Photonics Scores a Touchdown for Space Exploration
As the Apollo 11 astronauts were initiating the first human-crewed landing on the moon, Neil Armstrong looked out of the module’s small window and, rather than observing a relatively flat landing zone on the lunar surface, he saw a boulder field. So he took control of the spacecraft and piloted it to a safe site, which became known as Tranquility Base. When crewed spacecraft return to the moon in 2024 as part of NASA’s Artemis program, landings should be less eventful, even though the...
Photonics Spectra, July 2021