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Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong working at an equipment storage area on the lunar module. This is one of the few photos that show Armstrong during the moonwalk. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA

Apollo 14 photo. Alan Shepard stands by the Modular Equipment Transporter, a cart for carrying tools, cameras and sample cases.

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Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong working at an equipment storage area on the lunar module. This is one of the few photos that show Armstrong during the moonwalk. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASANASA

On Feb. 5. 1971, the Apollo 14 crew module landed on the moon. The crew members were Captain Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (USN), commander; Major Stuart Allen Roosa (USAF), command module pilot; and Commander Edgar Dean Mitchell (USN), lunar module pilot. In this photo, Shepard stands by the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET). The MET was a cart for carrying around tools, cameras and sample cases on the lunar surface. Credit: NASANASA

This image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the area surrounding Apollo 15's landing site, annotated with the traverse plots of the mission's first two moonwalks, abbreviated as EVAs (extra-vehicular activities). Numbers indicate elevations in meters above the landing site (indicated by the arrow labeled "LM" -- lunar module). Credit: NASANASA

Mission name: Apollo

Apollo

Apollo 11 was the first crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.

Launch Date July 16, 1969
Arrival Date July 19, 1969
End DateJuly 26, 1969
Mission TypeHuman Landing
TargetThe Moon

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Mission Overview
The Apollo 11 mission marked the first time that human explorers traveled beyond the Earth to set foot on another body in our Solar System – the Moon. The three-person crew of Apollo 11 then returned safely to Earth, bringing home important samples and data from the lunar surface.

Relevance to Astrobiology
Studying the Moon provides astrobiologists with important data about the formation and evolution of rocky bodies in solar systems. This research is also valuable in understanding the Moon’s role in the formation and evolution of the Earth, which is thus far the only example we have of a habitable world.

Apollo 11 was not only a major step forward for human spaceflight. The mission (along with the additional Apollo missions that followed) returned valuable scientific data from the Moon for astrobiologists on Earth.

Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16 included the Solar Wind Composition Experiment, which provided data about how plasma released from the Sun interacts with the surface of the Moon. In the experiment, solar-wind particles became embedded into foil, which was then returned to Earth for laboratory analysis. The Solar Wind Spectrometer was deployed on Apollo 12 and 15, and took continuous measurements.

The Apollo 11 crew also deployed the Passive Seismic Experiment, which was designed to detect lunar “moonquakes” and provided information about the internal structure of the Moon. More advanced seismometers were deployed at the Apollo 12, 14, 15, and 16 landing sites and transmitted data to Earth until September 1977.

The Soil Mechanics Investigation improved our scientific knowledge about the properties of lunar soil.

The Laser Ranging Retroreflector provided details about the Moon’s orbit, including the rate at which the Moon is receding from Earth (currently 3.8 centimeters per year), and variations in the rotation of the Moon.

The Lunar Surface Magnetometer measured the Moon’s magnetic field at four Apollo landing sites.

Mission news and discoveries

Buzz Aldrin beside solar wind experiment (AS11-40-5873). Credit: NASA

Long History and Bright Future of Space Sample Deliveries (NASA)June 30, 2023

Honoring Mary Jackson: the Pixel Art of Anthony ChanApril 19, 2022

Galaxies in Her Eyes: An Opera Conceived for PlanetariumsMarch 22, 2022

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Major mission findings

This is a view of the Taurus-Littrow valley taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. The valley was explored in 1972 by the Apollo 17 mission astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

May 13, 2019A Shrinking Moon

Data from LRO and seismometers placed on the Moon during the Apollo 12, 14, 15, and 16 missions indicates that the Moon is shrinking as its interior cools. The Moon has become 50 meters ‘skinnier’ over the last several hundred years. This shrinking may be the cause of ‘Moonquakes.’ Read More

A close-up view of the Passive Seismic Experiment, a component of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) which was deployed on the Moon by the Apollo 14 astronauts during their first extravehicular activity (EVA-1). Credit: NASA/JSC

January 31, 1970Knowledge of Lunar Interior Structure

Like the Earth, the Moon has a crust, mantle, and core. The lunar crust is rich in the mineral plagioclase and is 60-70 kilometers thick on average (3 times thicker than the Earth’s). The lunar mantle lies between the crust and the core and consists mostly of olivine and pyroxene. The core is probably composed mostly of iron and sulfur and extends from the center of the Moon out to a radius of no more than 450 kilometers (less than 25% of the Moon’s radius)

Latham et. al. (1970) Apollo 11 passive seismic experiment. Proceedings of the Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference, Vol. 3, pp. 2309-2320.

Apollo 11 seismometer. Credit: Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Crew, GRIN, NASA

December 31, 1969Distribution of Lunar Seismic Sources

More than 1700 meteoroid impacts were recorded by the seismometer network (masses estimated between 0.5 and 5000 kilograms). Most moonquakes occur at depths of 800-1000 kilometers, with only a few near-surface quakes detected. These occur at monthly intervals at about 100 distinct sites, indicating that these moonquakes are caused by stresses from changes in lunar tides as the Moon orbits the Earth. Moonquakes are quite small, mostly with Richter scale magnitudes less than 2.

Latham et al. (1970) Moonquakes. Science, Vol. 174 No. 4010, pp. 687-692

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Mission Facts

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Cutting it closeTouchdown

When the Apollo 11 lunar module landed at 4:18 p.m EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remained.

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