Moon mission evolves into Richland mission

By: Joyce Jackson

Posted: 11/9/09

President John F. Kennedy's "Moon Speech" . . . "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win and the others, too."

American hero and astronaut Buzz Aldrin once had an important mission on Apollo 11 - he became the second man to walk on the moon. That was July 20, 1969.

Today, 40 years later, Aldrin has an equally significant mission - to lend his inspiration, vision and legacy to the upcoming Buzz Aldrin Center for Science and the Arts at Richland College.

Aldrin thrilled a Richland audience Oct. 30 with a fascinating video presentation of the Apollo 11 moon voyage - one of the most famous expeditions of all time. He and fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins completed one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century and the most memorable in television history.

Aldrin recalls his first thoughts during that remarkable journey: "As I stepped out on the lunar surface, it was my turn to say something," Aldrin said. "I heard the word 'beautiful'. I think Neil said that. To me, it wasn't beautiful. It was magnificent desolation - magnificent because of the progress of humanity."

The astronauts' first moonwalk lasted only over two hours, during which they collected the first samples of lunar rock and soil to help man understand the solar system, a legacy of information that had been waiting billions of years.

Aldrin's visit to the Richland campus included a news conference and fundraiser kickoff to help promote the Buzz Aldrin Center for Science and the Arts, which is expected to open in Fall 2010. A private dinner was hosted in the evening at the downtown Dallas Adolphus Hotel for corporate sponsors.

The Apollo moon mission this year celebrates 40 years, but back in 1969 it fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's desire to send a man to the moon by the end of that decade. It began a new era of space exploration for humanity. Since Aldrin retired from NASA, he has continued to promote space exploration.

One of Aldrin's most spectacular achievements, among many, was to pilot a Gemini 12 space flight in 1966 and set a record in rendezvous by spending 5 ½ hours outside the spacecraft.

"What a sight. To be looking down at the Earth from outside the spacecraft traveling at 17,000 mph and just kind of holding on loosely - no air flowing by, of course," Aldrin said at the fundraising event titled Reaching for the Stars - Walking on the Moon. "It's quite an experience of freedom. You don't want to drift away. . . ."

Aldrin, now 79, said the most difficult part of the Apollo journey was returning to Earth. It was the reason why, after 39 years of lunar hindsight, he embarked on writing his biography, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon (2009). He published an autobiography, Return to Earth, in 1973.

"Our descent to the Sea of Tranquility was the most complicated and critical part of the mission," Aldrin said. When they landed, Aldrin describes what he saw: "But what a scene we looked at. . . Things hadn't changed in what we looked at for hundreds of thousands of years. A little more dust accumulated - two weeks of blistering sun as the sun went from rise to sunset - two weeks of darkness - all heat goes way up. It gets very hot and very cold. No air. Black sky. Nothing growing. It's a very poor place to set up housekeeping."

Aldrin said it's one of the reasons why he doesn't think that we should go back to the moon unless there's a good reason to bring things back that are useful and worth the cost of going. He suggested using robots, and he also promotes voyages between Earth and Mars.

"The true value of Apollo was that people back here felt they participated in it. We made it. It's the sort of thing we heard as we toured around the Earth when we came back," Aldrin said. "These people - everyone - felt that somehow they had participated or witnessed an incredible journey to another world. Those were magic times. The world welcomed us back as heroes. We spent 45 days touring around the world."

Richland astronomy and physics professor Heather Appleby said, "In the spirit of President John F. Kennedy, we here at Richland choose to have the Buzz Aldrin Center for Science and the Arts not because it's easy, but because it's hard. Since 1972, our former facility has inspired and challenged young lives to think creatively, to realize science and learning can be fun and to encourage them to dream about their future."

Through the years, hundreds of programs were presented at the old planetarium, Appleby said, among them one about the moon titled "Footsteps," which is a tribute to the tens of thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and workers who took up Kennedy's challenge to do a job - not because it was easy, but because it was hard.

Appleby said there's a severe shortage of workers trained in the sciences, technology and mathematics and that we need to let students know that these areas can be fun and exciting.

"Who knows? Perhaps the first footsteps on Mars will culminate with a journey that first started in the Buzz Aldrin Center for Science and the Arts," Appleby said. Michael Gorton, who headed the off-campus committee to promote the fundraising event, said it is a huge project.

"First of all, the students that walk into the classrooms here, I think we have to continually inspire those kids and every one of you here today, I want you to be inspired to help us move to the next step - this is our kickoff," Gorton said.

"Part 2 is going to be raising the real capital to turn that planetarium into the best planetarium on the planet. We have the capital resources in this city and we certainly have the intellectual resources to make that happen. That is our goal." Gorton read some excerpts from Kennedy's moon speech from Sept. 12, 1962: "No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but consider if you will the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of about a half century."

In the last 50 years, from the day that Kennedy gave this speech, Gorton said, man has developed more science, technology and art than in the 50,000 years before that. "That is an amazing statement," Gorton said. "So my kudos to this generation and to the students who are going to carry that ball forward."

Gorton named the most prestigious awards that Richland has won (among others): The Texas Performance Excellence Award, the Tech Titan Award, the Earl Eames Award and the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. Also, Richland was the first college to win the Malcolm Baldridge Award for Excellence.

"Richland College is the Harvard or the MIT of community colleges," Gorton said. "This is an amazing place. I spent 15 years teaching here and I didn't know all of these great things that came from the current generation of management at this college. It is a truly, truly impressive feat to accomplish these things." Acting Richland president Kay Eggelston told Aldrin that students, faculty, staff "and the entire community," appreciated his visit.

"I sincerely thank you for being with us this afternooon to share in the commemoration of your spectacular accomplishment - your walk on the moon 40 years ago this year -- and the inspiration and vision that you bring to us today at Richland College, " Eggelston said.

Eggelston said Aldrin's incredible feat has had a measurable impact on important advances on education, science, technology and the dreams and aspirations of decades of young people across the world. "Your amazing story has inspired millions of students and educators through the years just as it has inspired all of us today," Eggelston said. "We are also deeply grateful to you for lending your lasting legacy to our $1.5 million fundraising efforts to renovate, rejuvenate and re-purpose our 37-year-old planetarium, turning it into the Buzz Aldrin Center for Science and the Arts."

In 1998, Aldrin founded a non-profit corporation, ShareSpace Foundation, which prepares the public to understand more about what space is about and encourages the possibility of tourism in space. Go to: http://www.sharespace.org/.