All however one of many Apollo program’s used lunar modules both crashed into the Moon’s floor or burned up in Earth’s environment.
The Apollo 10 astronauts snapped this photograph of the Snoopy lunar module exterior the window of command module Charlie Brown throughout the mission. Credit score: NASA/JSC/ASU
What grew to become of the discarded lunar modules from the Apollo missions?
James Jarvis
San Francisco, California
All however one of many Apollo program’s used lunar modules both crashed into the Moon’s floor or burned up in Earth’s environment. Apollo 10’s lunar module, Snoopy, remains to be on the market, drifting aimlessly across the photo voltaic system, ready for some future exo-archaeologist to grab it up for show on the Smithsonian.
The mission was designed as a rehearsal for the primary occasion on the Moon, however it set information of its personal. Historical past glazes over Apollo 10 due to the importance of what adopted. Nevertheless, the crew accomplished the identical duties as Apollo 11 — minus touchdown on the Moon.
And so they used Snoopy, the lunar module, in addition to Charlie Brown, the command module, to journey farther and sooner than any people have earlier than or since.
In the course of the mission, Snoopy was jettisoned into area as deliberate and may have entered orbit across the Solar. Nevertheless, its location stays a thriller regardless of efforts by beginner astronomers to seek for it utilizing the final identified 1969 orbital coordinates. They recognized quite a few goal websites, however to this point they’ve been unsuccessful.
Apparently, at the least a few of the different landers’ precise lunar impression websites — together with Apollo 11’s Eagle — are additionally a thriller that future area explorers might sometime discover and excavate.
Eric Betz
Science Author, Seattle, Washington
This query and reply initially appeared within the October 2015 situation.
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