The Moon - 40 Years Later

 

As far as I'm concerned, July 20th, 1969 is one of the greatest days in all of Human history.  Why is that, do you ask?  It's because that's the day that we managed to propel two members of our species off of this large rock we call home and sent them out farther beyond where anyone had ever gone before.  We sent them so far out that they were able to land on and wander around on our closest galactic neighbor.  That's the day we landed on the Moon.

 

As I'm sure you've heard everywhere else on the news by now, today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing where NASA Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin forver marked their places in history by stepping out of the lunar lander and out onto the Moon's surface.  They were the first humans to ever walk on another planetary body, and while Armstrong's first words on the moon may be a bit cliche nowadays, it doesn't make them any less true.  It truly was a giant leap for mankind.

 

Sadly, I'm not old enough to know what it must have been like to see the Moon landing live as it happened.  I can only imagine the wonder and the awe that the world must have felt as they watched these two spacesuit wearing earthlings walking around on a planetary body that wasn't our own.  It was the day that science fiction became science fact.  Even 40 years later I still strongly believe that this has been our greatest technological achievement.  Sure, the internet is cool and all, modern technology makes our lives better and easier and the science of medicine performs miracles on a daily basis . . . but for my money, managing to get two dudes onto the surface of another the Moon makes everything else pale in comparison. 

 

When you sit back and think about it, it sounds impossible.  In 1969, when computers were still as big as a room and well before anyone had ever heard of the world wide web, we managed to design machines that could carry human beings out of the Earth's gravity well, out into space, onto the Moon and then back again . . . and they even managed to do it safely.  Hell, even with today's technology that achievement would be considered amazing.  Back then, it should be considered the most impossible, incredible and exciting thing we've ever done.

 

I sat down this morning and watched a few youtube clips of the original Moon landing.  Even though I've seen these videos a million times and have seen countless hollywood copies or parodies or homages, the original black & white grainy footage still manages to spark that same sense of adventure and desire for exploration I've had since I was about 5 years old.  It still manages to make me believe that the stuff we see in science fiction stories can indeed one day come true.

 

I believe in the final frontier, and even though I know I will most likely never live to see the day when we have fully populated colonies on other planets or somehow find a way to travel between the stars, I know whenever I look back at things like the Moon landing that the impossible can happen and one day all of those things that we dream about can be made to come true.  With the right desire and spirit and motivation, we can accomplish anything.  NASA proved that 40 years ago today.  It's one of mankind's greatest traits, the desire to boldly go where no one has gone before.  I can't wait to see where we go next.