BBC ON THIS DAY | 6 | 1971: Man plays golf on the Moon About This Site | Text Only 1971: Man plays golf on the Moon The first manned mission to the Moon since the near-disastrous Apollo 13 is on its way home after two successful moon walks. There was just one moment of serious concern: as Apollo 14 left its orbit around the Earth for the Moon, a docking probe failed to work, putting the mission's ability to return in jeopardy. In the event, a manual docking went perfectly. There were also light-hearted moments. At the end of today's moonwalk, Alan Shepard became the first man to hit a golfball on the Moon, using a ball and golf club head he had smuggled on board inside his space suit. He hit two balls just before lift-off, and drove them, as he put it, "miles and miles and miles". Major success Overall, the mission was pronounced a major success. The lunar module, known as Antares, landed within 87 feet (26 metres) of its target point just north of the rim of the Fra Mauro crater - the site originally planned for the aborted Apollo 13 mission.

It was chosen for its exposed rock formations, part of a geological feature covering much of the near side of the Moon. Shepard and his colleague, Edgar Mitchell, were able to go further from the lunar module than before with their "modularised equipment transporter" - a cart which allowed them to carry equipment and store lunar samples. The cart also meant they could bring back more moon rock than ever before - about 100 lbs (45 kg) compared to the 75lbs (34 kg) brought back by Apollo 12. They included samples of very old, crystalline "continental" rocks, almost white, which may be up to 4,500 million years old. Longest moonwalk In all the pair spent more than nine hours exploring the Moon - longer than in any other mission. One of their main scientific aims - a climb to the rim of the 400-foot (120 meters) high Cone Crater - had to be called off after Shepard registered a heartbeat of 150. Mitchell also found the climb difficult, saying it was "a darn hard climb to try rapidly. The soil is a bit thin and mushy and these suits are bulky".

The next mission, Apollo 15, is scheduled for launch in July. Nasa plans to send a lunar rover car with the astronauts to send them even further away from base in exploring the Moon. Apollo 14: Alan Shepard Hitting Golf Ball on Moon 1971 NASA - YouTube Apollo 14: Alan Shepard Hitting Golf Ball on Moon 1971 NASA Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 18, 2013 more at "Live footage of astronaut Alan Shepard hitting a golf ball on the Moon is featured on this video." Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the United States Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It was the last of the "H missions", targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks. Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on January 31, 1971 at 4:04:02 pm local time after a 40 minute, 2 second delay due to launch site weather restrictions, the first such delay in the Apollo program. Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro formation; this had originally been the target of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. During the two lunar EVAs, 42 kilograms (93 lb) of Moon rocks were collected and several surface experiments, including seismic studies, were performed. Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought from Earth. Shepard and Mitchell spent about 33 hours on the Moon, with about 9½ hours on EVA.

While Shepard and Mitchell were on the surface, Roosa remained in lunar orbit aboard the Command/Service Module, performing scientific experiments and photographing the Moon. He took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated on return resulting in the so-called Moon trees. Shepard, Roosa, and Mitchell landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9... Shepard and Mitchell named their landing site Fra Mauro Base, and this designation is recognized by the International Astronomical Union (depicted in Latin on lunar maps as Statio Fra Mauro)... After landing in the Fra Mauro formation—the destination for Apollo 13—Shepard and Mitchell took two moon walks, adding new seismic studies to the by now familiar Apollo experiment package, and using the modular equipment transporter (MET), a pull cart for carrying equipment and samples, referred to as a "lunar rickshaw". Roosa, meanwhile, took pictures from on board command module Kitty Hawk in lunar orbit. The second moonwalk, or EVA, was intended to reach the rim of the 1,000 foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater. However, the two astronauts were not able to find the rim amid the rolling terrain of the crater's slopes.

Later analysis, using the pictures that they took, determined that they had come within an estimated 65 feet (20 m) of the crater's rim. Images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the tracks of the astronauts and the MET come to within 30 m of the rim. Shepard and Mitchell deployed and activated various scientific instruments and experiments and collected almost 100 pounds (45 kg) of lunar samples for return to earth. Other Apollo 14 achievements included: the only use of MET; longest distance traversed by foot on the lunar surface; first use of shortened lunar orbit rendezvous techniques; first use of color TV with new vidicon tube on lunar surface and the first extensive orbital science period conducted during CSM solo operations. The astronauts also engaged in less serious activities on the Moon. Shepard smuggled on board a six iron golf club head which he could attach to the handle of a lunar excavation tool, and two golf balls, and took several one-handed swings (due to the limited flexibility of the EVA suit).

He exuberantly exclaimed that the second ball went "miles and miles and miles" in the low lunar gravity, but later estimated the distance as 200 to 400 yards (180 to 370 m). Mitchell then used a lunar scoop handle as a javelin, creating the first 'Lunar Olympics'... Category Lunar Golf - The New York Times The New York Times Continue reading the main story Q. What happened to the golf ball the astronaut hit on the Moon ? Why did he hit it? A. Alan Shepard actually hit two balls on the Apollo 14 mission of 1971, and they are still on the Moon, he said in a 1991 interview on the Academy of Achievement Web site for students. He was looking for a way to demonstrate what the Moon’s lack of atmosphere and much smaller gravitational force would mean for a familiar Earthbound activity, he said.

Photo Credit Victoria Roberts “Being a golfer,” he said, “I thought if I could just get a club up there, and get it going through the ball at the same speed, that it would go six times as far as it would have gone here on Earth.” So with NASA’s permission, he designed a club head to fit on the handle of the device the astronauts used to scoop up dust samples. (The collapsible club was brought back to Earth and became the property of the United States Golf Association.) Before the flight, he practiced using it in a space suit and made a deal that if the mission went well, “then the last thing I was going to do, before climbing up the ladder to come home, was to whack these two golf balls.” “It was a one-handed 6 iron because it was very clumsy with our suits,” he said in an interview in 1994. “The first one I shanked. The ball came off the handle and it rolled into a crater 40 yards away. The next one I hit pretty flush.

Here it would have gone 30 yards, but because there’s no atmosphere there, it went about 200 yards.” Correction: October 28, 2008 An answer in the Q&A column on Oct. 14 about what became of the golf balls the astronaut Alan Shepard hit on the Moon, drawing on an interview Shepard gave in 1991, misstated the timing and details of another demonstration that showed an almost complete absence of air resistance on the Moon. It was the astronaut David Scott, not “other astronauts,” who did the demonstration, and he dropped a feather and a hammer that fell at the same speed, not a feather and a lead ball. That demonstration took place during the Apollo 15 mission in July 1971, which was after  not before  Shepard’s Apollo 14 mission, in February 1971. Readers may submit questions by mail to Question, Science Times, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, or by e-mail to question@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Lunar Golf. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Alan Shepard - Out of this World Golfer PastureGolf.com celebrates the 35th Anniversary of the launch of Apollo 14 with this retrospective: A series of historical photographs from the 1971 Apollo 14 lunar mission commanded by Astronaut Alan B. Shepard First golfer on the moon is he, Yet mad enough to pop. Because of the lack of gravity, The poor lads putt won't drop. - Richard Armour, Golf Is a Four-Letter Word (1962) Please Support this Sponsor Thirty-four years have passed since our most famous amateur golfer astronaut, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., described the exagerrated distance of his moon shot as miles and miles and miles. Those famous words followed a one-handed golf swing with a rigged up six iron on the moon. (See quotes) The first swing was reported to be a duff, but the next connected.

Although Shepard fired off those two golf balls in moon gravity which is about one-sixth of earth's ( moon fact sheet ), they did not go miles and miles and miles. Shepard later appended his estimate to drive distances in the 200 to 400 yard range. Still, not bad with one hand and encumbered by a suit that prevented a good pivot on the swing. See the golf ball hit by Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, and the javelin tossed by Edgar D. Mitchell. View of full moon from Apollo 11 (Source: NASA) Alan Shepard , the first American in space, commanded Apollo 14 at age 47 in 1971. As the oldest astronaut to walk on the moon, his back-up crew characterized him as a grey bearded Wiley Coyote. During the Apollo 14 Moon Mission from January 31, 1971 (blast off 4:03:02 P.M. EST) to February 9, 1971, Shepard spent 33 hours on the surface of the moon which included time for a couple of golf shots that were out of this world!

Here is a series of photographs with text from NASA Archives that will transport all of you who are of a certain older generation back to the hey-day of America's moon missions. For those youngsters who stumble across this collection of photographs from Apollo 14, maybe you will get a sense of the excitement of discovery that whirled around space exploration in the decades of the '60's and early '70's. (Source of Photographs: NASA Archives) NASA Photo ID: S71-17620 Film Type: 4x5 Date Taken: 01/31/71 Fish-eye view of the launch of the 363-foot tall Apollo 14 (spacecraft 110/Lunar Module 8/Saturn 509) space vehicle from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 4:03:02 p.m., January 31, 1971. This view of the liftoff was taken by a camera mounted on the mobile launch tower; View of the Apollo 14 launch taken from the bottom of the launch tower.

NASA Photo ID: S70-18740 Film Type: 4x5 BW Date Taken: 09/01/70 This lunar map shows the landing areas for the Apollo manned lunar landing missions that have been accomplised and the locations of six candidate sites for the remainder of the Apollo flights. Those indicated are Sea of Tranquility (Apollo 11), Ocean of Storms (Apollo 12), Fra Mauro (Apollo 14), Hadley/Apennines (Apollo 15), and Marius Hills, Descartes, Davy and Copernicus. NASA Photo ID: S70-49764 Film Type: 120mm BW Date Taken: 12/01/70 A photographic illustration showing a near vertical view of the Apollo 14 landing site located in the Fra Mauro highlands on the lunar nearside. The predicted landing point is 17 degrees 29 minutes 46 seconds west longitude and 3 degrees 40 minutes 19 seconds south latitude. Cone Crater is at lower right.

North is toward the right side of the picture (Cone Crater being located near the northeast corner of photo). The landing point is between Triplet Crater and Doublet Crater in the center of the picture. NASA Photo ID: S70-50764 Film Type: 4x5 BW Date Taken: 09/01/70 This lunar map shows the traverse plans for the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission. Areas marked include Lunar module landing site, areas for the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) and areas for gathering of core samples. NASA Photo ID: AS14-66-9230 Film Type: 70mm Date Taken: 02/05/71 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Apollo 14 commander, shades his eyes from the sun during the Apollo 14 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the Moon. This photograph was taken by Astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot, through the window of the Lunar Module.

NASA Photo ID: AS14-66-9340 Film Type: 70mm Date Taken: 02/06/71 A view from inside the Lunar Module following the second Apollo 14 extravehicular activity (EVA-2). At the left foreground is the Modularized Equipment Transporter (MET). Tracks made by the two-wheeled Rickshaw-type cart can be seen in the left background. The Apollo 35mm stereo close-up camera lies next to the MET, near a shadow of the erectable S-band Antenna. The area is covered with footprints made by Astronauts Alan B. Shepard JR., comander; and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot. NASA Photo ID: AS14-66-9337 Film Type: 70mm Date Taken: 02/06/71 View shows the javelin and golf ball used by Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Apollo 14 commander, during the mission's second extravehicular activity (EVA-2) on Feb. 6, 1971.

Just to the left of center lies the javelin, with the golf ball just below it, almost perpendicular to it. Dark colored trails are the results of tracks made by the lunar overshoes of the astronauts and the wheels of the Modularized Equipment Transporter (MET). This photograph was made through the right window of the Lunar Module, looking northwest. ( Dialogue regarding javelin throw with the SWC staff by Edgar D. Mitchell in Lunar Surface Journal transcript ). NASA Photo ID: S71-16637 Film Type: 4x5 Date Taken: 01/27/71 A close-up view of the plaque which the Apollo 14 crew will leave behind on the Moon during their lunar landing mission. The seven by nine-inch stainless steel plaque will be attached to the ladder on the landing gear strut on the Lunar Module's descent stage.

Excerpted from Apollo 14 Lunar Surface Journal - Nice Day for a Game of Golf 135:08:17 Shepard: (Facing the TV) Houston, while you're looking that up, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the handle for the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine six iron on the bottom of it. In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans. I'll drop it down. Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here. (Pause) [Jones - "He topped and buried it on the first swing. I assume that the six-iron was snuck on board."] [Mitchell - "In his suit pocket."] 135:08:53 Mitchell: You got more dirt than ball that time. 135:08:58 Shepard: Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again.

[Al's second swing pushes the ball about 2 or 3 feet, mostly along the line toward the TV camera, rather than along the line of the swing.] 135:09:01 Haise: That looked like a slice to me, Al. 135:09:03 Shepard: Here we go. Straight as a die; one more. (Long Pause) [Al's third swing finally connects and sends the ball off-camera to the right, apparently on a fairly low trajectory. He drops a second ball, which rolls left and toward the TV camera. Al gets himself in position and connects again. The trajectory of this shot appears to be similar to the previous one.] 135:09:20 Shepard: Miles and miles and miles. 135:09:26 Haise: Very good, Al. 135:09:27 Haise: And (to) answer Ed's question earlier there; Kilo-Kilo was used for the window shots, Ed; so, you ought to bring it back. 135:09:43 Shepard: Yeah, that's right. We got some of that to start with, didn't we?

135:09:46 Mitchell: Yeah. 135:09:49 Shepard: (Garbled). (Long Pause) [Al removes the club head. He brought it home and it is currently on display at the US Golf Association Hall of Fame in New Jersey.] 135:10:14 Mitchell: How many films (means "frames") did we take with this (close-up camera)? Eleven, Huh? 135:10:17 Shepard: Ah. Approximately. 135:10:20 Mitchell: 17. Okay. (Pause) [Al is putting the club head in his thigh pocket. Ed has removed the close-up camera from the MET and has placed it on the ground.] 135:10:30 Haise: Okay, Ed; Houston. Apollo 14 Photo Index MW - How Many Golf Balls on the Moon? How Many Golf Balls on the Moon? Home Page > Fun Stuff > Golf Balls on Moon How Many Golf Balls are there on the Moon? Two.

Alan Shepard hit them February 6, 1971 right before they took off from the moon at the end of the Apollo 14 mission. One day when I was in Junior High, we were playing Trivial Pursuit, and I was fascinated with one of the questions: "How many golf balls are there on the moon?" The back of the card said "three". I always remembered that, and would quote that little fact occasionally. I found out yesterday that it was wrong. There are two. Some Sources Say Three I found a number of sources online that say that there are three golf balls on the moon, even one on the nasa.gov site: Alan Shepard is the only person to hit a golf ball on the Moon. During the Apollo 14 mission he fitted an 8 iron head to the handle of a lunar sample collection device and launched three golf balls. They are still there! Source: (as of 16-Aug-2007) This is from NASA's "Space Facts Archive", a sort of list of trivia. In addition to inaccurately saying "three golf balls", this quote mentions an "8 iron". In the audio archive, Alan Shepad clearly says it's a "6 iron".

Funtrivia.com says: "There are 3 golf balls on the moon. Alan Shepard hit 2 and dropped 1." ( ). Trivial Pursuit says three (in the 1980's anyway). Real Answer: Two Most sources I found say the right answer: there are two golf balls on the moon. However, since I had believed there were three for most of my life, I had to find a reliable source to convince me. The combination of these three things finally convinced me: a transcript of the interaction between Shepard and Houston, a video of him hitting the balls, and a 1991 interview with Shepard in which he says he took two balls to the moon. Excerpt from transcript of communication (from ): 135:08:17 Shepard: (Facing the TV) Houston, while you're looking that up, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the handle for the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine six iron on the bottom of it. In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans. I'll drop it down.

Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here. (Pause) [Jones - "He topped and buried it on the first swing. I assume that the six-iron was snuck on board."] [Mitchell - "In his suit pocket."] [The suits each had a utility pocket on the left thigh. During the EVA, Al and Ed wore a larger, strap-on pocket on the left thigh, 135:08:53 Mitchell: You got more dirt than ball that time. Stuart Roosa, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell 135:08:58 Shepard: Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again. [Al's second swing pushes the ball about 2 or 3 feet, mostly along the line toward the TV camera, rather than along the line of the swing.] 135:09:01 Haise: That looked like a slice to me, Al. 135:09:03 Shepard: Here we go. Straight as a die; one more.

(Long Pause) [Al's third swing finally connects and sends the ball off-camera to the right, apparently on a fairly low trajectory. He drops a second ball, which rolls left and toward the TV camera. Al gets himself in position and connects again. The trajectory of this shot appears to be similar to the previous one.] 135:09:20 Shepard: Miles and miles and miles. 135:09:26 Haise: Very good, Al. Excerpt from a transcript of an intervew with Alan Shepard in 1991 (From: where you can also hear an audio version): The deal I made with the boss was that if things were messed up on the surface, I wouldn't play with it, because we would be accused of being too frivolous. But, if things had gone well, which they did, then the last thing I was going to do, before climbing up the ladder to come home, was to whack these two golf balls. Which I did, and I folded up the collapsible golf club and brought it back with me. The balls are still up there.

Here's a link to a video of Alan Shepard hitting the golf balls: I think I can see why some people mistakenly thought there were three. Shepard swung four times. Everyone seems to agree his first swing completely missed and just kicked up some dust. He swung three more times, but only at two balls. The second swing moved the ball just a little ways. The third swing sent the first ball about 200 meters. Shepard then dropped the second ball, and his fourth swing (the first swing at the second ball) hit the ball and sent it about 400 meters. As they were leaving, the astronauts took a picture that shows a javelin and one of the golf balls: (part of an image from ): Astronaut Alan Shepard Hit A Golf Ball Off The Moon 45 Years Ago « CBS Local Sports Bryan Altman Alan Bartlett Shepard was one of the earliest pioneers of America’s space exploration efforts in the early 1960s and became just the second person – and first American – to travel into space in 1961.

Shepard was also originally slated to be one of the crew members on the infamous Apollo 13 mission, but he swapped missions with the crew of Apollo 14 in order to receive more training time for his space expedition. While Apollo 13 grabbed more headlines, Shepard made some waves of his own during the Apollo 14 mission by hitting a golf shot that was, quite literally, out of this world. According to PGA.com , Shepard wanted to do “something special” while on the moon and decided to take a few hacks on the unfriendly lie that is the moon’s surface. Here’s how it went down on February 6th, 1971, courtesy of PGA.com “He contacted a local club pro in Houston, who connected the head of a six-iron to the shaft of a piece of rock collecting equipment. Shepard then covered the club with a sock so it wouldn’t be discovered before launch.

Only a handful of people in NASA knew of Shepard’s plan when, after an extended excursion on the lunar surface, he pulled out the club, dropped two balls on the moon.” Whether it was nerves, less gravity, or the difficulty that taking a free golf swing in a space suit might present, Shepard shanked the first shot he attempted from the moon. But hey, that’s what mulligans are for, right? His second shot, as observed by Shepard himself, traveled for “miles and miles and miles.” Of course, golfers do tend to exaggerate how far they can hit the ball, but thanks to there being less gravity on the moon’s surface, it’s quite possible that Shepard’s ball flew a few miles before settling down somewhere on the moon’s surface. I09, a science blog operated by Gizmodo, actually took Shepard’s “miles and miles and miles” claim to theoretical physicist Ethan Siegel who corroborated Shepard’s story. From I09: “(Siegel) found that, assuming the golfing astronaut knew how to adjust his approach to properly take advantage of the Moon’s environment, he could easily hit the ball 2.5 miles.

Perhaps even more amazingly, the ball would likely stay in the air for about 70 seconds before finally coming to a rest. Shepard’s shot likely wasn’t quite perfect enough to make it that far, but he probably was right in his initial observation that the ball went over a mile into the distance.” According to PGA.com, Shepard donated the club to the USGA (United States Golf Association) Museum in 1974. Since Shepard’s famous shot, no other astronaut has attempted to hit a ball off the moon. Shepard passed away in 1998 from Leukemia at age 74, but his historic legacy as an astronaut and the world’s foremost lunar-based golfer will remain forever. Bryan Altman is, for some reason, an unabashed fan of the Rangers, Jets and Mets. If he absolutely had to pick a basketball team it would be the Knicks, but he’d gladly trade them for just one championship for any of his other three teams. Questions or comments? Feel free to follow Bryan on Twitter or send him an email . Feb.

6, 1971: Alan Shepard plays golf on the moon | PGA.com Published: Friday, February 06, 2015 | 9:56 a.m. Talk about an out-of-this-world golf experience. On Feb. 6, 1971 -- 44 years ago today -- Alan Shepard pulled out a makeshift six-iron he smuggled on board Apollo 14 and hit two golf balls on the lunar surface, becoming the first -- and only -- person to play golf anywhere other than Earth. WORLD RECORDS: Longest useable golf club The first American astronaut in space was named commander of Apollo 14 and wanted to do something special while on the moon. So he contacted a local club pro in Houston, who connected the head of a six-iron to the shaft of a piece of rock collecting equipment. Shepard then covered the club with a sock so it wouldn't be discovered before launch.

Only a handful of people in NASA knew of Shepard's plan when, after an extended excursion on the lunar surface, he pulled out the club, dropped two balls on the moon and proceeded to do this: Shepard shanked the first ball, but estimated his second shot traveled more than 200 yards. Even though it seemed like a stunt at the time, Shepard admitted there was some science involved. With little atmosphere and much lower gravity, golf balls on the moon should travel much farther than on the earth. Apollo 14: Facts About the 'Rookie' Crew & the Golf Ball Apollo 14: Facts About the 'Rookie' Crew & the Golf Ball By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | September 5, 2012 05:24pm ET MORE The Apollo 14 crew: Stuart Roosa, Alan Shepard & Ed Mitchell. Credit: NASA Apollo 14 lifted off on Jan. 31, 1971, with high hopes following the near-disaster that was the previous mission. This fourth manned moon shot is most famous as the mission where an astronaut played golf, but there were other adventures the crew encountered along the way.

They searched for evidence of an asteroid that carved a large crater in the moon, and fought glitches and false alarms as they made their way to the Fra Mauro highlands. Some at NASA good-naturedly referred to the Apollo 14 crew as "the three rookies." They had just a few minutes of accumulated space experience among them, Naval astronaut and commander Alan Shepard was the first American in space , making a 15-minute, 28-second suborbital hop in 1961. NASA assigned him to the first Gemini mission, but Shepard developed symptoms of Meniere's disease , a disorder of the middle ear, and had to stop flying on doctor's orders. In 1968, Shepard underwent risky surgery to alleviate his symptoms; afterwards, he was successfully reassigned to flight status. Edgar Mitchell was one of the few astronauts at the time who had a doctorate. In the Navy, he not only flew planes but also gave advanced mathematics and navigational lessons to aviators who were astronaut candidates. After five years at NASA, Mitchell's knowledge of the lunar landing module got accolades from his peers, likely factoring in to the decision to put him on Apollo 14.

Stuart Roosa , a former Air Force fighter pilot, was the command module pilot for Apollo 14. He served as CapCom for the Apollo 9 mission, impressing NASA with his ability to help the astronauts after crew member Rusty Schweickart fell ill. Roosa then became the first Apollo astronaut assigned to a flying crew without doing a backup assignment first. The three men were initially supposed to fly on Apollo 13, but they were pushed back a mission to give everyone extra training, especially Shepard, who had just resumed active duty. A launch glitch Apollo 14 launched smoothly, aiming for the Fra Mauro highlands that Apollo 13 had hoped to reach. However, the astronauts ran into trouble as they were preparing to leave Earth orbit. One of their required tasks was to dock the command module Kitty Hawk against the lunar lander Antares to fly the two craft to the moon. Trouble was, the docking latches didn't work initially. After a suggestion from Mission Control to fire Kitty Hawk's thrusters hard and push the ships together, the latches locked successfully. Landing on the moon didn't come easily for the astronauts, either.

Antares' radar did not work until almost the last minute; it would violate NASA's rules if Antares could not calculate its distance to the moon. Once that was sorted out, Shepard made an on-target landing. Shepard's first words when he walked on the surface were, "It's been a long way, but we're here." Mitchell scrambled down after him and the two got busy setting up experiments on the surface of the moon. To help them carry more rocks and equipment, for the first time the crew had a small handcart that they carefully wheeled around the surface. Sixty-nine miles above Mitchell and Shepard, Roosa took pictures of the moon, working through his assigned list of scientific targets. Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard photographed this overall view of a field of boulders on the flank of Cone Crater during the second extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA Hitting golf balls Apollo 14's prime geologic target was Cone Crater.

The crew planned to climb the slope, reach the rim — which was 300 feet (91 meters) above the landing site — and then look for rocks that could have flown up from the moon's bedrock after a meteor smashed into the surface millions of years before. The astronauts found the climb harder than expected. Rocks littering the slope forced them to carry the cart, and the steep climb meant they had to rest often. Mission Control asked the astronauts for updates on how close they were to the rim; the astronauts guessed they were nearby, but it was hard to say for sure with the lack of landmarks to steer by. Eventually they ran out of time and needed to move on. When the pictures were analyzed later, geologists estimated the astronauts missed the rim by a mere 100 feet . Shepard had a small gotcha for the television audience watching them just before Apollo 14 prepared to head home.

He had brought a six-iron with him to the moon as well as a "little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans." In front of the camera, he hit one ball into a nearby crater and a second one that went "miles and miles and miles!" Apollo 14 splashed down on Earth Feb. 9. After the ruckus Apollo 13 caused, Apollo 14 helped the program regain its confidence ahead of the most challenging missions yet: those with a lunar rover. Editor's Recommendations Golf on the Moon - YouTube Golf on the Moon Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Aug 24, 2006 NASA's video of astronaut Alan Shepard hitting golf balls on the moon with a six iron. Creative Commons Attribution License 2.5 at Category When autoplay is enabled, a suggested video will automatically play next. Up next The Truth Behind The Moon Landings - Duration: 48:00.

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By the time opponents realize where the ball is going, very often, it's already gone. Ace! Roddick's serve is much-feared around the US Open, which began this week in New York. His groundstrokes are like rockets, too. And, believe it or not, this can be a problem. Balls hit so hard want to go long, flying straight out the back of the court. Out! It's hard to win a game that way. Right: Andy Roddick serves--a 100+ mph blur. [ More ] So what do you do when you're so powerful? Roddick has a trick up his sleeve: topspin. By hitting the ball obliquely (at a slant), he causes it to spin. Topspin makes the ball curve downward. Instead of going out, it drops neatly into play on the other side of the net. Now the Rocket Man is wondering, "What if the US Open were played on the Moon? Would topspin do me any good?" [ video ] It's a perfectly reasonable question.

In 2004 when President Bush set out the nation's Vision for Space Exploration, he declared "human beings are headed into the cosmos." He never said, except for the tennis players. Where people go, sport follows. Decades from now, tennis might be a popular pastime on the Moon. Picture this: Two space-suited athletes stare at each other across the net of a tennis court drawn in moondust. Their own reflections stare back from the faceplate of the opponent. Overhead, the sun is bright, the sky is black and Earth looks absolutely beautiful; it's a crescent today. Above: An artist's concept of Moon tennis. Credit: Paula Vargas and Terry Longbottom of NASA/JSC. [ video ]. One player tosses the ball up ... up ... up. Smash! Soundlessly, a 100+ mph serve glides across the net, long. Another serve, long. And another, long. Groundstrokes go long, too. Something's wrong. On the Moon, topspin doesn't work. Actually, the ball spins just fine, but spinning doesn't make it curve downward. The Moon has no air, and spinning balls only curve when they're flying through an atmosphere.

(Note: Gravity also causes the ball to curve downward, but not enough to rescue every shot.) Physicists call this the Bernoulli Effect: Air pressure on one side of a spinning ball is higher than it is on the other side. High pressure pushes the ball toward low pressure--hence the curve. Swiss physicist Daniel Bernoulli wrote down the equations describing this curious phenomenon in the 18th century, setting the stage for Andy Roddick's devastating power game almost 300 years later. (The curve of the ball is also known as "The Magnus Effect" after the 19th-century German physicist H.G. Magnus who studied forces on spinning balls.) The Bernoulli (or Magnus) Effect is very important in sports. In baseball, it lets pitchers throw curveballs. In tennis and ping pong, it helps players ace their serves. In golf, it's responsible for the dreaded slice. Right: The Bernoulli Effect. [ More ] Aside: Apollo 14 astronaut Al Shepard became the first extraterrestrial golfer on February 6, 1971, when he tried hitting some balls on the Moon.

His club was homemade, consisting of a 6-iron attached to the end of a geology tool handle. "Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here," said Shepard. One shot, remarked mission control, "looked like a slice." Shepard countered "Straight as a die!" In fact, the ball rolled just 2 or 3 feet. Later, Shepard did get off a good shot which famously went "for miles and miles and miles." Practice makes perfect, especially on the Moon. Moon tennis is going to differ from Earth tennis in many ways. For example: In the Moon's lower gravity, only 1/6th Earth's, lobs will fly six times higher and hang six times longer. Thirsty? Hit a lob. While it's in flight you can go get a drink of water. Here on Earth we have clay courts and grass courts. On the Moon there will be dust courts. The surface affects the style of play: clay is a slow surface, while grass is faster and prone to crazy bounces. A dusty surface will probably be slow, until it packs down a bit.

Moondust adds an interesting twist to tennis. For one thing, moondust is extremely dry and insulating, and thus prone to static cling (like a crackling sock pulled out of the dryer). Balls hit into this material over and over will soon gather a layer of electrified dust. Want to shock your opponent? Smash the ball straight at him! There's more: When a ball bounces off a mooncourt, it's going to kick up a little dusty plume. Spin the ball just right and you could send that dust jetting toward your opponent, craftily blinding him. Topspin, or in this case, backspin, might come in handy after all. And don't forget the spacesuits. On Earth, players wear shorts and light shirts. On the Moon, they'll be climbing into a bulky full-body pressure suit. As Apollo astronauts discovered, you don't really "run" in a 1/6-g moonsuit, you "bound," hopping around like Tigger of the Hundred Acre Wood. A player might spend more time off the ground than on it. ("Footwork!" cries your tennis coach. Footwork? How can you have footwork when your feet don't touch the ground?

Old-fashioned strategies might not work on the Moon.) Right: Andy Roddick ponders tennis on other worlds. [ video ] Furthermore, joints at the elbows, knees and especially shoulders of spacesuits are less flexible than real human joints. Overhead serves are going to be mighty difficult. Sorry Andy! Forehand or underhand serves, legal in Earth tennis, might be required on the Moon. Meanwhile, the backhand stroke could become extinct: it's tough to reach across the body of a turgid spacesuit. Eventually, special suits might be manufactured for moon tennis, designed to allow overhand serves, backhand shots, and normal running. The dimensions of courts could change, too, probably made bigger to accommodate no-Bernoulli serves and low-gravity volleys. Low gravity. No topspin. Bulky spacesuits. Moon tennis is going to be different. Says Roddick, "...that might be kind of cool!" More Information Hey, wait a minute!Hey, wait a minute! While this story is grounded in serious physics, it shouldn't be taken too seriously. We won't know what it's like to play tennis on the Moon until someone tries it.

Will tennis balls really accumulate electrical charge as they bounce back and forth across the court? It depends on what the ball is made of and how it interacts with moondust. Scientists do know that the Moon "crackles" with static electricity--Moon tennis might crackle, too. Also, by the time people are actually living on the Moon, advanced space suits will surely be lighter and more agile than Apollo suits. This will help astronauts go about their duties: exploring, building the colony, and acting as field geologists. Improved suits will help them play tennis, too, making backhand strokes and over-the-shoulder serves easier to execute. And, of course, athletes playing inside a pressurized lunar sports dome could shed their spacesuits altogether. (Imagine the "bounding" you could do in there!) There would be no moondust, plenty of air and plenty of Bernoulli. How different will Moon tennis be? Time will tell. All Things Bernoulli -- a review of the Bernoulli Effect (and related phenomena) suitable for high school and undergraduate physics students Bernoulli vs.

Newton -- Topspinning balls sink because they have "negative lift," the opposite of "positive lift" generated by an airplane's wing or a backspinning ball. How is lift created? Scientists are still debating the underlying reasons. Follow the bouncing ball -- a look at the physics of tennis bounces or, in physics-speak, the "ball-court interaction" More physics links:

Question: Which astronaut hit a golf ball on the moon in February 1971?
Answer: Alan Shepard