What the moon landings taught us
No one doubts that the biggest achievement of the July 20, 1969, lunar landing was simply getting there. It was a monumental triumph of will — and technology. Yet once Neil Armstrong took that historic step, the point of the mission switched: Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin set out to further man’s understanding of the moon itself.
They, and subsequent Apollo visits, delivered. Lunar science has been expanding ever since.
For two and a half hours during their extravehicular excursion, Aldrin and Armstrong romped around the Sea of Tranquility, installing equipment and collecting precious cargo: 50 pounds of lunar rocks. Those samples would be studied for decades.
What have we learned? Before Apollo 11 brought those rocks home, we knew few basic facts about the moon, facts Google could quickly answer today. How old is it? We now know it’s about 4.5 billion years old. How far away? Thanks to Apollo 11’s laser-ranging experiment, we know its distance down to the inch at any moment.
How’d the moon form? Perhaps it was an asteroid that got caught in Earth’s gravity. Maybe it formed alongside Earth from the primordial crud from which everything in the solar system coalesced. Apollo suggested it most likely formed when the Earth collided with another planet-sized object.
Click Here: Sports Water Bottles
Scientists still debate the specifics. The Earth might have been struck by a smaller, Mars-size object, or perhaps the two objects were of similar size; research is ongoing. So you see, Apollo’s science legacy is far from complete.
At MIT, I collaborate on a project that seeks to understand the formation of the moon, specifically, its internal structure. We study the chemical makeup of microscopic glass beads discovered in soil returned by Apollo.
These beads formed when volcanic eruptions on the moon blasted droplets of lava into space. The droplets cooled into glass and settled onto the lunar surface. Several billion years later, the beads were scooped up by a couple of guys in funny suits.
At the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March, thousands of scientists gathered to present their own research stemming from the Apollo missions. Speakers showed how they used new technologies or creative techniques to discover new things from the old lunar samples.
As Stephen Elardo from the University of Florida put it: “Although Neil and Buzz’s first steps may have been small, getting samples from planetary bodies and understanding samples is how planetary science takes giant leaps.” Which is why we have to go back.
A pre-launch twilight photo of the The Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle. It lifted off July 16, 1969, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Getty Images
Neil Armstrong waving in front, with Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, head for the van that will take the crew to the rocket for launch to the moon at Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida.
AP
Apollo 11, Launch Control Center, 1969
Alamy Stock Photo
Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon B. Johnson view the liftoff of Apollo 11 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 am EDT on July 16, 1969.
NASA/Kennedy Space Center
The Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle lifts off with Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. on July 16, 1969, from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida.
AFP/Getty Images
The Apollo 11 spacecraft carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, who was the Mission Commander and the first man to step on the moon, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who was the Lunar Module Pilot and Michael Collins, who was the Command Module pilot.
Reuters
The crater Daedalus and Daedalus B, center left, during the Apollo 11 mission to reach the surface of the moon.
NASA via AP
Astronaut Neil Armstrong, Commander of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, is pictured inside the Lunar Module the “Eagle” on the surface of the Moon during the mission on July 20, 1969.
Getty Images
Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, one of three Apollo 11 astronauts, during the lunar landing mission on July 20, 1969.
Reuters
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard, is photographed from the Command and Service Modules (CSM) during rendezvous in lunar orbit.
NASA
Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.
AP
A crowd watches as the Apollo 11 crew lands on the moon on July 20, 1969, in Central Park, New York.
AP
Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, is photographed walking near the lunar module during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.
Getty Images
Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed US flag.
AFP/Getty Images
Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs.
AP
Air Force and Army service members read a newspaper headlining the Apollo 11 moon landing in downtown Saigon, Vietnam, on July 21, 1969.
AP
The Apollo 11 splashed down at 12:50 p.m. EDT July 24, 1969, 900 miles southwest of Hawaii after a successful lunar landing mission.
NASA
The three crew members of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar landing mission are greeted by their wives after their arrival at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston in Texas in a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF).
Getty Images
Crowds line 42nd Street in New York City to cheer Apollo 11 astronauts, in lead car from left, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong, traveling east on 42nd street, toward the United Nations.
AP
People walk around the Apollo 11 Command Module “Columbia” on display at the National Air and Space Museum on July 16, 2009, in Washington, DC.
Getty Images
Ad
Up Next
How to put love above politics
Every morning, Dan Kaplan finds an article next to his…
20
View Slideshow
Share this:
-
Flipboard
- Copy
Advertisement
When the Trump administration directed NASA to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, researchers were euphoric. Because of technological limitations of the Apollo era, NASA was extremely restricted in selecting a landing site. It had to be close to the moon’s equator (for Apollo 11, within 5 degrees latitude), on the nearside, and relatively flat and smooth. That’s like trying to understand all of Earth’s landscapes by visiting only a few flat spots in Africa.
Clearly, there’s a trove of information yet to be gained. And with today’s technology, NASA can pull out all the stops. We could land practically anywhere, even on the moon’s south pole, NASA’s current favored destination.
see also
NASA plans to use Trump funding to send woman to the moon by 2024
NASA plans to send the first woman to the moon…
The pole is particularly exciting because of ice discovered there at the bottoms of craters never warmed by sunlight. That ice could have trapped traces of material from the very beginning of the solar system, offering a chemical record difficult to come by.
The pole is also the site of the South Pole-Aitken basin, where an asteroid struck, creating one of the largest known craters in the solar system. China’s recent lunar lander touched down in the basin and collected evidence that suggests the asteroid’s collision exposed rocks from the moon’s interior; a sample would be a game-changer for lunar science research (including my own).
Along with the new knowledge that could be gleaned, there’s another reason to explore the moon’s southern pole: The ice there could be used for drinking water, or broken into hydrogen to fuel rocket ships or oxygen for breathing — building blocks for a space colony.
No doubt, many Americans, particularly young ones, don’t truly appreciate the full significance of July 20, 1969. But for scientists, its impact remains palpable. That day isn’t a frozen moment in history but was the beginning of a journey we’re still on. And it’s one that will produce more giant leaps when we bring back new samples from new missions.
Harry Brodsky is a researcher at MIT’s Experimental Petrology Lab.