Moonstruck: 40 Years Later

(Opening footage from wechoosethemoon.org)

Forty years ago, one small step for man put Neil Armstrong on the moon.

The Apollo 11 mission captured the world’s attention. It made the United States a leader in space exploration.

We’re looking at different aspects of the mission’s 40th anniversary and whether or not the U.S. should go back to the moon or reach further.

First, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says putting a man on the moon is a milestone for a generation of Americans.

“We did that during the most tumultuous decade, a decade of radicalism in the street, college campuses burning, cities burning, Americans questioning their place in the world and then the decade ended with this remarkable achievement that brought us all together.”

ABC’s Nightline focuses on efforts to restore grainy copies of the lunar landing.
Copies? Yes - apparently NASA taped over the originals.

“NASA confirmed that all 45 original tapes of the moon landing were accidentally erased. Tapes they say were better quality because they came from the original feed from the moon, not what was recorded off the air.”

Sharper images of the landing probably aren’t going to convince die-hard conspiracy theorists who believe of course that it was all a hoax.

The Daily Telegraph interviews a British scientist who attempts to debunk some of their most popular theories. Like, how about that American flag waving, when there is no wind on the moon?

“The astronauts are moving it around, trying to actually get it in. Now, because there is virtually no atmosphere on the moon, there’s no air resistance, so once you move something, it carries on moving.”

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, once punched a conspiracy theorist in the face. On CNN’s TalkAsia, he says, been there, done that, let’s head to Mars.

“Who ever sets the pathway for a nation to do that is going to go down in history far more than Kennedy did deciding to do a stunt by going to the moon so we did that, we carried that out, we kicked up the dust on the moon and we came back and we haven’t been there in a while. But this is another opportunity of permanently setting a settlement on another object. That’s a big deal in history, a very big deal.”

But Science podcast EarthSky.org talks to a NASA director for a perspective on why the moon shouldn’t be underestimated.

“There are a lot of different reasons to go to the moon. First and foremost, it’s our first step in expanding into the solar system. But along that journey, there’s unbelievable scientific opportunities. The moon itself is a very interesting body. It holds the clues to how the solar system was formed, clues that we can’t find on Earth.”

So, should the U.S. head back to the moon? Or make the push to explore further out in space?