INTRODUCTION

The United States has set for itself, through its technical and management organizations, a goal of lunar travel within a relatively few years. This tremendous task will require the concentrated effort of our most capable administrative and technical personell in a variety of technologies and at all levels of performance. It will require and absorb a sizeable portion of our national appropriations for some years to come with a great probability that even greater future funding will be required as the full impact of early achievements are reflected in an ever expanding array of new possibilities A balanced position, nevertheless, will be forced upon us inevitably when the expansion of goals and new targets becomes limited by available funding. It is inconceivable that the lack of new objectives that can be defined by the technical community will be the leveling factor in any reduction of effort. National funding allocations, which are already showing the strain, will be limiting in the face of a clamor for more effort to reach easily foreseeable goals. Already, the unlimited imagination of man is conceiving project after project that can be accomplished, using the stepping stones of next year and the years following. A few early successes, such as we have experienced in manned orbiting to date, will only add to the pressure to proceed. The balance wheel for this scientific hurry will, as stated, be national funding limitations. This balance, in turn, will be tied to maintenance of a leadership position in relation to competing nations for a place in planetary history and development. National prestige for the United States must be preserved, but it is not easy to predict what this obligation will require in relation to other nations. Other factors, such as the necessity for economic stimulus, may affect allowable funding favorably, while a limitation of technology or persormel might have unfavorable budgetary effects. There is no reason to believe, however, that development and progress will cease with government support, provided certain definable progress is made. The function of early governmental spending will be to absorb initial risks when the advantages of proceeding are nebulous and costly and to pave the way for private and commercial assumption of the burden. industry is now watching carefully for the first indications that space exploration will be profitable, and will be ready with action to obtain desirable competitive positions. This activity, of course, would normally take years; but the reports from our first lunar visit could produce startling results in industry planning for early participation in space travel and usage. Many group and individual feats of skill, courage, and extensive planning have been completed successfully in the world's history. None, however, will have had the impact on the future that can be expected when man extends his flying ability to other planets.

The Apollo Program

Owen E. Maynard, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA

The Manned Lunar Landing Mission

Dr. William A. Lee

The Apollo Spacecraft

H. G. Obson

More specifically, general descriptions are given of the command module, service module, lunar excursion module, and spacecraft adapter.   Subsystems

Apollo Command Module and LEM Guidance and Navigation Systems

Manuel Kramer