A Sad Anniversary, In Many Ways

This past week represents the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion, a disaster that struck at the core of the American spirit. It was Apollo 1 all over again, yet in some ways worse due to the loss of more life and because every school child was glued to the television screen to see the first teacher in space.  However, as with the Apollo program, the nation regrouped, learned from the problem, and carried on, which was the best thing to do.

Of course, only two-thirds of the Space Shuttle fleet remain, after the loss of the Columbia in 2003.  And we are in the last year of these shuttle missions until we turn to the Russians to get us back into space.  A truly ironic, if not sad, situation where we are dependent on our Cold War foe who we beat to the moon.

This past Thursday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to mark NASA's National Day of Remembrance (for a tribute page, go here). President Obama also had some comments on this day, including:


Throughout history, however, we have seen that achieving great things sometimes comes at great cost and we mourn the brave astronauts who made the ultimate sacrifice in support of NASA missions throughout the agency’s storied history. We pause to reflect on the tragic loss of the Apollo 1 crew, those who boarded the space shuttle Challenger in search of a brighter future, and the brave souls who perished on the space shuttle Columbia. 

As with any exploration, lives will be lost moving mankind to new limits and opportunities.  As long as we can learn from each failure, we have a better chance to get to that next goal.  Regardless of my concerns about the recent leadership of the space program, as one looks across the globe it is clear that mankind wants to continue to move outwards and upwards.  I only hope the United States can play a big part in this continuing effort.

Moon Junk - Treasure Trove for Space Hunters

Mental Floss magazine had an interesting article in a recent issue discussing items left behind on the moon by the astronauts, including (1) a gold-plated olive branch, (2) Alan Shepard's golf balls, (3) a shrink-wrapped Polaroid of Charlie Duke's family, and (4) various other items such as moon boots and "defecation collection" devices.

After reading through the list of items, I starting thinking of what future generations or even distant visitors would find on the surface of the moon.  We know the Apollo missions left behind the lower portion of the lunar modules (see NASA map to the right).  In fact, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted five of the six landing sites in July 2009.  the LRO also spotted scientific equipment the astronauts left behind, as well as the footpath created by the astronauts using these instruments.  

We also know that various crash sites can be found on the moon (and I am not talking about Transformers 3).  For instance, as recently as October 2009 NASA crashed the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon's south pole in the hopes of stirring up some water (this satellite is associated with the LRO mentioned above).  

A review of Wikipedia's list of moon junk shows mankind has left behind about 187 tons of material.  And while the United States and the former USSR are in the lead as litterers (both left 30 spacecraft on the surface before the first man even landed), objects have also been left behind by Japan, the European Union, China, and India. 

We shall see if the Chinese beat the other nations back to the moon, but the first race was quite spectacular.  For instance, while the United States will always get the credit for the first man on the moon, the Soviets were not far behind scientifically with their Luna 16 spacecraft (shown to the right) bringing back moon samples in 1970 (following the successful return of samples on the Apollo 11 and 12 missions).  However, the Soviets stopped sending craft to the moon in 1976, while the United States and other nations continue to explore the moon's surface.

Someday we will have moon archaeologists who will recover these odd objects and probably find some new stories among the wreckage.  And earthlings are doing their best to leave junk in other parts of the solar system, as the Voyager spacecraft shoot out of our solar system and into the great unknown.  The story (and litter) has just begun.