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Restoration of the Apollo Heat Flow Experiments MetadataGeothermal heat flow probes were deployed on the Apollo 15 and 17 missions as part of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). At each landing site, the astronauts drilled 2 holes, 10-m apart, and installed a probe in each. The holes were 1- and 1.5-m deep at the Apollo 15 site and 2.5-m deep at the Apollo 17 sites. The probes monitored surface temperature and subsurface temperatures at different depths. At the Apollo 15 site, the monitoring continued from July 1971 to January 1977. At the Apollo 17 site, it did from December 1972 to September 1977. Based on the observations made through December 1974, Marcus Langseth, the principal investigator of the heat flow experiments (HFE), determined the thermal conductivity of the lunar regolith by mathematically modeling how the seasonal temperature fluctuation propagated down through the regolith. He also determined the temperature unaffected by diurnal and seasonal thermal waves of the regolith at different depths, which yielded the geothermal gradient. By multiplying the thermal gradient and the thermal conductivity, Langseth obtained the endogenic heat flow of the Moon as 21 mW/m(exp 2) at Site 15 and 16 mW/m(exp 2) at Site 17.
Document ID
20150004428
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Nagihara, S. (Texas Tech Univ. Lubbock, TX, United States)
Stephens, M. K. (Texas Tech Univ. Lubbock, TX, United States)
Taylor, P. T. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Williams, D. R. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Hills, H. K. (Adnet Systems, Inc. Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Nakamura, Y. (Texas Univ. Austin, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
April 3, 2015
Publication Date
March 16, 2015
Subject Category
Fluid Mechanics And Thermodynamics
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN20946
Meeting Information
Meeting: Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
Location: The Woodlands, TX
Country: United States
Start Date: March 16, 2015
End Date: March 20, 2015
Sponsors: Lunar and Planetary Inst.
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG12PL17C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
HFE metadata
ALSEP

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