science

NASA Moon landing anniversary: Why are we so obsessed with the Moon?


made history on July 20, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin walked on the Moon. The incredible journey, accompanied by Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, cemented American victory in the US-Soviet Space race. But on a grander scale, the Moon landing proved nothing can stand in the way of human ambition if resources, passion and dedication are pooled together. And according to one lunar expert, NASA’s Moon landing was a significant milestone for a species fascinated with the glowing lunar orb.

Melanie Vandenbrouck, the curator of a Moon-themed exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London, told why the lunar landing was so important.

Ms Vandenbrouck said: “Although landing a man on the Moon was part of the race – the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union – they left a plaque on the Moon which said, ‘we came in peace for all mankind’.

“Within the context of the Cold War, it was still very true because human beings all around the planet watched the Moon landing happen.

“People held their collective breath to see it happen and again it transcended borders, and it transcended geopolitical concerns even if it was in the middle of that Cold War conflict.

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NASA Moon landing: Trip to the Moon

NASA Moon landing: The 1902 silent film Trip to the Moon (Image: GETTY)

“So it’s just a fascinating object to think about in terms of how it unites us all together.”

Anyone who will ever live will have done so under the light of the Moon

Melanie Vandenbrouck, Art curator

When Commander Armstrong took his “one small step for a man” an estimated 650 million people watched it on TV sets.

The Moon landing was televised live to every corner of the planet, even reaching beyond the steadfast borders of the Iron Curtain.

In 2009, former USSR premier Nikita Khrushchev admitted even the Soviet propaganda machine could not completely ignore the monumental achievement.

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Admittedly, he told Scientific American moods may have not been as celebratory as in America.

But Ms Vandenbrouck has now argued the Moon landing played an important role in fulfilling an ambition deeply rooted in the story of civilisation.

The Moon virtually plays a role in every culture and society that has walked the planet, from presenting gods and deities to keeping track of the time.

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar, for instance, is based on the movements of the Moon through the sky.

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NASA Moon landing: America beat the Soviet Union to the Moon in the Space Race (Image: NASA)

NASA Moon landing: The Moon at night

NASA Moon landing: Everyone who has ever lived, has done so in the light of the Moon (Image: NASA)

The same practice is found in the religion off Islam, where the Moon’s cycle dictates religious dates and holidays.

Native American tribes would name the full phases of the Moon in a bid to keep track of the seasonally changing landscape.

German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe envisioned a journey to the Moon for the titular character of his 1785 book Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.

And in 1902, the silent cinema explored this fascination with the Moon with Georges Mélics film Le Voyage Dans La Lune or Trip to the Moon.

NASA Moon landing timeline: Apollo 11 on the Moon

NASA Moon landing timeline: Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 (Image: GETTY)

All of these dreams and fascinations would be resolved just 67 years later with the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Ms Vandenbrouck said: “Anyone who has ever lived, anyone who will ever live will have done so under the light of the Moon.

“It’s the one object in the sky that we can look at with the naked eye and of which we can discern its features.

“It’s an object, which we human beings have been looking at for thousands of years and we know that from prehistoric cave walls – you do have representations of the motions of the Moon.

NASA Moon landing: Buzz Aldrin's footprint on Moon

NASA Moon landing: Buzz Aldrin’s footprint on the Moon (Image: NASA)

NASA Moon landing: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

NASA Moon landing: Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the Moon (Image: NASA)

“So, even before human beings started with communicating with writing, they were already drawing the motions of the Moon.

“And it is the one object in the sky that connects us to the rest of the universe.”

Alongside the Maritime Museum exhibition, Ms Vandenbrouck edited and contributed to The Moon – a book published on January 27 about Earth’s lunar companion.

The Moon is an official publication of The Royal Observatory Greenwich and charts the Moon’s role in history from its earliest mentions to the Moon landing and beyond.



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