page_title: Planetary Science Decadal Survey
section_title: 1965, Wood's Hole Study
hierarchical_section_title: Planetary Science Decadal Survey / Earlier NASA Planetary Science Surveys and studies of direction / 1965, Wood's Hole Study
caption_attribution_description: English: Apollo 17 mission, 11 December 1972. Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander, makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) during the early part of the first Apollo 17 Extravehicular Activity (EVA-1) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. This view of the "stripped down" LRV is prior to loading up. Equipment later loaded onto the LRV included the ground-controlled television assembly, the lunar communications relay unit, hi-gain antenna, low-gain antenna, aft tool pallet, lunar tools and scientific gear. This photograph was taken by scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot. The mountain in the right background is the east end of South Massif. While astronauts Cernan and Schmitt descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Challenger" to explore the Moon, astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "America" in lunar-orbit. N.B: Original NASA caption. Français&#160;: Mission Apollo 17, 11 décembre 1972. L'astronaute Eugene A. Cernan (commandant), fait une courte vérification du LRV (Vehicule tout terrain lunaire) au début de la première sortie du module Apollo 17 (EVA-1) sur le site d'aterrissage de Taurus-Littrow. Cette vue montre une version "sans options" du LRV avant la mise en place de différents appareils. Ces appareils inclueront une caméra de télévision, un relai de communication lunaire, une antenne à haut gain, une autre à bas gain, et d'autres équipements scientifiques. Photo prise par le scientifique et astronaute Harrison H. Schmitt, le pilote du module lunaire. La montage à droite dans l'arrière plan est la limite est du massif sud. Pendant que Cernan et Schmitt alunirent à bord du module lunaire, Ronald E. Evans resta en orbite. N.B: Traduction de la légende originale de la NASA.
context_page_description: The Planetary Science Decadal Survey is a publication of the United States National Research Council produced for NASA and other United States Government Agencies such as the National Science Foundation. The document identifies key questions facing planetary science and outlines recommendations for space and ground-based exploration ten years into the future. Missions to gather data to answer these big questions are described and prioritized, where appropriate. Similar Decadal Surveys cover Astronomy and Astrophysics, Earth Science and Heliophysics.
  Another major purpose of the program is to maintain an overall balance in space exploration, where, at a given year the focus may shift to one target of interest, so over time-scales of 10 to 15 years the general direction and scope of the programs goes in the desired way.
  Various surveys published by the Space Science Board have appeared since 1965 but so far only two "Decadals": in 2002 for the time period 2003 to 2012; in 2011 for 2013 to 2022.
context_section_description: In the summer of 1965 the Space Science Board reviewed lunar and planetary science opportunities. Space exploration, astronomy, and the humans in space were major topics. These meetings brought together major ideas like the Grand tour, study of the outer planets and sun, and large space telescopes and there additional Wood's Hole meetings in 1969 and 1970 that influenced some of the large projects of the 1970s. This study also showed signs of how the scientific community began to siphon the public's excitement about the manned exploration of space into more eccentric scientific projects, marking a shift from a more supportive role to actually taking the place of manned exploration. The study marked a distinction between manned and unmanned missions, laying the foundation for a collision between two concepts in which scientists would explore the solar system from Earth using unmanned vehicles because that, rather than human exploration as an end in and of itself supported by science. Without boots on the ground public interest collapsed leaving astronauts purpose to be doing even more science experiments.
caption: Apollo 17's lunar roving vehicle, 1972
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