Apollo 14 Mission Summary

The planned landing site for the Apollo 13 mission was in the Fra Mauro region, which is an area of prime scientific interest because it contains some of the most clearly exposed geological formations that are characteristic of the Fra Mauro Formation. The Fra Mauro Formation is an extensive geological unit that is distributed (in an approximately radially symmetric fashion around the Mare Imbrium) over much of the nearside of the Moon. Stratigraphic data indicate that the Fra Mauro Formation is older than the Apollo 11 and 12 mare sites. The Fra Mauro Formation is thought to be part of the ejecta blanket that resulted from the excavation of the Imbrium Basin, which is the largest circular mare on the Moon. The Apollo 13 landing site thus offered an opportunity to sample material that had been shocked during one of the major cataclysmic events in the geological history of the Moon and thereby to determine the date of the event. Furthermore, because of the size of the Imbrium Basin, it was expected that some of the material had come from deep (tens of kilometers) within the original lunar crust. Thus, a landing at the Fra Mauro Formation, in principle, should offer an opportunity to sample the most extensive vertical section available of the primordial Moon.

After the Apollo 13 mission, which failed to achieve a lunar landing, the importance of the Fra Mauro landing site led to a decision to attempt a landing in the same area during the Apollo 14 mission. The final landing site was very close to that chosen for the Apollo 13 mission. The site was located in a broad, shallow valley between radial ridges of the Fra Mauro Formation and approximately 500 kilometers from the edge of the Imbrium Basin. The major crater Copernicus lies 360 kilometers to the north, and the bright ray material that emanates from Copernicus Crater covers much of the landing site region. In the immediate landing site area, an important feature is the young (Copernican age), very blocky Cone Crater, which is approximately 340 meters in diameter and which penetrates the regolith on the ridge to the east of the landing site. Thus, Cone Crater would provide access to the excavated Fra Mauro Formation, despite the general overlying blanket of later deposits.

The lunar surface experiments planned for the Apollo 14 mission differed somewhat from those of the Apollo 13 mission. The crew's traverse capability was improved by the addition of the modularized equipment transporter (MET), which is a light, hand-drawn cart that enabled the crew to transport tools and samples with greater ease. Two extravehicular activity (EVA) periods were planned, each of which was to last 4 hours, 15 minutes. The principal objectives of the first EVA were to collect geological samples (including a contingency sample in case an early abort became necessary) and to deploy the Apollo lunar surface experiments package (ALSEP). The second EVA was largely devoted to a geological sampling traverse toward Cone Crater, with several other experiments being conducted along the traverse.

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