Moon landing memories: We must get to know each other

I was 24 years old in July 1969, newly married, living in Gainesville, FL, teaching physics and geology at the local Community College and beginning a Ph.D. program in engineering. On July 16, I was camped on the beach at Cape Canaveral for the launch and glued to the television on July 19 when Apollo 11 entered lunar orbit, on July 20 when two Americans walked on the Sea of Tranquility, and on July 24 when three Americans returned home safely. My dad was part of the team at RCA who had designed the video cameras that accompanied those Americans.

Events unfolded fast and furiously during the decade before the big day in 1969. The Russians sent the first satellite to space, Sputnik, in 1957. I was in the 8th grade. America sent the monkey Gordo into space in 1958, but he died on reentry when the ship’s parachute did not open. The Russians sent the first man to space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12,1961. The next day the headlines in my hometown paper in Pennsylvania read, “Soviets Win Space Race.” A month later, when I was in the 11th grade, President Kennedy announced, that we were, not just going to put a man in space, we were going to put a man on the moon. In a Speech to Congress, President Kennedy said “our nation must commit itself to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of the decade.” No one then knew how to do it or what technological advances it would require. But Congress approved the budget and Americans were supportive. The nation had a shared dream.

This dream inspired me and thousands of others to become scientists and engineers. We knew that if we were scientists, we could participate in making the dream a reality and, thereby, somehow make a difference.

I am now 74 years old, did become a scientist and still follow space exploration closely, recently signing up with NASA to put my name and those of my children and grandchildren on the chip that is traveling in the space ship to Mars in July 2020.

Just as planet earth is our home along with our partner moon, the solar system of which we are a part is our home also. Earth with the other seven planets, along with the dwarf planets, all the moons, and various comets and asteroids revolve around the same star in the heavens, our star. Gravity from our star joins us together in our journey around it. We must get to know each other. The expeditions will be bigger, longer, and more dangerous than that of Lewis and Clark heading West from St Louis or John Wesley Powell rafting the Grand Canyon but equally transformative. Big dreams inspire young people, make us proud, and pull us together. I am thankful for the big dream to have a man walk on our planet’s moon.

Martha W. Gilliland, Ph.D.