Reader applauds space exploration pioneers – Fairfaxtimes.com

Dear Editor,

I welcome the news that the Smithsonian Institution will be sending the Apollo 11 command module Columbia on a four-city tour under the title Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission (Fairfax County Times, The history of space travel encapsulated). Our manned and unmanned space exploration programs have set the pace of discovery for decades and achieved remarkable scientific breakthroughs that continue to have countless practical applications in science, engineering, medicine, and follow-on manned space missions.

Nonetheless, without the site survey of NASAs unmanned Lunar Orbiter program (1966-1967) that identified Tranquility Base where Neil Armstrong landed the Apollo 11 lunar lander, there might not have been so many successful manned missions to the Moons surface. Lunar Orbiter reconnaissance missions identified other landing sites as well, making site selection much more accurate and reliable than Earth-based telescopic imaging could. They made possible subsequent landings in more mountainous areas.

I was an active participant in the Lunar Orbiter and Apollo programs (1967-1970) and researched and wrote a history for the NASA Historians Office. In 1977 NASA Headquarters published my book Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program (NASA TM X-3487) that is available to read on NASAs website at https://history.nasa.gov/TM-3487.

NASAs Langley Research Center in Langley, Virginia managed the program and had five successful orbital missions for five attempts one of the best records of any unmanned program. Following this success Langley managed the 1976 Mars Viking program using much of the technology and experience from Lunar Orbiter.

In preparing for their missions Apollo astronauts studied the detailed photographs that Lunar Orbiters sent back to Earth. Resolution of lunar surface details through the Orbiters 610mm telephoto camera defined details down to one meter in size. Repeated orbital passes over specific target areas made possible stereoscopic pictures of surface features and landing sites that were used in landing simulations by the astronauts.

On August 23, 1966 Lunar Orbiter I took the very first image of the Earth from orbit above the Moon. On August 8, 1967 Lunar Orbiter V photographed the nearly full Earth from polar orbit. These and thousands of other images of the lunar surface, including the dark side of the Moon gave scientists and the public their first true views of the entire surface of Earths natural satellite.

In recent years the original Lunar Orbiter images have been digitized and cleaned up for use in possible future astronaut missions to the Moon. There has been no other orbital survey of the Moon that offers such high quality detail of its surface features.

Bruce K. Byers

Reston

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Reader applauds space exploration pioneers - Fairfaxtimes.com