Apollo 11 Mission
Have you ever wondered how humans touched the moon? It took a tremendous amount of work, with 400,000 people at NASA collaborating together to get astronauts into space.
One problem the engineers had to solve was how to get the rocket off of Earth. Gravity is a downward force that acts on all objects on Earth. The more heavy or massive the object is, the greater the gravitational force on that object. This means that the extremely large rocket of Apollo 11 had a very difficult time getting off the ground.
As a result, the rocket needed a force opposing gravity to propel it off the ground. To do this, NASA scientists decided to fill the rocket with liquid hydrogen and oxygen as fuel, using 18,000 kilograms per second (that is the equivalent of dropping 18 walruses per second). This counter force propelled the rocket into the upper atmosphere, until these ‘thrusters’ separated from the aircraft. After another two stages of similar capabilities, Apollo 11 had made it into orbit, allowing Neil Armstrong to famously say:
“That is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.”
In addition, the extra hydrogen and oxygen was used to power the spacecraft. Tom Bacon, an engineer at NASA, designed a fuel cell, which converted the energy released from a chemical reaction into usable electricity.
If you are interested in learning more about the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, check our the resources below:
