Quiz: Test Your Knowledge – Answers

1. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon. Who was the second man to walk on the Moon?

C) Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin

During the early planning stages for the first lunar landing, Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) “Buzz” Aldrin expected to be the first to set foot on the Moon, as the right seat pilot always performed the Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) during the Gemini missions. However, due to an engineering decision made when the Lunar Module  (LM) was built, the exit hatch was hinged to open toward the pilot, so it made sense for Commander Neil Armstrong to exit first, as there would be complications trying to change positions while fully suited up in the cramped confines of the LM.

Note: Because the moon mission was a U.S. government project, even the astronauts had to fill out paperwork after their trip to the moon. After returning to Earth, Aldrin submitted a travel voucher for $33.31. It read: “To: Cape Kennedy, Fla. Moon Pacific Ocean (USN Hornet)”. The astronauts also had to file customs forms for bringing cargo (moon rocks) into the US.

2) During Apollo 15, astronaut David Scott performed an experiment proving which scientist’s theory?

B) Galileo Galilei

During an EVA on Apollo 15, David Scott graphically demonstrated Galileo’s theory that objects of different masses fall at the same rate in a vacuum. Scott dropped a hammer and a feather at the same time. When the hammer and the feather, which he held in each hand, were dropped, they hit the ground simultaneously, to which Scott said: “Well, I guess that proves Mr. Galileo was right.” Appropriately, the feather was from a hawk, which happened to be the name of the Apollo 15 LM.

3) Who was the last man on the Moon?

A) Gene Cernan

Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, was the eleventh man to walk on the Moon and the last to leave the lunar surface in December 1972. Cernan also set several records during his career as an astronaut: As a member of the Apollo 10 crew, he holds the speed record for a human traveling at 24,791 mph. On Apollo 17, he piloted the Lunar Rover to a lunar land speed record of 11 mph, setting the speed record for any wheeled vehicle operated off Earth. The 74 hours, 59 minutes, 40 seconds he spent on the Moon is also a record, as is the 22 hours, 3 minutes, 57 seconds of extravehicular activity.

4) Which company made the Apollo spacesuits?

D) Playtex

That’s right, a bra company designed the Apollo spacesuits. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he was wearing a spacesuit made by Playtex, a company better known for making women’s bras and girdles. International Latex Corporation – the industrial division of Playtex – won the contract to build the Apollo spacesuits in 1962. The result was the A7L and A7LB, a pair of hand-stitched spacesuits that protected the Apollo astronauts from the elements. Playtex’s spacesuit division was spun off from the main company and continues as a NASA contractor under the name ILC Dover.

5) Which President of the United States called the astronauts on the Moon from the White House following the landing of Apollo 11?

A) Richard Nixon

Richard M. Nixon was inaugurated for his first term as President in January 1969. After Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, they received a personal call from the President at the Oval Office in the White House. He told the astronauts, “For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one: one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth.”

6) True or False: After stepping onto the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong uttered the phrase, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

B)  False

Upon taking his first step, Neil Armstrong told the world “That’s one small step for ‘a’ man, one giant leap for mankind.” Due to some static that occurred during the broadcast, part of the quote became garbled.

7) Who said, “That may have been a small step for Neil, but it was a pretty long one for me!”?

C) Pete Conrad

 Pete Conrad made that statement as he exited the LM during the first moonwalk of Apollo 12. He bet another astronaut that he could say what he wanted when leaving the LM and that NASA officials didn’t give him a script.

8) How many crew members were on each Apollo mission?

B) 3

 There were three members of each crew. The CMD (commander), CMP (command module pilot), and LMP (lunar module pilot).

9) The computer on the Apollo 11 lunar lander was about as powerful as?

B) Dollar store calculator

The computer on the LM had 2,048 words of RAM (random access memory). Each word comprised 16 binary digits (bits), with a bit being a zero or a one. This means that the Apollo computer had 32,768 bits of RAM. It had 0.72KB of read-only memory (ROM) and a processor which ran at 0.043 MHz.

10) How many humans have walked on the Moon?

B) 12

Twelve Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon (two each on Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17).

11) How many humans have navigated around the Moon?

B) 24

Three humans each on Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 orbited the Moon. However, Cernan, Lovell, and Young each navigated the Moon on two different Apollo missions – making the total 24.

12) If a man has a mass of 150 lbs on Earth, what is his approximate mass on the Moon?

C) 150 lbs

In scientific contexts, mass is the amount of “matter” in an object. This would not change whether you were on the Earth or the Moon. Weight, on the other hand, is the force that gravity exerts on the matter of an object. Because the Moon has a lower mass, the force of gravity is also lower. The gravity on the surface of the Moon is only about one-sixth that of the Earth. As a result, a person would weigh about six times less on the Moon. If the question had asked about weight instead of mass, A) 25 would have been the correct answer.

Let me know in the comments how you did.

1. Quiz: Test Your Knowledge
2. Quiz: Test Your Knowledge – Answers ⬅ You are here

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