Apollo 14 at Fra Mauro
On February 5, 1971, a small spacecraft called Antares settled onto the dusty, uneven surface of the Moon. Inside were Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell. They had landed at Fra Mauro, a place chosen not just for what lay on the surface, but for the clues buried in its rocks.
Why Fra Mauro?
Long before astronauts arrived, a huge object struck the Moon and formed a giant basin called Mare Imbrium. The collision blasted rock outward across the lunar surface. Scientists believed that some of this material landed in the Fra Mauro area, far from the basin itself.
Those scattered rocks interested scientists because they might have come from deep beneath the Moon’s surface. By studying them, researchers hoped to learn about the powerful impact that formed Mare Imbrium and about the Moon’s early history. Fra Mauro had also been the planned landing site for Apollo 13, but that mission had to turn back after an oxygen tank exploded on the way to the Moon.
Landing and exploring
- uneven:
- Not flat or level.
- collision:
- An event in which objects crash into each other.
- instruments:
- Tools made for measuring or studying something.
- observations:
- Things noticed or recorded through careful watching or measuring.
- estimating:
- Making a careful guess based on available information.
- evidence:
- Information that helps support an idea or answer a question.
- interpret:
- To figure out the meaning of something.
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Main Idea
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Context Clues
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Purpose
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Structure
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Vocabulary
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why did scientists choose Fra Mauro as a landing site?
- 2How did the Mare Imbrium impact scatter material toward Fra Mauro?
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About this explanatory article passage for 5th Grade
“Apollo 14 at Fra Mauro” is a explanatory article reading passage about Lunar exploration, written for 5th Grade. It takes about 3 minutes to read (517 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.