I Love You to the Moon and Back Quiz

Answer: Earthrise

While all these photos depict Earth as seen from space, the one shot by Apollo 8 was the famous "Earthrise", showing a half-lit Earth rising above the surface of the moon. This shot was not planned and in fact, the astronauts originally hesitated because taking it would require them to deviate from their assigned task of photographing the lunar surface and reload the camera with color film.

However all three men were so awed by the sight that they agreed to do it, taking this iconic image that certainly has to rank highly among the one hundred most influential photographs of all time.

Answer: Yes, but they would then not have been able to return to Earth

When the Apollo 10 mission was planned, NASA considered the possibility that the two astronauts aboard the lunar module making up the crew could be tempted to violate their orders and actually make the landing, securing themselves the title of first human beings on the moon.

The way to keep them in line was as simple as it was cruel - the ascent stage was short-fueled and, had they landed, they would not have been able to reach orbit again. If they had tried to be first on the moon, they'd have paid for it with their lives.

While commander Thomas Stafford never flew to the moon again, both other Apollo 10 crew members later set foot on the moon, as commanders of Apollo 16 (Young) and Apollo 17 (Cernan), respectively.

Answer: Less than 24 hours

As the astronauts were only given two short hours on the moon, they placed the flag a mere 25 feet (8 meters) from their lander and they also had trouble penetrating the hard soil. Both factors played together to make the flag rather unstable and when Eagle lifted off just 21 hours after landing, the engine exhaust knocked the flag over.

In contrast, at least the Apollo 12, 16, and 17 flags were documented as still standing in 2012 by an unmanned lunar orbiter; the fate of the Apollo 14 and 15 flags has not been reassessed between the landings and the 50th anniversary 2019.

The photos taken by the 2012 mission were not sufficient to assess whether the flags still had their colors.

Answer: Components of an earlier, unmanned, lunar lander

One of Apollo 12's scientific goals was to provide more information on how materials used in spacecraft would change during longer exposure to moon conditions. For this reason, they landed close to 1967's Surveyor 3 probe and retrieved key components of it, including a TV camera.

This special visit would for at least fifty years remain the only time that a human artifact on a different celestial body was revisited and personally studied by astronauts. The discovery of black monoliths on the moon is still firmly within the realm of fiction - it is a key scene in Arthur C. Clarke's "2001".

Answer: Service module

The main supply of oxygen for the crew and the fuel cells (which were in turn the primary source of power and water) in the Apollo craft was located in the service module, a roughly cylindrical component which was also the largest of the four ship parts. Like the descent stage of the lunar module, it did not contain any crew space, but solely carried supplies and an engine. With that oxygen gone and the supply of the command module only being enough for the last hours of reentry, the astronauts had to rely on the lunar module's stocks to survive.

In the end, it turned out that water was the most critical consumable - the crew had to survive with just 200ml of it to drink per day - most of the scarce remaining water aboard was needed as coolant.

Answer: Javelin throw

Not to be outdone by his commander's stunt, Mitchell picked up an instrument handle that was no longer needed for the mission and would remain on the moon anyway (from a soil sample scoop) and tossed it in a reasonable lunar emulation of a javelin throw.

His improvised athletics attempt covered a slightly larger distance than one of Shepard's golf shots, coming to rest in the same crater as the ball.

Answer: Stamped envelopes

The items in question were a total of 400 stamped envelopes, which had been carried without approval at the request of a German stamp dealer. 100 of those envelopes were then provided to that dealer after flight, while the remaining 300 remained with the astronauts who also received a substantial sum of money for the stunt.

The 100 envelopes shipped to Germany as well as some of those retained by the astronauts were sold to collectors for over $1000 each. As a result of the scandal and ensuing investigation, all three astronauts were reprimanded and never flew into space again even though they returned their profits. Today, US law forbids the flying of any philatelic items in space on NASA missions to prevent a reoccurrence of this scandal.

Answer: Big Muley

Out of the four answers, the Blue Marble is not a moon rock at all - it is a famous photo shot by Apollo 17's crew. Big Bertha was returned by Apollo 14 and is believed to be an Earth meteorite - a fragment of early Earth sent into space and crashed on the Moon. Great Scott was collected by Apollo 15 and bears a miniature crater, caused by an impacting micrometeor.

The title of biggest lunar sample however goes to Apollo 16's Big Muley, a highly interesting piece which exhibits severe shocking from an impact event. It was actually significantly larger than the maximum any sample was meant to be, but Apollo 16's field geology leader Bill Muehlberger ordered it to be picked up after it showed highly interesting properties on the astronauts' video feed.

Answer: 11 mph (18 km/h)

So far, there does not be much need for speed limits on the Moon or any other celestial body where humans have managed to send a wheeled vehicle. In fact, the breathtaking 11 mph top speed was well beyond the design limit of the rover which was only specified for a maximum of 8 mph (13 km/h). Even this is still much faster than the top speed reached by an unmanned rover, which is a mere 2 km/h (1.3 mph).

The advantage of the rover was definitely not in speed but rather in its carrying capacity which was well over a thousand pounds (490 kg),

Answer: Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11)

In spite of the rigors and dangers of astronaut life, most of these men were married at the time they undertook their adventure. Jack Swigert was the only of the twenty-four to never have been married; Harrison Schmitt found the love of his life long after his space journey and Al Worden had divorced his first wife before launching on Apollo 15. All others truly loved their wives to the moon and back - how's that for romance in cold space?