The giant leap

I was very young when man first walked on the moon, hence I have no real memory of the event. So with all the fanfare surrounding this “giant leap for mankind” in celebration of 40 years since, I was asking myself what exactly did this monumental feat accomplish?

A little bit of research showed that we have to know the situation of the 60s, when the cold war between the US and the former USSR was heating up, almost coming to a boil with the Cuban missile crisis. It seemed that the two superpowers at the time were competing on every level possible. From military might to technological advancement.

And what could establish a country’s technological superiority than putting a man on a location outside of this world! So aside from an ongoing arms race, there was a space race.

Both countries will not outright admit that the advances they have made with regards to aviation and rocketry came from the spoils of World War II, particularly the Germans.

Discoveries on what Adolf Hitler’s little elves were working on astonished both sides, as they found out from abandoned but intact factories and secret locations, plans and prototypes of machines that would have changed the outcome of the war had they gone into production.

Indeed, we may well have been under a different superpower if the Allies did not triumph in bringing down Fortress Europe. And so with newly found technology at hand, along with a few “willing” prisoners, the race was on to make the technology work.

The Soviets were the first to put a man into orbit. This sent the Kennedy administration working overtime to reach Earth’s nearest celestial body and constant companion, the moon. Hence the Apollo space program was born.

After several fatal accidents and miscues, Apollo 11 finally succeeded in bringing three men into space, and on July 20, 1969, just as President Kennedy wanted it, two men walked on the surface of the moon. The Americans have won the space race.

But again, what has all this achieved? A historical milestone it is, without question. And this is probably what the Apollo missions have achieved. That man has the capacity to reach beyond this world. The technology at the time was fantastic, remembering that it was only the 1960s where black and white TVs were the norm!

Carl Sagan, one of the world’s best astronomers and astrophysicists, stated that there was no outright advantage in sending men to the moon or other planets, that could not be achieved by robotic spacecraft. He was at odds with the top brass of NASA, who wanted every opportunity in sending men to other planets.

But like in any other conquest, once men landed on the moon, that was it. Priorities have changed, and budgets were allocated elsewhere. Why spend so much money into outer space when there are so many problems right here on Earth!

Sagan may have been right on track, as man has indeed sent spacecraft to Mars and Jupiter, and further into the solar system. We may yet put men into Mars, the next in line after the moon. But the question still begs to be asked, at what benefit to mankind?

For now, the giant leap for mankind will suffice, in terms of making us all feel good about our race. We have gone to the moon, because it’s there!