The Apollo XV lunar module landed on the Moon. This was the third to last manned lunar mission. I recall the mission because it was the one in which Dave Scott dropped a hammer and a feather to the surface, and they both hit at the same time.

We also thought of it as a Michigan flight, because Al Worden and Jim Irwin were both Ann Arbor grads. Worden was from Jackson.

I remember when I was in engineering school at Michigan that Worden came in and gave a talk to our systems design class. At the time, Apollo already seemed like ancient history, though his flight had only been seven years earlier.

Now it's been almost a third of a century. How long until we do it again?

I guess maybe I’m the last to know but was out on the ESA website yesterday and found that the Moons surface layer is comprised of 45% oxygen - something very valuable to future missions! Although their SMART-1 lunar probe is mainly a test bed - it will be able to more clearly find water ice and how much of it exists (which the last NASA probe spotted): also creating the most accurate 3D map along the way.

Interesting stat: to send 1kg to the lunar surface you need to launch 4kg into LEO….

I was 9 years old when Neil made that first tremendous leap of faith from the Lunar Lander to the surface of the moon. To say I was transfixed by the space program would be an understatement. All I could think about was becoming an astronaut. And I can't begin to tell you how crushed I was to learn that they were all test pilots, and had to have perfect vision.

Now, over 30 years later, I have one reoccurring nightmare. My grandchild will be sitting on my lap looking at me with questioning eyes. He or she will ask with all of the sincerity a ten or eleven year old can muster, "Grandpa, did men really walk on the moon?" And I will answer, "Yes, my child, they did. I remember it well."

Then they will get that look of pity in their eyes that we all reserve for people who just aren't right in the head, and they will say, "OK, grandpa. If you say so."

I just got back from a little trip out to Hutchinson, KS where I visited the Cosmosphere. They have a pretty sweet collection of both US and Russian space hardware. It was with a feeling of awe that I stood beneath an F1 rocket engine, looking up it's throat. And I'm sure other museum goers were giving me strange looks as I stood in front of the diorama consisting of the testbed lunar lander, several pieces of misc scientific gear, and a lunar rover with tears in my eyes. I was six when Neil took that first step and, like Larry above, an astronaut was all I ever wanted to be. When I got hit with glasses in the seventh grade.... *sigh*

Anyway, it's a trip well worth making and taking your children/grandchildren to.

"How long until we do it again?"

I'm afraid that that day won't come until someone with money and motivation secretly builds a craft and a permanent habitat, and launches them without warning. The question is then whether the authorities will actually have the audacity to shoot them down. I'd say not, since the regulations keeping us all earthbound are advertised as being for our protection; shooting down refugees would blow that story to hell.

I don't expect that day to come for many years.

Larry, I'm speechless. Well said.

Unfortunately, many who are in a better position than I to affect the necessary changes simply don't 'get' the responsibility to which you refer.

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