30 Years Since Apollo
When Giants Walked the Earth
© 2002 by Adrian Gaetano
But ask those same people exactly how many astronauts walked on the Moon, who were the last lunar astronauts or when men left the Moon - and chances are, they won't know or remember. Such was the ignominious end of humanity's last great venture; an end brought about by small-minded politicians who lacked vision, and by a public that forgot one of humanity's greatest ideals: the quest for knowledge and adventure which drives our species to its highest achievements.
Apollo 11 was the first of six Moon missions to successfully land men on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972. Giants walked on the Earth - and on the surface of the Moon. It has been remarked that those first footsteps on the lunar surface will ultimately prove to be as significant to our survival and evolution as a species as were our first footsteps out of the trees in some African veldt some four or five million years ago.
The final Moon mission, Apollo 17, landed in the Taurus-Littrow region of the Moon on 11 December 1972 and deposited the last two Moonwalkers - a scientist and an astronaut. Three days later, humanity left the Moon and we have not returned in a generation.
Nor do we look likely to return in our lifetime.
One Giant Leap
No one who was alive in 1969 (and old enough to recall it) will forget the excitement of the first Moon landings. Armstrong and Aldrin captured the hopes and dreams of people across the world. Their lunar adventure demonstrated that people could aim - literally - for the Moon and reach that goal. Science was shown to be capable of great leaps.
It should not be forgotten that the so-called "Space Race" - the race to the Moon - was a political and ideological race between the USA and USSR; a battle for superiority between capitalist and communist. But President Kennedy's proclamation in 1961 that USA would, before the end of that decade, land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth, was more than just a cynical political grab for kudos in the Cold War. It tapped into our potential for dreaming and exploring; it heralded the birth of humanity's biggest-ever peaceful scientific quest: a non-military Manhattan Project.
Why Go To the Moon - Now or Then?
The Apollo Project funded workers in a venture that was non-aggressive, non-militaristic and basically scientific in nature. The boost that Apollo gave to the Sciences has forged our modern world.
One common misconception with the Space Race is that it was a waste of money - that the money should have been spent here on Earth instead. In reality, the money was spent on Earth; employing scientists; engineers; aerospace, medical and astronautical experts; dieticians; geologists; computer technicians; an army of over half a million workers. No money was hoarded aboard a rocket and launched uselessly into space. A whole generation of scientists and others was employed to develop and refine their areas of expertise. A generation later, our world owes these people a debt.
Modern-day detractors of a space program often rehash that same tired line that the money is needed on Earth instead. In the generation since Apollo, no Great Project of similar scale has replaced the Space Race - no ongoing Grand Quest to eliminate poverty, injustice, racism, drugs, war, cancer or AIDS. The world has not been altered as significantly by any other politician or program as it was by Apollo. So where has the money been squandered?
A new Space Race in the 21st century - this time, a cooperative venture by all nations, to establish a Moonbase or Mars colony - would again give the Sciences, and the world economy, a much needed focus and boost. People would have greater aims than petty wars or international squabbles.
We would have greater heroes than our everyday media celebrities or transitory politicians.
The Benefits to the World
The off-shoots received from Apollo are well-known and sometimes misunderstood. It is true that computers, teflon and freeze-dried foods existed prior to Apollo, but the world received a boost in many areas of scientific, philosophical and practical areas.
Computers received micro-miniaturisation; people now enjoy heart monitors and mobile phones thanks to the Space Race. CAT Scanners and MRI technology (Computer-Aided Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging) used in hospitals around the world, came from technology developed to computer-enhance pictures of the moon for the Apollo program.
News is now received live around the world in an instant thanks to satellite technology. Indeed, the off-shoots from the Space Race are so commonplace that we now largely take them for granted. We live in a world that has been technologically been moulded by the Space Race of a generation ago.
NASA even has a number of web pages dedicated to the private and commercial uses of space spinoffs in modern society. One such page reports that: "Since 1976, about 1,300 documented NASA technologies have benefited U.S. industry, improved the quality of life and created jobs for Americans. The Apollo program is responsible for changing the way of life in America, especially in health care."
Even more than that, our arts and culture, and our world philosophies, have similarly been shaped by this historic era.
The environmental movement received a kick-start when astronauts took those famous photos of the Earth in space, and Earthrise as seen from the Moon. People were able to see the fragile Earth, floating alone and insignificant in the skies. "It's the only one we've got..." was a famous caption to such photos in the 1970s. More recent photos of Earth, taken by space shuttle astronauts, have revealed the alarming rate at which humanity is polluting and destroying our planet. We should learn important lessons here.
Our arts and culture have changed society's perspective since the Space Race. From the 1968 film, "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "Star Wars" and beyond, many of the most successful films of all time have been science fiction, a genre which now ranks disproportionately large in any list of "Top Ten" films. Armstrong's famous photo of Aldrin on the Moon has become as commonplace in pop culture as any of Andy Warhol's soup cans. On television, a rebirth of "Star Trek" led the way for a variety of shows and sayings ("Beam Me Up, Scotty!") This shift in popular culture has inspired a generation of astronauts, scientists and others to pursue careers in sciences or related fields.
It is perhaps society's paradigm philosophical shift that best shows the change caused by Apollo. Before Apollo, most people scoffed at the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe. In the mid 1990s, however, when NASA announced the discovery of a meteorite with possible microbial fossils from Mars, the news was greeted with widespread common-sense acceptance. No scientists, religious leaders or even religious fundamentalists argued against such a possibility or its enormous implications.
Apollo Ends - A Giant Leap Backwards?
Everyone knows that the first words on the Moon were "That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind." The final words on the Moon, in December 1972, were apparently "Let's get this mother out of here." Such a contrast was unintentional but apt; showing the changing attitudes by the public and politicians towards Apollo.
The last three Apollo missions were scrapped; the subsequent Skylab space station fell down and crashed in Western Australia; and the space shuttle has proved to be an expensive and inefficient white elephant. The International Space Station has been redesigned and downgraded so often that it lacks credibility. Many unmanned missions to Mars have failed.
Lacking political will, the world's leaders have failed to provide an alternative to Apollo: a program to inspire, to focus and to lead us towards a peaceful and credible future.
Many people will be surprised to learn that humans have not been to the Moon in thirty years; and that we currently lack the scientific and engineering capability to return even if we wanted.
It seems that despite the empty words of "using money here on Earth instead", no world leaders have found a solution to our many problems; they have failed to provide the inspirational and unifying leadership of President Kennedy.
Where are the world's next generation's explorers, visionaries and great leaders? Do we not need our heroes? Do the artists, the dreamers and the children of the world not deserve the promise of adventure? Does humanity not deserve to receive the fullest potential that Science can offer?
Perhaps most tellingly, it is interesting to note that only white, American heterosexual males have ever walked on the Moon. NASA now calls itself an "Equal Opportunity employer" by including black, female and overseas astronauts in its ranks.
To date, however, no openly gay or lesbian, bisexual or queer astronaut has ever been selected or included in any NASA mission. Such a policy of continued exclusion is symbolic of humanity's more widespread failure to return to space in any credible way since 1972 - we are too busy fighting and hating each other down here.
Perhaps it is just as well that we have not yet made contact with aliens - we are clearly not mature enough as a species.
It can only be hoped that, when humanity returns to the Moon and beyond - as return we must - that the planetary social evolution of the last generation shall have made a difference. Civil rights, equality for so-called "minorities" and learning to disarm our nuclear weapons might help us to evolve into a species that truly deserves the legacy of the stars. Hopefully, our humanity and maturity - our exploration of our own inner space - will have developed as substantially as the technology which will enable us to (once again) reach for outer space.
All photos from NASA.
For further information, try these sites:
NASA Home Page: http://www.nasa.gov/
NASA History: http://history.nasa.gov/
NASA Photos: http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/
Space Spinoffs: http://nctn.hq.nasa.gov/,
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/, and
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/apollo.html