Man on the Moon

Possibly the most exclusive club in the world has only 12 members and all can say they have been a man on the moon. The race for the moon began on May 25, 1961 with a speech by President John F. Kennedy. How did the United States of America put man on the moon? It required the dedication and perseverance of 400,000 people (1), in several government agencies, industrial firms, and universities.

According to Robert C. Seamans, Jr., both the Associate and Deputy Administrator of NASA during the 1960s;  “As planning for Apollo began, we identified more than 10,000 separate tasks that had to be accomplished to put a man on the moon. Each task had its particular objectives, its manpower needs, its time schedule, and its complex interrelationship with many other tasks.” (2)   Each space mission, from Mercury, Gemini, to the Apollo space program, had to design, invent, test, and perfect all the pieces of this giant puzzle that would put a man on the moon.

What about the men themselves? Each had to have the dedication, courage, intelligence, and perfect health required to become a member of the Man on the Moon Club. On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission. Soon after, in November 1969 during the Apollo 12 mission, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean returned to the moon.

There was a break of over a year before we landed the next man on the moon. Apollo 13 successfully blasted off from Earth but because of technical difficulties, had to devise make-shift repairs in space and return to Earth without getting to the moon.

In February 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell returned to the moon. Shortly thereafter, David Scott and James Irwin landed on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission at the end of July 1971. In April 1972, John W. Young and Charles Duke became the next men on the moon with Apollo 16. The last men on the moon were Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission.

Apollo 15 was the first mission to use a lunar rover. A battery powered, four-wheeled moon buggy used to give the astronauts greater range of movement on the moon. The next two missions also used moon buggies to give greater freedom to man on the moon.

While there are only 12 members of the Man on the Moon Club, the dream of going back to the moon still seems to be with us. This is evident from many items in today’s culture; from a film titled “Man on the Moon” about the life of comedian Andy Kaufman, to record albums named “Man on the Moon” by singer Kid Cudi, to a television opera about Buzz Aldrin made in 2006, also titled “Man on the Moon”. Are we going to send man back to the moon, should we?

Becci Greif, Dynetics

Sources

1. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/03/60minutes/main1008288_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
2. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-350/intro.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts

 

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