Investigating Space: Apollo 11 Throwback

Saturday, July 16
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

As NASA plans Artemis, our next mission to the Moon, we are remembering the 1969 landing that changed everything 

 53 years ago, the first humans landed on the Moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission. We look back at the story and impact of the Moon landing during this anniversary. We will look back at this historic accomplishment and look forward to humans’ upcoming return to the Moon. 

Join us every third Saturday of the month for Investigating Space as we explore and discuss the big topics in space exploration with some of the leading scientists and researchers in the Bay Area. In this new series Chabot Space & Science Center highlights the latest discoveries, science research and space missions. 

Investigating Space is hosted by Chabot Museum Educator Maxwell Edmonds-Drati. 

Schedule

3 p.m. A Trip to the Moon with Celestial Mapping System by Parul Agrawal, Studio 3

In this lecture Dr. Parul Agrawal will showcase the user interactive software platform, Celestial Mapping System that she and her team has developed to virtually travel the lunar terrain, place rovers and instruments on the surface of the moon and perform measurements of various geological features. Eventually, she and her team plan to build interactive 3D globes for other planetary bodies like Venus, Mars, Titan in the solar system.

About Dr. Parul Agrawal

Dr. Parul Agrawal is currently the Project Manager for Orion/MPCV (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) operations at NASA Ames Research Center. Orion is one of the elements of NASA’s Artemis program with objective to land the first woman and next man on Moon by 2024 by using innovative technologies to explore our Moon and establish sustainable exploration by the end of the decade. Orion’s mission is to transport people, cargo to lunar orbit and return people, cargo and lunar samples back to Earth. NASA Ames is a key contributor in Orion heatshield development, aerothermodynamics, and aerodynamic modeling of the vehicle.

After Dr. Agarwal’s talk concludes we will present the short film Lunaverse.

12 p.m. From the Golden State to the Lunar Plains: California’s Connections to the Apollo Moon Missions by Kevin Schindler, Studio 3

In this live virtual presentation, historian Kevin Schindler will explain how California played an important role in preparing for the Apollo missions to the Moon. North American Aviation built and tested all the command and service modules in Downey, astronauts learned celestial navigation at Griffith Planetarium and honed their geology field skills in the Orocopia Mountains, and Chabot Observatory helped bring the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft home by tracking its flight. This program will cover these and other California contributions to the Apollo program.

Kevin Schindler is the historian at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff AZ., where he has worked for 27 years. He has written more than 500 magazine and newspaper articles on subjects ranging from astronomy to baseball, and contributes a bi-weekly astronomy column, “View from Mars Hill”, to the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper. He has written seven books, including Northern Arizona Space Training (with William Sheehan). Fun fact: Schindler has both a fossil crab and asteroid named after him.

11 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Apollo 11 Film Festival, The Theater

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 8 Days: To the Moon and Back
1 hour, 26 minutes, PG
Join the historic 1969 journey of Apollo 11. Seamlessly blending mission audio featuring conversations between Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins with news footage, NASA archive, and stunning CGI, the film 8 Days: To the Moon and Back stars Rufus Wright (EastEnders), Jack Tarlton (The Imitation Game), and Patrick Kennedy (Mrs. Wilson) in a stunning recreation of the first moon landing.

2-3:30 p.m. Apollo 11
1 hour, 33 minutes, G
From director Todd Douglas Miller comes a cinematic event fifty years in the making. Crafted from a newly discovered trove of 70mm footage, and more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings, Apollo 11 takes us straight to the heart of NASA’s most celebrated mission-the one that first put men on the moon, and forever made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin into household names.

1:30 p.m. Hornet Plus Three: The Recovery of Apollo 11 by Robert Fish, USS Hornet, Studio 3

Get an in-depth look at the recovery of the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 by the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, docked just next door in Alameda. While the Navy had recovered many space flights before, this was the first-time humans had ever walked on another planetary body. As such, NASA and the Navy had to address some unique issues when they returned to Earth, such as a moon germ quarantine.

About Robert Fish

Robert Fish began his career in the Marines during the Vietnam War, he then became a high-tech entrepreneur in the computer security and communications fields. This led to him working in the White House during the President Reagan administration and then managing classified DOD/Intel projects for many years after that. Bob joined the Hornet Museum in 2000 and orchestrated the research, documentation and exhibit creation for the Apollo 11 recovery effort in 1969. He is also the author of the definitive book on the Apollo 11 recovery called Hornet Plus Three.

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Lunar Selfie-Station, Outside Classroom 1

Put your feet in replicas of the surface of the moon where the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon! Take a picture and tag Chabot on social media.  

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Moon Impact Cratering, Courtyard

Meet up with the Galaxy Explorers team to demonstrate your own moon impact crater. 

Various geological clues and studies of the lunar rocks returned by the Apollo missions indicate that about 3.9 billion years ago asteroid-size chunks of matter were abundant in the solar system. This was a time of intense bombardment of the young planets, affecting Earth by breaking up and modifying parts of the crust. Mountain building, plate tectonics, weathering and erosion have largely removed the traces of Earth’s early cratering period. However, the absence of weathering on the Moon has allowed the evidence of this ancient time to be extremely well-preserved! Impact craters are formed by the transfer of energy from a moving mass (like a meteorite) to a stationary body (like a moon or a planet).  

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Moon Lander, Mezzanine

Visitors can use provided materials to design, build, and test a lander that could survive a high-speed drop onto the surface of the Moon!  

You will also have a light-up ball that will represent a passenger inside of your Moon lander. If your ball does not light up, then you have successfully designed a working lander that will protect any people inside from the harsh impact of a Moon landing. If your ball does light up, your passenger is in danger! You should redesign your lander for a second attempt at a successful drop!