The signatures are of the three Apollo 11 crew members and President Richard Nixon. The Apollo 11 lunar module shows the stainless steel dedication plaque. From Afghanistan to Zambia, the messages have one common theme: peace. Some speak of their own national heritage, others salute the courage of the three humans who strapped themselves into a rocket and catapulted into the unknown. The messages, intended to be left on the Moon for posterity, are poignant, proud and congratulatory. Inscribed on this disk in microscopic text are messages from the president of the United States and leaders of other 73 nations solicited by Thomas Paine, then head of NASA. That’s why they also carried a small gold olive branch – a global symbol of peace – and a silicon disk about the size of a United States half dollar. Aldrin and Armstrong understood that even as Americans raced the Soviets to the Moon, success would be shared by all.
The astronauts also chose to remember their fallen Soviet competitors and carried with them two Soviet medals, honoring cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who died in the Soyuz 1 spacecraft in 1967 and Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth, who was killed in an aircraft in 1968. It was selected to honor the ultimate sacrifice of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed Whiteand Roger Chaffee, who perished in a fire during the first test of the Apollo command and service module. Messages of peaceīuzz Aldrin and fellow Moonwalker Neil Armstrong chose to go to the Moon with an Apollo 1 patch. I co-founded For All Moonkind, the only organization in the world dedicated to preserving human heritage in outer space, to assure that archaeologists, historians, scientists and tourists are given the opportunity to learn the valuable lessons of our past.
I am a space lawyer and have made it my mission to develop the laws we need to protect historic artifacts and sites in space. A chronicle which celebrates the persistence and passion of hundreds and of thousands of scientists, engineers and aviators throughout human history who have supported the effort to “ slip the surly bonds of Earth” and reach the stars. Photo by NASAīut perhaps most important, these varied objects, and their position on the lunar surface, alone can reveal the true story of humanity’s history on the Moon. Along with scientific equipment, robotic landers and other objects left behind to lighten the load for the return home, there are a number of memorial and tributary items.Īstronaut Buzz Aldrin moves toward a position to deploy two components of the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP) on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity. For example, engineers are hoping to examine these materials to determine how they have fared after continuous exposure to the elevated radiation levels on the Moon. Not only do these sites contain ongoing experiments, they hold invaluable data. The sites contain materials from the European Space Agency, Japan, India, Russia, China and the United States.
There are more than a hundred sites on the Moon with evidence of human activity. You may be surprised to learn that a partial catalog of human-made objects on the Moon fills more than 20 single-spaced pages. They were sentimental objects, intended to be left on the Moon purely for symbolic and commemorative purposes. And the items nestled in a small packet that astronaut Buzz Aldrin had stowed in the pocket just below the shoulder of his extravehicular mobility unit were certainly not mission critical. “ How about that package out of your sleeve? Get that?” is certainly not the most famous phrase uttered by a human while on the Moon.
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