Apollo 14 Deploys ALSEP
Credit:
After the
lunar module of
Apollo
14
set down on the
Moon, Astronauts
Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface
Experiments Package (ALSEP)
and collected samples of lunar material.
The ALSEP scientific experiments included a
seismometer sensitive to slight
lunar surface movements, and charged particle detectors which measured the
solar wind.
The seismometer successfully measured surface tremors interpreted as
moonquakes and
meteoroids striking the
Moon, while the
solar wind
experiment was sensitive enough to detect the element
argon. These
and other ALSEP experiments helped classify the internal structure and
magnetic field of
Earth's Moon.
Shepard and Mitchell also
made a geology traverse to the rim of Cone Crater,
carrying their tools and sample containers in the
Modular Equipment Transporter (MET).
In this picture
Alan Shepard assembles a core tube which he will then hammer into the surface.