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Apollo 15: Man Must Explore
Apollo 15 Man Must Explore
Actor: Al Worden, Jim Irwin and the thousands who worked on Apollo. Dave Scott
Director: Mark Gray
Genres: Educational, Documentary
NR     2004     12hr 0min

In July and early August of 1971, NASA embarked on an ambitious and challenging lunar mission - the journey of Apollo 15 to the Hadley-Apennine region. The first of the "J" lunar missions, Apollo 15 took the first Lunar Ro...  more »

     
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Movie Details

Actor: Al Worden, Jim Irwin and the thousands who worked on Apollo. Dave Scott
Director: Mark Gray
Genres: Educational, Documentary
Sub-Genres: Educational, History
Studio: Spacecraft Films
Format: DVD - Color
DVD Release Date: 04/13/2004
Release Year: 2004
Run Time: 12hr 0min
Screens: Color
Number of Discs: 6
SwapaDVD Credits: 6
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 2
Edition: Box set
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English
 

Movie Reviews

Apollo 15-A Complete Success!
Edwin James Crane | New City, NY | 01/23/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Apollo 15 was the first of the "J" Missions, and was the most successful
one of all. Apollo 15 was one of the greatest scientific missions in
history. Spacecraft Films Apollo 15 is the best of all the Spacecraft Films
Apollo missions. I enjoyed the tv footage of Dave Scott and Jim Irwin in
the LM on the way to the Moon, as well as Scott driving away the LRV for
the first time. And, the clarity of the film is great, especially when Jim
Irwin steps foot on the Moon, and his sun shield is up, revealing his face,
and you can see his lips move! I saw the 30 minute film on Apollo 15, and the
difference in film quality was startling. The views of the Moon, especially
the Lunar Eclipse, were breathtaking! 22 hours is a little rough to sit through, even after only a couple of hours a night. They could cut out the
audio only parts, especially the half hours when they go into the LM.
Also, there's no mention of when the 16mm DAC is to be shown (There's very
little due to the film mag jamming). And, the packaging, a cardboard outer
cover, as well as a cardboard inner sleeve, look a little beaten up,
although the plastic individual containers are fine. The best way to get
Spacecraft Films products is through Amazon.com. I tried to order through
Spacecraft Films directly, and it was a joke! They never return e-mails,
faxes or phone calls, they are impossible to get ahold of, and if you make
any requests, you're treated rudely by Mark Grey. I'm still waiting for
Apollo 17, which was supposed to come out a month ago, and won't come out
for another month."
Learning To Really Explore the Moon
givbatam3 | REHOVOT Israel | 02/17/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)

"When President Kennedy gave his approval to carry out a manned landing on the Moon by the end of the 1960's, his intention was to make a political statement that would show United States supremacy over the USSR. In this, the Apollo program succeeded in an even bigger way than Kennedy had ever hoped. Scientific exploration of the Moon was not a consideration...a single landing by December 31, 1969 would have been considered complete fulfillment of Kennedy's promise. Fortunately, however, far-sighted people in Congress and in NASA realized that this was a magnificent opportunity to greatly expand Man's knowledge of the Earth-Moon system and the development of the Solar System in general, thus funding was provided for a total of seven landings and improved capabilities in the Lunar Module landing craft which would allow extended exploration of the lunar surface. Whereas the goal of the first landing, Apollo 11 (the "G" mission) was simply to get down safely, look around a little and then get home, and the next two (Apollo 12 and 14-the "H" missions) was to look around a little more, over a period of two days, while restricted to having the astronauts move around solely on foot, the final three missions (the "J" missions) greatly expanded their ambitions and the addition of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) allowed the astronauts to explore a much greater radius over a period of three days. However, the real key to the immense success of the mission in a scientific sense, was based on the enthusiasm Mission Command Dave Scott had for the scientific work. The three previous missions had a relatively limited scientific return due to inexperience, lack of time and resources, but also due to a certain lack of interest in the geological aspects of the missions on the part of the astronauts. Scott, although a career Air Force Pilot who came from an Engineering and not science background, decided to buckle down and study geology in a very serious manner so that the most could have been gotten out of the mission. In the end, studying under geologist Lee Silver, Scott and fellow astronaut Jim Irwin received a geological education comparable to a university Master's Degree and were able to study the Lunar surface as true professionals. (One of the later episodes of the television series "From the Earth to the Moon" dramatizes Scott's and Irwin's education).
This fine set of disks show, in real time, Scott and Irwin at work on the Moon in the vicinity of the magnificent scenery of Hadley Rille and the surrounding lunar Appenine mountains . It is truly awe inspiring to see this, and I can not recommend too much this set showing how the perfect Apollo mission went and how these two men (with the support of people on the ground) did so much to expand Mankind's knowledge of our corner of the Solar System."