Possible while billions more around the globe followed. The material legacy of these missions is immense with thousands of artifacts from spacesuits to ephemera of life aboard a spacecraft presented in thee smithsonian collections. Now more than 50 years after the last Lunar Landing we are in for a reassessment of the history of the project through the objects of the space age. The objects featured reflect the deep connection between object apollo and broader developments in American Society like politics. Historian of spaceflights and curator of the apollo collection at the Smithsonian National air and space museum. Her research focuses on the exploration of the moon from debates about lunar governance to the use of spaceflights and soft power. The topic of the awardwinning book operation moonglow a political history of project apollo which was published in 2020. Th in addition to her work at the smithsonian, doctor harmony coorganizes space policy and history forums and teaches at georgetown university. Shee serves as an advisor to the series ine her first book a history on 50 objects was published in 2018 and forms the basis of todays lecture so please join me in welcoming doctor harmony. [applause] good afternoon everyone. Thank you for coming. It is a pleasure to be here especially on the anniversary of the first Lunar Landing. This talk is perfectly timed for the topic and i always think anniversaries are a great opportunity to look back at an event and register its significance at the time and also its relevance to today. In the lecture this afternoon we will be exploring the history of the Apollo Program through artifacts and objects that played a key role in that history and thinking about its relevance to our lives today. To start off, when we talk about the history of the space age or the Apollo Program we often start with sputnik which is the soviet union satellite. It was the first artificial satellite launched in 1957 but i wanted to start here. This is a favorite artifact of mine in the smithsonian collection. The satellite launched in 1957. Take a look at this artifact and pictures. Any sense of how that launched land . Theres a great example of what artifacts can reveal about history. This one did not goery well. Heres a picture from that day after the soviet union successfully launched one and two, the u. S. Tried to race ahead and compete to launch their own satellite and it ended in a disaster on the launchpad and never made it to orbit. The u. S. Would be successful though not that long after in the beginning of 1958 but this is a great example of the space race and the competition between the u. S. And soviet union and how they look to Space Exploration and spaceflight to demonstrate national capabilities. Heres another example of an object that revealed the competition between the soviet union and the United States. One is from the soviet union, the one onn the left and the other both of these stamps showcase early human spaceflights and john glenns flight for the United States. If you take a look at the stamps, they reveal how the Different Countries were projecting their Space Program abroad and domestically as well. The way they were trying to communicate the achievement were quite different at the time so this is a stamp produced for international audiences. What you see here is looking towards the stars a stylized stt rocketship so this is not an accurate presentation but instead something from the imagination and then for the american stamp you see a spacecraft that is accurate and was based on n engineering drawings of the mercury spacecraft with the Postal Service and created the stamp and released it as soon a strong clan achieved a successful flight immediately on his landing. This is a great example of the different ways the countries were trying to use their Space Program to represent different stories and narratives of their own technical ability and image as well so for the United States, a lot focused on sharing engineering information. Broadcasting successes and failures and i will talk more about that in a second. So after the successful spaceflight, a week later there was an invasion of the bay of pigs and this was a u. S. Backed invasion. Both were interpreted by president kennedy as a blow. He asked his advisors to find him a Space Program that promises results we can win and those were his words. So it was important to him to find a Space Program in particular that was the currency of the day and he wanted one that would have dramatic results that would capture the worlds attention. They advised him to send humans to the moon, land of them and return them safely to earth within the decade. Kennedy presented at this project to congress at the end of may 1951 and as he put it he thought space could when the hearts and minds of the public and what influence the direction that they would take. What he meant was alignment either with the United States for soviet union, democracy or communism and so he thought investing in spaceflight and project apollo in particular would be essential for the u. S. Standing in the world and efforts to fight the cold war. As mentioned earlier, project apollo was incredibly ambitious and complex. This is just a quick overview of the program to get some familiarity th it but there were 11 appved missions between 61 and 72 and six of these were Lunar Landings so as they walked in that period of time, 24 astronauts traved to the area and collected about 84d other important science as well. The cost of the program was about 25 billion at the time. Today that would be closer to about 280 billion so over 4 of the federal budget by the mid1960s. This was a Major National priority in the kennedy administration. It reflects that but also the investment of peoples time and focus as well. To give a sense of the state of the program when kennedy made this proposal, i wanted to share a picture of this order fact. This is alan shepard spacecraft you can see here when kennedy proposed project apollo, the ight the entire extent of the United States spaceflht experience so it wasl a brief surbital flight about 15 minute lg at the beginning of may 1961 and it gave kennedy the confidence to go ahead and approve project apollo but a lot needed to be learned before humans would reach the moon. So new spacecraft needed to be build, we had to learn about living and working in space so it wasnt even clear at that moment if humans could eat easily in space. So over the next few years it was a need to make a Major National mobilization to achieve this project. I mentioned a new rocket had to be built and for many years was the most powerful rocket ever created. They continue to be the most powerful engine ever developed and successlly used. Its a multipart rocket so its the stages and at the very tip top i where the spacecraft was into the astronauts satero you can see herin the diagram the lunar module. Its 363 feet tall so taller than the statue of liberty. 7. 5 Million Pounds of thrust in the first stage which was ignited for about a little over two minutes and about 20 tons of fuel a second. Incredibly powerful. People got to witness the launches and could feel the ground shaking. It was so powerful. So this is a part of the spacecraft. Is particular image and will focusth on apollo 11 because ths the anniversary. This is thety astronauts home fr the majority of their trip to the moon. Its about the size of 210 cubic feet and relatively compact but more spaous than earlier spacecraft. One of the important features of the model is that it was the parthat returned back to earth and it required a very advanced shieldk which i will speak abo. The spacecraft is made up of a pressure shell and had to withstand temperaturess up to 5,000 degrees at reentry. That took the work of the people that you see here. It has this structure and each were injected with a resin and you can see there were 370,000 individual cells that had to be injected with resin by hand and then it was cured and xrayed and anywhere they noticed any void they drilled out and fixed. If you look really closely you can see the evidence of that. These little circles here hopefully you can spot them from the audience these are the areas they drilled out and this is a great testament to the level of detail and effort that when you take every aspect of the program to ensure the astronaut would return home safely. This is the interior and iill just point out here at thest boomhese are the seats the astronauinin at lunch and the entry and at arms length you things to point out here for the apollo guidance computer to abort. There wontrols there so its over 500 switches and dials they trained on further flights. This is the lunar module so much like the rocket, the spacecraft is multistage as well so they spend most of their timen e command module. Cehey were orbiting the moon and one would remain in the command module while two astronauts would go to the lunar surfacend module. This particurne was designed to fly in earth orbital test but wasnteed. It was used in some drop tests that still exist so we will have it on display very shortly after renovation. Its here to look like an eagle from the Apollo Mission as accurately as possible. Its also a twostage spacecraft so they would have landed in the full spacecraft and would have been in the cabin, they would have climbed on the latter as you can see and once they were ready to return to earth they would claim back up in the top part and then continue on to earth. A few details to point out here, one important part of the lunar module is that it is truly a spacecraft designed to fly in outer space without the concerns of handling s atmospheric conditions we would see in an airplane or Something Like that so it c have this funny look because it was denied a true acraft. Other elements to ne you can see up here it had a very small windows. Theyraed to reduce the weight as much as possible because it meant basically more fuel and launch so it was important to make it as light as possible and they realized because it is one fifth the moons gravity they could land on the moon somewhatna differeny so they wouldnt need to seats. They were able to save weight by getting rid of the seats and standing they didnt need these windows like you might need in a car. Another thing i wanted to point out was the important contributions of the industry to the success of the mission. Hundreds of thousands contributed to the program over the course of the 1960s. Over 90 were contractors and subcontractors and when kennedy was making the decision about project apollo initially, he was advised the program would not only be an incredible accomplishment with t technical ability of the country, but it would also showcase american industry andto that was seen as essential to the position internationally as well. This is a great example of that. These are some artifacts. One of the contractors was on the Space Program and it includesav a bracelet he gave hs wife every time there was a Successful Mission or something he wanted to commemorate he would give a special charm. You can see most are space related. Then this is a connection to virginia history so that as i mentioned, the knowledge of Space Exploration was limited when kennedy proposed project apollo and our knowledge of the moon. So sending spacecraft to learn more about it before we send humans there and one of the programs was the Lunar Orbiter Program at langley the nasa center in virginia. There were a handful of missions and it was responsible for 99 of the moon and selecting the landing sites for the Upcoming Missions and also contributed Important Information to lunar science as well. And this is a photograph taken from the first orbiter you can see the earth in the distance and it took a number of photographs including it wasnt until human hands took these photographs that they were designated much more broadly, culturally and socially you see the earthrise image and the blue marble. Those were taken by the astronauts later on but before that itf was similar types of photographs from a great distance. Oc by october, 1968, the United States was ready to start sending humans into space as part of the Apollo Program and there were a series of missions testing out the hardware and learning about living and working in space and it was testing the module. This was december 1968 the first time humans traveled to the moon it was an orbital flight and then followed by apollo nine in pretty quickes secession and it was a test of the module and followed by apollo ten to the first Lunar Landing mission in 1969. Write ahead of the launch of apollo 11, there was a protest in florida at Kennedy Space center. I like pointing this out with this artifact here from the smithsonian. It was a protest by the southern christian Leadership Conference with about 500 people they wanted to draw attention to inequality in the United States and the commission of the urban poor. It was led by reverend ralph abernathyki that led after martn luther king. They met with thomas paine and there was quite a bit of media but they wanted to communicate that as they recognized the accomplishment of apollo but they werees questioning the unid states priorities and how much it would cost feeding and astronaut versus a child that didnt have enough food. I like to bring this up because at the time there was quite a good critique about national the amount of spending onam the program as wel as the vietnam war. Domestically the Apollo Program was supported by less than half the u. S. Public and Public Opinion polls. Thomas paine responded if you decide not to send astronauts to the moon and itms would fix the problems on earth he wouldnt send them the next day its more complicated and nasa was interested and work on applying some of the lessons from the there was a lot of effort paid thinking about the ways Space Technology can improve life on earth. The launch on 1969 the astronauts woke up early in the morning. T they had the classic astronaut breakft,acon and eggs and headed to theaunchpad around 6 30. This was aevt witneed by the whole world more o less so over a Million People at the Kennedy Space center in florida and that included hundreds of thousands of journalists all around the world into the coverage was picked up internationally as well so youth can see an example of thought and audience watching a broadcast ofof the launch and similar seams on every continent people were following the flight very closely in the United States and outside the u. S. As well. After a few days they reached the surface. This photograph was taken into this is the first photograph Neil Armstrong took outside of the window of theunar module. After they landed they had a oflittle bit of time before they went out onto the surface so they had some food, considered a meal but it was relatively light. Here is an example of what they ate. Bacon, sugar, cleanable grapefruit drink. When they came back they would have a bit more substantial of a meal. They were packed for meals for their stay which was roughly a day but in general about 30 to 40 of what was packed for the mission so at the smithsonian locally we have a lot of space left over. So the thingss that were less appealing but im surprised we have the bacon scores because those were usually the most popular items on mission. In microgravity the fluids in your body distribute differently. You dont taste food as well. Sort of like having a cold so salty things tended to appeal because they can taste them and this is true today they use a lot of hot sauce in space. These bacon squares were some of the most appealing and shrimp cocktail also because its a little bit more spicy. So they had a light snack and then neillk armstrong headed out first so he would have exited the lunar module like this. This is a picture of aldrin because armstrong took all those photos from apollo 11. Right before he walked on that ladder, this housed a Television Camera broadcasting the first Lunar Landing to earth so they planned ahead and knew it was important to include the world and this experience to broadcast the first steps back to earth so thisis is where that camera was located and then he descended down the ladder and took his first step on the moon. Initially he stood you cant quite see it here but he took the first step in a set of the famous words about one small step for man and one giant leap forin mankind. And as i mentioned the whole world was following this. For the first Lunar Landing, over 500 Million People watched live on television and over half the worlds population was watching live on television, readingg about it in the newspaper, so this is the most participated in the event in Human History and i like to point out that it was historic not just because humans went to another body for the first time in history but also came together in greater numbers than ever before toxp experience in event together and thats an essential part of the story. The astronauts actually said when they returned to earth and they were in quarantine and they saw all the coverage of the people around the world watching the flight, buzz aldrin said we missed the whole thing because clearly they were having a party here on earth. And this is represented in the Mission Patch the astronauts designed. All the astronaut crews designed their own patches, so apollo 11 michaels took the lead and decided to trace from a National Geographic bird book, the bald eagle represents the United States. They also decidedof to leave thr names off of the emblem. Usually they have their last names on the patch if you look at others to see that. They decided to leave their names off because they thought the mission represented more than three of them, more than the hundreds of thousands on apollo. It was for them and accomplishment for all humankind and that was represented in the way they designed the patch. A fun detail to remind you how new this was of the shadow on the earthar is in the wrong location so if you remember the earthrise, the shadow should have been on the lower part from this perspective but you cant blame them it had only been a few months so there was still a lot to learn. How many of you watched the first Lunar Landing . Fantastic theres a good number. How many of you watched cds and Walter Cronkite . Okay. A very similar number which is representative of the experience back in 1969. 94 of american households watched the Lunar Landing into the vast majority watched cds coverage and Walter Cronkite who covered all the missions was a space enthusiast and trained himself in. Understanding the Space Program at cvs put an incredible amount of effort into the broadcast. Itit was even in the white hous. This is where everyone tuned in. They had to journalists stationed around the world covering the audiences around the world so when you watch the coverage of apollo 11 watch not only the astronauts on the surface but the crowds of people around the world watching with youry so it reiterated this wasa is aglobal experience everyone s participating in together. This lunar module model is an artifact and the one used in that broadcast so this is the one youul would have seen if you watched cds coverage of that flight. Heres another image of buzz aldrin as most people know, Neil Armstrong was the first human to step foot on the moon. Buzz aldrin has claimed he is the first human to urinate on the moon. [laughter] no one has contested that for a variety of reasons but unfortunately the collection device which you can h see here broke as he was descending the ladder. He joined Neil Armstrong about ahalf an hour after armstrong hd been on the surface so he walked around in a wet suit. His experience was slightly different. I like showing this artifact not goy the question how do you to the bathroomt in space, but this is also a way an artifact t can be a silent and subtle reminder ofyo some of the histo. If you look over here, they are quite old now but this is the way an astronaut would attach themselves to the urine collection device and these are designedl for male bodies. I reminded all the first astronauts were men and it wouldnt be until the 1980s there would be women to space with sally ride with the Artemis Program the plan was to send women to the moon in the next few years. While on the lunar surface they conducted some science. Heres an example of some of their tools to collect the samples, the solar wind experiment. They had studied geology, all the astronauts joked they should have masters degrees in geology givenn the amount of training dated. They collected all the samples they were supposed to collect on the firstst Lunar Landing. Armstrong noticed this box still had space so he took a scoop you can h see here he filled it up d put it in this box. Its known as armstrongs Packing Material and it turned out to be one of the most important to samples broughtpo k from the Apollo Program. Each of the missions also had experiment packages. For apollo 11 they had a smaller amount because they stayed shorter than the leader missions. You can see here and i will highlight one of the instruments i like what happens here is an observatory on earth can name a laser at it and measure the amount of time it takes to reach the moon and return to earth. This is first done by the observatory and it takes about two and a half seconds. It can tell more precisely the distance between the earth and the moon and how it is receding over time. For the 50th anniversary it was actually used again. You can still use them to learn about the moon. So they rejoined after two and a half hours they joined the command mule and returned back to earth. The columbia command mel enters thee atmosphere and thans to an elabore system they were able to land safely to me this is an important part of the mission returning them safely back to earth. And these parachutes played an Important Role in that. Early parachutes they learned there was a problem called splitting that you might be able to imagine what that is its when it opens in the upper atmosphere and it can look like aa squid because it doesnt fill out in the same way. So in order to solve that, they had a series of small ones that were initially released and then made with what were called ribbons. So it allowed for a lot of holes to help stabilize at the entry. It got them all home safely and part of the horton system for returning to certain earth safely. After the apollo 11 astronauts landed back on earth, they worked in quarantine for a few weeks to ensure it they did not bring back any moon germs president nixon asked him to go on a world tour to represent the United States. As i mentioned this was an important part of the Apollo Program. Kennedy initially opposed a project apollo with the larger cold war context in mind that they would contribute to the geopolitical position for it sent thela astronauts on a world tour was part of the larger mission. This is a wonderful artifact astronauts visited also they did a global tool over 20 countries theyre getting gifts and all the locations they went to and they gave gifts of back as well. When they were in australia mike collins was given this boomerang. It wasnt artifact and history ofli office flights is what the plaque says. It also happened to be his birthday. He kept it and then donate it to the space museum. Another example of the ways artifacts connect people. The astronauts were connected to aan story it to the exchange of this gift. But then we were also connected to the history today. Which brings me too this for the last artifact i will talk about too. It is one of my favorite at the smithsonian. This is pieces from the right flyer the Wright Brothers flyer airplane which is the first powered airplane flight in 190 through december 1903. What happened was Neil Armstrong worked with eight museum in ohio decided to bring these pieces of the whites brother airplane with him to them at each astronaut was given a personal preference kit you sureot they fill them wh family photos, mementos, things like that. Armstrong decided to take these pieces with him to the moon. That gesture really connects those two moments in flight history and an incredible way. Its a great demonstration of the objects can connect this to the past. He connected his mission the first Lunar Landing to the Wright Brothers achievements off that first flight in 1903. And today we cant look at this appreciate and be connected to those missions as well through these artifacts. As a curator i often think about how artifacts are an essential part of the past what they teach us about the history but they also give us a very tangible connection so the historical moments are not just something in our mind but in the present as well. So speaking of the present this is an image of the south pole this is the destination of many upcoming Exploration Missions theres a lot of activity a lot of interest in the in today. We have talked about that and the question and answer. If you would like it. I will end there and take any questions you have it. Thank you so much for your attention. [applause] thank you very much. It reminiscent of the summer campy counselor in Shenandoah Valley on july 20 , 69 it was a sunday as many of you may recall. It was a sunday evening, sunday nights we got all the boys into the dining t hall to watch there is one tv and somehow we got some kind of signal from one of the stations in the nearby cities. But i the think i recall is it dragged on and on on the boys were fallinge asleep their heads were down on the table. When thehe landing finally occurred it was at least in my experience it was very anticlimactic and a great relief we were able to get the boys up into bed by midnight on that was not something they were used to doing. Many of them wilted along the way. Question, unrelated to that i am sure many people in the room know there have been people who have questionable validity of the landing on the moon and felt perhaps it was staged on the soundstage in hollywood. How soon actual after the actual landing that questioning of the whole thing occur . Theres been skepticism all along in the same way they are e questions and conspiracy theories. The percentage of people in polling that question the Lunar Landing it is a certain percentage of the population. Its usually around 8 pretty consistent. But for many years and saw a recent phenomenon. Something questioned a long time ago. Often aligns with other skepticism i do get asked about it sometimes but usually i get asked what do you say to people who dont believe it . I havent met yet people who dont believe the Lunar Landings happened. Some of the answers i like if they made it up why would they have gone back multiple times [why keep going . Especially because in the United States the interest in the Lunar Landing really dropped off after 11 and especially after apollo 12 people got reengaged apollo 13 because there was a horrible accident on the way to the moon peoplele wanted to make sure the astronauts would be safe. Many of the later missions did notth draw the same level of attention and the question is why do you keep on doing it if it was made up . Another response i like is this is an incredibly complex a program 25 billion at the time. Hundreds of thousands of people were part of h it. It would have been extraordinary to coordinate that. Its almost as extraordinary as sending a human to the moon to fake Something Like that wouldve been a remarkable achievement. There are lots of things you can say but usually that kind of skepticism is not looking for facts. But thank you also for sharing that memory. With apollo 11, how much of the lunar module that returned to the command module if any came back to earth . Or did it stay in orbit . Quick seat lunar module did not come back toth earth. Shortly after the return to the command module. The bottom part state on the lunar surface. We have wonderful photographs of all of the lunar modules dissent stages taken by the reconnaissance orbiter. We have seen these flights from lunar orbit they are wonderful pictures and i highly recommend checking them out. The top would have been jettisoned. And for the most part, most of them are used in experiments to learn about the structure of the moon so they would have crash landed back into thehe moon the astronauts would have set up instruments to do readings of moon quakes they are not earthquakes but moon quakes. There is some question about apollo 11 upper stage and whether or not it crash landed. I know there are people investigating that question for the assumption for many years was that it did. There are some interesting evidence recently it might be in orbit. I think you can tell from the number of people who raised our hands we had watch this on tv that your analogy of the size of the command module 23 phone booths would work with this crowd. Do you have another one for younger crowd . I would love to get one. I borrow that from another historian 210 i dont know. I need to look one up. I do tend to not use that one when it is a younger audience but it is quitet. Compacted. The astronauts after experiencing the gemini spacecraft which is human states with the command modules quite spacious. It was still quite small. Good afternoon, thank you for the presentation. This is more of a technical question. You mention to lower the weight within the craft that they did not have any chairs. When they were re entering and hitting the water today have harnesses . What did they use to safely protect them when they camek bk into the atmosphere . Quick sure. They took the chairs out of the lunar module. That was only used for landing on the lunar surface. But the command module had chairs had specially designed it chairs the spacecraft was designed to handle some of the impact its a great question. They are crushable ribs built into the spacecraft to help handle some off that. The chairs were designed to handle some of the impact it was still a bit rough. They were able to bring the astronauts back pretty safely. They were able to store them away for the majority of the time theyre in the spacecraft that give them a little more space part of the three phone booths. I have a bit of a personal story and i will make it very quick. I was a graduate student at ucla and statistics. I was hired by a subcontractor to analyze the moon gravity simulation. I was a statistician on the project. They collected on the data on collective tape they would give me the paper tape and id put it in the system. The thing that is fascinating to me theres more computer power on our phones than they had to do this entire mission. Them so glad you brought up computing history. Very tied so closely you think of the impact project Apollo Technical the amount of research and development and its ways that contributed to Psychological Development history of computing is the area that probably was impacted the most. Before the Apollo Program computers were getting larger and larger and larger. You may remember the apollo had an incredible amount of resources and to figure how to make commuters smaller and smaller and smaller. They needed computers robust and reliable to fit on the spacecraft. This was a different direction andd computing. A lot of investment in a lot of expertise. The people who came to work on the Apollo Program to work as a first generation or early generation of Computer Science after the program then went to a larger computer industry many of them moved from nasa or the contractors to then help contribute to the development of computing since that point. We cany compare the computers they have been the Apollo Program to what we haver today n our pocket or on our watch and it is an important part of the legacy they were very reliable they were very advanced for the day. They also made a big impact to our ability to have all these Handheld Computers to date. Do you know what changes were made to the command module after the apollo one of fire . Yes, i did not talk about apollo one time reason its a very important story if youre not familiar with it with apollo when theyre doing a test on the launchpad. Fire in the spacecraft that had pure oxygen environment. Unfortunately there are three astronauts inside the spacecraft it was consumed by flames almost instantaneously theyy perished this led to a serious review of the safety of the spacecraft and the entire larger apollo system so a reevaluation of the program and what needed to be done to make sure the mission would be a success in peoples lives would not be put at that type of risk again. The apollo one spacecraft the apollo 11 astronauts to block two. There were another of. Modifications. They no longer to the pure oxygen environment. To help with fire safety. They have a lot of Flammable Materials inside the spacecraft, velcro and things like that. They limited that they help develop and apply Flame Resistant a lot of efforts in the come to that. They improve the hatch. There is a complicatedhe system the astronauts were not able to do it in time. Its part of the reason they perished and so nasa recognized they had to create a hatch that could be removed relatively quickly and easily by the strength of the astronaut from inside the spacecraft in the event of an emergency. A number of modifications and really important legacies of apollo one was a tragedy but it did contribute to in improved Safety Culture at. Nasa. And it did require everyone to lookat all the systems again. You had no more fatalities. One major accident was apollo 13 thats when they return to earth safely. It is a tragedy but also an incredible legacy for that mission. And analyzing the material we brought back from the moon how does that compare with these substances and minerals that exist here on earth . Did we find any new material or did we find material very similar to those on earth . And was there any water vapor or anything like that . One of the exciting findings from the lunar samples they brought back to earth is very, very similar to earth rocks. That tells us about the formationpo of the moon before e Apollo Program they were a number of different theories of how the movement formed. Givennd the evidence of the rocs and how similar they are to earth rocks and composition that tells us the earth and the moon are related. It supported theat hypothesis vy large planet size and body bodyr similar to the size of mars collided with the a earth that d to the formation of the moon the evidence from the Apollo Program contributed to that. Some of the lunar samples are missing volatile. The moon has next to no atmosphere. It bombarded with solar radiation that affects those samples where you dont see evidence. They are very, very similar. One incredible foresight that nasa had was these samples some should be preserved for future scientists. There is a recognition of our instruments were going to improve over time. We have better instruments in 2023 that we did in 1969. Some of us were sealed and have recently been reopened there is a sample taken on apollo 17 which is the last Lunar Landing mission from 1972. A court samples recently opened at the 50th anniversary. On some of our new analysis revealed traces of water and things like that. So immediately following the first Lunar Landing we did not have that knowledge. But as time went on we were able with improved instruments to see signs of water. One of the major reasons there is an interest in the Lunar South Pole which you can see here it can be used for number of different applications. One being fuel hen perhaps for astronauts as they live and work on the lunar surface. Oxley if temporal more question. Are obviously not old enough to be watching the landing live it. That brought you in is this is a specialty of a difference and a strong point from a very young age. That eventually led me to work at the smithsonian after i graduated from college from a historian of a strawberry there. As a Research Assistant and i wit into the archivesth and started finding all these documents related to the politics of spaceflight and Space Exploration. There is one folder in one box the National Archives had extra time for the day i asked for a few extra things. They were all of these wonderful reports about the exhibition of john glenn spacecraft in japan the enthusiasm for spaceflight in japan and the detailed reports of the hundreds of uthousands of people showed up and waited in line up to eight hours was quite shocking to me i have not8 waited in line for eight hours for anything to think about that level of interest and these reports from the state department that u. S. Information agency talking about how that was contributing to the Uniteded States position within japan. Help bolsters the United States position in the world. I found it fastening. In two of Space Exploration on the politics of the Apollo Program that is what got me into it. I dont have a personal memory of the missions unfortunately i wasnt lucky enough to come into this at a point where i have been able to meet many of the people involved in the program and interview them. So the apollo 11 crew i was able to speak with them, work with them and also the engineers and ive been w in touch with many people who contributed to apollo. Its very lucky ive timing i hae been able to do this with people who remember whose lives are impacted over some of the contributors to these successes. Recently on American History tv discussed how injured soldiers were treated during and after t 1863 battle of ysbu. Here is a portion of her. During the day the medical officers were busily engaged in choosing and arranging hospital to the twice of the enemy fire but final wast established in a large barn 1 mile back from the same you are in the barn europe whe soldiers were lying here on julr time after words the beaming is original you are in the middle of history when you are here. This is the barn hes talking about the wounded soon began to pour in giving sufficient occupation from the first of july until the afternoon of the fifth very hard work it was little sleep. Similar operating tables were going day or night the operating tables ladies and gentlemen were around here to your left. They were on the eastside under the eades of the barn to keep the water out and to allow light so the surgeons could see here. He s the fourth of july the surroundings were gloomy. One of the reaso why is because it also rained immediately after the battle. Br say is it says here on the fourth of july, thinkhere about that. July theres nobody a here. July 4 theres over tusand people who are you will see where he says further on we woritho intermission withal aunt of sleep. One day i rose at 2 00 a. M. And worked incessantly until bid that he operate on bodies 22 state street hours here thats one dr. Who happens to be here in the building we do not know exactly how many surgeons were here there is at least a dozen or more surgeons. Youve got thousands of wounded people eventually are going to have volunteer nurses you will have contract doctors, regular doctors. When the army leaves when that military leaves many surgeons go to the Army Surgeons cant behave got to take some of the surgeons you. At the portion of this program which can be watched in its entirety any time at cspan. Org history. Cspan2 are an intellectual feast. Every saturday American History tv documents americas story and on sunday booktv rings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. 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