The story of the ‘impossible’ mission to the moon

When we remember the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, which launched 50 years ago on Tuesday and landed a half-century ago on Saturday, the first people we generally think of are the astronauts 鈥� Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon, and Michael Collins, who orbited above.

But they were at the top of a pyramid that was built over eight years with the labor of more than 400,000 people, and author Charles Fishman celebrates that Earth-bound effort in his latest book, 鈥淥ne Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon.鈥� He spoke with 海角精品黑料 about his book, the stories behind the mission and the importance of the flight to the moon.

鈥淭he 50th聽anniversary,鈥� Fishman said, 鈥渋s a great moment to go back and say, 鈥楬ow did we do this?鈥欌€�

‘We had nothing’

The project to reach the moon started in May 1961, when President John F. Kennedy told Congress the U.S. “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

鈥淟iterally eight years later, not even 100 months later, we were walking on the moon,鈥� Fishman said. 鈥淵ou can hardly get a bridge replaced in eight years.鈥�

That said, after four years of research, Fishman said, 鈥淲hat I came away with was not a sense of pessimism about America today compared to America in the 1960s 鈥� just the opposite. I came away reminded of what Americans will do when we are asked to.鈥�

It鈥檚 no accident that the word 鈥渋mpossible鈥� is in the subtitle of Fishman鈥檚 book. 鈥淲e had nothing we needed to do the job in May 1961,鈥� he said.

In eight years, Fishman said the U.S. literally invented space travel 鈥� and a lot of the items in modern life that get taken for granted. That took a lot of people 鈥� more Americans worked on the Apollo program than were in Vietnam 鈥� and it took an attitude.

鈥淲e love rising to the occasion as a country; we love being told something’s impossible, like going to the moon, and then turning around and saying, 鈥榊eah? You thought it was impossible? We’re going to show you it isn鈥檛 quite impossible after all.鈥欌€�

Will it sink?

When Kennedy challenged the country to go to the moon, scientists didn鈥檛 even know what they didn鈥檛 know about what it would entail, and what the effects would be.

It鈥檚 hard to remember now, Fishman said, how much had to be worked out: What is the moon made of? Would a spaceship sink into the surface? Would moon dust explode if it were exposed to air?

Even some more basic problems had to be worked out, Fishman said: In 1961, 鈥淭here was a serious argument inside NASA about whether you would be able to think in space 鈥� whether human brains would work correctly in zero gravity.鈥�

It鈥檚 not as dumb as it sounds: 鈥淭here are all kinds of impacts from zero gravity: Zero gravity reshapes your eyeballs, and so astronauts going to space now for months at a time take eyeglasses that have been specifically designed to correct their eyesight after it deteriorates. So this question of whether our brains would work was a really legitimate question. 鈥� In May 1961, we really knew nothing. We had absolutely no clue.鈥�

Beyond Velcro and Tang

To this day, some people don鈥檛 see the importance of traveling to space and the moon, Fishman said, and one of the wiseacre responses, he said, is “‘Yeah, we went to the moon; what鈥檇 we get from that? I guess we got Tang and Velcro, huh?鈥欌€�

Fishman鈥檚 Twitter feed includes a well-researched, cranky response to that stereotype, and it has gotten to the point where NASA keeps a page on their website to address the misconception.

For one thing, Fishman pointed out, Tang was invented in 1958; Velcro, in Switzerland in the 1940s. For another, 鈥淭he astronauts didn’t particularly like Tang,鈥� he said. They could have taken it to the moon if they wanted, but they didn鈥檛.

All kidding aside, Fishman said, 鈥淲e got something really, really important from going to the moon 鈥� we got the world we live in now. In fact, the computer development and the computer advancement, the miniaturization that Apollo required, laid the foundation for the digital revolution.鈥�

In 1961, computers were about three times the size of a refrigerator; the computers on Apollo 11 were the size of a briefcase. They contained the first integrated circuits and, for the first time, human lives were dependent on computers. And the moon mission changed the way people thought about computers.

鈥淭echnology was something associated with weapons 鈥� really, with atomic weapons,鈥� Fishman said. 鈥淏y the end of the decade, we had spent 10 years watching people sitting at computer consoles. They weren’t wearing uniforms; they were wearing white shirts, and they were doing the hardest thing you could imagine doing 鈥� they were using computers to fly to the moon.”

鈥淎nd so, at the end of the decade, people [saw] how computers can be useful. And also [that] they’re dependable. You can trust them, because we put the lives of our astronauts in their hands, and it all worked out fine. So, it must be OK to use computers to analyze advertising data or run the elevators in your skyscraper. 鈥� It’s become all too common to sort of follow the Silicon Valley version of where computers came from, but in fact, going to the moon was hugely important to the world we live in.鈥�

But more than anything, Fishman鈥檚 goal with his book was to pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands at NASA and private contractors who made the moon mission possible. And he said the astronauts wanted the same.

鈥淭he astronauts are the first people to say, 鈥榃e got to ride to the moon, but back on Earth, there were people who made it possible.'”

And the story of the impossible mission resonates today: 鈥淚t’s a remarkable story, and it said a lot about who we were, and you know, we鈥檙e arguing about who we are. I think it’s great that the anniversary is coming along and that we’re talking about this.鈥�

Did you know?

It鈥檚 not surprising that, in his research, Fishman came up with some great stories. Check out some of the fun 鈥� and impressive 鈥� facts below, from Fishman’s conversation with 海角精品黑料 and from his book, “One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon.鈥�

In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin Jr. stands next to the Passive Seismic Experiment device on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

The spacesuits for the first moon landing were made by the bra company Playtex. When the astronauts landed on the moon, that was the beginning of the celebrations for the public, but for Sonny Reihm, the guy in charge of making the suits, it was the beginning of the agita.

While the astronauts cavorted on the moon鈥檚 surface, Reihm watched on TV, terrified that someone would fall, rip their suit and suffer an unpleasant death on worldwide TV 鈥� in a Playtex product.

In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.

What happens if you fart on the moon?

In a 1966 report, a panel of Apollo scientists covered topics including astronaut flatulence. 鈥淭he astronaut spacesuits leaked a little bit of material all the time,鈥� Fishman said. 鈥淏ut the only samples we could get from the moon were from astronauts picking them up. And so, what if moon rocks ended up with organic molecules on them from the leaking of the spacesuits, and then some scientists three years later said, 鈥極h my gosh, there’s evidence of life on the moon!鈥欌€�

More conventionally, the scientists also pondered the problem of polluting the moon with rocket fuel from the thrusters and messing up the samples.

鈥淚t’s an incredible report in its ability to sort of look ahead and think ahead,鈥� Fishman said.

In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin Jr. descends a ladder from the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 mission.

It seems like a no-brainer: How are you going to climb down out of the lunar module onto the surface of the moon? With a ladder, of course.

But NASA wasn鈥檛 so sure. At first, they were going to use a rope.

Like so many of their mistakes, Fishman said it鈥檚 not as dumb as it sounds. No one knew how hard the module would land, or how deep the sandy surface of the moon would be. Any number of factors could have left the astronauts stuck on the surface of the moon to die, or to have to leave without getting out, which would be less tragic but way more stupid.

So, a rope it was. Astronaut Ed White tried it out on Earth and wasn鈥檛 impressed: 鈥淚 think we can afford a ladder.鈥�

So Grumman, which designed the module, simply made the ladder really short, to give a margin for error.

鈥淭here’s a big leap from the bottom rung of the ladder to the foot pad at the bottom of the lunar module [and then] to the surface,鈥� Fishman said. 鈥淎nd the point of that was, 鈥榃e don’t want to hurt the ladder.鈥欌€�

This July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows Buzz Aldrins boot and bootprint during a test of the lunar soil during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.

It’s not easy to draw a map of someplace you’ve never been, and that was even more true in 1969.

When Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, NASA couldn’t figure out exactly where they were 鈥� mainly because they winged it.

“The original landing place turned out to be a crater 60-feet deep,” Fishman said. “And Armstrong said, ‘You know what? That’s not a good place to set down.’ And so they picked a new landing spot. And the moon was so poorly mapped, and we had no satellites going around the moon at that time, that in the end, NASA didn’t know exactly where Armstrong and Aldrin had landed.”

<p>When the astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, their descent was slowed by huge orange-and-white parachutes. Well, someone had to fold those chutes 鈥� indeed, all parachutes are folded by FAA-licensed folders 鈥� and only three people had been trained to fold the massive chutes needed for the Apollo mission.</p>
<p>The two men and one woman were forbidden by NASA to ride in the same car, in case they were in an accident.</p>

5/8

U.S. Navy personnel, protected by Biological Isolation Garments, are recovering the Apollo 11 crew from a re-entry vehicle, which landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, after an eight day mission on the moon. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

When the astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, their descent was slowed by huge orange-and-white parachutes. Well, someone had to fold those chutes 鈥� indeed, all parachutes are folded by FAA-licensed folders 鈥� and only three people had been trained to fold the massive chutes needed for the Apollo mission.

The two men and one woman were forbidden by NASA to ride in the same car, in case they were in an accident.

In this Aug. 13, 1969 file photo, people line 42nd Street in New York 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.

The Apollo astronauts were, and are, held out as heroes, and rightly so, but Fishman writes that the idea that the whole country was united behind the Apollo mission is a myth: “… [T]wo American presidents hauled the space program all the way to the moon with not even half of Americans saying they thought it was worthwhile.”

7/8

NASA had already given up on the idea of astronauts on the moon driving a car, so the lunar rover used in later moon missions was the work of Sam Romano and Ferris Pollock, two engineers at General Motors.

They designed its distinctive folding shape and made a remote-controlled 24-inch model, with a G.I. Joe astronaut action figure in the driver鈥檚 seat, as a proof of their concept. The two men鈥檚 design went up for the last two moon missions.

In this December 1972 photo provided by NASA, Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the moon. NASA announced that former astronaut Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, surrounded by his family. He was 82.

Americans got used to lunar exploration fast: The 1969 moon landing was watched by an estimated 94% of American households; the last landing, in 1972, was out-rated by that week’s “All in the Family.”

“The moon landings were a success,” Fishman said. “And you didn’t need to watch them, because Apollo 16 appeared to be very similar to Apollo 15.”

Rick Massimo

Rick Massimo came to 海角精品黑料, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child.聽He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."