Spacepod Lunar Base
Moon Data
The Moon orbits our planet Earth at an average distance of 384,401 km. It is smaller than the Earth, having a mass only 1.2% of Earth's and being just over a quarter of the Earth's physical size. It takes 27.3 days to orbit the Earth, but we see it complete its set of phases (new moon to full moon and back again) in 29.5 days. This is because the Earth continues on its way around the Sun, at the same time, giving the Moon a little further to go to get back into the same position relative to the Earth and the Sun after each orbit.
The gravitational pull of the Moon is respnsible for the tides on Earth as the world's oceans are pulled up by the attraction of the Moon. A bulge in sea level follows the Moon around the Earth bringing high tides with it. Because the Moon's pull is weakest at the far side of the Earth, a second bulge develops there. So we have two high tides and two low tides each day, as the Earth's surface rotates into and out of the two higher sea levels.
Men on the Moon
Between December 1968 and December 1972, the Apollo spacecraft took people to the Moon. Some just visited our nearest neighbour passing close by, while others actually walked on its surface.
| Apollo 8 | 21-27 December 1968 | Borman, Lovell and Anders | First mission to fly around the Moon. |
| Apollo 10 | 18-26 May 1969 | Stafford, Cernan and Young | Tests in lunar orbit. |
| Apollo 11 | 16-24 July 1969 | Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins | Neil Armstrong is the first human being to walk on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin is second. |
| Apollo 12 | 12-22 November 1969 | Conrad, Gordon and Bean | Conrad is the third man on the Moon. Apollo 12 landed close t o the unmanned Surveyor 3. |
| Apollo 13 | 11-17 April 1970 | Lovell, Swigert and Haise | An explosion forced the astronauts to abandon landing on the Moon. The lunar module became a lifeboat in what is seen, now, as NASA's finest hour, when all three astronauts were safely returned to Earth. |
| Apollo 14 | 31 January - 9 February 1971 | Shepard, Roosa and Worden | Alan Shepard was the first American in space and the fifth man on the Moon. |
| Apollo 15 | 26 July - 5 August 1971 | Scott, Irwin and Worden | First use of the lunar rover vehicle. |
| Apollo 16 | 16-27 April 1972 | Young, Duke and Mattingly | Chemical mapping of the lunar surface. |
| Apollo 17 | 7-20 December 1972 | Cernan, Schmitt and Evans | Harrison Schmitt is the first geologist on the Moon. |
This site is © 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2004 Mark Toner.