Another 'giant leap for mankind' in Moon

I was just seven years old when Apollo 11 made history. Although I don’t clearly remember how exciting it was for an elementary school child, I have vague memories of the entire school being marched into the assembly square, where we were shown a newspaper featuring a photo of the men on the Moon mission.
I also remember the teacher ensuring that all of us memorised the names and dates that defined history, including the event 238,900 miles away when Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
Nobody would ever forget Armstrong’s historic phrase, 'That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind,' he uttered while stepping onto the 'Sea of Tranquillity.'
Although millions of people around the world watched the event live, many did not, primarily due to a lack of access to television sets or limited international broadcast coverage in certain regions. Nevertheless, the Apollo 11 landing became a significant milestone in our lives.
The Apollo missions demonstrated that it was feasible to send people to investigate another celestial body and motivated generations to aspire to greater things; now, over fifty years later, the Artemis programme is sending humans back to the Moon.
Last week, Artemis II launched from the Kennedy Space Centre’s pad in Florida, marking its four astronauts as the first individuals to travel beyond low Earth orbit. This mission emphasises establishing a lasting presence on the Moon and preparing for upcoming missions deeper into outer space.
Significantly, unlike the Apollo 11 mission, live daily mission status briefings are conducted from Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston until splashdown. Nasa also provides a distinct, separate stream of showing views of the Orion spacecraft when bandwidth permits, allows, including perspectives inside the capsule.
However, amid the technological enthusiasm and grand proclamations surrounding the Moon landing, it is often overlooked that president John F Kennedy’s 1961 declaration — that the United States would send a man to the Moon by the end of the decade — was not met with unanimous praise.
“I am convinced that this country must dedicate itself to accomplishing the objective, before this decade ends, of placing a person on the Moon and bringing him back safely to Earth,” Kennedy stated in his speech to the US Congress.
The Apollo missions marked a significant shift in planetary science. Previously accessible only through astronomy, planetary bodies became reachable through missions and sample returns, utilising the full range of analytical tools provided by geochemistry. The Apollo samples have inspired 56 years of research and continue to be analysed today.
History shows that although the United States conducted six additional missions to the Moon, Apollo 11 remained a remarkable achievement that was difficult to surpass. Apollo 13 narrowly avoided catastrophe, and by December 1972, when Apollo 17 completed its mission, travelling to the Moon had become almost routine, if not somewhat outdated.
Indeed, the success of the space journey continued amid what American civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy criticised before the launch of the Apollo 11 from the Kennedy Space Centre that '$12 a day for an astronaut's meals can nourish a hungry child for $8.'
The total cost of the Apollo programme was $25.4 billion, which is equivalent to over $100 billion in today’s dollars. Even now, some critics question whether the Moon landing was a misuse of funds and why so much money was spent on exploration instead of prioritising improvements in the quality of life for people living on Earth.
The answer, as one scientist told CBC News, is to 'establish a permanent presence on the Moon while transforming humanity’s connection with space. The Moon is an excellent test ground for experimenting with what we would want to do in deep space.'