With the 50th anniversary of the moon landing approaching, I wanted to recollect a few moon facts that are on the more obscure side...
What's in a Name?
The name of our moon is, in fact, The Moon. The ancient Greeks called it Selene, and the Romans dubbed it Luna, and in truth every historical civilization had its own designation for it. Where "Moon" specifically came from is largely lost to us after the passage of so much time, but it has been widely accepted for so long now, it's official. When astronomers call natural satellites around other planets moons, they're not applying a scientific designation, but rather just acknowledging it's the same kind of entity as the Moon. Kind of like when you see a drummer you don't know, and you just refer to him as "Ringo"...everybody knows what you mean.
Nobody Owns the Moon
Back during the 'Space Race', as the two superpowers were each nearing their attempts to finally send manned crews to the moon, there was a growing concern around the world that the nation that succeeded first would plant their flag and declare the moon to be the sole property of their country. The very thought of the Soviets erecting a giant statue of Lenin on the surface of the moon, there to glare contemptuously down upon the American people for all time, rang some legitimate alarm bells in the U.S. government. And so in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson spearheaded what became known as "The Outer Space Treaty", signed by virtually all of the members of the United Nations, and which among other things declares the moon to be the property of all of the Earth, and thus no single nation can lay claim to it. All the same, it probably still galls the Russians that the only flag planted by humankind on the moon remains the Stars and Stripes.
Second Place is Just the First Place Loser
As mentioned, the Space Race was conducted with particular intensity by the two rival superpowers. This actually proved beneficial to civilization, as it pushed scientific research and development at an accelerated pace, developing technologies (everything from computers and GPS to freeze-dried foods and memory foam) over the course of months and years that might otherwise not have been perfected for decades. And it also gave the U.S. and U.S.S.R. an outlet for national chest-thumping that didn't involve lobbing nuclear weapons at one another.
The Soviets had a couple of edges over the Americans in the race, in that they got started first (putting Sputnik into orbit back in 1957), and also because they considered human life to be cheap, and they weren't reluctant to sacrifice as many cosmonauts as it took in order to get their space program moving. The Soviets lost five cosmonauts (that they acknowledged...the number may have been higher, perhaps significantly so) in accidents, and they nary skipped a beat. When NASA lost three astronauts in a freak accident in January of 1967, it suspended the Apollo program for months as engineers worked to make certain such an accident never happened again. As a result, the U.S. lost nearly a year of lead time to the Russians when Apollo 11 finally launched in July of '69.
When NASA announced the moonshot several months prior to the event, the Soviets went into overdrive trying to beat the U.S. But despite their best attempts, they simply weren't capable yet of sending cosmonauts to the moon and back safely, and losing them in space with the eyes of the entire world upon them would have been a public relations disaster of the highest magnitude.
So instead Moscow ordered a Plan B: when the Americans set foot on the moon, they would be greeted by Mother Russia, in the form of an unmanned Soyuz craft that was launched in secret a few days before the Apollo launch, and which was scheduled to land on the moon just prior to the astronauts. The craft did reach the moon as planned, but then suffered a technical breakdown and was incapable of landing. And so, as Armstrong and Aldrin bounced across the lunar surface, the Soviet Soyuz spun overhead in moon orbit. Finally the order was given to get the craft down on the moon by any means necessary, so the Russian flight directors did the only thing they could...they killed the engine and crashed the capsule onto the surface, where its shattered wreck still sits.
Meantime back in the U.S.S.R., a secondary effort had been underway to get another Soyuz rocket ready for launching, this one to carry actual cosmonauts, in the event that Apollo 11 suffered a mishap on the way to the moon and the mission had to be aborted (such as was later seen with Apollo 13). It would have been several months before NASA could have made another attempt for the moon, and the Soviets were confident that before then, they could have put their own cosmonauts up there.
Once the Americans landed on the moon however, the Soviet moon program came to an abrupt end, as no one saw any propaganda value in being the second country to get there.
I'd Like a Room with a View, Please
Hilton has a plan to put a hotel on the moon. And I don't just mean this is something they said one time for a laugh at a hospitality industry luncheon. Since 1958 in fact, the Hilton Corporation has been formulating a plan to build a hotel on the surface of the moon, so that you and I can stay there when we visit. Mind you, it's not a major project, given the fact that it isn't feasible yet to even consider achieving, but it is ongoing. You see, in the 1960s the widespread belief was that when we finally got to the moon, we weren't just going to gather up a few rocks and then come back home to stay. It was firmly believed...especially at NASA...that the great project of the 1970s would be to construct permanent moonbases, and that these would not only be used for scientific purposes, but that everyday people could fly to the moon and vacation there. And Hilton intended to make damned certain they were the first hotel up there. It was actually taken for granted by the public at large that they would succeed...indeed, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick had faith in Hilton doing so, so much so he even included a nod to the hotelier in his landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When President George W. Bush announced a renewed effort to finally go back to the moon and on to Mars a decade or so back, Hilton reiterated its intent to go to the moon as well.
Positively Odorous
Just because there's no breathable atmosphere on the moon doesn't mean it doesn't have an odor. The astronauts discovered this as they returned to their landing craft, took off their helmets, and found that the moon dust that clung to their space suits had a distinct smell not unlike that of spent gunpowder.
The Inadvertent Surrender
I mentioned earlier about the Stars and Stripes having been planted on the moon...six times, in fact. But in a way I was speaking rhetorically, because although five of the six flags are still standing (Armstrong and Aldrin accidentally blew theirs down when they launched up off of the moon to return home), a visitor to the moon today would not see any American flags. You see, those were just plain old nylon flags, just like the ones people fly at their homes. Since there is no wind on the moon, the nylon is still in pristine shape, with no frays or tears. However, the extreme exposure of ultraviolet light has faded the flags of their blue and red, so that now they are all-white. Any future expeditions to the moon will probably see visitors leaving behind a metallic flag that will resist fading.
Well, I Heard the Moon Landing was Faked, and the Whole Thing was a Hoax
I'm just going to leave this link to a GIF of Buzz Aldrin punching a Moon Landing Denier. I think it answers the issue admirably.
We Came, We Saw, We Left
After billions of dollars spent for one of the greatest scientific and technological quests in human history, the United States sent only six missions onto the moon over the course of three years, and then abandoned the moon ever since. What about those grand plans for moonbases, and for using the moon as a launching pad to explore the rest of our solar system? What about giant leaps for mankind into the cosmos?
What killed further moon landings in the early Seventies was a combination of a reeling national economy (the U.S. having been hit by the dual body blows of inflation and recession, coupled with an energy crisis brought on by the OPEC oil embargo), which suddenly made spending such vast sums of money on going into space questionable; and perhaps more devastatingly, a collapse in public interest in the space program. With so few Americans caring much for outer space after the heady days of Apollo 11, NASA lost political support in Congress, with the result of seeing their budget slashed. Moonshots were expensive, so they were terminated.
NASA did try to rekindle public interest with such sexy projects as the Apollo/Soyuz link-up in space, and with Skylab (which plummeted back down to Earth in 1979...a perfect metaphor for America in that era, it seemed). What really succeeded was the space shuttle program (although not without tragedies). Nevertheless, this was a bit of a hollow victory, as the shuttles, for all of their success placing satellites into orbit and conducting scientific research, were never able to fulfill their original intention...to ferry people and supplies to and from the moon.
In this sense, the legacy of the Apollo program is one of unfulfilled promise...of grabbing the brass ring, but then putting it back. It makes all of the hard work that thousands of pilots, engineers, doctors, scientists and technicians did seen unfinished.
Is This Duty Free?
Even going to outer space won't let you escape the bureaucracy. When Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins splashed down in the ocean following their successful voyage and were brought back to Hawaii, they had to fill out customs paperwork for the moon rocks they had brought back with them.
I particularly like the "To be determined" answer to the question as to whether the astronauts carried any back conditions that could lead to a medical crisis. It's the equivalent of saying, "Eh, maybe you brought back a deadly space virus, maybe you didn't. We'll find out sooner or later."
What do You give to the Kid that has Everything?
Not long after the Apollo 11 mission, President Richard Nixon made an official visit to the Philippines, and he learned that the 11 year old son of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Bongbong Marcos, was an avid fan of the space program. To the surprise of all later than evening at the state dinner, Nixon went off-script and announced that just as soon as NASA began allowing civilians to fly to the moon, Bongbong would be on the very first flight, a guest of the United States government.
Now age 61, Bongbong is still waiting for that trip.
The Final Frontier
One of the great unsung heroes of NASA is Lt. Uhura. That is to say, Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Uhura on Star Trek. Her pioneering work on the show (not only being a rare African-American face on television in the Sixties, but an African-American woman in a position of authority and responsibility, not simply a damsel in distress), along with genuine personal excitement over the Apollo program and moon missions led her, following the cancellation of the TV series, to largely give up acting. Instead, she devoted much of her time and efforts over the next few decades working for NASA itself, primarily to recruit women and minorities to join the space program.
And in this she was spectacularly successful, personally bringing in Sally Ride, the first female astronaut, Guion Bluford, the first African-American female astronaut, and numerous other astronauts and administrators. Her work granted her the honor to be "in the room" along with the technicians when Viking I successfully landed on Mars. And scroll back up and take a look at the photo I posted of the space shuttle; most of those people you see are Nichelle's fellow cast mates from Star Trek. She was instrumental in convincing NASA of the publicity value of christening that first shuttle as the Enterprise, and in making sure her fellow actors were present for the first public roll-out of the craft, a gesture which ensured widespread media coverage, and got the shuttle program off to a rousing start. And in a fun convergence of world's colliding, Nichols helped arrange for astronaut Mae Jemison, a fan of Trek, to guest star on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation!
In turning her back on acting, she relinquished the spotlight, and any hopes she may have had of greater fame and fortune. But the work she has done for NASA has had a lasting impact on the journey to outer space. In this, she has truly fulfilled the mandate To Boldly Go!
Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worse
There is an old military saying: no battle plan survives the battle. As the astronauts, all of them military pilots, well knew, that while intensive planning for the moon launch was vital, it would be impossible to plan for every possible contingency. As the later Apollo 13 mission fully proved, fate can smash the most detailed of plans.
NASA had full confidence in its ability to get the three astronauts to the moon safely. Where uncertainty arose was in landing them safely upon the surface, and then in getting their lander up off of the moon so that they could return to the capsule to fly back home. It was a small concern to be sure, but large enough that it couldn't be discounted.
In the event the astronauts were left stranded on the moon by mishap, with no means of rescuing them, the White House had quietly written up a speech for President Nixon to give to the nation. It said in part:
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
Thankfully, Nixon did not have to give this address. Instead, he got to speak with Armstrong and Aldrin on a telephone hookup from the White House to the moon, and told them, "For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one."
And in that moment, we were.
