1.
Ranger School
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The United States Army Ranger School is an intense 61-day combat leadership course oriented toward small-unit tactics. It has been called the most physically and mentally demanding leadership school the Army has to offer and it is open to soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines in the US Armed Forces, as well as allied military students. Ranger training began in 1950 and has undergone changes to its training regimen. A Desert Phase was employed for about a decade between the 1980s and 1990s and its removal left the three phases used in the 21st century, Darby, Mountains, and Florida. The course is conducted in various locations, Training in the Benning Phase occurs in and around Camp Rogers and Camp Darby at Fort Benning, Georgia. Training at the Mountain Phase is conducted at Camp Merrill, in the mountains near Dahlonega. The Florida Phase is conducted at locations near Camp Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base. The Desert Phase—conducted initially at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the United States Army Ranger School is not organizationally affiliated with the 75th Ranger Regiment. The two share a heritage and subordinate battalions common lineage, and Ranger School is a requirement for all officers. The cloth version of the tab is worn on the Army Combat Uniform and Class-A dress uniform of the U. S. Army, Ranger Training began in September 1950 at Fort Benning Georgia with the formation and training of 17 Airborne Companies by the Ranger Training Command. The first class graduated from Ranger training in November 1950, becoming the 1st Ranger Infantry Company, the United States Armys Infantry School officially established the Ranger Department in December 1951. Under the Ranger Department, the first Ranger School Class was conducted in January–March 1952, at the time, Ranger training was voluntary. In 1966, a panel headed by General Ralph E. Haines Jr. recommended making Ranger training mandatory for all Regular Army officers upon commissioning, on 16 August 1966, the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Harold K. Johnson, directed it so. This policy was implemented in July 1967 and it was rescinded on 21 June 1972 by General William Westmoreland. Once again, Ranger training was voluntary, in August 1987, the Ranger Department was split from the Infantry School and the Ranger Training Brigade was established. The Ranger Companies that made up the Ranger Department became the current training units—the 4th, 5th and 6th Ranger Training Battalions, in 1983, the Desert Phase was added and the length of the Ranger course was extended to 65 days. The duration was expanded in October 1991 to 68 days. The 7th Ranger Training Battalion was added to administer this phase, the most recent duration change to Ranger School occurred in May 1995, when the Desert Phase was removed from the Ranger course
2.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in La Cañada Flintridge, California and Pasadena, California, United States. The JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology for NASA, the laboratorys primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASAs Deep Space Network and they are also responsible for managing the JPL Small-Body Database, and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies. The JPLs Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks, JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology when the first set of rocket experiments were carried out in the Arroyo Seco. Malinas thesis advisor was engineer/aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, who arranged for U. S. Army financial support for this GALCIT Rocket Project in 1939. In 1941, Malina, Parsons, Forman, Martin Summerfield, in 1943, von Kármán, Malina, Parsons, and Forman established the Aerojet Corporation to manufacture JATO motors. The project took on the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November 1943, during JPLs Army years, the laboratory developed two deployed weapon systems, the MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant intermediate range ballistic missiles. These missiles were the first US ballistic missiles developed at JPL and it also developed a number of other weapons system prototypes, such as the Loki anti-aircraft missile system, and the forerunner of the Aerobee sounding rocket. At various times, it carried out testing at the White Sands Proving Ground, Edwards Air Force Base. A lunar lander was developed in 1938-39 which influenced design of the Apollo Lunar Module in the 1960s. The team lost that proposal to Project Vanguard, and instead embarked on a project to demonstrate ablative re-entry technology using a Jupiter-C rocket. They carried out three successful flights in 1956 and 1957. Using a spare Juno I, the two organizations then launched the United States first satellite, Explorer 1, on February 1,1958, JPL was transferred to NASA in December 1958, becoming the agencys primary planetary spacecraft center. JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that prepared the way for Apollo, JPL also led the way in interplanetary exploration with the Mariner missions to Venus, Mars, and Mercury. In 1998, JPL opened the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA, as of 2013, it has found 95% of asteroids that are a kilometer or more in diameter that cross Earths orbit. JPL was early to employ women mathematicians, in the 1940s and 1950s, using mechanical calculators, women in an all-female computations group performed trajectory calculations. In 1961, JPL hired Dana Ulery as their first woman engineer to work alongside male engineers as part of the Ranger and Mariner mission tracking teams, when founded, JPLs site was a rocky flood-plain just outside the city limits of Pasadena. Almost all of the 177 acres of the U. S, the city of La Cañada Flintridge, California was incorporated in 1976, well after JPL attained international recognition with a Pasadena address
3.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
4.
Robotic spacecraft
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A robotic spacecraft is an uncrewed spacecraft, usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost, in addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, many artificial satellites are robotic spacecraft, as are many landers and rovers. The first robotic spacecraft was launched by the Soviet Union on 22 July 1951, four other such flights were made through the fall of 1951. The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was put into a 215-by-939-kilometer Earth orbit by the USSR) on 4 October 1957, on 3 November 1957, the USSR orbited Sputnik 2. Weighing 113 kilograms, Sputnik 2 carried the first living animal into orbit, since the satellite was not designed to detach from its launch vehicles upper stage, the total mass in orbit was 508.3 kilograms. In a close race with the Soviets, the United States launched its first artificial satellite, Explorer 1, into a 193-by-1, 373-nautical-mile orbit on 31 January 1958. Explorer I was a 80. 75-inch long by 6. 00-inch diameter cyllynder weighing 30.8 pounds, compared to Sputnik 1, a 58-centimeter sphere which weighed 83.6 kilograms. Explorer 1 carried sensors which confirmed the existence of the Van Allen belts, on 17 March 1958, the US orbited its second satellite, Vanguard 1, which was about the size of a grapefruit, and remains in a 360-by-2, 080-nautical-mile orbit as of 2016. Nine other countries have successfully launched satellites using their own vehicles, France, Australia, Japan and China, the United Kingdom, India, Israel, Iran. In spacecraft design, the United States Air Force considers a vehicle to consist of the mission payload, the bus provides physical structure, thermal control, electrical power, attitude control and telemetry, tracking and commanding. JPL divides the system of a spacecraft into subsystems. These include, This is the backbone structure. It, provides overall mechanical integrity of the spacecraft ensures spacecraft components are supported and can withstand launch loads This is sometimes referred to as the command, components in the telecommunications subsystem include radio antennas, transmitters and receivers. These may be used to communicate with stations on Earth. The supply of power on spacecraft generally come from photovoltaic cells or from a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Other components of the subsystem include batteries for storing power and distribution circuitry that connects components to the power sources, spacecraft are often protected from temperature fluctuations with insulation
5.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
6.
Geology of the Moon
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The geology of the Moon is quite different from that of Earth. The complex geomorphology of the surface has been formed by a combination of processes, especially impact cratering. The Moon is a body, with a crust, mantle. Geological studies of the Moon are based on a combination of Earth-based telescope observations, measurements from orbiting spacecraft, lunar samples, and geophysical data. Six locations were sampled directly during the manned Apollo program landings from 1969 to 1972, in addition, three robotic Soviet Luna spacecraft returned another 326 grams from 1970 to 1976. The Moon is the only body for which we have samples with a known geologic context. A handful of lunar meteorites have been recognized on Earth, though their source craters on the Moon are unknown, a substantial portion of the lunar surface has not been explored, and a number of geological questions remain unanswered. Elements known to be present on the surface include, among others, oxygen, silicon, iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminium, manganese. Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon, the oxygen content is estimated at 45%. Carbon and nitrogen appear to be present only in quantities from deposition by solar wind. Neutron spectrometry data from Lunar Prospector indicate the presence of hydrogen concentrated at the poles, for a long period of time, the fundamental question regarding the history of the Moon was of its origin. Early hypotheses included fission from Earth, capture, and co-accretion, today, the giant impact hypothesis is widely accepted by the scientific community. The geological history of the Moon has been defined into six major epochs, starting about 4.5 billion years ago, the newly formed Moon was in a molten state and was orbiting much closer to Earth resulting in tidal forces. These tidal forces deformed the molten body into an ellipsoid, with the major axis pointed towards Earth, the first important event in the geologic evolution of the Moon was the crystallization of the near global magma ocean. It is not known with certainty what its depth was, the first minerals to form in this ocean were the iron and magnesium silicates olivine and pyroxene. Because these minerals were denser than the material around them. After crystallization was about 75% complete, less dense anorthositic plagioclase feldspar crystallized and floated, forming an anorthositic crust about 50 km in thickness. The oldest of the Mg-suite rocks have ages of about 3.85 Ga. However
7.
Venus
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Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. It has the longest rotation period of any planet in the Solar System and it is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the second-brightest natural object in the sky after the Moon, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6. Because Venus orbits within Earths orbit it is a planet and never appears to venture far from the Sun. Venus is a planet and is sometimes called Earths sister planet because of their similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun. It is radically different from Earth in other respects and it has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the surface is 92 times that of Earth. Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System, with a surface temperature of 735 K. Venus is shrouded by an layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid. It may have had water oceans in the past, but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose due to a greenhouse effect. The water has probably photodissociated, and the hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field. Venuss surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with rocks and is periodically resurfaced by volcanism. As one of the brightest objects in the sky, Venus has been a fixture in human culture for as long as records have existed. It has been sacred to gods of many cultures, and has been a prime inspiration for writers and poets as the morning star. Venus was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as the closest planet to Earth, Venus has been a prime target for early interplanetary exploration. It was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft, Venuss thick clouds render observation of its surface impossible in visible light, and the first detailed maps did not emerge until the arrival of the Magellan orbiter in 1991. Plans have been proposed for rovers or more missions. Venus is one of the four planets in the Solar System
8.
Far side of the Moon
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The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that always faces away from Earth. The far sides terrain is rugged, with a multitude of impact craters and it has one of the largest craters in the Solar System, the South Pole–Aitken basin. About 18 percent of the far side is visible from Earth due to libration. The remaining 82 percent remained unobserved until 1959, when the Soviet Unions Luna 3 space probe photographed it, the Soviet Academy of Sciences published the first atlas of the far side in 1960. In 1968, the Apollo 8 missions astronauts were the first humans to view this region directly when they orbited the Moon, to date, no human being has ever stood on the surface of the far side of the Moon. Astronomers have suggested installing a large telescope on the far side. Tidal forces from Earth have slowed down the Moons rotation so that the side is always facing the Earth. The other face, most of which is never visible from the Earth, is called the far side of the Moon. Over time some parts of the far side can be due to libration. In total 59 percent of the Moons surface is visible from Earth at one time or another, useful observation of the parts of the far side of the Moon occasionally visible from Earth is difficult because of the low viewing angle from Earth. While many misconstrue this to think that the dark side receives little to no sunlight, in reality, however, the near side also receives sunlight reflected from the Earth, known as earthshine. Earthshine does not reach the area of the far side which cannot be seen from Earth, only during a full moon is the whole far side of the Moon dark. The word dark has expanded to refer to the fact that communication with spacecraft can be blocked while on the far side of the Moon. The two hemispheres have distinctly different appearances, with the near side covered in multiple, large maria, the far side has a battered, densely cratered appearance with few maria. Only 1% of the surface of the far side is covered by maria and it has also been proposed that the differences between the two hemispheres may have been caused by a collision with a smaller companion moon that also originated from the Theia collision. The far side has more visible craters and this was thought to be a result of the effects of lunar lava flows, which cover and obscure craters, rather than a shielding effect from the Earth. NASA calculates that the Earth obscures only about 4 square degrees out of 41,000 square degrees of the sky as seen from the Moon and this makes the Earth negligible as a shield for the Moon. Newer research suggests that the reason the side of the moon facing Earth has fewer impact craters is heat from Earth at the time when the Moon was formed, the lunar crust consists primarily of plagioclases formed when aluminium and calcium condensed and combined with silicates in the mantle
9.
Ranger 6
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Ranger 6 was a lunar probe in the Ranger program, a robotic spacecraft series launched by NASA in the early and mid-1960s to obtain the first close-up images of the Moons surface. It was designed to achieve a lunar-impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras - two wide-angle and four narrow-angle - to accomplish these objectives, no other experiments were carried on the spacecraft. Due to a failure of the system, no images were returned. Rangers 6,7,8, and 9 were called Block 3 versions of the Ranger spacecraft. The spacecraft consisted of an aluminum frame base 1.5 m across on which was mounted the propulsion and power units. A cylindrical quasiomnidirectional antenna was seated on top of the conical tower, the overall height of the spacecraft was 3.6 m. Propulsion for the trajectory correction was provided by a 224 N thrust monopropellant hydrazine engine with four jet-vane vector control. Orientation and attitude control about three axes was enabled by twelve nitrogen gas jets coupled to a system of three gyros, four primary Sun sensors, two secondary Sun sensors, and an Earth sensor. Power was supplied by 9,792 silicon solar cells contained in the two panels, giving a total array area of 2.3 square meters and producing 200 W. Two 1200 watt-hour AgZnO batteries rated at 26.5 V with a capacity for 9 hours of operation provided power to each of the separate communication/TV camera chains, two 1000 watt-hour AgZnO batteries stored power for spacecraft operations. Communications were through the quasiomnidirectional low-gain antenna and the parabolic high-gain antenna. Transmitters aboard the spacecraft included a 60 W TV channel F at 959.52 MHz, a 60 W TV channel P at 960.05 MHz, and a 3 W transponder channel 8 at 960.58 MHz. The telecommunications equipment converted the composite video signal from the camera transmitters into an RF signal for subsequent transmission through the spacecraft high-gain antenna, sufficient video bandwidth was provided to allow for rapid framing sequences of both narrow- and wide-angle television pictures. The Cuban Missile Crisis had momentarily diverted attention from the failure of Ranger 5, NASA established a Ranger Board of Inquiry on October 29,1962, headed by Albert J. Kelley, with the mission of establishing by November 30 the reasons for the continued program failures. They also concluded that heat sterilization was damaging to the spacecraft systems. If the Thor-Agena was also counted in, there had been a total of nine times that an Agena B stage had malfunctioned in flight, moreover, it suggested that NASA needed to improve their prelaunch testing and preparation of launch vehicles. This caused some protests from the community that the gamma ray
10.
Mare Tranquillitatis
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Mare Tranquillitatis is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. The mare material within the basin consists of basalt formed in the intermediate to young age group of the Upper Imbrian epoch, the surrounding mountains are thought to be of the Lower Imbrian epoch, but the actual basin is probably Pre-Nectarian. The basin has irregular margins and lacks a defined multiple-ringed structure, palus Somni, on the northeastern rim of the mare, is filled with the basalt that spilled over from Tranquillitatis. This Mare has a bluish tint relative to the rest of the moon. The color is due to higher metal content in the basaltic soil or rocks. Unlike many other maria, there is no mass concentration, or gravitational high, mascons were identified in the center of other maria from Doppler tracking of the five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1968. The gravity field was mapped at higher resolution with later orbiters such as Lunar Prospector and GRAIL, Mare Tranquillitatis was named in 1651 by astronomers Francesco Grimaldi and Giovanni Battista Riccioli in their lunar map Almagestum novum. Surveyor 5 landed in Mare Tranquillitatis on September 11,1967 and this mare was also the landing site for the first crewed landing on the Moon on July 20,1969, at 20,18 UTC. After astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made a touchdown in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module named Eagle, Armstrong told flight controllers on Earth, Houston. The landing area at 0. 8° N,23, along the periphery of the mare are several bay-shaped features that have been given names, Sinus Amoris, Sinus Asperitatis, Sinus Concordiae, and Sinus Honoris. At the left is the east side of Mare Tranquillitatis, with the craters Franz, Lyell, the bay of dark mare at left is Sinus Concordiae, with islands of older, light highland material. At right is the crater Cauchy, which lies between the Rupes Cauchy and Cauchy rille, the center photo shows the central mare with craters Vitruvius and Gardner. At the horizon are lighter highlands at the margin of the mare. The crater Jansen is visible at the edges of both the center and right photos, the right photo shows the western mare, with the craters Dawes and the large Plinius, with the Plinius Rilles in the foreground. These photos were taken within minutes of each other as the Command Module America orbited the moon, the sun elevation drops from 46 degrees at left to 30 degrees at right. Israeli psych-progressive rock band Jericho Jones recorded a song named Mare Tranquilitatas as the track of their UK album release Junkies. The band is known as The Churchills. Mare Tranquillitatis is also the name of a composition of music by composer Vangelis on his 1976 album, Sea of Tranquility is also a song by the progressive rock band Barclay James Harvest, included in their 1977 album Gone to Earth
11.
Alphonsus (crater)
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Alphonsus is an ancient impact crater on the Moon that dates from the pre-Nectarian era. It is located on the highlands on the eastern end of Mare Nubium, west of the Imbrian Highlands. To the northwest is the smaller Alpetragius, the surface of Alphonsus is broken and irregular along its boundary with Ptolemaeus. The outer walls are slightly distorted and possess a somewhat hexagonal form, a low ridge system of deposited ejecta bisects the crater floor, and includes the steep central peak designated Alphonsus Alpha. This pyramid-shaped formation rises to a height of 1.5 km above the interior surface and it is not volcanic in origin, but rather is made of anorthosite like the lunar highlands. The floor is fractured by a system of rilles and contains three smaller craters surrounded by a symmetric darker halo. The Ranger 9 probe impacted in Alphonsus, a distance to the northeast of the central peak. Harold Urey said of a photograph of Alphonsus, Alphonsus was one of the primary alternative landing sites considered for both the Apollo 16 and the Apollo 17 missions. Alphonsus is one of the sites noted for transient lunar phenomena, on October 26,1956, the lunar astronomer Dinsmore Alter noted some blurring of the rilles on the floor of Alphonsus in the photographs he took in violet light. The same blurring did not occur in the photographs he took at the same time. However, few professional astronomers found this evidence of activity on the Moon very convincing. One astronomer who was intrigued by Alters observations was Nikolai A. Kozyrev, in 1958 while Kozyrev was looking for volcanic phenomenon on the moon, he observed the formation of a mist-like cloud within Alphonsus. The spectrum of the area had been measured at this time and he believed this to be the result of volcanic or related activity. However no evidence for this phenomenon has been found from lunar missions, Alphonsus is named after King Alfonso X of Castile, who had an interest in astronomy. Earlier lunar cartographers had given the different names. Michael van Langrens 1645 map calls it Ludovici XIV, Reg, fran. after Louis XIV of France, and Johannes Hevelius called it Mons Masicytus after a range of mountains in Lycia. Five tiny craters in the part of Alphonsus interior floor have been assigned names by the IAU. These are listed in the table below, by convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Alphonsus
12.
Oceanus Procellarum
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Oceanus Procellarum is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon. Like all lunar maria, Oceanus Procellarum was formed by ancient basaltic flood volcanic eruptions that covered the region in a thick, unlike the other lunar maria, however, Oceanus Procellarum may or may not be contained within a single well-defined impact basin. Around its edges lie many minor bays and seas, including Mare Nubium, to the northeast, Oceanus Procellarum is separated from Mare Imbrium by the Carpathian Mountains. On its north-west edge lies the 32 km wide Aristarchus ray crater, also, the more-prominent ray-crater Copernicus lies within the eastern edge of the mare, distinctly with its bright ray materials sprawling over the darker material. On the northern edge of Oceanus Procellarum lies Sinus Roris, there are several hypotheses about the origin of Oceanus Procellarum and a related asymmetry between the near and far sides of the Moon. One of the most likely is that Procellarum was a result of an ancient giant impact on the side of the Moon. The size of the basin has been estimated to be more than 3,000 kilometers. The impact likely happened very early in the Moons history, at the time when magma ocean still existed or just ceased to exist and it deposited 5–30 km of crustal material on the far side forming highlands. If this is the case, all impact related structures such as crater rim, central peak etc. have been obliterated by later impacts, one piece of evidence in support of this hypothesis is concentration of incompatible elements and low calcium pyroxene around Oceanus Procellarum. Procellarum may have also formed by spatially inhomogeneous heating during the Moons formation. Other hypotheses include a late accretion of a companion Moon on the far side, the latter postulates that in addition to the present Moon, another smaller moon was formed from debris of the giant impact. After a few tens of millions of years it collided with the Moon, the robotic lunar probes Luna 9, Luna 13, Surveyor 1 and Surveyor 3 landed in Oceanus Procellarum. Luna 9 landed southwest of Galilaei crater in 1966, Luna 13 landed southeast of Seleucus crater, later in 1966. Surveyor 1 landed north of Flamsteed crater in 1966, and Surveyor 3 landed in 1967, the manned Apollo 12 mission also landed in Oceanus Procellarum, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean on board. Their landing site, within 300m of Surveyor 3, has known as Mare Cognitum
