by Zenia Zuraiq, III B.Sc. Physics
"We
choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon… We choose to go
to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are
easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to
organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that
challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to
postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too." - President
John F. Kennedy, September 12 1962
One of the greatest tragedies of history was that President JFK was assassinated before he saw his countrymen take mankind’s first steps on the moon. This was the same John F. Kennedy who used his first Presidential address in front of Congress to propose that a man land on the moon before the decade was out.
Image Source: NASA
The whole world watched as Kennedy’s vision manifested on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong became the first man to land on the surface of the moon, when Apollo 11’s Lunar Module spacecraft, Eagle, landed, with Buzz Aldrin aboard. A dozen men would go on to walk the lunar surface in the next couple of years thanks to NASA’s pioneering Apollo program.
July 2019 marks 50 years since that first, milestone-achieving, landmark-setting mission that was Apollo 11, and the world has changed a lot since. Technology has moved a lot faster in these last few decades and many of today’s gadgets and gizmos are beyond what anyone in the ‘60s could’ve dreamt up.
Image Credits: NASA
What hasn’t changed since is the sense of discovery and exploration that JFK wanted to inculcate in his countrymen, and by extension, the world. Even amongst today’s incredible advancements, that one picture of Neil Armstrong’s image reflected on Buzz Aldrin’s helmet as he stands on the moon still fills me with unspeakable joy.
But – that is not the most beautiful image to come out of this story.
For me, the most beautiful images that have come out of the Apollo missions have been from Earth. The tense and apprehensive looks of the NASA employees wondering whether their colleagues – their friends! – are all right. The real time videos in which you see the looks of relief back at Ground Control when another stage goes according to plan. The crowds of people that watch on, standing by the launch sites, looking to the heavens with their inefficient ‘60s cameras. The countless more people from all around the world who watched on at home on black and white televisions. The people who greeted Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins when they successfully reached the Earth. And, us, today, celebrating and talking about this momentous occasion.
Image Source: NASA
Image Source: David Burnett
There are endless resources to learn about the technological and scientific efforts that made the Apollo mission possible (including the excellent documentaries – Apollo 11 (2019) and In the Shadow of the Moon (2008)) and learning about that part of the story is definitely important and shouldn’t be overlooked. But more than that – more than the theory, the tech – what matters most is the collective human effort that got us there.
“That was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
There is a reason Neil Armstrong’s first words on the lunar surface continue to ring on. Armstrong’s simple words seem to sum up the spirit of astronomy and space science as a whole. In the end, it really is one small step by one person that leads to giant leaps for all of mankind. All of science, all of art, all of our crowning achievements as a species have had their roots in collaboration.
As we complete half a century since the Apollo missions, we see how the cut-throat competitiveness of the US-Soviet Space race has given way to the countries being partners at the International Space Station. At home, we see how ISRO and NASA have lined up collaborative future projects for them to work on.
Cooperation and collaboration are what differentiates humans as a species. The desire to work together in an organised manner may sound trivial but it is one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal -- and of course, there is nothing that can unite us more than the deeply human experience of gazing out into the almost static and yet paradoxically ever-changing night skies.
The collective feeling of getting lost amongst the stars.