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NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James W. Head III, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, part 3 of 3

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Conversation between James W. Head, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, on the business of site selection for the Apollo missions. Head and El-Baz talk about the necessity of picking landing sites that were in semi-shadowed sections of the moon in order to use the shadows to determine the level of flatness of the surrounding area and the need to calculate for the tilt of the surface. The two explain the dangers of landing Apollo 15 and the potential to land in a canyon-like rill, which was narrowly avoided. However, Apollo 15 was able to complete the objectives of the mission, and made strong geological observations of the area, thanks to David Scott's stand-up-geology and Lee Silver's training.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with James W. Head III, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, part 3 of 3

Series Description

NOVA is a general-interest documentary series that addresses a single science issue each week. Billed as "science adventures for curious grown-ups" when it first aired in March, 1974, NOVA continues to offer an informative and entertaining approach to a challenging subject. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over.

Program Description

Alan Binder, former Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, is interviewed about the Lunar Prospector. Binder says that if moon travel became viable again, he would want to go to the moon, but says that in order to get financial and public support for space exploration, scientists need to sell the science of the moon. Another option, according to Binder, is to make travel to the moon commercially viable, and lists many benefits of going to the moon, including using it as a fuel source, or colonizing the surface for human habitation (audio cuts out from 00:07:30 - 00:09:00). Binder explains the work of the Lunar Prospector and talks about the necessity of having computers to do a lot of the work. On Apollo, Binder calls the program the most significant event of the 21st century, and talks about the roles of the Apollo program, the Clementine spacecraft, and hte Lunar Prospector. The interview ends with Binder's views on his relationship with NASA, which he characterizes as being needlessly bound up in beaurocracy and red tape.

Duration

0:12:00

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

American history

Moon

Astronaut

Apollo

Space

Gemini

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

El-Baz, Farouk, 1938- (Interviewee)

Head, James W., 1941- (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James W. Head III, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, part 3 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed December 26, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_89599220B9EC4AA09E198A44E974FA09.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James W. Head III, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, part 3 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. December 26, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_89599220B9EC4AA09E198A44E974FA09>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James W. Head III, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, part 3 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_89599220B9EC4AA09E198A44E974FA09