15.0 CONCLUSIONS

The Apollo 14 mission was the third successful lunar landing and demonstrated excellent performance of all contributing elements, resulting in the collection of a wealth of scientific information. The following conclusions are drawn from the information in this report.

1. Cryogenic oxygen system hardware modifications and changes made as a result of the Apollo 13 failure satisfied, within safe limits, all system requirements for future missions, including extravehicular activity.

2. The advantages of manned spaceflight were again clearly demonstrated on this mission by the crew's ability to diagnose and work around hardware problems and malfunctions which otherwise might have resulted in mission termination.

3. Navigation was the most difficult lunar surface task because of problems in finding and recognizing small features, reduced visibility in the up-sun and down-sun directions, and the inability to judge distances.

4. Rendezvous within one orbit of lunar ascent was demonstrated for the first time in the Apollo program. This type of rendezvous reduces the time between lunar lift-off and docking by approximately 2 hours from that required on previous missions. The timeline activities, however, are greatly compressed.

5. On previous lunar missions, lunar surface dust adhering to equipment being returned to earth has created a problem in both spacecraft. The special dust control procedures and equipment used on this mission were effective in lowering the overall level of dust.

6. Onboard navigation without air-to-ground communications was successfully demonstrated during the transearth phase of the mission to be sufficiently accurate for use as a contingency mode of operation during future missions.

7. Launching through cumulus clouds with tops up to 10 000 feet was demonstrated to be a safe launch restriction for the prevention of triggered lightning. The cloud conditions at lift-off were at the limit of this restriction and no triggered lightning was recorded during the launch phase.

Apendix A - Vehicle Description Table of Contents Apollo 14 Journal