Apollo 11 Landing On The Moon…40 Years Later
Aldrin on the moon
On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Four days later, on July 20th, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on an alien world.
Some of the most famous images of all time come from that event. Armstrong’s “One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” may one of the most famous phrases in world history. At that time, more people listened to or watched the lunar landing than any other event in history. My father, living in India, often told me the story of listening to the landing at work, on a old transistor radio. It was the first truly global event in human history.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfMdhOQWLmo
NASA has numerous sites and vidoes available to analyze the historical significance of the completion of the race to the moon. One of the most interesting is WeChooseTheMoon.org, which is giving a minute-by-minute breakdown of the lunar mission.
It seems so far away, the dreams of space and the world beyond. John F. Kennedy gave NASA 10 years to set foot on the moon…and in one of the most Herculean efforts of mankind, that goal was reached. “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw
When George Bush set forth a similar goal, to reach Mars by 2020, people laughed. Those kind of grand gestures for mankind appear antiquated by today’s standards. It is sad to see that humanity has lost some of that curiosity for the unknown, and in some ways, has lost its innocence to real world realities.
UPDATE: Walter Cronkite died today…other than the Kennedy assasination and his speech about the horrors of the Vietnam war, the moon landing will be the moment most remembered about him. He was 92. RIP.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwaA-hbvYF8
People would laugh now. There is much hubris and bloated sense of self worth shared by many who do laugh. However, some of the greatest achievements have come from reaching far out to discover what people deem impossible. Consider the technological leaps and discoveries that have been a direct result of the space program and contrast this with the money spent on other programs with little to no real return on investment.
A fantastic array of new technology will need to be developed to meet the Mars mission. One can only speculate how this will impact our daily lives as these technologies permeate through our environment. Efficiency, real efficiency will be required. There is no room for the political dog and pony show breakthroughs that are attained when lives are not truly on the line. Consider, once people leave (for Mars) there will be very little room for error over these distances. Much like when we reached out to get to the moon, (no shuttle-no rescue) at a distance no one believed possible then, the distance to Mars is far greater. The challenges are very much the same. Longer distance means energy and supply of food and water has to go further and extra weight is not a friend at lift off.
What a fantastic program that has paid rich dividends in our understanding of the world. One would think that now people would feel the same. Perhaps if someone else had set the goal of 2020… I imagine the press would have a different response if someone now would have said this first… ahem!
a wild and unusual event to be a p;art of
I wish I were alive at that time…
I was born in 1969… but a little late for the landing (November). That hardly counts.
In the meantime we have had the Space Shuttle, Hubble, The Inetnational Space Station and many other great accomplishments. This truly has been a fantastic time to witness so much about our universe. Not to mention as we gain more clarity how our view of the universe will change with it.
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