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The sign accompanying the solar wind composition experiment. It reads


Solar Wind Detector

The astronauts used devices like this one on the early Apollo missions to trap solar wind.

Left in the sunshine for more than an hour, the aluminum foil attracted atomic particles from the sun's gases. Later, scientists would vaporize the foil, examining the remaining particles.

Solar wind detector is on loan from the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.


The solar wind composition experiment was actually carried on all of the Apollo landing missions other than Apollo 17, and the foil was exposed to the solar wind for 77 minutes on Apollo 11, 18 hours and 42 minutes on Apollo 12, 21 hours on Apollo 14, 41 hours and 8 minutes on Apollo 15, and 45 hours and 5 minutes on Apollo 16.

Additional information on the solar wind composition experiment can be found on page 183 (p. 173 of the PDF) of the Apollo 11 Preliminary Science Report.

 
Sign accompanying the solar wind composition experiment in Apollo Lunar Surface Diorama at Neil Armstrong Air & Space
Time picture taken Sat May 16 14:36:30 2009
Location picture taken Second Floor Lunar Surface Gallery
Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum
Wapakoneta, OH
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