Moon landing inspired future Maui scientists to shoot for stars
Some went on to study lunar sand, aid Apollo research
Landing on the moon in 1969 was not only one of the “the greatest achievements” in history, but also influenced many young scientists and engineers on Maui to pursue their dreams.
“I was 17 when this moon landing happened and just graduated high school,” said Dan O’Gara, site superintendent for the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy Haleakala Division. “It got me interested in science just as I was trying to determine what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”
With the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing today, Maui County scientists reminisced about the moment when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin safely landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Michael Collins circled the moon alone in the command module. Scientists like O’Gara would not only be inspired by the landing but also participate in the research for which Apollo 11’s mission laid the groundwork.
America’s mission to the moon was spurred on by President John F. Kennedy, who set a national goal for a lunar landing and photographing of the moon’s surface.
“No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish,” Kennedy told Congress on May 25, 1961.
Eight years after his speech, on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft took flight. On July 20, the astronauts made the historic landing. They returned to Earth four days later, splashing down off the coast of Hawaii.
Fifty years later, Armstrong’s famous saying of “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” still lives on.
“It was a big deal. People were watching on the television live all over the world,” said Gary Greenberg of UH’s Maikalani Advanced Technology Research Center in Pukalani, who had just graduated from college. “It was quite an amazing thing. It was one of the greatest achievements of mankind, ever.”
Haleakala to the moon
After Apollo 11, O’Gara said, observatories at Haleakala housed
equipment that assisted in the Lunar Ranging Experiment (LURE). These facilities now hold the Pan-STARRS telescope.
“The observatory was built in the early 1970s to support an experiment deployed on the lunar surface by several Apollo missions,” said O’Gara, who was project manager of LURE. “We made use of the Apollo 11 laser reflector left on the moon.”
The Apollo 11 crew installed a retro reflector, allowing engineers and scientists at the observatory to accurately measure the distance between the Earth and the moon.
O’Gara said that this tool “pushed development and improvement of the devices used to make the measurements,” such as lasers, timers, clocks and light detectors.
“Scientifically, these measurements enabled us to test some parts of Einstein’s theory of gravity, using our solar system as a laboratory,” he said. “I am personally in favor of doing basic science. Measuring distances and motions of the Earth and moon system is just that.”
The satellite laser ranging reflector works by bouncing laser pulses off reflectors left on the moon by the astronauts, he added. A total of five reflectors were installed, three by Apollo missions 11, 14 and 15, and two by Russian Federation robot missions.
This data has been used to measure movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates and length of a day, and to determine the Earth’s orbital motion.
LURE operations ceased in 1990 due to NASA budget cuts.
“We did continue with satellite laser ranging operations though, to this day,” O’Gara said.
Moon sand on Maui
Greenberg is a scientist, author, teacher and photographer who has been researching and photographing moon sand samples brought back from Apollo missions 11 through 17.
“One thing about the sand is that it proves that we’ve been to the moon,” he said.
In the 1990s, Greenberg invented a three-dimensional light microscope, Edge-3D, and then in 2008, wrote and published the book “A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder,” a collection of his sand microphotography. The following year, NASA contacted Greenberg for assistance in photographing moon sand samples using the 3D imaging.
“NASA scientists came here to Maui and I showed them what it looked like under the microscope,” he said. “Half of the work was done here, the other half at Lehigh University. . . . The first thing we learned is how closely related the moon is to the Earth, and tells us a lot about how the Earth was formed geologically.”
He also said that moon sand is “one of the biggest hazards” on the moon, so by researching its components, NASA can figure out safer space suits and equipment for its astronauts for when they moonwalk again.
“When you look at it under a microscope, they’re very sharp and jagged, it’s very dangerous,” he said. “It’s worse than breathing asbestos . . . . The tiny shards of particles can get stuck in all the articulations of the suits.”
Samples used to be stored in vacuum containers to keep the moon sand from oxidizing. While they are no longer kept in such extreme conditions, the remaining samples are still under high security, he said.
“There’s no sand on Earth that looks like sand on the moon, but the strange thing is, is that the material that makes up the moon, is made of the exact same minerals and constituents as the crust of the Earth . . . . So they had to make some theory that made the most sense.”
Greenberg said that the theory of the moon’s origin suggests that a Mars-sized object hit the early Earth billions of years ago. Chunks of the Earth’s crust broke off and began orbiting around the Earth until gravity forced the debris together to form the moon.
“The interesting thing is, is that the grains of sand look completely different, although they are made of the same stuff,” he continued. “It’s because of all the forces that were applied on moon sand are completely different than that of the Earth.”
The moon has no air or water, which allows meteorites and micrometeorites to constantly hit the surface at about 20,000 miles per hour, he said. The energy is “so great” that the dust particle vaporizes the sand, sometimes leaving behind a doughnut-shaped grain of sand called a “ring agglutinate.”
Such sand grains cannot form on Earth because the atmosphere slows down the micrometeorites.
Moon sand and dust have a variety of features. Greenberg said some can look like microscopic dark lava rocks, crystallized minerals or tiny spherelike objects. Some can melt upon impact, resulting in glassy, unique pieces.
Additionally, he said that he’s come across samples of ancient sand grains that remain in pristine condition, since the moon doesn’t experience erosion like Earth does.
However, Greenberg added that ice was discovered on the moon, which means there is oxygen and hydrogen. There are also many lava tubes that can be turned into habitats by blocking off the ends.
“So we’re going back to the moon for sure, sooner than you think,” he said. “When we went to the moon (50 years ago), it was the biggest news there was. It was incredible. It united the world in a way that I have never seen before.”
Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.