The first word spoken on the surface of the moon after Apollo 15 landed on July 30th, 1971, was "Bam!" This was James Irwin's involuntary reaction to their rather bone-jarring touchdown, "We did hit harder than any of the other flights" says Irwin. "And I was startled, obviously, when I said, "Bam!" The reason for the "firm" touchdown of Apollo 15 was that the rocket engine was shut off earlier than planned. In fact, the engine was shut off when the lander was 1.31 m above the lunar surface and moving downward with a speed of 0.152 m/s. From that point on the lander descended in lunar free fall, with an acceleration of 1.62 m/s. As a result, the landing speed of Apollo 15 was by far the largest of any of the Apollo missions. To visualize the descent of Apollo 15, consider its position time curve during the final stages of landing, shown in the figure below. 1,5 1.25 Height (m) 1.0 Eugine shuts off 0.75 Trajectory with engine still on 0.5 0.25 4. Lunar free fall. Lindad 8.5 9.0 What was the impact speed of the lander when it touched down? A. B. 0.735 m/s C. 2.07 m/s 9.5 Time (s) 3.03 m/s 3.23 m/s 10 10.5 11 E. 9.8 m/s
The first word spoken on the surface of the moon after Apollo 15 landed on July 30th, 1971, was "Bam!" This was James Irwin's involuntary reaction to their rather bone-jarring touchdown, "We did hit harder than any of the other flights" says Irwin. "And I was startled, obviously, when I said, "Bam!" The reason for the "firm" touchdown of Apollo 15 was that the rocket engine was shut off earlier than planned. In fact, the engine was shut off when the lander was 1.31 m above the lunar surface and moving downward with a speed of 0.152 m/s. From that point on the lander descended in lunar free fall, with an acceleration of 1.62 m/s. As a result, the landing speed of Apollo 15 was by far the largest of any of the Apollo missions. To visualize the descent of Apollo 15, consider its position time curve during the final stages of landing, shown in the figure below. 1,5 1.25 Height (m) 1.0 Eugine shuts off 0.75 Trajectory with engine still on 0.5 0.25 4. Lunar free fall. Lindad 8.5 9.0 What was the impact speed of the lander when it touched down? A. B. 0.735 m/s C. 2.07 m/s 9.5 Time (s) 3.03 m/s 3.23 m/s 10 10.5 11 E. 9.8 m/s
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