two features upon once more.

82
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
TO GET STARTED IN ASTRONOMY
Easy-to-follow guides will furnish you with all the essentials, taking you
on a journey from stargazing hobbyist to becoming a fully equipped
astronomy enthusiast as you unravel the beauty of the night sky.

ON SALE
NOW

Ordering is easy. Go online at:

Or get it from selected supermarkets & newsagents

 Other landmarks
Uncover some of the other features of the Moon’s surface with this handy guide

The Apennine Mountains

Take a flight over one of the Moon’s most spectacular mountain ranges

I
f you’ve ever seen the famous 'man in The Moon' Moon, blasting out the dark Imbrium basin, flooding lunar rover for the first time, driving 28 kilometres
when looking up at a bright, silvery full Moon on it with glowing lava and pushing up the crust into the (17 miles) across the Moon's surface, carrying out a
a frosty winter’s night, you’ll be able to find this mountains we see today. detailed geological survey and gathering precious rock
lunar feature without any difficulty. The two dark Through a telescope eyepiece at medium-to-high samples. In fact, it was here that Dave Scott found
eyes – the ancient frozen lava seas of Mare Imbrium magnification, the mountain range is broken up into the most famous and most scientifically important
and Mare Serenitatis – are very distinctive, with a many hills, hummocks and peaks. There are several rock collected during the whole Apollo programme:
bright nose curving down between them. This nose is gaps along the chain, perhaps the most prominent the 'Genesis
actually one of the most impressive mountain ranges being a steep-walled valley to the north of Mons Rock' – a lump of
on the Moon: the Apennine Mountains. Wolf. At the northern end of the range, in the shadow crystalline rock
Named after the Apennine Mountains in Italy, this of towering Mons Hadley, a narrow canyon, or rille, that is more than
mountain range is so close to the centre of the side snakes its way across the lunar surface. 4.5 billion years
of the Moon facing Earth that it is best seen when Through a telescope at high magnification, it looks old, formed only
the Moon is at or close to first or last quarter, when like no more than a black hair lying on the grey 100 million years
it lies close to the terminator. With sunlight hitting ground, but this is the famous Hadley Rille, which or so after the
it at an angle, the mountains are stunning through served as the landing site of the Apollo 15 mission. birth of the Solar
even a small telescope – a curved, jagged line of hills In July 1971, astronauts Dave Scott and James Irwin System. So why not
and peaks looks like the fossilised spine of a dinosaur explored this area for almost three days. During have a go at finding
sticking out of the crust. In comparison, at full Moon it their long stay on the Moon, they used the famous it for yourself?
is reduced to little more than a bright grey-white line.
The Apennines are magnificent. Stretching from
the crater Eratosthenes in the south, up to the
craters Archimedes, Aristillus and its near neighbour
Autolycus further north, the mountain range is a
curving chain of jagged rock that stretches for more
than 600 kilometres (373 miles) across the Moon,
further than the distance from London to Dundee in
Scotland. The tallest Apennine peak, Mons Huygens,
is also the tallest mountain on the Moon. With a
5.5-kilometre (3.4-mile) high summit, Mons Huygens is
higher than Mont Blanc in the Alps.
Geologists believe that the Apennines were
created 3.9 billion years ago during the colossal
asteroid impact that formed Mare Imbrium, the dark
lava sea that lies to their west. When looking at the
Appennines through a telescope, it is thrilling to
imagine their formation all that time ago; watching
the huge chunk of space rock slamming into the

Top tip!
Start looking for the Apennines after sunset on
6 December. How soon will you see their tallest
peaks catching the rays of the rising Sun?

84
 Crators
Otheroflandmarks
the Moon

Rupes Recta
‘The Straight Wall’
How to find the most dramatic cliff on the face of the Moon

I
f you have a small telescope or a powerful space artists depicted the Straight Wall as vertical, a The best time to see the Straight Wall is when
pair of binoculars and look to the lower left frozen tsunami wave of grey lunar stone, but if you the Moon has just passed Last Quarter and is
of the great triple crater chain of Ptolemaeus, stood at the base you would see the slope rising shining between the famous Pleiades and Hyades
Alphonsus and Arzachel, you will see at an angle of only 30 degrees or so. Rupes Recta star clusters of Taurus. Now illuminated from the
(depending on the time of the month) either a doesn’t turn out to be very wide, or very high; so west, Rupes Recta’s cliff face will be bathed in full
short, dark line or a short, bright line. Moon atlases what’s all the fuss about? sunshine, making it appear as a strikingly bright
and phone apps identify it as ‘Rupes Recta’. While Well, the Straight Wall’s remaining claim to line etched into the darker surface of the Moon
it doesn’t look much at first glance – nothing more fame is that it’s very long. Stretching more than 110 – looking as if it has been dug out of the ancient
than a dark pencil line or a white chalk scratch kilometres (68.3 miles) across the lunar surface, it frozen lava flows of Mare Nubium by the tip of a
drawn on the Moon’s ash grey face – Rupes Recta would reach from London to the Isle of Wight if knife’s blade. At this time it will be visible with a
has another name, and is one of the most famous placed on the Earth, or from Carlisle to Edinburgh good pair of binoculars, but telescopes will offer the
and beloved features on the whole of the Moon: if you prefer a more northerly comparison. That’s best views, the higher the magnification the better.
‘The Straight Wall’. so long that it would have taken Apollo astronauts All too soon Rupes Recta will be lost from view, as
Of course, it’s not actually a wall; it wasn’t built more than eight hours to trundle and bounce from local sunset plunges it into darkness, hiding it from
by tea-gulping lunar labourers leaning on shovels! one end to the other in the lunar rover, which was our gaze for around a fortnight
Rupes Recta was built by the forces of nature, it used on the Moon in the later missions. One day in the future, astronauts will surely come
is an enormous scarp, a region where part of the The Straight Wall becomes visible when the to the top of the Straight Wall and gaze down on the
Moon’s surface dropped dramatically away, forming Moon is just past its First Quarter phase and low in Moon’s magnificent desolation from its lofty heights.
a steep cliff. The cliff itself is very narrow, barely the southwestern sky after sunset, to the upper Until then, we can enjoy gorgeous views of it from
a couple of kilometres wide and nowhere left of Saturn. With sunlight illuminating Earth, with the most modest observing equipment.
near as wide as the terraced rims of it from the east, the cliff face will be
those three giant craters blasted in shadow and appear as an obvious
out of the Moon to its north. It’s short, dark line to the lower left “It would reach
not all that tall either: with a
maximum height of around
of Arzachel, very close to a small,
deep pit of a crater called Birt. from London to
450 metres (0.28 miles),
it’s roughly as tall as the
As sunlight creeps across the
Moon’s face and the cliff’s shadow the Isle of Wight”
London Eye, or two nuclear retreats, the Straight Wall will
submarines that are balanced slowly turn into a bright line
end to end. which seems to sink down into the Top tip!
Although the Straight Wall Moon, becoming harder and harder
The Straight Wall is easiest to see when it is near
© NASA

gives the impression of being a to see until it’s barely visible when
towering cliff face, it’s not. Pre-Apollo our natural satellite is full. the terminator (the line between night and day).

85
 Top tip!
As with other lunar features,
you’ll enjoy your best view
of Mons Pico when it is close
to the terminator.

Mons Pico
Explore one of the most isolated mountains on the lunar surface

T
his destination is a small, unimposing Pico might not be as high as other lunar mountains, as the site of humanity’s repository of biological and
mountain towards the north of the Moon. but just like its taller relations it casts a shadow, and computer viruses.
Mons Pico – or Mount Pico – is a small nub of when the terminator – the line between night and So when can you see Pico for yourself? The best
a mountain that is 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) day – is nearby that shadow can be very striking, time is usually when the terminator has just swept
long, 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) wide, and 2.4 kilometres and makes Pico stand out very clearly from the dark, over the mountain and it will be a striking feature,
(1.5 miles) in height. However, while this might sound rolling plain of Mare Imbrium. At full Moon, with looking like a sharp piece of bone sticking out of the
impressive, Pico isn’t as high as even the 100th-tallest the baking Sun straight overhead and all surface Moon with a dark shadow cast behind it to the west.
mountain on Earth. In fact, it is only around the same relief banished by the harsh glare, the mountain is For the next few days after that, it will be bathed in
height as Mount St Helens, the American reduced to a bright spot, as white as a dot of more and more sunlight. The shadow will gradually
volcano that famously blew its top in correction fluid on paper. Conversely, shrink back to the foot of the mountain until the full
May 1980. when sunlight strikes Mons Pico Moon, when Pico will look like a white dot beneath the
So, clearly it’s not Pico’s height at a shallow angle, the mountain dark blue-grey circle of Plato.
that makes it worth seeking out. casts a shark-tooth of shadow that Pico will begin to become more apparent again as
What then? It’s the mountain’s makes it stand out starkly, even the terminator creeps back over it, this time from the
isolation. Mons Pico can be at low magnification through a other direction. By now the Moon will be at its waning
found in the far north of the small telescope. gibbous phase in the pre-dawn sky, so seeing Mons
huge Mare Imbrium basin, a Pico might not be well known Pico emerging from the darkness will mean having to
short distance to the south of to casual observers of the Moon, get up early, but as you look at it you’ll be able to see
the famous dark-floored crater but it is to science-fiction fans and Mars, now very bright, in the same area of the sky too.
Plato. It stands out – and is so easy space-exploration enthusiasts. Iconic
to find – because there really isn’t
much else around it. To the northwest
space artist Chesley Bonestell painted
the mountain several times in the giddy
“It will be a striking
is a small v-shaped range of much smaller peaks, pre-Apollo years; it features in the ground-breaking
1951 book The Conquest of Space and also in one of
feature, looking
the Tenerife Mountains, and directly north of Pico is
a short chain of craters that look like holes left in an his illustrations for the ‘A Trip to the Moon’ feature in like a sharp piece
antique table by woodworm, but they’re so tiny that
you’ll need very high magnification to see them.
the 1946 issue of Life magazine. And fans of Arthur
C Clarke’s Odyssey series will recognise Mons Pico of bone”
86
 Other landmarks

Montes Alpes
This lunar edition of the European mountain range makes for
an entertaining observation challenge

M
ontes Alpes, also referred to as the from the impact was able to melt and mould the called a rille, but
lunar Alpes after the famous Alps surface, creating the famous mares and mountains unfortunately it is far
mountain range in Europe, is a selection along their rims. too small to be seen with
of mountains that can be found along This is no different for Montes Alpes, which is any ground-based telescope. Much like the Alps on
the northern part of the Moon’s near-side. More believed to have formed roughly 3.85 billion years ago, Earth, the mountain that reins supreme across the
specifically, this range can be found in between the but this was the result of a collision with a protoplanet lunar Alpes is Mont Blanc, that has the highest peak
Plato and Cassini craters and along the rim of Mare 250 kilometres (155 miles) wide. This impact created of around 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) and is about 25
Imbrium, which is Latin for Sea of Showers or Rains. a saucer-shaped basin with many mountain ranges kilometres (15 miles) wide.
This range is best viewed in the first nine days after formed around the rim, including Montes Jura, Montes This is 1,300 metres (4,200 feet) smaller than the
a New Moon when the moon is in its waxing gibbous Apenninus, Montes Carpatus, Montes Caucasus and, of Mount Blanc on Earth, and doesn’t make for a good
phase, where a large majority of near-side face is about course, Montes Alpes. winter holiday. As there is no atmosphere, no snow
73 to 86 per cent illuminated. However, the terminator The mountains of the lunar Alpes range in height and the gravity is incredibly weaker than Earth’s, a
definitely provides the best conditions to observe the from 1,800 to 2,400 metres (5,900 to 7,900 feet), 70 kilogram (150 pound) skier would only weight
tremendous sights of Montes Alpes. The inner walls of paling in comparison to some of the mountains that 10 kilograms (25 pounds) as they ski down these
the mountains are steep and well-defined, as opposed constitute the Earth-based Alps as about 100 peaks are mountains. It would be best to visually explore the
to the outer walls that appear to be more broken as the higher than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet). lunar Mont Blanc and the rest of Montes Alpes with
elevation decreases away from Mare Imbrium. Separating the mountain range is the wide-rift a telescope that provides a magnification of 100x. If
The mountain range spans across roughly 330 valley known as Vallis Alpes, which can be located in you wanted to up the ante and zoom in either further,
kilometres (200 miles) of the Moon’s surface, but they the northwestern third of the range. This 170-kilometre a 200x magnification can unveil finer details of the
weren't formed in the same way as the mountains (100-mile)-long valley provides a ten-kilometre (six- mountain range.
ranges on Earth. On Earth, churning magma at the mile) division in Montes Alpes and was formed from
centre of Earth moves crustal plates, with mountains the flowing of ancient lava that creates this flat valley
forming from the collisions of these. Their lunar
counterparts, however, were formed as a consequence
floor. In fact astronomers believe this valley has
magma flowing between Mare Imbrium and Mare
Top tip!
of enormous collisions by large asteroids that were Frigoris, but it is also possible that stress fractures Observe Mare Imbrium as early in June as you
abundant in the younger Solar System. When an could have formed Vallis Alpes. Running through can for the best views of the subtle features on
enormous asteroid hit the Moon, the heat produced the centre of Vallis Alpes is a narrow, long depression its floor, such as wrinkles and small craters.

87
 Moon
Landings
90 Project Apollo
122 112
92 Apollo landing sites

96 Apollo 10

98 Apollo 11

106 Apollo 13

108 Apollo 14

110 Apollo 15
132
112 Al Worden

117 James Irwin

119 Charles Duke

122 The hidden archives

of Apollo
128 Man’s return to
the Moon
132 Living on the Moon

138 Preserving our

space history

88
106 “The Apollo
missions were a
spectacular success
and represented
a golden age”

92

138

98

89
Project Apollo
NASA’s groundbreaking effort to reach the Moon

9 November 1967 27 January 1967 1961-1966

Apollo 4 Apollo 1 SA and AS unmanned missions
After Apollo 1’s launch test disaster, the In preparation for the manned Moon
The first manned mission.
nomenclature of subsequent missions missions, NASA conducted a series of
was changed. No Apollo 2 or 3 existed; the tests using various iterations of the Saturn
next mission in the programme, a Type-A rocket, in order to practice launch, Low
unmanned flight, was the first test of the Earth Orbit, re-entry and mission aborts.
Saturn V rocket that would eventually
take man to the Moon.

16 July 1969
Apollo 11
See page 98.

18 May 1969
Apollo 10
See page 96.

3 March 1969
Apollo 9
This mission spent
a total of ten days
in orbit

21 December 1968
22 January 1968
Apollo 8
Apollo 5 The astronauts in this
The next unmanned mission was a mission were the first to see
Type-B on a Saturn IB rocket and marked
4 April 1968 the far side of the Moon.
the first flight of the Lunar Module, Apollo 6
including successful tests of its ascent The final unmanned Apollo mission was
and descent engines, and a simulation of used to test the Saturn V’s ability to propel 11 October 1968
a landing abort, referred to as a ‘fire-in- the spacecraft into trans-lunar injection
the-hole’ test by NASA engineers. (TLI). The flight experienced problems Apollo 7
from the start, including a vibration On a warm October day,
problem called pogo oscillation that the first manned Apollo
damaged the fuel lines. It was also the mission launched from
only Saturn V-launched Apollo flight with Cape Canaveral and it
a white Service Module – all the others was a great success.
were silver in colour.

90
 Project Apollo

14 November 1969
11 April 1970 31 January 1971
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was a stormy flight. It Apollo 13 Apollo 14
launched amid thunder and was struck See page 106 See page 108
by lightning, which overloaded the
telemetry systems and caused them
to fail. Flight controller John Aaron
had seen this error happen before in
a simulation, leading him to give the
unusual command “Apollo 12, Houston.
Try SCE to Auxiliary. Over”, which 26 July 1971
confused two of the three astronauts
aboard. Lunar Module pilot Alan Apollo 15
Bean, however, remembered a similar See page 110
simulation from his own training and
knew where the obscure switch was
located. He flipped the systems to a
backup power supply as per Aaron’s
request, and the telemetry data come 16 April 1972
back online. With the problem solved,
the flight went on to make the first Apollo 16
precision lunar landing in – where else? – The first mission to land in the lunar
the Ocean of Storms. highlands, Apollo 16’s flight was largely
textbook, despite a launch delay due to
technical problems. The crew conducted
three moonwalks on the lunar surface,
totalling more than 20 hours and
exploring both on foot and in the lunar
rover, and conducted experiments on the
Moon and in space on their return journey
home, including deploying a small
subsatellite that was intended to orbit the
7 December 1972 Moon but crashed into its surface just 35
Apollo 17 days later, inadvertently leading NASA
The last official flight of the Apollo to the realisation that there are only four
programme broke several records: for the so-called ‘frozen’ lunar orbits in which
longest time in lunar orbit, the largest an object can orbit the Moon indefinitely,
sample brought back from a mission, the at 27, 50, 76 and 86 degrees inclination:
longest total moonwalks, and the longest gravitational anomalies called mascons
Moon landing itself. It was also the first drag objects in other low lunar orbits
time that NASA had launched a manned inexorably towards the Moon’s surface.
spacecraft at night. Sadly, it also currently
holds the dubious honour of being the last
time humans visited the Moon.

91
 Observer’s guide to the

Apollo
landing sites
Gaze upon the lunar surface tonight and you’ll see where
man, rovers and landers stepped onto another world
Written by Stuart Atkinson

92
 Apollo landing sites

Today there is a lot of excited talk about going to the

Moon. Again. Shining brightly in our sky it calls to us
like a celestial siren, just as it always has done. NASA
is still debating whether it should send astronauts
straight to Mars, bypassing the Moon altogether,
or only go to Mars after a number of successful
precursor missions to Earth’s natural satellite.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency is looking to Theophilus
the Moon as the potential site of a scientific outpost,
where different nations could work together in a
‘lunar village’, much like international scientists
now work in Antarctica. Private companies are also
planning to mine the Moon for resources, and there’s
even a competition to land robot rovers on the Moon
and have them send live video back to Earth.
With all this going on it’s important to remember
we’ve already been to the Moon. True, it happened
a long time ago but the Apollo missions were a
spectacular success, and represented a golden age of
exploration. It was a time when enormous rockets,
gleaming white, thundered into the sky, roaring like
dragons, carrying brave explorers across the gulf of
space, travelling much further than we could possibly Apollo 11
go today. Between 1969 and 1972 six Apollo missions
took teams of three astronauts across a quarter of a
million miles of space to the Moon, set two of them
down on its surface, and brought them all home Apollo 11 Finding Apollo 11’s landing site where Neil Armstrong
took his “one small step” off the Eagle’s ladder is quite
safely again. A seventh mission, Apollo 13, famously easy. Just find the large crater Theophilus and put it
Telescope with magnification of 50x or more at the top of your field of view. You’ll see an obvious
failed to land on the Moon, but the astronauts
survived a flight around the Moon. Today those Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) ‘promontory’ of bright ground beneath the crater,
daring missions are as fascinating as ever. jutting out into the darker lava sea. The ‘Tranquility
Between first quarter and full
Many people have asked why astronomers don’t Base’ is just beneath this striking feature.
turn the Hubble telescope towards the Moon, to take
photos of the Apollo spacecraft. But not even the
Hubble could see a four-metre wide Apollo spacecraft
on the Moon. Hubble is essentially a light bucket,
designed to collect the faint, ghostly light of
faraway galaxies, nebulae and planets. It can’t
zoom in on things in its own backyard.
Apollo 12
To see Apollo hardware you have to go to
the Moon, and then either land next to the
actual spacecraft, as the rovers might do later Lansberg
this year or next, or look down on them from
orbit. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO),
has done just that, and has taken amazing images
of the Apollo landing sites from orbit showing not Reinhold
just the spacecraft themselves, but the lunar rovers
parked where they were left, and even the trails of
bootprints left in the lunar dust by the explorers.
So, if you were hoping to see Apollo hardware on
the Moon through your telescope, you’ve no chance,
sadly. However, you can see the Apollo landing sites
if your telescope is good enough – and we’re going to
tell you how, and where, to find them. Copernicus
First, you need to know the general areas of the
landing sites, and the key to doing that is to think of
the Moon as the face of a clock, with 12 o’clock at the
top and 6 o’clock at the bottom. You can then find
the rough areas of each mission’s landing site quite
easily, using the charts included in this guide.
Having found the general areas of the landing
Apollo 12 One of the Moon’s most impressive craters will
guide you towards the Apollo 12 landing site in the
sites, you can then zoom in on those to pin-down the Telescope with magnification of 50x or more Ocean of Storms. Just find the huge crater Copernicus
actual landing sites. You do this by looking for certain Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), and place it at the bottom of your inverted field
features the landing sites were close to, such as a close to crater Copernicus of view. To Copernicus’ upper right you’ll see the
large crater or a valley. Again the charts will help you. smaller crater Reinhold, and beyond it the crater
Note: the charts are oriented correctly for the ‘upside Between full and last quarter Lansberg. Apollo 12’s landing site lies to the upper left
down’ view seen through most telescopes. of the 3.1-kilometre-deep Lansberg.

93
Apollo 14 The Apollo 14 landing site can be found
close to one of the most impressive
Telescope with and most photographed ‘crater chains’
magnification of 50x or on the Moon’s surface. Once you have
more found craters Arzachel, Alphonsus and
Ptolemaeus, jump across to the right
Fra Mauro, close to crater of Ptolemaeus where you will find the
Ptolemaeus smaller ring-like crater Parry. The Apollo
Between first quarter and 14 landing site is just to the lower right of
full Moon this crater. s
tain
n
ou
m
ine
Arzachel enn
Ap

Alphonsus Apollo 15

Parry
Archimedes
Ptolemaeus
Autolycus

The lunar module Falcon touched down

Apollo 15 in July 1971 in the most stunning location
any Apollo mission visited – close to a
Telescope with magnification meandering valley in the shadow of the
Apollo 14 of 100x or more Apennine mountains. To find it, look for
Close to Hadley Rille, the break in the curve of the mountains,
in the Apennine mountains to the left of the crater Archimedes, past
Autolycus and Aristillus. Apollo 15 landed
Between first quarter above and to the left of these craters, in the
and full Moon foothills of the mountains.

Apollo 16
Telescope with
magnification of 100x
or more
The Descartes Kant
Highlands, close Theophilus
to the crater Kant
Apollo 16
First quarter to full

The landing site of Apollo

16’s lunar module ‘Orion’
is probably the most
challenging to find. If
you place the crater
Theophilus to the
left of your eyepiece’s
field of view you’ll
see a smaller, sharper-
rimmed crater to its right.
This is Kant, and Apollo Apollo 11
16 set down in the rugged
highlands to its lower right.

94
 Apollo landing sites

Apollo 17
Telescope with Apollo 17
magnification of 100x
or more
Taurus-Littrow Valley
First quarter to full
The final Apollo mission
in December 1972 saw the
Sea of Serenity
lunar module Challenger
land in a notch-like ‘bay’
Le Monnier
on the southern shore of
the Sea of Serenity. To find
it, put the shallow crater
Posidonius at the bottom of
your field of view. Follow
the shoreline ‘up’ past the
Posidonius
semi-circular Le Monnier
bay. Continue upwards and
you’ll find the Apollo 17
landing site.

Using the Moon as a clock face

Locate the rough locations of the Apollo
landing sites using this simple trick

12
11 1
15

10 2
© Alamy; Detlev Van Ravenswaay; Science Photo Library; NASA; Goddard; Arizona State University; Gregory H. Revera
This image shows the Challenger Descent Stage of the 17
Apollo 17 mission as well as buggy tracks and footprints
12
14

9 11
3
16

8 4
7 5
6
The Apollo 13 mission was aborted after an oxygen tank
ruptured. Here we can see the impact site of its booster

95
Dress rehearsal
for the Moon
The crew of Apollo 10 performed every aspect of an actual
mission to the lunar surface except the landing itself
The fourth mission of NASA’s Apollo program in the later with Apollo 11. However, unless Apollo 10’s dress its cone-shaped command module used as a control
short span of seven months, Apollo 10 lifted off from rehearsal was successful, NASA’s goal of placing a station and crew compartment. The cylindrical
the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B on man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s would service module, to the rear of the command module,
the morning of 18 May 1969. Its objective was clear: be in serious jeopardy. contained oxygen, hydrogen, fuel, and propulsion
to execute every aspect of a lunar landing mission Apollo 10 was the first lunar mission involving an and manoeuvre systems. The two-stage lunar module
except the actual landing on the Moon itself. That entire Apollo spacecraft configured for a landing. The housed a lower descent stage containing the power
defining moment would, hopefully, occur weeks command/service module was a two-part vehicle, plant for the Moon landing. Its construction included

96
 Apollo 10

four aluminium alloy legs for support

on the lunar surface, a ladder for
astronaut ingress and egress, and
storage space. The descent stage also
provided a launch platform for the
cylindrical ascent stage, where the
crewmen would work while on the
Moon’s surface prior to lifting off,
returning to lunar orbit, and docking
with the command/service module.
During the eight-day mission,
Apollo 10 set the record for highest
speed ever achieved by a manned
vehicle at 39,897 kilometres per
hour (24,791 miles per hour) while
returning to Earth, and achieved
the greatest distance humans have
ever travelled from home, 408,950
kilometres (220,820 nautical miles)
from the crew’s houses and NASA
mission control in Houston, Texas.
Mission commander Thomas
Stafford, an Air Force officer, was
a NASA veteran of Gemini 6 and
Gemini 9. He was later the mission
commander of the Apollo-Soyuz
Test Project, a joint venture with the
Soviet space program. Lunar Module
pilot Eugene Cernan, a Navy officer,
flew with Stafford aboard Gemini
9 and later commanded Apollo 17,
becoming the eleventh man to walk
on the Moon.Command Module pilot
John Young, a Navy officer, had flown
in Gemini 3 and Gemini 10. He later flew in Apollo by 115.07 kilometres (66.7 miles by 71.5 miles). The some kind of extraterrestrial communication had
16, becoming the ninth man to walk on the Moon, descent engine fired for 27.4 seconds, and the lunar taken place.
and commanded two Space Shuttle missions. During module manoeuvred to an orbit of 15.61 kilometres This portion of the mission narrowly averted
Apollo 10, Young became the first person to fly solo by 113.45 kilometres (9.7 miles by 70.5 miles). The disaster when the time came to jettison the descent
around the Moon. astronauts then surveyed the proposed lunar stage and return to the command/service module.
The crew nicknamed its command/service and landing site in the Sea of Tranquillity while their The descent stage separated on the second attempt,
lunar modules Charlie Brown and Snoopy after pre-landing tests and immediately the ascent stage experienced
popular characters from the Peanuts comic strip, were performed. violent rolls. Cernan shouted
and cartoonist Charles Schulz created artwork for NASA officials had been an expletive that was
the project. The intent was to add a bit of familiarity concerned that Stafford broadcast worldwide as
to the Moonshot, but NASA officials considered the and Cernan might actually he struggled to bring the
nicknames undignified. Nevertheless, the idea of go rogue and land the ascent stage under control.
whimsical names persisted with later Apollo missions. lunar module themselves. He counted eight spirals
A total of 12 television broadcasts were originally Cernan was later quoted and managed to pull the
planned during the flight, the first to transmit colour as saying, “A lot of people vehicle out of the spin with
images from space. The initial live transmission thought about the kind of little time to spare before a
began three hours after launch, and the cameras people we were: ‘Don’t give fatal impact with the lunar
provided stunning colour footage of the Earth and those guys an opportunity to surface. Post-flight analysis
the surface of the Moon. By the end of the mission, 19 land, ‘cause they might!’” To revealed that a single switch
transmissions totalling nearly six hours had occurred, eliminate the worry, the tanks had been in the wrong
also offering viewers clear depictions of life aboard in the ascent module were position and caused the near-
the spacecraft. deliberately shorted of fuel. If the catastrophe. After reaching the
Once aloft, Apollo 10 completed one and a half Apollo 10 astronauts had landed on proper orbit, Stafford sighted the
revolutions around the Earth before igniting the S-IVB the Moon, they could not have returned command/service module at a distance
booster stage of its Saturn V rocket, gaining sufficient to the command/service module, where of 77.25 kilometres (48 miles). The vehicles
velocity to escape Earth’s gravitational pull. Three Young was flying alone. re-docked successfully on 23 May, and the ascent
days later the spacecraft reached a lunar orbit 111.12 While the command/service and lunar modules stage was jettisoned. The crew continued routine
kilometres by 314.84 kilometres (60 by 170 nautical were separated, all three astronauts picked up an activities for the remainder of the mission.
miles) above the lunar surface. eerie whistling sound that they went on to describe The next day, Apollo 10 headed for home.
On 22 May, Stafford and Cernan moved into the as “space music”. While Young correctly identified Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean occurred on May
lunar module, detaching from the command/service the source as radio interference between the two 26, about 6.4 kilometres (4 miles) from the recovery
© NASA

module to execute a simulated lunar landing. They modules, later disclosure of the event brought about ship, the aircraft carrier USS Princeton. The pathway
proceeded to a temporary orbit of 107.34 kilometres some implausible speculation among observers that to the Moon was thoroughly charted.

97
 WORLD EXCLUSIVE: BUZZ ALDRIN SPEAKS

AP LL 11
THE INSIDE STORY
What really happened the day we landed on the Moon
Written by Nick Howes

98
 Apollo 11

It’s hard for many in 2019 to comprehend that 50 the three-man crew of Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong,
years ago, humankind achieved one of the greatest Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins – were facing one of
technical feats of all time. Less than nine years after the most dramatic spaceflights in history.
President Kennedy had set the goal of landing a man We recall the historic first words said on the lunar
on the surface of the Moon and returning him safely surface, and the elation of the largest TV audience
to Earth, NASA achieved that most astonishing aim in history at that time when they saw those grainy
on 20 July 1969. black and white images from the Moon, but there is
Those intervening years had been a white-knuckle so much more to the story of Apollo 11 that may not
ride. Beginning with Alan Shepard’s 15 minute sub- be as well known.
orbital Mercury flight in 1961, NASA progressed Their first task, of course, was to leave Earth on
through a series of milestones in their mission to top of the mighty Saturn V rocket – the tallest, most
reach the Moon. There was the loss of a Mercury powerful rocket ever built. Many astronauts who
capsule and the near-drowning of its pilot Gus were propelled into space by the Saturn V describe
Grissom; John Glenn’s re-entry with a retro-rocket it as being a very smooth ride. Neil Armstrong is
still attached to his Friendship 7 capsule; a slew quoted as saying that while the launch for all those Armstrong waves to well-wishers in the Manned
Spacecraft Operations Building as he, Collins and Aldrin
of hugely successful Gemini missions including watching on Cocoa Beach or at Cape Canaveral was
prepare to be transported to Launch Complex 39A
one that almost span out of control, potentially deafening, the crew could detect a slight increase in
threatening the life of the astronaut who in 1969 background noise, a lot of shaking, and feeling akin
would take that first historic step; and then four fully to being onboard a large jet aeroplane on take-off. Yet
flown Apollo missions, two in low Earth orbit, two as smooth a ride as it was, being on top of that much
that orbited the Moon and only one to test the full rocket fuel was always a dangerous experience.
system. NASA had to endure the catastrophic loss “A space mission will never be routine because
of Grissom and his two crew mates, Edward White you’re putting three humans on top of an enormous
and Roger Chaffee in 1967 in Apollo 1’s tragic fire on amount of high explosive,” Gene Kranz, flight director
the launch pad, but the space agency had resolved to for Apollo 11’s lunar landing, told us. If there were any
carry on, completely redesigning the lunar command nerves, the astronauts weren’t feeling it, according
module and carrying out major changes to the lunar to Buzz Aldrin. “We felt that our survival was in the
landing module (the LEM as it was known) in that probability of 99 per cent. There were a lot of risks
short space of time. involved but there were a lot of points to abort the
Amid triumph and tragedy, on 16 July 1969 NASA mission short of continuing on something risky.”
was ready to go to the Moon. Yet the trials and Once in space, the command service module had
tribulations of the previous years were not over and to rotate and dock with the lunar module, which was

“A space mission will never be routine…

you’re putting three humans on top of an
enormous amount of high explosive” Gene Kranz This iconic picture shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s
bootprint in the lunar soil

Was Buzz Aldrin

meant to be the first
man on the Moon? 1 2
The seating plan in the command
module. When Buzz Aldrin and Neil
3
Armstrong moved to the lunar module,
it’s thought that the seating plan and
the position of the entry hatch meant
that Neil Armstrong was better placed
to exit first and become the first man
on the Moon, rather than Aldrin.
1 Michael Collins
(command
module pilot)
2 Buzz Aldrin
(lunar module pilot)
© Adrian Mann
3 Neil Armstrong
(commander)

99
 Buzz
Buzz
BUZZ ALDRIN
“Somebody said
that [me not taking
pictures of Neil]
was intentional”
After returning to Earth,
hardly any shots of the first
man on the Moon led Buzz Buzz Aldrin moves toward a position poses for a
to deploy The lunar module pilot
Aldrin to be questioned two components of the Early Apol
Experiments Package (EASEP) on
lo Scientific photograph beside the
deployed United
the surface of the llo 11 extravehicular
It’s said that Aldrin was getting Armstrong back by Moon during the Apollo 11 extravehic States flag during an Apo
ar surface
ular activity activity (EVA) on the lun
taking no photos of him on the Moon in retribution
for the latter getting the honour of being the first
to set foot on the Moon. However, and according to Neil
Aldrin, he was about to take a picture of Armstrong Neil Armstrong works
at the flag ceremony when President Nixon called, at the lunar module in
distracting them from the task. “As the sequence the only photo taken
of lunar operations evolved, Neil had the camera of him on the Moon
most of the time, and the majority of the pictures from the surface
taken on the Moon that include an astronaut are of
me,” Aldrin states. “It wasn’t until we were back on
Earth and in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory looking
over the pictures that we realised there were few
pictures of Neil. My fault perhaps, but we had never
simulated this during our training.”
Before his death in 2012, Armstrong defended
Aldrin, stating: “We didn’t spend any time worrying
about who took what pictures. It didn’t occur to me
that it made any difference, as long as they were
good… I don’t think Buzz had any reason to take my
picture, and it never occurred to me that he should.”
“When I got back and someone said, ‘There’s
not any of Neil,’ I thought, ‘What in the hell can
I do now?’ I felt so bad about that,” says Aldrin.
“And then to have somebody say that might have
been intentional… How do you come up with a
nonconfrontational argument against that?”

Buzz Aldrin is pictured

during the Apollo 11
extravehicular activity
on the Moon after deploy
the Early Apollo Scientif ing
ic Experiments Packag
e
Buzz

Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface

of the Moon near the lunar module
during the Apollo 11 mission

Buzz

100
 Apollo 11

embedded in the final S-IVB stage of the Saturn V was. “A few moments later they came back to us and As the Eagle flew around the far side of the Moon,
rocket. After the two spacecraft had mated, onwards said it was around 6,000 miles away,” recalled Aldrin. things in mission control were growing tense. “There
they flew to the Moon, leaving the S-IVB stage trailing “We really didn’t think we were looking at something was a degree of seriousness in mission control that I
in space behind them. that far away, so we decided to go to sleep and not hadn’t even seen in training,” said Kranz. “That was
Some time later, the crew spotted something talk about it any more.” when you realised this was the real deal: today, we
strange outside. A light that appeared to be following Aldrin doesn’t believe it was an alien spaceship, land on the Moon.“
them. When Michael Collins used the onboard but that it was more likely the Sun reflecting off one Almost immediately after separating from the
telescope to view it, he couldn’t make it out – it of four metal panels that fell away from the rocket command module there were problems. Radio
looked like a series of ellipses but, when focusing the stage when they docked with the lunar module. communication with the Eagle was sketchy at best
telescope, it seemed L-shaped, but that could have For almost four days Apollo 11 flew towards the and they were coming up to the point of no return,
just been the way sunlight was glinting off it. Moon, where Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into where the landing could no longer be aborted if
Reticent to tell mission control in Houston, Texas, the lunar module – the Eagle – and said goodbye to something was wrong.
that they were being raced to the Moon by a UFO, the Collins, who was to remain in the command module “It was up to me to decide if we had enough
crew cautiously asked where the S-IVB rocket stage in orbit around the Moon. information to make the go/no-go [decision] and
continue the descent to the Moon,” said Kranz. So,

“There was a degree of seriousness in five minutes before the powered descent to the lunar
surface was due to begin, with radio communication
mission control that I hadn’t even seen cutting in and out, Kranz asked his flight controllers
to give him their go/no-go based on the last frame
in training” Gene Kranz of data that they saw. They all said “go”. And then
things turned from bad to nearly catastrophic.
The spacecraft’s guidance computer, developed
The flight controllers erupt into at MIT under the auspices of Charles Draper (the lab
applause as Apollo 11 splashes down at MIT now bears his name) was a 2MHz system
in the Pacific Ocean on 24 July 1969,
that was the first in the world to use integrated
successfully completing the mission
circuits. Its fixed memory was an ingeniously
designed ‘Core Rope’, which consisted of a set of
small hoops that ‘Little Old Ladies’ (as it was referred
to at the time) along with machines would thread
the code either through or around the hoops to give
the computer its 1 or 0 value. If the MIT code was
threaded incorrectly, the ‘programmer’ would have to
laboriously go through the woven cores and debug it.
When the crew were approaching the Moon for
the landing, various alarms were triggered by the
computer. “Whatever information we were looking at
[disappeared] and instead it gave us the code number
of the alarm,” said Aldrin. “It was disturbing and
distracting and we didn’t know what it meant.”
The 1201 and 1202 alarms were obscure codes
(and in effect the same error) that flashed up as
Armstrong manually attempted to bring the lunar
module down. Nobody seemed to know what the
codes meant, except for two men: Jack Garman,
a NASA computer engineer who had come across
the codes before during a practice run, and Steve
Bales, who was the Apollo guidance officer. The
alarms were being caused by a problem with the
landing radar that was stealing precious computing
cycles, and the throttle control algorithm was
barely working. The computer’s 72kb of memory,
barely enough to write a sentence in a modern
word processor, was struggling as commands into
it overflowed. Garman knew that it was safe to
continue and allow the computer to handle matters.
Its priority scheduling routines, which have formed
some of the basis of a lot of modern code, were
dumping lower priority tasks in favour of the ones
critical to the lunar landing.
As the Eagle approached the surface on automatic,
Armstrong and Aldrin realised that the scenery
outside of the window didn’t look familiar to
them. “I think we may be a little long,” commented
Armstrong, referring to the Eagle having overshot its
The huge, 363-feet tall Saturn V rocket carries three After a rehearsal mishap when the Lunar Landing planned landing site. Looming ahead of them inside
men towards the Moon from Pad A, Launch Complex Research Vehicle exploded, Neil Armstrong floats safely a crater was a dangerous-looking boulder field, and
39, Kennedy Space Center on 16 July 1969 to the ground coming down on any of those giant rocks the size

101
 “Roger. 1 50.”
4
APOLLO 11 Neil Armstrong,
Apollo 11 Commander

One small step for [a] man,

one giant leap for mankind
“Roger. Clock.” “Roger. Roll.” “Roger. We copy. We’ll
Neil Armstrong, Bruce McCandless, be configured and
Apollo 11 Commander CAPCOM waiting for whatever
you want to send down.”
5
“Apollo 11, Apollo
Bruce McCandless, 11, this is Houston
CAPCOM 3 broadcasting in
the blind. Request
2 01:57:05 01:58:42 OMNI Bravo.”
Command and service module Command and service Bruce McCandless,
guidance system separation and module guidance CAPCOM
01:40:50
lunar module adapter, deployment of system 180-degree
Stage IV
adapter panels and high-gain antenna turnaround Navigation
01:35:08 engine cutoff
1 Stage IV sightings
04:44:04
Service module
engine ignition engine cutoff
02:41:40
200:41:16 Ignition of Command and service
00:00:00 04:43:56
Touchdown in Saturn V module/Lunar module
Liftoff Service module
the Pacific Ocean
Stage I-powered flight separation from stage IV ignition
Deploy main
chute at
2 3
00:02:39
Stage I-powered cutoff
6 “Roger. Oxygen heaters to
AUTO, or you can watch
10,000 feet 1
them in the ON position, and
4 00:02:42 oxygen fans manual ON.”
Heat shield Stage II engine ignition Bruce McCandless,
and chute CAPCOM
deployed at 5 00:03:14
24,000 feet Launch escape
tower jettison
250,000 feet
altitude
6
Stage II-powered flight
“This is Houston. 7
Readback correct.
200,000 00:08:56 Out.”
feet altitude Stage II-engines cutoff Bruce McCandless,
CAPCOM
Communication 00:08:56
Stage IV engine ignition
blackout period 7
Stage IV-powered flight

200:16:26 00:11:23
Command and service Stage IV engine cutoff
module and service 23 1:52:11:45
module separation Service module
24 engine cutoff
Command and 46 hours
service module 199:23:26 Systems status checks
“This is too big an
24 guidance system Service module Eat and sleep periods
Data transmit periods
angle, Neil.”
reference alignment engine ignition Buzz Aldrin, Lunar
Module Pilot
“Okay. You can make
“Roger”
22
a Mark, Houston. ***
deployed.”
20
Charlie Duke,
Neil Armstrong,
CAPCOM
Apollo 11 Commander

“The Earth is really All right. The doors are

getting bigger up here open, and it looks like
and, of course, we see a they are going to stay
crescent.” up without any problem.
Michael Collins,
Command Module Pilot 23
Buzz Aldrin, Lunar
Module Pilot 21

102
 Apollo 11

9 12
11 “Okay.”
Michael Collins,
“Apollo 11, Houston. Thirty “I think you've got
a fine looking flying
seconds to loss of signal.
Command Both spacecraft looking machine there, Eagle,
Module Pilot good going over the hill. despite the fact
Out.” you're upside down.”
“That's a good, reasonable way
Charlie Duke, CAPCOM Michael Collins,
of describing it. It appears as
“Okay, no complaints. Command Module
though it made a difference just
I was just curious as to Pilot
sitting back in the tunnel and
what had happened.”
Michael Collins,
gazing at all windows; it makes
a difference which one you're
13
Command Module “Apollo 11 is getting its first view looking out of. The camera right
Pilot of the landing approach. This time now is looking out the number
we are going over the Taruntius 5 window, and it definitely gives
crater, and the pictures and maps a rosier or tanner tinge.”
brought back by Apollo 8 and
10 10 have given us a very good
Buzz Aldrin, Lunar
Module Pilot 70:37:45
preview of what to look at here. It Lunar
looks very much like the pictures,
but like the difference between 64:04:38
touchdown 14
watching a real football game Begin navigation 70:27:17
and watching it on TV. There's no sightings Lunar Lunar descent
66:17:43 engine ignition
substitute for actually being here.” descent
Pilot transfer to Lunar module guidance system
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 lunar module,
Commander and reference alignment
second orbit 14
46 hours 69:29:03
Systems status checks Lunar module descent
Begin lunar module
15 Begin lunar engine cutoff
Eat and sleep periods
Data transmit periods 51:40:59 systems activation orbit evaluation
Service module and checkout
16
Transfer orbit
engine cutoff 17 63:23:27 insertion
9 hours
8 Systems status checks 18 19 Service
engine cutoff
Eat and sleep period 13
Data transmit period 69:28:31
“11, Houston. 51:40:51 9 Lunar orbit Lunar module descent
If that’s not the Service module
10 insertion engine ignition
Earth, we’re ignition
in trouble.”
62:16:57 12
Service module 69:05:32
Charlie Duke, Command and service
engine ignition 62:17:01
11
CAPCOM module and lunar module
Service 66:45:53
9 hours Commander transfer separate on third orbit
module cutoff
Systems status checks to lunar module
Eat and sleep period
Data transmit period 109:00:04 15
Command and
service module
8 105:19:04
Liftoff and lunar separate
and lunar module
122:11:44 jettison
Service module 22 21
engine ignition Lunar module
28 hours ascent 20 Transfer crew and
Systems status checks
equipment from “See you later.”
Eat and sleep periods
Lunar module lunar module to Neil Armstrong,
1:52:11:44 ignition Command and Apollo 11
Service module service module Commander
engine ignition
108:02:14
Midcourse Command and service
“Contingency sample
corrections module and lunar
is in the pocket. My Rendezvous
19 oxygen is 81 per cent. I maneoures module initial docking
have no flags, and I'm in
minimum flow.”
“For those who haven't read the plaque…
Neil Armstrong,
Apollo 11 Commander
“The surface is fine and
powdery. I can pick it
17
First there's two hemispheres, one up loosely with my toe.
showing each of the two hemispheres It does adhere in fine
of the Earth. Underneath it says “Here
Man from the planet Earth first set foot
layers like powdered
charcoal to the sole and
“Roger, Tranquility. We
copy you on the ground. 16
upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came sides of my boots. I only You got a bunch of guys
in peace for all mankind.” It has the crew go in a small fraction of an about to turn blue. We're
members' signatures and the signature of inch, but I can see the footprints of my breathing again. Thanks
the President of the United States.” boots and the treads in the fine particles.” a lot.”
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Commander 18 Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Commander Charlie Duke, CAPCOM

103
 Mission control loses
contact with Apollo 11
Alarms, loss of communication and system failures
plagued the first mission to land on the Moon
03:04:15:47 03:04:15:59
“Apollo 11, Apollo 11, “Apollo 11, Apollo 11,
this is Houston. Do this is Houston. Do 03:04:16:11 03:04:16:59
you read? Over.” you read? Over.” “…” “Houston, Apollo 11.
Bruce McCandless, Bruce McCandless, Unidentified crew Over.”
CAPCOM CAPCOM member, Apollo 11 Unidentified crew
member, Apollo 11

The Apollo 11 astronauts, left to right, Neil Armstrong,

Michael Collins and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin inside the
Mobile Quarantine Facility are greeted by President
Nixon on 24 July 1969

03:04:17:00 03:04:19:32 03:04:21:37 03:04:21:43

“Apollo 11, Apollo 11, “Apollo 11, this is “Apollo 11, Apollo “Reading you loud and
this is Houston. We are Houston. Are you in the 11, this is Houston. clear, Houston. How us?"
reading you weakly. process of acquiring How do you read?" Neil Armstrong,
Go ahead. Over.” data on the burn? Over.” Bruce Apollo 11 Commander
Bruce McCandless, Bruce McCandless, McCandless,
CAPCOM CAPCOM CAPCOM An inside view of the Apollo 11 lunar module shows
© Adrian Mann astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the lunar landing mission
in an image taken by Neil Armstrong

of houses would have damaged or perhaps even

destroyed the Eagle. Armstrong took manual control,
“We started a stopwatch running,
using the thrusters to take the Eagle over the boulder
field. But now fuel was running low and there was
with a controller calling off seconds
no turning back. Armstrong had to land the Eagle –
somewhere, within minutes – or they would be out of
of fuel remaining” Gene Kranz
fuel and crash.
“We’d never been this close in training,” said Kranz. Armstrong respectfully just looking on. NASA had those now-immortal words, “That’s one small step for
“We started a stopwatch running, with a controller been threatened with legal action by Madalyn O’Hair, [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
calling off seconds of fuel remaining.” an atheist, after the crew of Apollo 8 had read from After exiting the lunar module, Armstrong and
If things were tense in mission control, onboard the Book of Genesis, so Aldrin’s heartfelt ceremony Aldrin only had a few hours to not only collect
the Eagle Armstrong and Aldrin had everything never made it to the airwaves. Aldrin, though, has precious rock samples, but also deploy a series
under control. With only 13 seconds of fuel left, always been content in the thought that the first of experiments on the lunar surface. Solar wind
Apollo 11 made its safe landing in the Sea of food and drink consumed on the lunar surface were experiments, a laser retro-reflector that is still
Tranquillity. History had been made. “Houston, communion items. used to this day to measure the Earth-Moon
Tranquility Base here,” Armstrong radioed home. The original plan had been for the crew to get distance, seismometers and more were all deployed.
“The Eagle has landed.” some sleep after the landing, but with that much Armstrong is cited as saying he felt like a five-year-
In private, Aldrin took out a small cup, some adrenaline pumping through their veins that was old in a candy store, with not enough time to do all
wine and bread and said Holy Communion. The never going to happen. So at 2.39am on the morning the things he wanted to.
wine, under one-sixth Earth gravity, apparently of 21 July, Armstrong made his way through the Standing on the Moon must have been an
curled up in the cup. After reading a section of the hatch and down the ladder before stepping foot for incredible experience. Aldrin described the scene
Gospel of St John, Aldrin said a few words, with the first time on the surface of the Moon and saying around him as one of “magnificent desolation”,

104
 Apollo 11

adding that, “You could look at the horizon and see

very clearly because there was no atmosphere, there
was no haze or anything.”
As Armstrong walked around setting up
instruments and picking up rocks, Aldrin hopped HOW TO…
around on the surface, testing what the best way
to move about in the low gravity was. Most of the
pictures taken during the landing are of Aldrin on Use a felt-tipped pen to
the surface; barely half a dozen show Armstrong,
and none clearly. That’s because Armstrong had the
camera for most of the Moon walk.
escape from the Moon
While on the surface, the crew also had terrific After a circuit breaker switch broke off in all the too-ing and fro-ing
problems with the American flag. It had a telescoping
boom arm to hold it out in lieu of any wind to hold
in the cramped environment of the lunar module, Buzz Aldrin had
it up. The two crew wrestled to get the boom arm to improvise in order to escape the Moon
to extend fully, but it would not, so the flag had a
small kink in it. They also found that it was almost
impossible to get the flag pole to go deep enough into
the ground and, in the end, they only just managed
to get it to stay upright. Both of the crew worried it
would fall over live on TV, and probably as President
Nixon was on the phone to them. But it remained
upright during the broadcasts and telephone calls.
After collecting their rocks and clambering back
into the lunar module, the crew took off their boots
and backpacks, and began to throw anything not
of vital importance back on to the lunar surface.
This included urine bags, empty food packs, empty
cameras and so on. But to the crew, they were just
getting in the way and not needed.
There was time for one final crisis. The interior of
the lunar module was cramped and, moving around
in their bulky spacesuits, one of the astronauts had
knocked out the switch for the circuit breaker that

1 2
fired the ascent rocket that would take them home. Astronauts locate broken circuit Aldrin and Armstrong alert
This was a real bottleneck moment for the mission. breaker switch mission control
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were This switch needed to activate the ascent
“If for some reason the ascent engine didn’t work,
gathering themselves into the landing module engine to lift them off the Moon. Telling mission
there was no way to rescue the crew,” said Kranz. to start the return back to Earth when Aldrin control, they tried unsuccessfully to catch some
Armstrong and Aldrin would be stranded on the noticed something lying on the floor – the circuit sleep but, by the following morning, NASA had no
Moon. The concern was so serious that President breaker switch had gotten bumped and had idea what to do with Aldrin forced to come up with
Nixon had a speech prepared, while mission control broken off. a solution.
would close down communications with Armstrong
and Aldrin after a clergyman had “condemned their
souls to the deepest of the deep”. Without that circuit
breaker the crew were facing that lonely fate, but
their training would not have allowed them to give
up. “Rather than worry about things like that, we’d
face them when the time came and we’d work as
hard as we could to fix the problem until our oxygen
ran out,” said Aldrin. In the end, the solution was
remarkably simple: jabbing the end of a pen into the
slot where the broken switch had been, Aldrin was
able to push the circuit breaker in. The ascent rocket
fired and the two Moon-walkers were on their way
home, via a rendezvous with Michael Collins in the
command module. As the Eagle took off, the flag
finally did blow over, and to this day it lays flattened,
bleached out by solar radiation.
Almost 50 years since that first successful landing
on the Moon, stories still come out, not just from the

3 4
thoughts of the crew, but also the almost 400,000 Saved by a felt-tipped pen Lift off!
Since the circuit was electrical, sticking his The circuit breaker held, allowing both
others who worked on the mission, from ‘the guy
finger or anything metal in wasn't possible. Aldrin and Armstrong to lift off from the
sweeping the floor’ at Cape Canaveral, to the flight Instead, Aldrin found a felt-tipped pen in his shirt surface of the Moon and intercept Michael Collins,
directors and flight controllers still, without whom and inserted it into the opening where the circuit who was in orbit around the Moon.
the historic landing may never have happened. With
© NASA

breaker switch should have been. He moved the

our return to the Moon still some way off, these countdown procedure up by a couple of hours. © Ed Crooks

stories are all we have for now.

105
 Houston, we’ve
had a problem
Planned as NASA’s third lunar landing, Apollo 13 gripped the
world’s attention for all the wrong reasons, as a flight to the Moon
turned into a battle for survival
On 11 April 1970, as Apollo 13 blasted clear of Cape Kranz, had to think fast. After shutting down the abandoned and even radio communications scaled
Canaveral right on schedule, none of those on board fuel cell to preserve the remaining oxygen, their first back. A critical danger, however, was the buildup of
could have foreseen the struggle for survival they thought was to draw power from the independent toxic carbon dioxide – both elements of the spacecraft
were soon to encounter. The crew included two systems on the Lunar Module (LM) Aquarius, but used canisters loaded with a chemical called lithium
freshman astronauts – Command Module pilot Jack this idea was soon abandoned, as the demands on hydroxide to ‘scrub’ the excess CO2 from the air,
Swigert and Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise – but was the LM’s limited batteries would be too high. Instead, but the LM’s supply was being rapidly used up, and
led by one of NASA’s most experienced spacefarers, the crew were ordered to use Aquarius as a ‘lifeboat’, even though the astronauts had brought over extra
Gemini and Apollo 8 veteran Jim Lovell (Lovell transferring supplies into the cramped vehicle (only canisters from the CSM, they were not compatible.
and Haise had been backup crew for the Apollo 11 intended for two astronauts), before shutting down the Working with a list of available materials on the LM,
mission, while Swigert was a late replacement for Ken CSM systems completely to preserve them for return engineers at Houston came up with instructions for
Mattingly, who had been grounded as an infection risk to Earth, and locking themselves in. the crew to make an improvised adapter, nicknamed
after one of his children contracted rubella). Within three hours, the immediate crisis was over, the ‘mailbox’, using a spacesuit connecting hose.
The first two days of their cruise towards the Moon but the struggle to get the crew safely back to Earth As the spacecraft neared Earth, a final set of
were routine, but 56 hours into the flight, a routine was just beginning. NASA’s contingency plans to challenges awaited. Most critical was the need to
request to stir the service module’s fuel tanks rapidly abort a mission in this phase called for jettisoning power up the CSM from its shutdown state without
spiralled into a crisis. As Swigert triggered the stirring the LM and also required a fully fuelled CSM, so were causing further damage. No one had thought that
motor, a loud bang echoed through the craft and obviously out of the question. such a procedure would ever have to be done in
warning lights flashed to indicate that one of the Instead, Kranz and his team realised the only space, and the grounded Mattingly, along with flight
module’s power circuits was rapidly draining. Swigert option was to swing the entire spacecraft around the controller John Aaron and others, worked feverishly to
and Lovell reported back to mission control with far side of the Moon, using the LM’s small engines to develop a safe procedure.
typical understatement: “Okay Houston, we’ve had a enter a return trajectory. The timing of these engine On 17 April, with millions around the world
problem here.” burns would be critical – 30.7 seconds was needed on listening in to commentary on their every move, the
Now the spacecraft began shaking from side to lunar approach to put the spacecraft into a ‘free return’ astronauts re-entered the command module Odyssey
side, and as Lovell struggled to stabilise it, he spotted trajectory (where the Moon’s gravity would effectively and brought it back to life. After abandoning the
a jet of gas escaping into space. On-board gauges and swing the spacecraft around and hurl it back towards damaged service module, one last risky procedure
telemetry signals received at Houston showed one Earth), and then a longer burn during return would involved separating from the trusty Aquarius and
of the service module’s two oxygen tanks as empty, speed up re-entry by ten hours (so that splashdown pushing it away by forcing air into the connecting
and two of the three batteries designed to power the would occur in the Pacific rather than the Indian tunnel between the two modules.
command and service modules (CSM) throughout the Ocean). As the crippled spacecraft swung around the Having avoided the risks of a collision during
mission were now flat. Even worse, pressure in the far side of the Moon on 15 April, and communications re-entry, the cone-shaped command module plunged
second oxygen tank was falling. with Earth were temporarily cut off, its crew set an back into the atmosphere. With no way of knowing
Now, the problem became clear – the spacecraft unwanted new record as the furthest humans from whether the explosion had damaged the heat shields
oxygen tanks provided not just fuel and air, but were Earth, some 400,171 kilometres (248,655 miles) away. or descent parachute system, Houston and the world
also linked to a fuel cell that charged the batteries. An Sealed into the cramped Lunar Module, survival held their breath – and tension worsened as the usual
explosion (later traced to poorly insulated wiring) had for the crew now became the overriding priority; all radio blackout lengthened from an expected four
ruptured the system, but the tanks were still pumping four ground-control shifts at Houston were drafted and a half minutes to six. Finally, to everyone’s relief,
oxygen to it. in to look at various aspects of the problem. Oxygen Swigert’s voice emerged over the crackling radio.
With Apollo 13 some 330,000 kilometres (205,000 supplies were sufficient even with three men on Nine minutes later, Odyssey splashed down, within
miles) from Earth and still Moon-bound, the crew and board, but water was limited, and power consumption 6.5 kilometres (4 miles) of the recovery ship USS Iwo
staff at mission control, led by flight director Gene had to be reduced, so television transmissions were Jima, and the celebrations could begin.

6 106 www.spaceanswers.com
 Apollo 13

Apollo 13 flight
directors celebrate the Swigert aboard Apollo 13 on
successful splashdown its return journey to Earth,
of the Odyssey after with some of the improvised
the damaged craft's hoses used to filter the
© NASA

harrowing flight astronauts' air supply

www.spaceanswers.com 107107
Apollo 14’s
Moon landing
In February 1971, three rookies landed on the
Moon's surface and played lunar golf
When Apollo 14 launched on 31 January 1971, it was Edgar Mitchell, had problems with the docking mission was deemed an overall success. For the trio,
not without trepidation. The previous year, the third latches. But, they finally landed on the Moon on it was a particular triumph, as they had been dubbed
lunar landing mission – Apollo 13 – had failed to make 5 February 1971 in the Fra Mauro formation, with “the three rookies” due to their lack of spaceflight
it to the Moon when an oxygen tank exploded. The Shepard and Mitchell spending 33.5 hours on the time and experience.
crew members survived but serious questions were lunar surface. Two extravehicular activities traversed Indeed, only Shepard had flown before – which
being asked about the viability of manned missions. 3.5 kilometres (2.2 miles) over 13 locations, carrying was in 1961, as the first American in space. To
Apollo 14 didn’t get off to the best of starts either. out ten experiments over nine hours. And, although celebrate, he had his own moment of glory. Just
Clouds and rain forced a delay of 40 minutes and two an attempt to tow a two-wheeled trolley full of tools before the crew readied for home, Shepard grabbed a
seconds, while commander Alan Shepard, command and cameras 1.6 kilometres (one mile) up the steep six-iron and hit some golf balls far into the distance.
module pilot Stuart Roosa and lunar module pilot, slopes to the rim of Cone Crater was abandoned, the It was, it has to be said, the ultimate Moon shot.

Several experiments were

carried out on the Moon and
many surface and orbital
images were taken

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 Apollo 14

During their Apollo 14

mission to the Moon, Alan
Shepard and Edgar Mitchell
spent a total of 33.5 hours
on the lunar surface

© NASA

109
110
 Apollo 15

Apollo 15
With a crew consisting of David Scott, James Irwin and Alfred Worden, Apollo 15 was a mission that set
a number of new records for crewed spaceflight. With the heaviest payload in a lunar orbit, it was the
longest crewed lunar mission and the longest Apollo mission at 295 hours. Launching on 26 July 1971,
© NASA; Steven Pidcock

Scott and Irwin spent an astonishing 18 hours and 37 minutes exploring, travelling 17.5 miles in the first
ever car on the Moon. Samples were also takes from approximately three metres (ten feet) below the
Moon’s surface. It was an almost-perfect mission, with the only error being one parachute only partially
inflating in the final stages of descent.

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An interview with…

Astronaut Al Worden
The Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot talks of how the mission made history, why we
shouldn’t return to the Moon and his enthusiasm for a telescope on the lunar farside
Interviewed by Nick Howes

You’ve spoken a lot in your book Falling to Earth at the airport and went with us to London for the I have just recently had the chance to revisit
about your love of the UK. Can you talk about first night. It was an exciting time as we had never Farnborough for pretty much the first time since
your time as a test pilot at the Empire Test Pilot been out of the US until then. 1964. What a change! Back in 1964 we had to keep
School, where other alumni included Tim Peake? My time at ETPS started in December 1964 and our night flying up, but they had no runway lights
I attended the Empire Test Pilot School (ETPS) in ended in November 1965. The first few months were installed. So we flew at night and landed using
Farnborough, England, in 1964. I had just completed mostly classroom work as the weather conditions World War II smudge pots to light the runway. Let’s
my time in graduate school at the University of were not suitable for flying. However, in March just say, in my day, it was very exciting but a little
Michigan, and was asked by senior officers to apply we started flying, and before long I was assigned dangerous when flying jet aircraft.
for the Air Force Advanced Research Pilot School flight duties in 12 or 13 different aircraft. This was
(AARPS) at Edwards Air Force Base in California, US. a big change from the USAF [United States Air So, the record-setting test pilot Chuck Yeager
While at Michigan I was the ops officer for all the Force] where you could only fly one type of aircraft asked you to come back to the US. Did you feel
pilots going to college, so I got to know all of them at a time. I found many differences in the whole honoured to be asked to teach other pilots?
quite well. I even did the flight checks for all pilots, philosophy of flying while at Farnborough. We were Yeager was an icon for pilots, being probably the
so I really had a double duty while at school. instructed to make all measurements manually greatest stick and rudder pilot alive, next to Bob
As a result I was selected for AARPS, but then rather than have sensors to do the job. It was a Hoover. He was the first person to break the sound
reassigned to ETPS because of my academic very good and logical method because it forced us barrier in the Bell X-1, and did so while flying with a
background and the possibility that I would do to think about the airplane as we were flying it. I broken arm. But he was really cool and unafraid, so
better in the school than other US pilots had done learned to fly everything from a Chipmunk to a he did the impossible. I was happy that he wanted
previously. So I happily went to England with my Viscount while at the school. I think the best part for me to come back to Edwards to teach. I had the
family. Bill Pogue (who later went on to fly on me was inverted spins in a Hawker Hunter, which, college background that he did not have and he
Skylab), had just completed the course, so he met us by the way, was a magnificent aircraft. wanted me to write and teach several courses in the
advanced section. I never had much interaction with
Yeager at the school, but I worked closely with the
“I never had the astronaut programme deputy commandant and the chief of academics to
build a programme to teach the things needed for
in my list of things I wanted to do, space travel, such as trajectories and free fall (not
zero gravity as many believe).
because I did not think they would What did it feel like to join the 19 astronauts
have another selection” selected in 1966 for the Apollo programme out
of 830 applicants?
I have to say that was one of the high points of my
Lunar Module Pilot
life. Getting a call from Deke Slayton to invite me to
James Irwin salutes the
join the astronaut programme was overwhelming.
United States flag on the
Moon on 1 August 1971 I was overjoyed because it had been such a long
voyage to get to that point. I never had the astronaut
programme in my list of things I wanted to do,
because I did not think they would have another
selection. However, I was in the right place and
had all the credentials they wanted, so I was very
optimistic. I had decided that I would be the best
test pilot I could be, but then when I had all the
things necessary for that, I found they were the
same things that NASA was looking for. I didn’t
hesitate for one second in accepting the invitation.

In your class you had people of the calibre of

Jim Irwin (Apollo 15), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16),
Stuart Roosa (Apollo 14), Ed Mitchell (Apollo 14)
and Fred Haise (Apollo 13). Who do you think
excelled from that fifth group of astronauts?
It is hard to say who excelled in my class, because

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 Al Worden

INTERVIEW BIO
Al Worden
One of just 24 people
to have flown to the
Moon, Worden was the
Command Module Pilot
(CMP) for the Apollo 15
mission of 1971. During
his NASA career, Worden
has logged over 4,000
hours of flying time,
including 2,500 hours
in jets. He served as a
member of the astronaut
support crew for Apollo
9 and as back-up CMP
for Apollo 12. On top of
his many achievements,
Worden was listed in the
Guinness World Records as
the ‘Most isolated human
being’ during his time
alone in the Command
Module Endeavour.

we had some very outstanding guys who were I have made peace with the idea that the media You are quoted as having felt great about getting
selected. It was, after all, for the Apollo programme, locked on to those who walked on the Moon, and most of the flying time on the Apollo 15 mission
and we were very conscious of what our role would ignored those of us who stayed in orbit. However, in comparison to the LMP or Commander – do you
be. Ed Mitchell was clearly the most intelligent, and what many fail to understand is that we were the still feel this way?
Joe Engle was clearly the best pilot. But the sum glue that made the flights possible. We did 90 per I did get most of the “flying time” on our flight
total of flying, academic and personal traits worked cent of the flying and navigation, and we were and I took command of the Command Module and
out differently; it was a combination of things that tasked with picking up the others after the surface Lunar Module after we got to Earth orbit. I first had
put everyone in my class in order. trip no matter how they got into lunar orbit. If they to extract the Lunar Module from the S-IVB [a stage
After our classroom studies, we were asked to came off on a crazy trajectory, we would have to go on the Saturn V rocket], then put us on track to
rate everyone in the class from one to 18. The flight get them, even if it meant that we would not be able the Moon. I did the navigation and the piloting the
assignments, which were under the control of to come home. entire time of flight.
Slayton, were then made based on that order. But I think that the media promoted the Moon- The Commander [Dave Scott] basically flew the
if you asked me directly which one I thought of as walkers because that aspect of the flight was more Lunar Module from lunar orbit to the lunar surface
the best, I would have to say Fred Haise. He was the visually spectacular. Being in orbit was not. The and then back to orbit after they had finished their
ultimate astronaut. interesting thing was that the CMP had a much work on the Moon. I actually navigated us back to
bigger role in the total flight than the LMP, who Earth on my own, without updates from Mission
How do you feel about the Command Module was essentially a flight engineer watching the Control, to validate that it was definitely possible to
Pilot (CMP) being a largely unsung role instrumentation. They did not get the chance to return to Earth without any communications from
compared to the Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) actually fly anything, but they did walk on the Mission Control – another very complex element of
and the Commander? Moon, so they became more important to the media. Apollo 15.

113
Apollo 15 was regarded as the first of the truly formed, and saw remarkable features such as cinder patience or discipline. It was a long, difficult time
scientific Apollo missions, with extensive cones, which gave the geologists amazing new areas and we were very conscious of what could happen
training for all the crew in geology. Tell us about of research to work on. Scott and Irwin looked at the if we were not prepared. So, we spent countless
your training with the almost legendary Farouk scattering of rocks on the surface as an indication of days in training. You never get enough training for a
El-Baz. Do you think your education in this area the results of volcanoes or impact basins. flight like that, and anything we missed could have
was as good as Dave Scott’s and Jim Irwin’s? It was quite different training and hard to been a disaster, so we trained for everything over
I had a fabulous time with Farouk while I was compare. Given all of the other work we were doing and over until we knew it cold. I always felt that
learning lunar geology. He was an excellent teacher in flight and mission training, on top of this we we could recover the time spent in training later
and I was eager to learn. But there was a big practically would have attained a degree in geology on, but we had a timeline to live to and wanted to
difference in terms of what we learned as a team. if we’d been at university. make sure we were ready. And there was always the
Scott and Irwin learned about rocks and threat that something could happen to take us off
macrogeology while I was taught about large You trained for three years, working 70 hours a the flight.
features and significant events that formed the lunar week with one ten-day break. Do you think that I think that today’s astronauts have a very
surface. I looked for evidence of volcano activity mindset carries forward to modern astronauts? different view of spaceflight. They do not have
and meteor impacts as a clue to how the Moon was Training for a lunar flight is not for those with no to train for both the flying and the science, with
separate disciplines for mission specialists and how
“I also believe that future flights to the transfers to the International Space Station (ISS)
take place, so there is much less time spent getting
deep space will require the same kind ready. Most of the astronauts, without wishing to
denigrate their work, are passengers – even those
of training we had because there will who go to the ISS.
I also believe that future flights to deep space will
probably – initially – not be the luxury of require the same kind of training we had because
there will probably – initially – not be the luxury
carrying scientists aboard” of carrying scientists aboard. Don’t forget that the
only ‘scientist’ (although many of us had master’s
Commander Dave Scott leads degrees and/or doctorates in some aspect of science
LMP Jim Irwin and CMP Al or engineering) to go to the Moon was Jack [Schmitt]
Worden to the transfer van ready on Apollo 17.
for the drive to the launch pad
Did the launch of Apollo 15 meet your
expectations from the training?
The launch was what I expected from training. The
feel and the noise were well done in the simulator,
and the only thing we missed was the actual
physical motion during the launch. I was a little
surprised at staging [first stage separation of the
Saturn V] because we were told that it would be a
simple matter. However, the small retro rockets fired
as soon as the main engine shut down, and we went
from 4.5G to -0.5G in an instant. I remember that
Jim and I looked at each other in surprise, but Dave
then said it was okay and that he had “forgotten
to tell us about it”. The rest of the launch went as
predicted and we were okay when we got to orbit. I
broke a little from the plan at that point, as I just had
to look out the window at Earth from 144 kilometres
[90 miles] up. I have to say, it was spectacular!

Being the first crew to carry the lunar rover, were

there any additional concerns the crew had, for
example with safety or weight, as Apollo 15 was
to be the heaviest launch of a Saturn V?
Honestly, we had no concerns about carrying the
rover – it was all included in the flight plan. With
every mission you have to remember that you’re
sitting on top of what is effectively a small nuclear
explosion’s worth of energy [the launch energy of
the Saturn V was the equivalent to the total energy
used by the UK’s electrical network for about 160
seconds], but we didn’t see it as a problem as such
– although the extra weight did force us to go into a
lower orbit around Earth, as we simply did not have
the energy to go any higher.

Tell us about the science experiments you

conducted in orbit while David Scott and Jim

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 Al Worden

The Apollo 15
crew stand with
the subsatellite
they would
release into orbit

“With every mission you have to

remember that you’re sitting on top
of what is effectively a small nuclear
explosion’s worth of energy”
Irwin were on the Moon. You said you were However, in free fall there is less energy involved
working 20-hour days – was it pure energy in doing something so I did not get tired. Also, the
keeping you going? thought that we would only be there once made it
I had a very extensive array of scientific important that I did everything on the list.
experiments to conduct while in lunar orbit. They
included two cameras: one a mapping camera You hold several Guinness World Records for the
and the other a high-resolution camera. The high- ‘Most isolated human being’ and the ‘First deep
resolution camera was an obsolete camera that had space Extravehicular Activity (EVA)’. Can you
been designed for the U-2 programme back in the explain how it felt to be one of only three people
1950s. It took incredible photos of the surface and in history to have done this and how it felt to see
I was able to photograph about 25 per cent of the Earth and the Moon from such a unique vantage
lunar surface. In conjunction with that camera, the point? Did you get the chance for any down time
mapping camera took photos of the same areas and while out there on your EVA?
is still being used by the cartographers to update That was a pretty unique thing to do out in deep
maps of the Moon. space. But the training was so good that I felt like
In addition to the cameras, I had a suite of remote I was doing it in simulation. Never did I have the
sensors to scan the lunar surface. The data returned feeling that I was so far out. I think that is because
from these sensors was to allow the geologists a I designed the equipment I used on the EVA, and
means of identifying the chemical content of the practiced with it extensively in the zero-gravity
surface without the need to land. The rocks picked aircraft, so I was really comfortable during the actual
up on the surface were mostly for ground truth to event. In fact, I was so well trained that it only took
match up with the remotely-sensed data. To get all me about 35 minutes to complete the task.
this done during my time in lunar orbit I worked Then I had to think of something to do so that I Worden floats in space outside the craft while on his
about 20 hours a day. could stay out there for longer. I was able to get set 38-minute EVA during the Apollo 15 mission

115
 “It supported the theory that there was Worden visits ESA’s ESTEC facility
and Space Expo in Noordwijk,
Netherlands, on 19 October 2011
volcanic activity on the Moon in years past,
which until then had been speculated”
up in foot restraints and look around, and that is They were all so dedicated and accomplished that
when I could see both the Earth and the Moon. It it is difficult to pick out any one that was the most
was unbelievable to look at both worlds at the same important. The simulation guys were wonderful and
time. What a unique event, and to think I was the very knowledgeable about all the manoeuvres and
first human being in history to see it. software, so I’d put them very high on the list.
Meanwhile, the geologists gave us what we
What do you consider to be your greatest needed to successfully conduct the science on the
achievement on that mission from orbit, in terms flight, and the scientific investigators were superb in
of the knowledge added to lunar geology? giving us all the information we needed to perform
There is no question about this. I had the distinct the experiments. I can’t say any one was better than
pleasure of seeing the first evidence of volcanic the others. I will always cherish Farouk for not only
activity on the Moon. In my training I concentrated his training, but for his friendship and advice before
on looking for features that would help identify the flight.
volcanic or impact features.
One of the most telling things about a volcano is ESA are modifying the Automated Transfer
that there could well be cinder cones as a product of Vehicle (ATV) to act as a modern day service
the eruptions. I found cinder cones in the Taurus- module to mate with Orion, scheduled to launch
Littrow area and not only reported them, but took in 2018, but without humans until the 2020s.
high-resolution photos of them. This was probably Have you been inside it yet, and what are your
the most important discovery from orbit. In fact, it thoughts on a return mission to the Moon?
was so important that the landing site for Apollo 17 As yet, I have not seen the ATV but I hope it is on
was changed. It supported the theory that there was my schedule somewhere in the future.
volcanic activity on the Moon in years past, which With the current plans from NASA with the SLS
© NASA; ESA; A. Doamekpor; MSFC

until then had been speculated but not proven. [Space Launch System], I am sorry to say, I don’t see
a return to the Moon as being all that productive,
Of all the flight controllers and ground crew, but I also don’t know all the things that have been
who gave you, as astronauts, the greatest level of discovered about the Moon, so maybe there is still
support during your training and missions? huge value in a return. I still believe that a large
Warden claims that with NASA’s current plans for the It’s hard to say since it took so many different telescope on the farside would be a great thing for
SLS, a return to the Moon won’t be all that productive phases of the flight to train for and accomplish. science, though.

116
 James Irwin
Feature: Topic here

James Irwin’s irregular heart

rhythms were first noted
during his Apollo mission

© NASA
James Irwin
The deeply religious astronaut who found inspiration during his time on the Moon
To date, just 12 people have ever walked on the A couple of years later, he was assigned as crew of his favourite Biblical passage from Psalms. In
Moon. James Irwin was one of them, landing on commander of Lunar Module LTA-8. He supported reciting this – “I'll look unto the hills from whence
the lunar surface alongside David Scott on 31 July the crew of Apollo 10 and he was a backup Lunar commeth my help” – he then displayed a good sense
1971 in order to embark on the three-day Apollo 15 Module Pilot for Apollo 12. Apollo 15 was his of humour, adding: “But, of course, we get quite a bit
mission. It was the fourth Moon landing and Irwin crowning glory, though. It was the first mission to from Houston, too.” Apollo 15 successfully splashed
was number eight to walk on the Moon, but it was visit and explore the two-kilometres (1.2-miles) wide down in the Pacific Ocean, with Irwin having logged
the realisation of a long-held dream for the then Hadley Rille canyon and the 4.5-kilometres (2.7- 295 hours and 11 minutes in space.
41-year-old pilot. miles) tall Apennine Mountains. The Lunar Module Apollo 15 was viewed as a very successful
Born on 17 March 1930, Irwin had grown up was on the surface for a then-record 66 hours and mission. It was the first to use a lunar surface
wanting to go to the Moon. He studied naval 54 minutes. navigation device, the first to see a sub-satellite
science, graduating from the United States Naval Irwin and Scott collected an astonishing 77 launched in lunar orbit, and it saw the first scientific
Academy in 1951, and while his mother had wanted kilograms (170 pounds) of lunar rock samples instrument module bay to be flown to the Moon.
him to become a preacher, his sights were set as they carried out inspections of the nature Yet it was also Irwin’s first and only time in space.
skywards for a different reason. As such, he became and origin of the area, spending 18 hours and 35 He resigned from NASA and the Air Force in July
an Air Force officer. This led him to aeronautical minutes on the surface during the course of three 1972 and he went on to form a religious organisation
engineering and instrumentation engineering at the extravehicular activities. Since the first lunar rover called High Flight Foundation in Colorado Springs.
University of Michigan. In the late 1950s, he became accompanied them, they were able to travel further Unfortunately, the following year he was struck
a test pilot but it very nearly ended his career. In from the Lunar Module than previous missions by ill health, suffering a heart attack while playing
1961 while teaching a student to fly on a training could and their endeavours led to the discovery of handball. He had another cardiac irregularity in
mission, his plane crashed, causing Irwin severe the Genesis Rock, which was found to have formed 1986 while running and then fell prey to a fatal
injuries. As well as suffering compound fractures in the early stages of the Solar System. heart attack while he was riding his bike on 8
and amnesia, he was close to losing a leg yet he Deeply religious, Irwin found his time on the August 1991. He never recovered and he died the
recovered more than sufficiently to be selected as Moon to be very moving. After the first day of same day, becoming the first of the dozen men to
one of 19 astronauts by NASA in April 1966. exploration, he said the landscape reminded him walk on the Moon to pass away.

117
 Duke became the youngest person
to walk on the Moon at the age of 36

118
 Charles Duke

Youngest man
on the Moon
On 16 April 1972, Could you tell us a bit more about how blackness of space. The Sun shines all of the time on
you went about choosing the landing site the way to the Moon but the stars are never visible.
Apollo 16 left Earth and without crashing? It’s very dark when you look outside and all you see

headed to the Moon. There is no dark side of the Moon, it’s actually the
far side. Obviously it rotates once every 28 days.
is the Earth, Moon and Sun.

The mission’s Lunar There are two weeks of daylight and two weeks
of night on every spot of the lunar surface. Apollo
Why didn’t you land on the far side of the Moon?
We wanted to be in contact with the Earth, so we
Module pilot Charles 16 landed with a low Sun angle to give us [the weren’t able to land on the backside of the Moon.

Duke recounts the Apollo 16 team consisted of Duke, commander John

Young and Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly]
We ended up landing at a place called Descartes –
our landing site was in the Descartes Highlands. We
day his astronaut boot definition of the lunar surface. If you tried to land
at high noon, it was all washed out [by sunlight],
were the fifth mission to land on the Moon and I
can say that it really is a dramatic place.
touched the lunar soil which meant that you couldn’t see any of the craters We had to lower the spacecraft further down
Interviewed by Gemma Lavender and you couldn’t see any of the elevation changes. into orbit by about 60 by eight miles [97 by 13
The landing site was therefore chosen at a very low kilometres]. That would be the orbit in which we
Sun angle, so that we had all of the shadows to the would attempt to land. At this point we needed a
West. It was early morning during the Moon day at critical burn of the main engine because if you had
the Apollo landing site, which was called Descartes. one second overburn, you ended up impacting the
We got some definition of the landing site, which Moon’s surface.
meant that we didn’t crash or fall into a big crater. As we were lowering ourselves, we looked out of
The further east you go, the more the backside of the window as we came around from the backside
the Moon was in darkness. We landed just a little of the Moon to make sure that we weren’t going to
east and a little south of the centre and could see crash into its surface. If we felt like we were going to,
that half the backside of the Moon was in sunlight. then we would have had to bail out.

What did you see as you entered lunar orbit? Your Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly was
As we entered the shadowed portion of the Moon, meant to go on a mission to the Moon before you.
you got this eerie feeling because the Sun hadn’t What happened?
been shining on this region for a few days. The [Laughs] Mattingly was supposed to be on Apollo 13,
feeling was so unreal that I was left thinking: ‘Well, but I caught measles a week before the launch and
I hope our tracking is right!’
You’re going into orbit at 60 by 70 miles [97 by The Apollo 16 Saturn
113 kilometres] above the Moon, and so we burned V vehicle carrying the
mission’s astronauts
to slow down and manoeuvre into orbit. At this
point, the computer told us that we were out of
contact with the Earth and that we had loss of
signal. Then, all of a sudden there was the sunrise
– it was the most dramatic sunrise I’ve ever seen. In
Earth orbit, you see the Sun’s glow on the horizon
INTERVIEW BIO or the planet’s atmosphere and it gets brighter and
brighter. The Moon is different, though; there’s
Charles Duke instant sunlight with long shadows on the lunar
As Lunar Module pilot for surface. The far side of the Moon was very rough
Apollo 16, Charles Duke back there – I would not have wanted to land on the
became the tenth and backside of the Moon.
youngest person to walk The manoeuvre into orbit [when we were close
on the Moon at the age enough to the Moon] lasted around two minutes
of 36, when he landed
and 41 seconds. During that time, we burned about
on its surface in 1972.
An engineer, retired Air 2 million kilograms [4.4 million pounds] of fuel. We
Force Officer and test took pictures of the Earth [from lunar orbit] after
pilot, Duke has spent over we left our planet over Australia around an hour
260 hours in space. after lift-off. Earth was like a jewel suspended in the

119
 Duke is pictured here collecting lunar exposed him to it, so they jerked him off the flight
samples at the Descartes landing site and we ended up on a flight together.

What was lift-off like?

Everybody went to the Moon on a Saturn V rocket.
At lift-off the engines were producing 3.5 million
kilograms [7.7 million pounds] of thrust, so you
didn’t lift off very fast but you were shaking like
crazy from side to side. I got a little bit nervous –
you don’t see outside of Apollo at this point. The
windows were covered over, so I got a little bit
nervous and my heart was pounding. I said “I hope
this thing makes it”, because the vibration was just
so intense.
Later on, when we returned to Earth, I spoke to
the flight surgeon who was based at mission control
and asked what my heart rate was. He said: “It was
144 beats per minute – you were excited!”. I replied:
“You bet I was excited!” I then asked what John
[Young]’s was and, apparently, his was 70. So he was
the cool one.

What did you do as soon as you landed?

We were supposed to go outside right after we
landed, but we didn’t get the chance. Instead, we
went to sleep and had a rest period. That was pretty
hard to do, three hours after we landed on the
Moon. With the help of a sleeping pill, though, I was
able to do it.

Could you describe the moment you left the

Lunar Module?
I opened the door, got on my hands and knees,
and crawled out backwards down the ladder and
“If the roving vehicle broke down then onto the footpath. From the door to the footpath, to
give you some idea, is about five metres [16 feet] in
we would have had to walk back - height. Descartes had some mountains and plains as

there’s no rescue on the Moon!” well as a big valley, which was about ten kilometres
[6.2 miles] wide. We would explore this valley over
our three-day stay. You could see the shadows of
the Sun, in the direction of Stone Mountain. The
Sun was always in the west while we were on the
The Apollo 16 crew. From left, Moon’s surface.
Mattingly, Young and Duke
We drove further afield on our second EVA [extra-
vehicular activity]. It was about four kilometres [2.5
miles] from where we landed. We were actually
going to go out as far as 100 kilometres [62 miles],
but we didn’t drive that far because if the roving
vehicle broke down then we would have had to
walk back – there was no rescue up on the Moon!

How did the Moon feel under foot?

The Moon is covered with this very fine dust, like
a powder, which is actually pulverised rock. When
we walked on it, we didn’t sink any further than
a couple of inches. One of the problems in the
beginning was that some of the scientists thought
that we were going to land in lunar dust that was
200 to 300 metres [656 to 984 feet] deep and we
were going to sink when we stepped outside.

Did you get a chance to study the

Moon’s surface?
We could see the western horizon from our location.
And we could see a place called North Ray crater,
and all of the white rocks in our area were from the
meteor impact that made that crater. We collected

120
 Charles Duke

Duke as Apollo 11
CAPCOM in 1969

three colours of rocks – grey, white and black. Lesson – this part of your spacesuit doesn’t move back with
number one in geology is to pick up a rock in every your head. I only ever saw the Earth when I fell Duke left a picture
colour and so we were able to get the whole suite backwards one time – it scared me half to death! I of his family on the
lunar surface
of Moon rocks. We collected about 98 kilograms fell back, and said: “Oh, yeah, there it is!” It’s a good
[216 pounds] of lunar soil. We also had a whole job that I knew how to get back up again because I
suite of experiments. Two seismic experiments [to would still be on the Moon.
measure seismic waves through the Moon], a mass
spectrometer [to figure out what the lunar soil and Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left
rocks are made of] and a heat flow experiment, a flag on the Moon. Did you leave your mark in a
which unfortunately failed. We also had two similar way?
magnetometers [to measure the magnetic field]. I left a picture of my family on the Moon. People
To the west of where we landed was Plum Crater. wondered why I did that but I really wanted to
It was about two metres [6.6 feet] deep – or perhaps get my family involved in the mission. We were
a bit deeper. We gave it a wide berth because we travelling and training all of the time [so I rarely got A view of the
didn’t want to fall into it since, as I said earlier, there to see my family] and so I asked them: “Would you Earth from
is no rescue on the Moon and we wouldn’t be able like to be on the Moon with me?” My children said: Apollo 16
to get out. We got a good view of the lunar surface “Yes, sir, we sure would!”
during the mission, we got plenty of samples and a So we took this picture of the family and on the
good view of the lunar colours – there were different back of the picture, we wrote: “This is the family of
shades of grey. We collected rocks with different astronaut Duke from Planet Earth. Landed on the
shovels, rakes and tongs. Moon, April 1972.” We all signed the picture. It’s still
We could see for a long way from Stone Mountain, there. The lunar rover is still there also and we left
which is the furthest we got on the mission, and the the TV camera running on the front of it. The rover
lunar plains glistened in the sunlight. It was very could travel at a maximum speed of 17 kilometres
bright on the Moon, so we had our visors down at per hour [10.6 miles per hour]. Up on the Moon,
all times. In some places, our footprints were barely which only has 17 per cent of the Earth’s gravity, it Commander John Young (pictured here
there because the lunar soil was so thin. I drilled felt like you were flying. with the lunar rover) was also a crew
three holes in the Moon – around three metres [9.8 member of Apollo 16
feet] deep – and the soil was still quite solid. In some On your return to Earth, where did you land?
areas on the lunar surface, it was like walking on a We splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and the
solid floor. There was no dust at all. three parachutes started to open before fully
deploying as we landed in the water. It was one of
What did the Earth look like from the Moon? the most beautiful sights I ever saw [laughs]. We
© NASA; ESA; Flickr

From where we stood on the Moon, the Earth was were grateful for the parachutes – without them, the
directly overhead. And it stays there. I did see the spacecraft would have hit the water with such force
Earth from lunar orbit, but not from the Moon. If that Apollo 16 would have split open and we would
you look up, you’re looking at the top of your helmet have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

121
 A selection of images from the Apollo era have risen from
the NASA files - and they're here to see, courtesy of
Swann Auction Galleries
122
 The hidden archives of Apollo

The Apollo archives are teeming with

images that mark what is considered to
be the golden age of space exploration
– the first manned lunar exploration
missions in the history of humanity.
But wait… there’s more.
NASA and the Swann Auction
Galleries have recently released a never
before seen collection of images taken
from the Apollo Program. Between
the years of 1969 and 1972, humanity
explored a new frontier over the
course of six manned spaceflights to
the Moon, resulting in 12 American
astronauts walking on the Moon, but
unfortunately we haven’t explored
it since. This makes for a rare photo
album to feast your eyes upon sights
not many have seen before.

THE

Leaving BEGINNING
OF A NEW ERA
The return of Apollo 11’s
the Moon Lunar Module signified the
end of the beginning, as this
After making history, this photo was taken event brought a whole new
from the Command Module by its pilot, dimension to the
Michael Collins. The half-shining Earth space age.
watched over the Lunar Module containing
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as it slowly
made its return to the Command Module.
The first two moonwalkers had just spent
over 21 hours on the lunar surface, of which
“This mission continued
roughly 2.5 hours were part of the moonwalk
itself. The pair began their return to the
the exploration of the lunar surface
Command Module at 17:54 UTC on 21 July
1969. A few hours later, Collins captured this
that its predecessors, Armstrong
inimitable image that unites the Earth, the
Moon and humankind.
and Aldrin, had started”

Lunar landing
simulation
On 27 October 1969, NASA photographed the
eventual Apollo 12 commander, Pete Conrad,
undergoing intense training designed to
simulate a lunar landing. This mission
continued the exploration of the lunar
surface that its predecessors, Armstrong and
Aldrin, had started. However, in order to
do so, Conrad had to make sure they could
firstly get there safely.
The Lunar Landing Research Facility
(LLRF) at NASA's Langley Research Center
played a crucial role in preparing the Apollo
astronauts for the flight, landing and walking
on the Moon's alien environment. The
© NASA

surface even had craters on it in order to

make the simulation more realistic.

123
 Apollo 12
men at work
While busy at work on the Moon, Pete
Conrad took this great shot of Alan Bean.
Here Bean is holding the vacuum-sealed
Special Environmental Sample Container
(SESC) that has been filled with lunar soil
for study back on Earth. This picture was
taken in November 1969 at Sharp Crater.
From the angle of this image you get a
view of Bean’s Hasselblad camera, which
has been mounted onto the chest of his
spacesuit. Conrad's reflection can also be
seen in Bean’s helmet visor, as well as the
Hand Tool Carrier.

Apollo 13 liftoff
The third lunar landing attempt was to be a “successful failure”.
The Apollo 13 crew consisted of James Lovell, Fred Haise and
John Swigert, who intended to land in the Fra Mauro region of
the Moon. But, two days after launch an oxygen tank exploded
and they were forced to abandon the landing. Instead they
orbited the Moon, and eventually returned safely to Earth.
On 11 April 1970, none of the astronauts aboard the Saturn
V rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States,
thought they’d have such an ordeal ahead of them.

WHAT
ABOUT
A PHOTO?
It is a little-known fact that Bean
and Conrad also had a colour
video camera on the Moon, but it
was broken after Bean pointed
the camera at the Sun,
ruining the optics.

Apollo 12 success
This photo was taken when Pete Conrad and Alan
Bean walked on the Moon, making them the third
and fourth men respectively to do so. These two
astronauts doubled the number of Extra Vehicular
Activities (EVAs) performed by Apollo 11… to two.
Each moonwalk lasted roughly four hours.
On the first EVA, Conrad and Bean deployed
part of the Apollo Lunar Scientific Experiments
Package (ALSEP), and this is what is photographed
here. ALSEP was placed at each Apollo landing site
– except Apollo 11 – with the aim of relaying long-
term data from the lunar surface.

124
Crescent Earth
Shown in this particular image is the
crescent Earth shining over the uneven
cratered surface of the Moon. It cannot be
said with certainty what mission this is due
to the lack of image description, however,
based on the images of other Apollo
missions, this one was most likely taken on
the last ever mission, Apollo 17.
This conclusion is drawn from Apollo 17
images that were taken from the Apollo 17
Command Module while in lunar orbit. If
true, this image would be the most recent
image out of the collection.

Celebrations
for Apollo 11’s
astronauts
(From left to right) Aldrin, Armstrong and
Collins returned to Earth as heroes. These
were the first men to not only travel to
the Moon, but also have two of the three
descend to its surface and walk where no
one had ever walked before.
These three brave men were welcomed
back — after 21 days in quarantine — with
a ticker tape parade through the streets of
Chicago, United States, where an estimated
1 million people turned up on the 13 August
1969. Here, the trio are pictured travelling
down LaSalle Street, Chicago.

Over the Moon

Another Apollo mission, another launch from the Kennedy
Space Center. At the tip of this particular Saturn V rocket would
eventually sit Apollo 12’s commander Pete Conrad, Lunar Module
pilot Alan Bean and Command Module pilot Richard Gordon. At
the time of the image, the Saturn V sat empty.
Overlooking the Apollo 12 rocket here was their target, roughly
380,000 kilometres (236,000 miles) away. The Saturn V rocket,
shone brightly upon by searchlights, was pictured during a test
countdown on the 27 October 1969, which had the service tower
© NASA

move away during the process of the test.

125
 “In this image you see the mystery astronaut
simulating lunar soil collection, along with
the Lunar Module in the background”

Preparing foer
lunar scienc
selection that show
There are images in this
ally on the Moon, collecting
astronauts actu
rea l science,
samples and conducting
is the onl y ima ge that shows
although this
pro ced ures.
them practising these
the lack of ima ge des cription,
Due to
h cer tain ty who this
it cannot be said wit
ut is, or wh at mis sion this is. After
astrona
archive images, the
going through the other
ell or Fred Haise
best bet is either Jim Lov
Apo llo 13. In this image you see
preparing for
sim ting lunar soil
ula
the mystery astronaut
, alon g wit h the Lunar Module in
collection
the background.

126
James ‘Jim’
Arthur Lovell Jr
NASA pictured Jim Lovell, flight commander
of the Apollo 13 mission, prior to his departure
from the Kennedy Space Center. Suited up in the
iconic Apollo spacesuit, Lovell would not actually
land on the Moon, but along with his crew would
navigate the damaged Command and Service
Module, Odyssey, back to Earth.
Approximately 330,000 kilometres (205,000
miles) from Earth, the crew were forced to
abandon Odyssey and use Aquarius – the lunar
module – as a 'lifeboat'. But the question was
whether these astronauts would come home
alive? Six days after they left Earth they did, in
what has been termed NASA's finest hour.

THE APOLLO
SPACESUITS
The spacesuits that
were worn on each Apollo
space flight were made up
of different layers of nylon,
aluminised Mylar, Kapton
and Teflon for the
ultimate protection.

Looking back
at Apollo 11
At the landing site referred to as
‘Tranquillity Base’ on the Moon, Neil
Armstrong snapped this picture of his
fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin, as indicated
by the name on his chest piece. When
looking at his reflective faceplate, a lot
more of the scene is unveiled, including
Armstrong himself, a section of the Lunar
Module, the solar wind experiment and the
United States' flag. The fact that this picture
is from one of – if not the – most iconic
events ever, and hasn’t been released until
recently makes it all the more surprising
and extraordinary.
© NASA

127
 INTERVIEW BIO
Dr David Parker
Dr David Parker is the
former chief executive of
the UK Space Agency and
ESA’s current director of
human spaceflight and
robotic exploration. He
has a PhD in aeronautics
and astronautics from
Southampton University and
began working for British
Aerospace Space Systems
in 1990 on technology
research for missions. During
his career, he has worked
for Matra Marconi Space in
Bristol and he was assistant
director at the British
National Space Centre.

128
Man’s return Moon
NASA plans to take astronauts around the Moon for the first time since 1972
to
the
with the European Space Agency. ESA’s director of human spaceflight and
robotic exploration, Dr David Parker, speaking in 2017, told us more
Interviewed by David Crookes

ESA is working on Orion – a spacecraft NASA In this case, we were looking long term towards It’s super exciting for exploration in general and it's
intends to use to send astronauts into space in exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and the idea came super exciting for Europe because it will literally
2023. It is building a cylindrical unpressurised about of participating in NASA’s Orion programme. be the first vehicle built by Europe that carries
service module, which will provide electricity, We felt we could build on the know-how we’d built astronauts. All of the skills and knowledge needed
water, oxygen and nitrogen while keeping the up in developing our Automated Transfer Vehicle, to meet the requirements of carrying astronauts also
craft on course, and it is due to embark on a test which serviced the ISS between 2009 and 2015, brings its own challenges but we’ve just shipped the
mission in 2018. But how did ESA get involved? and that we could bring our knowledge to the table. propulsion demonstration module and we’re on the
ESA is involved in the International Space Station Basically, in exchange for European industry building critical path of NASA’s exploration programme, which
(ISS) – we have astronauts up there and we carry out the service modules for what will be Exploration is really motivating for the industrial teams. It’s also a
science and technology on board. We are also eight Mission 1 (E-M1) and Exploration Mission 2 (E-M2), big vehicle. The whole fuelled mass is 35 tons.
per cent contributors to the ISS, but there are certain we get to continue to work on board the ISS and fly
things that we don’t do at the moment, such as astronauts there. It fulfils our access to the ISS and it Has going beyond low-Earth orbit been ESA’s
launching astronauts and shipping cargo to and from gets us involved in the future of exploration. ambition for a while?
the space station. It means that we have to barter in Yes, it has been an ambition for a long time to be
order to use these kinds of facilities and tools with It is going to be the first deep-space exploration involved in deep-space exploration. There are [ESA]
our NASA colleagues. since Apollo in 1972. How does that feel? studies going back ten years on lunar exploration and
of where we go next, so it was very much the long-
“It was very much the long-term ambition term ambition of ESA to have astronauts heading out
beyond low-Earth orbit. Of course, we still need to
of ESA to have astronauts heading out stay in low-Earth orbit to do the science and research
that happens there. But increasingly that may move
beyond low-Earth orbit” to a more commercialised model. We’re already
seeing [in the US] commercial companies involved in
taking cargo and, eventually, crewed vehicles to the
An artist’s impression of
the Orion spacecraft with ISS. But the vision is to go further, definitely.
ESA’s service module
The first astronauts leaving low-Earth orbit will be
from NASA. Will ESA astronauts be looking to go?
As far as the agreement goes today, the first crewed
mission will involve NASA astronauts – we are
building something and they will get to fly it. But
eventually one day the ISS will come to an end and
the sort of ideas being talked about are concepts of a
deep-space habitat – the idea that we have a crewed
vehicle in orbit that is able to carry four people with
at least a laboratory and an electric propulsion system
to be in orbit and do shakedown cruises in deep
space. Orion would carry the astronauts to that deep-
space habitat and dock with it. So you start to build
up this idea and it’s certainly an ambition. Nothing
has been agreed but we want to be part of that.

Is cooperation between ESA and NASA strong?

Part of the exploration is to do great science
and technology innovation and inspire people,
but international cooperation is at the centre.
Everything we do at ESA is in international
cooperation, whether we are working with NASA,
Russia or exploration partners in the station.
It’s essential to share the burden and carry
the workload. Working alone, we could never
contemplate building something like Orion so
to be part of it is a real bonus.

129
 Tell us more about the hopes of 2018's E-M1.
The service module sits directly below Orion’s
It’s going to be the testing of NASA’s Space Launch
crew capsule. It is 5m (16ft) wide and 4m (13ft)
high, weighing 13.5 tons without propellant System (SLS) so there’s going to be an enormous
rocket – the biggest thing since the days of Saturn
V. Simply seeing that launch will be extraordinary,
but it will test the behaviour of the Orion module,
its loop around the Moon and its return. It will also
test the behaviour of the service module and its
propulsion system, which has a large engine that is
derived from the Space Shuttle’s Orbital Manoeuvring
System engines. So it’s testing the end-to-end system,
and obviously the tracking systems and the control
systems. E-M2 will have the added factor of astronauts
aboard. In that instance, the astronauts will take the
first views of the Moon from the digital age back to
Earth. It will be a real milestone.

What is expected during E-M2?

The current plan is an eight-day mission. It goes up
into a parking orbit around the Earth for a bit over
a day so there’s a three-and-a-half-day outbound to
the Moon and then coming back again. So it adds
up to about an eight-day mission at least with a free
return so that if there are any problems, there are no
manoeuvres by the vehicle applied at the Moon. It
will probably have some piggyback payload, such as
small CubeSats put on a trajectory to the Moon. Some
of them will try and go into lunar orbit and there may
be some other larger payloads on board as well.

Has there been a lot of frustration that humans

“Part of the exploration is to do science and haven’t been out of low-Earth orbit since 1972?
I think if you talk to Buzz Aldrin and anyone down
technology innovation and inspire people – from that, they’ll say we’re waiting for that experience
[to be replicated] in the digital age. I remember the
international cooperation is at the centre” Apollo missions but we were watching it on grainy
black and white televisions. This will be the digital
age where everybody globally will be able to watch
it in real time. There will be that sense of looking up
at the Moon and knowing that humans are travelling
there and it will be an amazing experience.

What are the plans after this?

In terms of human exploration, the end is sending
people to Mars. NASA talks about a journey to Mars
but “journey” is the important word. There’s a lot to
learn before we can make that voyage. If you think
about it, the ISS has astronauts in a comfortable
working environment – there’s a large volume and
a regular supply of food, oxygen and other supplies.
But when you think about living and working in
deep space, you have to consider how you can
reduce the amount of logistic supplies and about
better efficiencies in recycling water and waste,
and in generating oxygen. We also have to tackle
the challenge of radiation protection. The Apollo
astronauts went to the Moon and back within a few
days and were lucky enough not to be exposed to
high doses of radiation. But we’ll have the challenges
of radiation protection on longer missions.

Will there also be issues of mental wellbeing?

Yes, of course. Rather than the wide-open space of the
ISS, astronauts will be constrained in a small volume.
The Orion spacecraft lifts off on a test launch in It’ll be more like a deep space campervan than a
A test version of ESA’s service module is put through its
paces in Ohio, US. It will sit on top of the Space Launch December 2014. It does not have the European Service luxury hotel space station. So we have to work out
System and contain over 2,500 tons of propellant Module attached how to support the astronauts, transport them into

130
 Return to the Moon

“It’ll be a step-by-step vision that reaches out with schools was a very big part of our ambition.
Tim Peake did a fantastic programme of science but
with robots and humans working together, we really wanted a legacy for the next generation, so
a big effort was made with a lot of different partners
going beyond where we are today” to deliver a fantastic education programme that
appealed to different ages of school students.
It wasn’t just science and technology but things
deep space, protect them from the radiation, supply What frontiers are you pushing technologically? that involved arts and humanities and it had a
them and keep them mentally and physically in good In terms of low-Earth orbit, how we get more efficient massive impact. The UK Space Agency estimates
shape. It’ll be a step-by-step vision that reaches out in terms of doing the science and recoverable that 1 million kids were involved in activities around
with robots and humans working together, going vehicles is an area of interest – the potential for his mission. From the moment of launch to the end,
beyond where we are today. launching and recovering vehicles and reusing it attracted a lot of attention for the next generation
them is important. For going into deep space, we’re because the kids in the UK hadn’t experienced
What are your hopes for the ISS though? interested in the habitat modules and very high- anything like this. I go back to my own childhood
Europe has decided to carry on being a major part powered electric propulsion. We’re doing a lot of and remembering Apollo, and this was their Apollo,
of the ISS until 2024 and there is a lot of very good electric propulsion today for the scientific missions at I think.
science that’s planned now, whether it’s biology 10kW and 20kW levels. We need to look at 30kW and
related or developing materials. We’re starting to 40kW size engines for deep-space exploration. Then There has been a real resurgence in space. Why?
see industrial companies looking at the feasibility there’s the interaction between humans and robots. I think it’s something to do with the diversity we
of manufacturing in low-Earth orbit, such as One of the experiments that [ESA astronaut] Tim have now. It’s not just NASA. There’s so much
high quality optical fibres that can be potentially Peake did last year was demonstrating the control of happening in Europe, India, China and Russia and
manufactured in a space environment. Looking a planetary rover on the surface of the Earth but in a you have all of the commercial billionaires like
beyond that, there will be a gradually greater simulated environment and controlling that from the [Space X’s] Elon Musk and [Amazon boss] Jeff Bezos
involvement of the commercial sector in using ISS. So that is kind of projecting forward. developing their own rockets.
low-Earth orbit. You can envisage a whole world of A new generation is seeing the excitement and
commercial Space Stations, of commercial crew and You mentioned Tim Peake. He really caught limitless potential of space and how it relates to us
cargo vehicles and uncrewed vehicles doing science imaginations with the work he did with schools on Earth, and it appeals to the heart as well as the
in space. I think what we will see is a diversity of and his interactions with the public. How brain. It feels like it’s a very dynamic time again and
things happening in low-Earth orbit rather than one important has his contribution been? things are happening very quickly after a long period
big piece of infrastructure. When I was running the UK Space Agency, working where it appeared to move very slowly.

This is the real European

Space Module being created
in the assembly hall at
Airbus Defence and Space,

© Photoshot; Gary Lee; ESA; D. Ducros; J. Harrod; Airbus DS; NASA; B. Ingalls
in Bremen, Germany

What's happened
since 2017?
While the Orion mission is still going ahead, it
has been pushed back to 2022 – but something
arguably more exciting will be taking place, too.
In March 2019, NASA announced its intention
to put man back on the Moon by 2024. Citing
the lunar South Pole as the destination, NASA
adminstrator Jim Bridenstine has announced
that “I have already directed a new alignment
within NASA to ensure we effectively support
this effort, which includes establishing a new
mission directorate to focus on the formulation
and execution of exploration development
activities. We are calling it the Moon to Mars
Mission Directorate.” The plan is to head further
into space in the years to come, but first, NASA
is returning the the Moon, “this time to stay”.

131
Living on the moon How we could turn craters into colonies for human life
The Moon is our closest neighbour, but only 12 environment could hold clues to the history of preparation for future mining missions, and they are
people have ever set foot on its surface. Since 1972, the Solar System. The Moon’s potential has been building a shuttle capable of lifting human astronauts
the only visitors have been robots, orbiters and recognised by organisations across the world, and to the Moon. What’s more, in 2007, Google launched
probes. For a long time there was little interest in there are now several exploratory missions in the Lunar XPRIZE, encouraging private companies to
going back, but at just three days journey away from development. At the moment, these are focused land rovers on the surface by 2017.
Earth, the Moon is an obvious target for further around finding out more about the Moon’s potential, Even NASA, who has chosen to focus their
investigation. With more countries establishing their but over the next few decades, manned missions resources on manned missions to asteroids and
own space programmes, and an increasing number of and even base construction could be on the agenda. to Mars, are developing a probe to map the water
private companies entering the field, interest in the Russia’s Roscosmos are planning a series of Luna- deposits on the lunar south pole. At the moment,
Moon is growing once again. Glob missions as a starting point for establishing a we are just taking our first tentative steps towards
The environment on the Moon’s surface is robotic base, and in collaboration with the European further exploration of the Moon, but in the future
hazardous, but if we can find a way to construct a Space Agency, they are hoping to scope out the a science fiction-style base on the surface could
base we would gain access to a wealth of off-world Moon’s south pole in 2019 and 2020. The China become a reality. We explore what such a lunar
resources. It is a prime location for telescopes National Space Administration are developing a outpost might look like, and what hazards and
and communications equipment, and its unique series of Chang’e probes to collect lunar samples in challenges could get in the way.

132
 Living on the moon

Why the Moon? Lunar holidays

With preparations already underway for manned missions to Mars, With space tourism barely in its infancy, it might seem a
some might question the logic behind a return to the Moon, but a bit premature to consider the idea of holidaying on
the Moon, but if humanity were to establish
lunar outpost could bring several advantages. A trip to the Moon
a base up there, visitors would almost
and back could be completed in under a week, and the surface be inevitable. The company Space
is rich in resources. Lunar dust contains hydrogen, oxygen, iron Adventures has already sold two
and other metals, and if these resources could be mined, it could $150 million tickets for a trip to
visit the Moon, and more private
provide a close off-world source of water and building materials. organisations are looking to set up
The far side of the Moon is shielded from the noise of Earth’s their own tours.
communications, providing a quiet vantage point for looking out Rules set out in the 1967
Outer Space Treaty state that
into the universe, and the near side has a constant view of the the Moon can’t be claimed by
surface of our planet, making it an ideal place to set up monitoring any country, even if they have
stations. Navigational support could also be provided for a variety set up a base there. However,
laws regarding the exploitation
of operations, from search and rescue on Earth to deep space
of the Moon and its resources
exploration. A base on the Moon would also allow us to look closer for commercial gain have not
at its geology, which in turn would help us uncover more about its yet been fully established.
history and the evolution of the Solar System. Experiments could
A base on the Moon could
be conducted, and materials and equipment could be tested, away pave the way for a new
from the familiar conditions on Earth. kind of holiday

Colonising space Mining and

excavation
A lunar base could perform The Moon is rich in
many different functions, from resources and could be
Stepping stone used for construction
mining to communications or to make fuel, oxygen Space outpost
Establishing a base The Moon’s location
on the Moon would and water.
and lack of atmosphere
be a big step towards make it a good place for
colonising Mars. communications equipment
and sensitive telescopes.

Exploration
Large vehicles could Refuelling
be used to carry The low gravity on the
explorers away from surface would allow
established bases to spacecraft to land,
explore the Moon. refuel and take off
much more efficiently
than on Earth.
Technical testing
Building a protective
habitat on the surface
of the Moon will test
© ESA_Foster + Partners; NASA

technologies to their limits.

133
How to Inflatable habitats are light, but
vulnerable to asteroid impacts

build a base
The Moon has little atmosphere and none of the
protective shielding that we enjoy here on Earth;
as a result, the surface is hostile. It is pummelled
by solar winds, scorched by radiation, and chunks
of rock regularly fall from the sky. The ground
is coated in the shattered remains of ancient
asteroid impacts, forming a thick layer of sticky
dust, and with no atmosphere or weather to wear
the particles down, the grains are razor sharp. A
successful base would need protection against all
of these threats, and, for people to stay there long-
term, it would also require a steady supply of food,
water, oxygen, power, shelter and rocket fuel.
One of the most popular concepts for a lunar
base is inflatable housing – lightweight and easily
assembled by pressurising from the inside. With
the airlock from the landing capsule used as a door,
these structures could provide a quick and simple
solution to setting up a base. However, a puncture
could prove catastrophic, so the pods would
Buildings coated in Moon Dust from the Moon could be
need to be shielded in underground chambers or dust would be shielded from used as a material for 3D printing
beneath piles of Moon dust. Flat-packed panels impacts and radiation
could also be shipped in from Earth to build
sturdier dome or hangar structures, but it would be
much more fuel-efficient to use building materials
found on the surface of the Moon. When heated,
lunar dust can be transformed into a tough solid
that could be used to construct buildings and
roads, and 3D printers could one day be used to
make structures from the regolith. In the right
location, solar panels could provide renewable
power for the base, and, if plants are able to grow
on the Moon, it could one day be possible to set up
a semi-sustainable farming and composting system.
Then, if water, oxygen and hydrogen (rocket fuel)
could be extracted from lunar dust, a base might
Excavation equipment would
even be able to become self-sufficient.
need to resist the damaging
Unfortunately, there are still major challenges to effects of fine dust particles
be overcome before we reach this stage, not least
the devastating effects of lunar dust. The dust
seems to find its way inside even tightly sealed
spaces, causing rapid damage to equipment. There
are some ideas to get around this, including cable
cars or covered transport tubes to minimise the
disturbance on the surface, and clean rooms and
air locks to keep inside spaces dust-free.

“Solar panels
could provide
renewable power
for the base”
WWW.HOWITWORKSDAILY.COM
134
 Living on the moon

Permanent shade
Craters The north pole is
Craters near the poles smoother than the south
could provide protection pole, but parts of it are in
against solar wind. constant shadow.

Helium-3
Solar winds have left rich
helium-3 deposits near the

Where to build?
equator, providing a potential
source of clean energy.

Choosing the right spot could

Smooth terrain
mean the difference between
The surface near the success and failure
equator might be easier
to land on, but the
temperatures here vary
by hundreds of degrees.

NEAR SIDE FAR SIDE

Lava tubes
Caverns beneath
the surface of the
Moon could provide
shelter from radiation,
space weather and
temperature changes.

Sunlight Water ice

The equator is in darkness for There is frozen water
14 days at a time, but some locked away near
places near the poles are in near to the Moon’s north
constant sunlight. and south poles.

Location, location, location

The Apollo missions landed close to the Moon’s and equipment, and with sunlight absent for days One promising location is Shackleton Crater, which
equator, where the surface is smooth and entering at a time, solar power would be intermittent. Facing is found at the Moon’s southern pole. It receives
orbit is easy, but these regions have serious problems head-on to the Sun and with little in the way of sunlight for around 80 per cent of the year, which
with temperature control. atmosphere, the equator is also blasted by radiation could provide a near constant source of electricity
The Moon turns on its axis once every 28 Earth and solar winds. from solar panels. Building a base near the equator
days, so daytime at the equator lasts for two weeks, At the poles, night and day are less dramatic. The would be more challenging, but underground
and temperatures climb to more than 100 degrees surface is rougher, but certain areas receive sunlight habitats could provide enough protection in more
Celsius. For the other two weeks, the same spot for most of the year, and the temperature remains exposed locations.
© ESA; NASA; REX

is plunged into total darkness and the surface more stable at around zero degrees Celsius. There Lava tubes like the Marius Hills pit could offer
cools to 150 degrees below freezing. These wide is also water ice trapped at the poles, which could ready-made shelter from temperature fluctuations,
fluctuations could pose real problems for buildings provide gases, fluids and even rocket fuel. solar wind, radiation and surface dust.

135
 Inflatable habitats
Building materials are heavy,
so one option is to use

What would a inflatables. These would need

to be protected from impacts.

lunar colony
look like?
The Moon is not a safe place
for humans; the base will be
essential for survival

Water supply
Water could be extracted
from lunar dust by heating
it with hydrogen gas.

Launch and landing

The gravity on the Moon
is low, so launching and
landing spacecraft requires
much less fuel than it does
on Earth.

Telescopes
and equipment
Away from the interference
of Earth’s atmosphere, a
lunar base could house Radiation shielding
powerful telescopes. Buildings would need to be
protected from radiation. A
popular idea is to bury them
under layers of moon dust.

136
 Living on the moon

Oxygen
Water extracted from the lunar
“Only a handful of people
surface could be split into
hydrogen and oxygen using a
have visited the Moon’s
technique called electrolysis.
Glass roads surface, and the longest stay
Microwaves could be used to
melt the dust on the surface of lasted three days”
the Moon to produce smooth,
tough roads.

Food Flatpack buildings

Farming resources would Buildings could be constructed
need to be transported to the using geometric frameworks
Moon, but waste could then be shipped in pieces from Earth.
recycled to keep plants growing.

Home away from home

Humans have been living in space since the 1970s, falling around the Earth inside
orbiting space stations like Salyut, Almaz, Skylab, Mir and the International Space
Station (ISS), but no one has been away from home for longer than a year, making
the long-term success of space colonies hard to predict. Over 200
astronauts and cosmonauts have lived on the ISS, and by
monitoring them closely we have learnt a lot about the
effects of microgravity on the human body, but the
Moon is a different environment. Only a handful © DK; Dreamstime
of people have visited the surface, and the
longest stay lasted for only three days.
The Moon has one-sixth of the Earth’s
gravity, and comes with its own unique
challenges. The dust that coats the
surface could prove one of the most
difficult problems to overcome.
During the Apollo missions, the
sharp particles found their way
into equipment, through vacuum
seals, and even inside spacesuits,
irritating the eyes and lungs of
the astronauts.
Mining operations
The dust – or regolith –
could be mined for use as
a building material, or to Permanent settlements on the
make oxygen, water and Moon will only be possible with
rocket fuel. proper protection

137
138
 Preserving our space history

Preserving our
SPACE
HISTORY
As we strive to explore and expand beyond the sphere of our own planet,
we’re leaving a growing trail of artefacts with vital cultural significance
along the way. Should we preserve our space history – and how?
Written by Paul Cockburn

Few people – except for certain conspiracy theorists O’Leary, Professor Emerita in anthropology at New
– are likely to dispute that genuine history was made Mexico State University. “The artefacts and sites are
on 21 July 1969 when Neil Armstrong made the first symbolic of the political, social and economic history
ever human footprint on the surface of the Moon. of the world during this early space age. Although
Even today, the technological achievements of the scientific in nature, space archaeologists look at
United States’ space agency NASA and its Apollo the meaning and significance of objects and sites. I
space programme – fulfilling President Kennedy’s rank our first lunar landing right up there with the
1961 commitment to “landing a man on the Moon discovery of fire.”
and returning him safely to the Earth” before the end So if your idea of an archaeologist is either
of the decade – remains a monumental landmark of Harrison Ford with a fedora and a whip, or of
human achievement. eccentric people using small trowels and brushes to
So it surely follows that the location of those uncover artefacts and skeletons buried for thousands
first human steps on another stellar body are of of years, then you may well be surprised to learn that
historic importance too, and should be preserved some are now turning their attention to space. INTERVIEWBIO
for the future. Yet it’s only in the last decade that “A good definition of archaeology is the study
the issue has really gained serious attention from of the relationships between patterns of material Dr Beth O’Leary
archaeologists and historians. Nor are we just talking culture and patterns of human behaviour,” Dr Professor Emerita in
about the Apollo missions. O’Leary says. “It sets no temporal or spatial limits. anthropology,
The still relatively new field of space archaeology It can be done in all times and in all places. Space New Mexico State
potentially covers every aspect of humanity’s archaeology and heritage is the study of material University
exploration and use of space, from the probes we’ve culture that is relevant to space exploration that is Beth has been involved
sent out to the edge of our Solar System to the found on Earth and in outer space.” with the cultural heritage of
geostationary satellites on which so much of our So why the growing concerns about preservation? outer space for the last 14
years. With NASA support
everyday lives now depend – as well as the launch “Archaeology, unlike other disciplines, cannot exist
she has investigated
systems and technology used to get them beyond the without the material remains of human behaviour,” both the archaeological
Earth’s atmosphere. she adds. “The exploration of space has a material assemblage and the
“All of this material culture represents the culture that is as relevant to the development of international heritage
technological stage of humankind at a particular human culture and human evolution as the earliest status of the Apollo 11
stage of our evolution and history,” insists Dr Beth stone tools 2.5 million years ago. Tranquility Base site.

139
 “Study of the material record, which includes Neil Armstrong makes history
examples of technology, is an essential way to – and leaves artefacts for
understand how and why humans create and posterity on the Moon
adapt technology to explore even such extreme
environments such as space. If the material remains
are absent, destroyed, looted or not preserved, we
lose the ability to understand humans from a unique
and important perspective.”
It’s less than 30 years since Brown University
archaeologist Richard Gould first proposed that
aircraft wrecks might provide important information,
laying the foundation for systematic archaeological
studies of human flight. As recently as 1993,
University of Hawaii anthropologist Ben Finney –
who has spent much of his career examining the
technology and techniques used by early Polynesian
colonisers in the Pacific – suggested that we should
start thinking about Russian and American sites
on the Moon and Mars. While archaeologists are
currently unlikely to be in a position to conduct
proper fieldwork at those sites in the foreseeable
future, that doesn’t mean they – or unscrupulous
treasure hunters – never will.
We know that Armstrong’s footprints on the Moon
and those made by fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin are
still there; in 2012, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter (LRO) took pictures of the site from just
24 kilometres (15 miles) above the surface and
confirmed it was essentially as the astronauts had
Apollo
left it – hardly surprising given that, unlike Earth, Camera
there's no atmosphere to erode or disturb anything.
11 landing site
At the moment, only an extremely unlucky meteorite
Mare Tranquillitatis, the Moon Lunar
strike is likely to destroy those unique first human
First human lunar landing Module
According to astronaut Neil Armstrong,
footprints in the lunar dust.
Tranquility Bay had “a stark beauty all its
However, because we’re potentially on the verge
own”, but the landing site remains the longest-
of a new space age that will see both commercial
operating non-terrestrial scientific base – the
and government missions to the Moon, Dr O’Leary
Laser Ranging RetroReflector (LRRR) left behind
believes that ways must be found to evaluate and by Apollo 11 enables precise measurements
preserve such “critical phases of space exploration”. of the Moon’s distance from the Earth to be
We can’t, in other words, always rely on the Apollo collected to this day. Frankly, though, it’s
sites being safe from future human activity simply also a bit of a mess, with items (such
because they’re 384,400 kilometres (238,855 miles) as the LRRR cover) just thrown Discarded
away from Earth. away by the crew. cover
Ironically enough, the biggest challenge space LRRR
archaeologists face in terms of preservation is legal.
“It is a question about who owns space,” Dr O’Leary PSEP
explains. “According to the Outer Space Treaty of Cernan and Schmitt collect
1967, no nation or state can claim the surface of the samples in the last human landing
Moon or other celestial bodies, and space is regulated place on the Moon
as a place for peaceful purposes. The Outer Space
Treaty also states that the nation or state that puts
objects and/or personnel in space or on other celestial
bodies maintains responsibility and ownership of
such. There is a whole field of space law that, by
multinational and multilateral agreements regulates
(albeit in a piecemeal fashion) the launching and
positioning of space vehicles such as satellites. In the
research I have done, these agreements and treaties
do not address the preservation of cultural resources
in space or on any celestial body.
“In 2000, during my work on the Lunar Legacy
Project, we contacted NASA and the Keeper of the
National Register of Historic Places to nominate the
Tranquility Base site on the Moon as a National
Historic Landmark,” she adds. “The response
from both was that making these part of the US
preservation system would be perceived by the

140
 Preserving our space history

Earth-Moon
archaeology Luna 2

Apollo 11
landing site

Lunar
Historical
Park?
On 8 July 2013, United States
Congresswoman Donna F
Edwards introduced a bill in
the House of Representatives
– numbered HR 2617 – which
proposed to “establish the Apollo
Lunar Landing Sites National
Historical Park on the Moon”, in
part to “expand and enhance the
protection and preservation of
the Apollo lunar landing sites and
provide for greater recognition
and public understanding of
Luna 2 this singular achievement in
Mare Serenitatis, the Moon
American history”.
First lunar landing
The bill also committed the
The USSR’s robotic Luna 2 probe was US Department of the Interior
the first human-made object to
to submit the sites to UNESCO
‘land’ on another celestial body
(near the Aristides, Archimedes, (United Nations Educational,
and Autolycus craters), albeit at Scientific, and Cultural
speed, and presumably leaving its Organization) for designation as
mark with an impact crater. Luna 2’s World Heritage Sites. However,
Apollo 17
known instrumentation – including the bill was not brought before
geiger-counter, magnetometer and
landing site
the Congress for a vote, in part
micrometeorite detectors – confirmed because of criticism that it
that the Moon had no appreciable could be seen as a claim of US
magnetic field or radiation belts. But,
sovereignty over the Moon.
given this was during the Cold War,
was any other technology on board?

“I rank our first lunar Apollo

landing right up there 17 landing site
Taurus-Littrow valley, the Moon

with the discovery of fire” Last human landing place

on the Moon (for now)
Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt
Dr Beth O'Leary spent three days on the surface, collecting samples
and travelling almost 36 kilometres (22 miles) in
their Lunar Roving Vehicle. The abandoned stage
of the Lunar Module includes a plaque signed by
the mission’s astronauts and then US President
Richard Nixon: “Here Man completed his first
explorations of the Moon, December 1972,
AD. May the spirit of peace in which
we came be reflected in the lives
of all mankind.”

141
 Helios probes
Solar orbit
Fastest, closest flyby of the Sun by any spacecraft
Helios-A and Helios-B (aka Helios 1 and Helios 2)
were a joint venture between what was then West
Germany and NASA to study solar processes nearer
the Sun, both passing inside the orbit of Mercury.
Launched in December 1974 and January 1976
respectively, the probes continued to send data up to
1985 and, while no longer functional, remain in their
elliptical orbit around the Sun.

Deep
Space 1 Landing site
Solar orbit
NASA’s first ion-powered rocket
Deep Space 1 was the first technology
demonstration probe created by NASA’s
New Millennium Program; in addition to
its payload equipment, the technology
demonstrated by the craft included its
own xenon ion engine. The craft’s
ion engines were shut down on 18
December 2001, though its radio
receiver was left on in case
any future contact NEAR Shoemaker
was required. Near-Earth asteroid Eros
First soft-landing on an asteroid
Launched in 1996, the Near Earth Asteroid
Rendezvous – Shoemaker was designed to study

“NASA recognised the need to address the asteroid 433 Eros from close orbit over a period
of a year. Despite various software problems, NEAR

preservation on the lunar surface” Shoemaker gathered significant amounts of data

before making a successful touchdown on the asteroid.

international community as a claim of sovereignty Another challenge is that not everything is of protection. That doesn’t happen on Earth. Frequently
over the surface of the Moon, and the Keeper further archaeological interest, even though most of it is in the presence of redundant debris, the debris is
felt that federal historic preservation law did not have located between 160 kilometres (99 miles) and 2,000 sampled and that sample is part of a preservation
jurisdiction over sites on the lunar surface as they kilometres (1,243 miles) away in low Earth orbit. strategy. Space junk is a serious problem in low Earth
were not on American soil.” From flecks of paint and metal fragments, to spent orbit, but not all space junk is just garbage; there are
In 2011, NASA recognised the need to address rocket stages and old satellites, this orbital space some historic spacecraft still there that represent the
preservation on the lunar surface and included Dr debris – a potential danger to current and future technological, political and social exploration of space.
O’Leary in the team, which subsequently issued space missions – also contains ‘significant’ objects The evaluation of this cultural heritage has barely
NASA’s Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities. that warrant protection, like Vanguard 1, the US been considered.”
However, while several commercial operations have satellite launched in 1958 that’s currently the oldest Some space missions are potentially luckier; there
agreed to its guidelines, they are not legally binding. human object still in orbit. “We do not currently are fundamental mission reasons for locating the
“Space archaeological sites, as well as objects, fall have a cohesive way of evaluating the significance new James Webb Space Telescope in an elliptical
into a grey legal area as preservation was not seen as of the ‘space junk’,” accepts Dr O’Leary, “which is an orbit about the second Lagrange point (so that the
an issue when national and international laws and obvious first step in considering whether to discard gravitation forces of the Sun, Earth and Moon will
agreements were drafted,” explains Dr O’Leary. “Space or preserve it. Not everything can and should be hold it in a stable location), but this could also ensure
and celestial bodies are perceived as a commons.” preserved, or be considered ‘significant’ and warrant the safe survival of the infrared telescope well beyond

142
 Preserving our space history

Viking 1
lander
Chryse Planitia, Mars
First successful lander on Mars
Viking 1 consisted of an orbiter and lander,
with cameras and sensors to search for
life and analyse the soil and atmosphere.
Contact was lost after a faulty command
was sent in 1982; the associated Orbiter
had already been moved into a higher
orbit (preventing a crash until at
least 2019) and shut down.

Voyager 1 & 2
Outside the Solar System
Most distant human objects
According to Peter Capelotti, a
professor of anthropology at Penn
State University, there remains a tiny
chance these interstellar probes might
become “archaeological representatives
of Homo sapiens to the rest of the
galaxy”. Yet they also remain a
Sputnik
Baikonur Cosmodrome,
snapshot of humanity at the
time of their launch in 1977, Kazakhstan
World’s first artificial satellite
thanks to their gold-plated
The actual Sputnik satellite
audiovisual discs.
launched by the Soviet Union
on 4 October 1957 burned up
on re-entry some three months
later, but various replicas and
back-up models do survive –
ironically, many in the US, the
USSR’s Space Race and Cold
War rival. However, the physical
results of all the engineering
know-how and technological Huygens probe
developments that made the Titan
launch possible can still be found First successful landing in
at the world’s original space
the outer Solar System
launch facility – which remains
Venera 1 heavily in use today.
The 2005 Huygens probe
Heliocentric orbit was the European Space
First spacecraft to flyby Venus Agency’s contribution to a
Launched on 12 February 1961, Venera joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission
1 was the first in a succession of Soviet to investigate Saturn and its
missions to Venus; unfortunately, moons; initially attached to
although it became the first human-built the Cassini probe, Huygens
spacecraft to fly past another planet became the first successful
the following May, contact had been landing (on 14 January 2005)
lost just seven days after the in the outer Solar System,
probe launched, so no data
and remains the most distant
was received.
landing site for any craft.

its planned lifespan. However, ‘future curation’ to However, if you're keen to become the first space In 1972, NASA published Analysis of Surveyor 3
preserve historical artefacts has yet to be included archaeologist, you are unfortunately too late. In Material and Photographs Returned by Apollo 12, which
in any space mission. “If there are decisions to be November 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles ‘Pete’ focused on the ways the retrieved components had
made about what should be destroyed or removed Conrad and Alan Bean landed their Lunar Module been changed by the craft’s voyage through the
it should be done so that ‘precious artefacts’ should in the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), vacuum of space. The most surprising finding was
be left in their natural setting, given the risk factors just a few hundred feet from the crater in which evidence of the bacteria Streptococcus mitis on part of
for collision or damage,” says Dr O’Leary. “These the unmanned probe Surveyor 3 had soft-landed the camera. Obviously this was not of extraterrestrial
decisions need to be informed by the field of space approximately two and a half years earlier. As part of origin and, eventually, it was concluded that someone
archaeology. Governments, commercial entities and their mission, the astronauts unintentionally became had sneezed on the device.
researchers all need to get involved in preservation the first practitioners of extraterrestrial archaeology So it could be said that space archaeology’s first great
decisions,” she adds. “There needs to be multinational when they found the remnants of the device, carefully discovery could well be that a bacteria had travelled to
and multilateral cooperative decisions by those space- photographed the impressions made by its footpads the Moon in an alternating freezing/boiling vacuum
faring entities; the USA, Russia, Japan, ESA and China and then removed the probe’s television camera, for two and a half years, and returned promptly to life
have separate and mutual interests in preserving this remote sampling arm, and pieces of tubing – items upon reaching the safety of a Petri dish back on Earth.
legacy of wonderful things in order to allow for the that were then bagged, labelled and stored alongside It would seem that not even the hostile vacuum of
study of the space age.” the mission’s geological samples. space could stop humans from spreading a sore throat!

143
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 EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR LUNAR NEIGHBOUR
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