Region Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary of Moon Landing
By Alex Lloyd Gross
50 years ago the impossible became possible. The United States launched a rocket and two men set foot on the moon, then cam back safe to earth. It is a milestone for science and also for mankind. Today, there are events in the area to commemorate this event. Franklin Institute Astronomer Dr. Derek Pitts will be speaking at the Bristol Library on Radcliffe Street later on July 20. He has a wealth of information to share with people.
During the afternoon, an event was held at the Fuge in Warminster .The Fuge is in the old Johnsville campus off Jacksonville Road. It is where astronauts trained to find out the effects of G Forces on the human body. Going to space means the body is subjected to gravitational forces that could cause people to go unconscious. A G Force is the weight of your body and the effect gravity has on it. A roller coaster has the effect of about 2 G’s . 4’G’s can cause unconsciousness and greater G forces can cause eyes to pop from sockets , depending on length of time exposed and the person.
The capsule would contain one astronaut and they would be monitored via remote cameras. Inside the Fuge, people can see the original console that was used and also climb into the capsule, to experience what it was like. The power is disconnected and it cannot move, so it is safe for people to climb into and that is what they did during the event. This entire event was brought together by a student , Marius Cobani who was a senior at Tennant High School in Warminster. He put a team of students together to do this event and in four months it was put together.
When asked if he is interested in the space program, Cobani said, ” I think I am, I am going to Drexel next year for Biomedical Engineering and I think it would be cool to get some kind of job with this field,”. This building is no longer used for science experiments, it is used for proms and weddings. Today, just after 4:00 PM Neil Armstrong was the first person to step foot on the moon, in 1969. He was followed by Buzz Aldrin.
A small minority of the population think it is a waste of time and money to be involved in space exploration, especially manned space flights. In 1969 people developed ways to launch a rocket, land on the moon, drive around in an elaborate dune buggy type vehicle, collect rocks and other samples. Take photos and transmit those photos back to earth, over 250,000 miles away, while being able to communicate back to earth via radio. Then they also brought the astronauts back home safe, That did not happen overnight.
There were jobs created that paid for families to have a great life. Those jobs included medical experiments that helped invent medical equipment and procedures being done today to help save lives. Buildings were constructed and maintained and cleaned where the sole purpose of those buildings was to insure the space program would be a success.
50 years later, America has dropped the ball. We no longer have a Space Shuttle and the original plan was to build a base on the moon, so that we could launch from there to go to Mars. Warner Von Braun, a pioneer in rocket science laid out an elaborate plan that would have seen humans on Mars. Those plans were scrapped. There are plans to return to the moon in 2024. At the Fuge, hourly showings of the Apollo 11 launch were shown on large video screens.