Direct ascent was a proposed method for a mission to the Moon. In the United States, direct ascent proposed using the enormous Nova rocket to launch a spacecraft directly to the Moon, where it would land tail-first and then launch off the Moon back to Earth. The other options that NASA considered for the mission to the moon were Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (which was the strategy used successfully in Project Apollo) and Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
The Soviets also considered several direct ascent strategies, though in the end they settled on an approach similar to NASA's: two men in a Soyuz spacecraft capsule and a one-man LK lander. The failure of the Soviets' N1 Rocket delayed their lunar program substantially, however, and they were nowhere close when Apollo 11 lifted off and made the first lunar landing. The Soviets had planned to use an LK, which looked much like a smaller version of the spider-like Lunar Module.
Science fiction movies such as Destination Moon had frequently depicted direct ascent missions. In real life, however, it was discarded due to the near impossibility of landing a rocket the size of the Atlas tail-first on the Moon.
Famous quotes containing the words direct and/or ascent:
“The shortest route is not the most direct one, but rather the one where the most favorable winds swell our sails:Mthat is the lesson that seafarers teach. Not to abide by this lesson is to be obstinate: here, firmness of character is tainted with stupidity.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“We are adapted to infinity. We are hard to please, and love nothing which ends: and in nature is no end; but every thing, at the end of one use, is lifted into a superior, and the ascent of these things climbs into daemonic and celestial natures.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)