harikumar1964's blog

Forty years ago on a nice afternoon of 20^th July, 1969 ( of course it was US time,. In India it was 21^st July wee hours of the morning)  a shy man by the name Neil Armstrong climbed down the Lunar module, put his feet firmly on the lunar soil- first living being on its surface in the 4.5 billion years of its existence- with the since then immortalized words- “that’s one small step for a man- a giant leap for the mankind.”  When we are within the state, we identify ourselves with the town or district. When out of state we identify with the state or region. When out of country, we identify with the country or at times even with continent. Extending the same, when out of earth, we would identify with this globe called earth. We are the citizens of  Earth. So truly it was the giant leap for the mankind, not just  for Americans.

Since the July 1969 Apollo mission, US sent six more missions to moon ( Apollo 12 to 17, Except for the Apollo 13- about which every body knows)  they managed to land humans on lunar soil- 12 in total. Somehow, by the last mission in December 1972, people lost fascination for moon as lunar landing became passe and the mission got scrapped. Saturn-V , the most powerful rocket ever built by man was relegated to the exhibition area of NASA. The true driving force behind the Apollo mission was the cold war between US and erstwhile USSR. In the previous two space races, USSR outsmarted US by putting the first artificial satellite (Sputnik) and the first human in space ( Yuri Gagarin). It was a challenge to capitalism, and in 1961  Kennedy  vowed to put man on moon by the end of that decade (60s). Even though Kennedy was not alive to hear the small step or watch the giant leap, his dream, his vision was fulfilled.

In the early 70s it appeared that it is only a matter of a few more years, before man would set his feet for the first time on another planet- of course Mars. In 1975, two Viking landers landed on mars sending first close up pictures of Mars., an we believed we would be there in the next few years. ( NASA of course knew the difficulties and had envisaged human landing only by the 50^th anniversary of Lunar landing). But after scrapping the Apollo mission,  NASA focused attention on developing reusable spacecrafts like Discovery, Challenger and Columbia. This automatically put the manned mission to other planets on the backburner. Had they worked on the Saturn -V rocket, improving on it, man would have been very close to Mars by now. As the situation stands today, even NASA is not planning to send anyone to Moon before 2019, and the earliest manned Mars mission will not be possible before 2039- and even that is too ambitious. Because of the scrapping of Saturn-V technology, today NASA is in a situation of re-inventing the wheel.

If moon is just 3 days away, Mars in one direction is 6 to 9 months away depending on the timing of launch and the position of the planet. So the entire mission can last as much as  one and a half to two years. So a very limited crew will have to survive on packaged food for two years without any scope of replenishing by supply ships (as done in International space station). So a very efficient recycling mechanism has to be developed for the survival and sustenance of the crew. Otherwise the space ship itself will be so bulky that our rockets may not be powerful enough to take it to Mars. But even if you think this can be overcome by first building or parking  the space craft in the outer space - like the space station or on Moon, fill it with supplies, through sorties, and then send the crew later and lift off from space- which means needing much less power than from earth, the psychological trauma of the crew due to two years of isolation is something  everybody needs to worry about. Experiments are already on in isolation chambers for understanding the psychological condition of spacefarers - the recently concluded 105 days experiment in Russia was one in such a direction. Maintaining high spirits for a short mission to moon lasting probably a week is easy, but extending it for two years in total isolation with even the basic communications with earth taking more than 10 minutes and upto 22 minutes is something that can dampen the spirits of even the most enthusiastic.  Because of the thrust considerations of the space craft, we cannot afford  a bigger crew. So the biggest challenge  for the Mars mission eventually may not be technological, but psychological. 

Millions have traveling to America and Australia, yet we still remember Columbus and Captain Cook. Thousands have climbed Mount Everest, yet we remember Hillary and Tenzing. Because they were the first explorers who dared through the vast , unknown expanse of unpredictability , with danger lurking at every corner. Likewise Even though 12 men landed on Moon, we still remember Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins- because they were the pioneers- with no previous data or experience to bank on, traveled through the vast expanse of Space to Moon risking their very life .  Lets all salute the Human spirit and quest which made us so much different from rest of the creatures on this planet.

At this point, it will not be appropriate to ignore all those disbelievers and skeptics who still think that the entire Lunar landing episode is a big Hoax. They believe it was staged in some remote set in the Nevada desert. They cite some plausible mismatches in the lunar landing. One of the major objections is the fluttering of US flag on Lunar surface- where there is no air. Then the shadows of the astronauts and equipments are pointing in different directions - which is impossible with a single source of light (The sun) . Also the only object visible in the lunar sky is the earth. Where have all the stars gone? . They think that it is impossible for any living creature to cross the intense radiation belt- extending from 800 Kms to 38000 Kms above earth known as Van Allen Belt. If at all anybody survives this, he will have serious  diseases like cancer due to radiation exposure. None of the 9 surviving men on Moon had shown any such symptoms- nor did the three who are no more. Based on the above reasons,  they claim Moon landing is a big Hoax. NASA and BBC websites have answered these above points giving scientific explanation to each of the points.  Also if there was a foul play, more than 400,000 people were involved in the Apollo mission, and it would have come out in greater detail. There is bound to be some whistle blowers. The most pressing reason to believe the Moon landing is USSR. Had the mission been a Hoax, USSR would have been the first to highlight it with details. During the lunar landings, one unmanned soviet craft was keeping an eye on Moon.  And it was the height of cold war. No way USSR would have allowed US to get away with it had it been a Hoax.

Many of us were lucky to be alive during the Lunar landings and experienced the excitement even though vicariously. Will we be the lucky enough to experience the excitement of Martian landing as well?  Lets be optimistic.

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