GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Dr. Gordon Swann, geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Principal Investigator of Lunar Geology for Apollo, part 3 of 4

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Dr. Gordon Swann, geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Principal Investigator of Lunar Geology during Apollo 14 and 15, is interviewed about working on the later stages of the Apollo program. Swann discusses his work with Gene Shoemaker, and expresses his opinions on the geological successes of the Apollo 11, 12, 13, and 14 missions, saying that Apollo 11 and 12 did well for the training and time that they had, but wishing that Apollo 13 had been able to reach the moon, since he says Jim Lovell and Fred Haise had better geological training than the Apollo 14 crew. Apollo 15 landed in the Hadley mountains and found anorthosite, which Swann describes, and Apollo 16 found that the Cayley formation was not volcanic. Swann credits Jack Schmitt with getting more geology into the program, and talks about their time living together, during which Schmitt found out he would be going to the moon on Apollo 17. Swann describes the events at Ballet Crater during Apollo 17 and how the crater got its name, and mentions Schmitt and Cernan's discovery of orange soil on the moon. The final minute of the interview contains audio from Gordon Swann and Jack Schmitt's (from tape 52255, ID "barcode52255_Schmitt_01") respective interviews.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with Dr. Gordon Swann, geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Principal Investigator of Lunar Geology for Apollo, part 3 of 4

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

0:23:18

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

American history

Apollo

Space

Moon

Gemini

Astronaut

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Swann, Gordon, 1931-2014 (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Dr. Gordon Swann, geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Principal Investigator of Lunar Geology for Apollo, part 3 of 4,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed December 3, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C6BF62E3FCC441D78A4BF72014A5EE85.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Dr. Gordon Swann, geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Principal Investigator of Lunar Geology for Apollo, part 3 of 4.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. December 3, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C6BF62E3FCC441D78A4BF72014A5EE85>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Dr. Gordon Swann, geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Principal Investigator of Lunar Geology for Apollo, part 3 of 4. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C6BF62E3FCC441D78A4BF72014A5EE85