44 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Apollo Applications Program"
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chunk: 1/2
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Applications_Program"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T12:33:00.684878+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was created as early as 1966 by NASA headquarters to develop science-based human spaceflight missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official and unofficial Apollo follow-on projects studied at various NASA labs. However, the AAP's ambitious initial plans became an early casualty when the Johnson Administration declined to support it fully in order to remain within a $100 billion budget. Thus, Fiscal Year 1967 ultimately allocated $80 million to the AAP, compared to NASA's preliminary estimates of $450 million necessary to fund a full-scale AAP program for that year, with over $1 billion being required for FY 1968. The AAP eventually led to Skylab, which absorbed much of what had been developed under Apollo Applications.
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== Origins ==
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NASA management was concerned about losing the 400,000 workers involved in Apollo after landing on the Moon in 1969. Wernher von Braun, head of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center during the 1960s, advocated for a smaller space station (after his large one was not built) to provide his employees with work beyond developing the Saturn rockets, which would be completed relatively early during Project Apollo. NASA originally set up the Apollo Logistic Support System Office to study various ways to modify the Apollo hardware for scientific missions. The AAP office was initially an offshoot of the Apollo "X" bureau, also known as the Apollo Extension Series. AES was developing technology concepts for proposed missions based on the Saturn IB and Saturn V boosters. These included a crewed lunar base, an Earth-orbiting space station, the so-called Grand Tour of the Outer Solar System, and the original Voyager program of Mars Lander probes.
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=== AES (Apollo Extension Series) Lunar Base ===
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The Apollo lunar base proposal saw an uncrewed Saturn V used to land a shelter based on the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) on the Moon. A second Saturn V would carry a three-person crew and a modified CSM and Apollo Lunar Module (LM) to the Moon. The two-person excursion team would have a surface stay time of nearly 200 days and use of an advanced lunar rover and a lunar flier as well as logistics vehicles to construct a larger shelter. The isolation of the CSM pilot was a concern for mission planners, so proposals that it would be a three-person landing team or that the CSM would rendezvous with an orbiting module were considered.
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==== Evolution ====
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The following phases were considered:
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Phase 1: 1969-1971: This "Apollo Phase" commenced with the first lunar landing and continued for four missions, or until sufficient experience had been achieved to allow the next phase to commence. As actually flown by NASA, these missions corresponded to Apollo 11 to Apollo 14.
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Phase 2: 1972 to 1973: This Lunar Exploration Phase would commence about two years after Apollo and consisted of four flights of the Extended Lunar Module (ELM), a modification of basic Apollo Lunar Module hardware. ELM missions extended lunar stay time to 3 or 4 days with landed payloads approaching 450 kg. This scenario corresponded to Apollo 15 to Apollo 17 as flown.
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Phase 3: 1974: A single Lunar Orbital Survey Mission was indicated after the Lunar Surface Exploration phase and would be the end of the initial buy of Apollo spacecraft. This 28-day lunar polar orbit mission would be flown after the Apollos and ELMs, in order to have several "ground-truth" sites.
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Phase 4: 1975-1976: This Lunar Surface Rendezvous and Exploration Phase nominally consisted of two dual-launch missions. A Lunar Payload Module (LPM - essentially the LM Truck of earlier studies) would be delivered by an uncrewed cargo carrier to the surface and provide a rendezvous target for a crewed ELM that would arrive up to 3 months later. The Apollo LM Shelter was essentially an Apollo LM with ascent stage engine and fuel tanks removed and replaced with consumables and scientific equipment for 14 days' extended lunar exploration.
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==== Associated vehicles ====
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The Apollo LM Taxi was essentially the basic Apollo LM modified for extended lunar surface stays. This was expected to be the workhorse of both Apollo Applications Extended Lunar Surface Missions beginning in 1970 and to larger Lunar Exploration System for Apollo in the mid-to-late 1970s.
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The Apollo LM Shelter was essentially an Apollo LM with ascent stage engine and fuel tanks removed and replaced with consumables and scientific equipment for 14 days' extended lunar exploration.
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The MOBEV F2B was a multi-person surface-to-surface flying vehicle.
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=== LESA (Lunar Exploration System for Apollo) Lunar Base ===
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The basic Apollo hardware would evolve into AES (Apollo Extension Systems), followed by ALSS (Apollo Logistics Support System), and then LESA (Lunar Exploration System for Apollo). The result would be ever-expanding permanent stations on the Moon.
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LESA (Lunar Exploration System for Apollo) represented the last lunar base concept studied by NASA prior to the cancellation of further Saturn V production. LESA would use a new Lunar Landing Vehicle to land payloads on the lunar surface and extended CSM and LM Taxi hardware derived from the basic Apollo program would allow crews to be rotated to the ever-expanding, and eventually permanent, lunar base. A nuclear reactor would provide power.
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Phases:
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2 men/2 days - Apollo
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2 men/14 days - AES - LM Shelter (2050 kg surface payload - LEM Shelter)
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2 men/14 to 30 days - ALSS with shelter or MOLAB (4100 kg surface payload)
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2-3 men/14 to 30 days - ALSS with a LASSO shelter or larger MOLAB (7900 kg surface payload)
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3 men/90 days - LESA I (10,500 kg surface payload)
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3 men/90 days - LESA I + MOLAB (12,500 kg surface payload)
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6 men/180 days - LESA II with shelter and extended-range roving vehicle (25,000 kg surface payload) |