“The great thrust of the Apollo program was… the manned operation and the new categories of experiments this opened up…. The geochemical isotope-dating and magnetic results from the returned samples alone would have justified the manned Apollo missions.” Gerard Kuiper, astronomer, who was the principal investigator of the U.S. Ranger program, 1960–1966, is director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona.

The Apollo program revolutionized space exploration by enabling manned missions, enabling new types of experiments, and enabling geochemical isotope-dating and magnetic results from returned samples.

Paper

The Apollo Program and Lunar Science.

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