VIEW FROM
THE CHAIR
It is 50 years since Neil Armstrong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin
who remained in orbit waiting for their return from
the surface. The landing took place on 20 July 1969,
but the rst step on the surface was early the next
day, with an estimated 300 million people watching
on television.
Cernan and Harrison Schmitt did the walking and drove 35.74 Kilometres in
a Lunar Rover. Ron Evans waited in orbit on that occasion. Schmitt was a
professional geologist and the only scientist to visit the Moon. Cernan’s
last words on the Moon were: “OK, let’s get this mother out of here!”
Understandably, not as celebrated as the “One small step“ etc. None of the
Apollo 11 or 17 crews went into space again.
The achievement of the Apollo missions was indeed a giant
leap for mankind. The sadness that we haven’t been back yet
is frustrating for those who worked on it. That means that all of
the experience gained is only available from the records and
not from personal memory. Many things will have to be learned
all over again. Some complain at the cost, but a study looking
at the bene ts to the American economy of new materials,
computer and control systems, manufacturing facilities, project
management techniques and much more, derived from the
programme, showed that Apollo paid for itself 10 times over.
In history, most major periods of technological advance are
the result of military pressure. The likelihood of war is a great
incentive and frequently battles are won by the side with the
Moonwalk:
50 years on
Half a century ago, man fi rst walked on the
Moon. Colin Ledsome CEng FIED looks back
to a time of momentous achievement
best technology. The Apollo programme was, in many ways, a proxy for the cold
war with the then USSR.
Since then, the growing space activity, and the spin-off capabilities, has
attracted marketplace interest and the next major expeditions into space are
likely to be mainly privately funded, with the prospect of eventual pro t.
Even today, the large investment needed for a new communications satellite
and its launch may be recovered within a year and it will remain in service for at
least 10 years. Even the initial investment has come down, since many of the
basic satellite structures and most of the equipment is now available ‘off-theshelf’,
from various suppliers, including a signi cant number in the UK.
The space industry is becoming a huge incentive for technological advance
I was working on the design of Apollo Skylab when Apollo 11 ew, and so
I welcome the new impetus to venture out beyond the security of Earth. As
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, one of the early space pioneers, said in 1895: “Earth
is the cradle of mankind, but one does not live in the cradle forever.”
Get Involved
If you would like to contribute to any discussions, write to:
Colin Ledsome
BEng MEng CEng FIMechE FIED MCMI FBIS MDS, Chair, at:
The Institution of Engineering Designers,
Courtleigh, Westbury Leigh, Westbury, Wiltshire BA13 3TA.
Or email: chair@ied.org.uk
without going to war.
4 www.ied.org.uk
bakhurmikele /stock.adobe.com
walked on the Moon, not forgetting Michael Collins,
The last steps on the Moon were on 14 December 1972. This time ‘Gene’
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