Moon Exploration

On May 25th 1961, US President John F. Kennedy called for a manned mission to the moon and ignited a whirlwind of lunar activity. The Russians had already sent unmanned probes and the US, caught in the midst of the Cold War, didn’t want to be left behind. In 1969 the US put the first men on the moon, and many thought the space race was over. Today no less than five countries have planned missions to the moon, including US plans for a permanent, manned base on the lunar pole.

Earth’s Closest Neighbour

Study of the moon began in earnest in when the telescope was invented, and Galileo turned this new wonder to the moon, studying its features for the first time in history with unnatural clarity. As astronomy burgeoned and grew, and the eye of man scanned every further into the heavens, the moon was not forgotten. In fact it is often the first object studied by those with an interest in astronomy, and it was the first place man strove to visit when finally able to achieve escape velocity.

The space race began after World War Two, with rocket propulsion science opening the door to pushing past the pull of Earth’s gravity and punching through the atmosphere. Russia was the first country to reach the moon with Luna 1, which passed near the moon in 1959. In the same year Luna 2 became the first man made object to impact the moon’s surface, and Luna 3 obtained photographs of the far side of the moon. Luna 9 and Luna 10 also became firsts (soft landing and orbiting the moon in 1966) but the real race, and the only first that seemed to matter at the time, was the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, put there by the US in 1969.

Some scientists felt that sending a man to the moon would be a mistake, that the passion for exploring space would be exhausted by a false sense of victory. Once a man was on the moon, that would be it—mission accomplished, time to turn thoughts back to terrestrial matters. As budgets dried up and the missions became more and more infrequent, it seemed these scientists were prophetic. Fortunately for the fate of space exploration, humans are still fascinated with the moon.

In 2004 US President George W Bush announced a renewed commitment to put men back on the moon, and NASA took that as a cue to get started. Currently on the books are planned missions to not only put men on the moon by 2020, but to establish a permanent base there as well. Joining the US in a new space race is China, India, Japan and Russia, all determined to put probes into orbit around the moon. Japan is the only country outside of the US and Russia to have done so to date.

Final Thoughts

Man has dared to dream of escaping Earth’s hold and paying visit to the moon for a long time indeed, and finally achieved that dream in 1969 when Neil Armstrong, as commander of the US space program mission Apollo 11, became the first man to walk on the moon. For many the journey to the moon was more about the ability of man to overcome, a journey of the human spirit, than of scientific exploration, and certainly it showcases the blending of the romantic with the scientific.