Apollo 11: What next 50 Years of Man’s Terrestrial Romance with Space? II

Apollo 11: What next 50 Years of Man’s Terrestrial Romance with Space? II

There was massive anxiety and fear between 16^th and July 20^th, 1969 when the three astronauts were flied by Apollo 11 from earth to moon. The anxiety on 20^th July among estimated 650 million people across over 70 countries was beyond imagination. The NASA headquarters was a beehive of nervousness as the scientists were glued to their fuzzy computer sets watching Armstrong's televised imagery.  One most astonishing phenomena in the Apollo mission was the effective 2-way communication between the Apollo 11 and the NASA, there was nothing like “no service” or “poor service” covering an average distance of 384,400 km between earth and moon. There was an ecstasy of relief and tremendous joy at NASA when Armstrong’s voice was heard announcing, "the Eagle has landed”. The announcement indicated a safe landing of the Apollo 11 lunar lander in the Sea of Tranquility at about 109 hours, 42 minutes after launch. At that moment, scientists at NASA and millions of other spectators were hugging and congratulating each other for the most amazing achievement in the history of planetary science.

As mentioned in the first part of this article, the pinnacle of event at lunar environment was the telephone conversion of President Nixon and Armstrong.  That telephone conversation was so historically flabbergasting to the entire world. President Nixon described it as “the most historic phone call ever made from the White House”.

Nixon was heard saying “I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you've done. For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world….”

Similarly, Armstrong was heard replying: “Thank you, Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States, but also men of peace of all nations, and with interest and curiosity, and men with a vision for the future. It's an honor for us to be able to participate here today”.

The astronauts spent a total of three days on the moon while the lunar rover was driven across the satellite's surface. Thereafter, the next challenge was mounting on the Apollo 11 and fly back to the earth surface with lunar souvenirs safely as scheduled. Apollo 11 spacecraft was made up of three parts; the Command Module nicknamed "Columbia," Service Module and the Lunar Module, christened "Eagle." The Service Module contained the main spacecraft propulsion system and consumables while the Lunar Module was the two-person craft used by Armstrong and Aldrin to descend to the Moon's surface on July 20. The Command Module is the only portion of the spacecraft that returned to Earth. While the duo of Armstrong and Aldrin were on the moon surface with Eagle, Collins flied Columbia solo around the Moon. Collins being alone flying round the moon, should have been afraid of being separated from others especially when he was out of radio contact with the Earth in the 48 minutes of each orbit as Columbia passed round the far side of the Moon. However, his feeling was not fear or loneliness, but rather "awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation” as he wrote in his autobiography. He added, "this venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two". Those were words of brave personality, Collins.

On commencing the return trip, Armstrong and Aldrin had to join Colombia by bravely using Eagle's ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that propelled Columbia out of the last of its 30 lunar orbits onto a trajectory back to Earth. The rendezvoused time for the occupants of Eagle to join Columbia was 21.24 GMT and 11 minutes after, the two were docked before Eagle’s ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit. It was an amazing and unbelievable scenario performed by the trio.

Just before the Apollo 12 flight, it was noted that Eagle was still likely to be orbiting the Moon. Later NASA reports mentioned that Eagle's orbit had decayed, resulting in it impacting in an "uncertain location" on the lunar surface.

On July 23, the last night before splashdown, the three astronauts made a televised broadcast that were historic and monumental in the history space expedition.

Collins was quoted: ... The Saturn V rocket which put us in orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly ... We have always had confidence that this equipment will work properly. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of people ... All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, "Thank you very much."

While Aldrin said: “This has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown ... Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind. "When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"

Armstrong concluded: “The responsibility for this flight lies first with history and with the giants of science who have preceded this effort; next with the American people, who have, through their will, indicated their desire; next with four administrations and their Congresses, for implementing that will; and then, with the agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft, the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle, and the little EMU, the spacesuit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. We would like to give special thanks to all those Americans who built the spacecraft; who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their hearts and all their abilities into those craft. To those people tonight, we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight, God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11."

The three prodigious astronauts who made America great returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space. The touchdown of Columbia was at 17:53 GMT, the helicopter was lowered by the elevator into the hangar bay, where the astronauts walked into the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF), where they spent 21 days of quarantine to ensure that they did not bring deadly diseases or pests from the Lunar environment. This practice was continued for two more Apollo missions before the Moon was proven to be barren of life, and the quarantine process stopped. President Nixon welcomed the astronauts back to Earth and told them that: "As a result of what you've done, the world has never been closer together before."

After the successful outing of the Apollo 11, Apollo 12 followed immediately. America sent another manned spacecraft to the moon. Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11.

Between 1969 and 1972 six Apollo missions brought back 382 kilograms of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and dust from the lunar surface. The six space flights returned 2200 separate samples from six different exploration sites on the Moon. After these successful Apollo missions, another manned mission in the 1980s called challenger was mortal disaster that shocked the world beyond belief. What happened and what are the advances in space technological breakthroughs? To be continued next week

Apollo 11: What next 50 Years of Man’s Terrestrial Romance with Space?

Apollo 11: What next 50 Years of Man’s Terrestrial Romance with Space?

Man is inexplicably the most adventurous specie in the midst of the living things.  Among men, there are men; some are die-hard audacious, some are chickenhearted while the rest are in-between. President John F. Kennedy of the United State of America was one of the most progressive and visionary World leaders of the 20th century.  Precisely, on the 25^th day of May, 1961, President Kennedy set a monumental goal, the first in the history of mankind, to transport and land man on the surface of the Earth’s lunar, the only known moon to the planet. He addressed the US Congress with a clear message to the rest of the World: "I believe that this nation (USA) should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. 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." After this statement, the goal was achieved eight years after with a staggering expenditure of $25.4 billion dollars for landing man on the moon and back to the Earth safely and heartily. These billions of US Dollars were estimated to be the total cost of the Apollo program. The whole World was amazed, some felt it was a crazy idea or shear madness, and some were indifferent while several others in Africa were oblivion to the historic event as they were sternly confronted with challenges of post independent era. In Nigeria, despite a bloody civil war at the period, there was massive awareness of the Apollo 11 mission in the north, which propelled the legendry Hausa Singer, Alhaji Mamman Shata of blessed memory to sing “Kumbo Apollo 11”. Another famous Singer of blessed memory Maman Gawo of Niger republic equally sang the Apollo 11 in Hausa language. While Shata explicitly commended the giant effort of the USA for the mission, describing the speed of Apollo 11 as fast as that of lightening (sauri kamar warkiya), Gawo warned America to “let the sleeping dog lie to avoid its madness (catastrophe) ” (kar kuje ku nemo wata rigima). Those two songs in Hausa language were so eloquent and educated to some us even as teenagers making the Apollo 11 mission the most distinctly understood subject at the time. Thanks to those eminent and brainy singers; Shata and Gawo of Nigeria and Niger republics.

 From the day, President Kennedy promised the World of American plan on planetary mission to the moon, American scientists in NASA assiduously worked not only to realize American dream but to meet the deadline set by their coveted president. President Kennedy made the famous pledge after his inspiration by Alan Shepard space mission in that same year 1961. Alan Shepard was the first American ever to fly in space. Shepard was one of the original seven astronauts chosen by NASA for its Mercury program. He became the first American in space on 5^th May 1961, when he went aloft in the Freedom 7 capsule for a 15-minute sub-orbital flight. The Shepard mission convinced Kennedy that America could move to the next level ahead of other contending countries in space mission especially Russia, and thus, promised the World what then seemed to be “mission impossible”. Thus, The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy, perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.

Additional objectives to the mission included scientific exploration of the lunar module crew; deployment of a television camera to transmit signals to the Earth; and deployment of a solar wind composition experiment and seismic experiment package. Consequently, the two astronauts of the mission were to gather samples of lunar-surface materials for return to Earth. They were also to extensively photograph the lunar terrain, the deployed scientific equipment, the Lunar Module spacecraft, and they were, both to use still and motion picture cameras as much as possible.  

On July 16, at precisely 13:32 GMT, a Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida speedily launched Apollo 11. It was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program at the time of the launching. The spacecraft (Apollo 11) traveled a distance of 384,000 kilometers in 76 hours before it entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, July 20 at 1:46 p.m. the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin touched down in the Sea of Tranquility in Site 2 at 0 degrees, 41 minutes, 15 seconds north latitude and 23 degrees, 26 minutes east longitude on the moon surface. This was about seven kilometers away from the predicted or designed touchdown point and occurred almost one-and-a-half minutes earlier than scheduled time. After the landing, it was almost four hours later that Armstrong emerged from the Eagle and deployed the TV camera for the transmission of the event to Earth.

On that date, July 20^th, 1969, there was massive anxiety and fear of whether the mission was to be successful or not, what could be the repercussion (if any) or benefits to mankind from an “extra length” in man’s effort at planetary expedition, (kada ku tono wata rigima) etc. An estimated 650 million people across in over 73 countries globally were glued to their fuzzy television sets watching Armstrong's televised image and heard his voice announced: "the Eagle has landed”. Minutes later, he was seen gently leaping announcing the event as he took each step"...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". Armstrong was the first person to set his feet on the moon’s surface with footprints. The first footprints put on the moon will probably remain for a long time, perhaps, almost as long as the moon lasts in planetary world. This is because Lunar environment is not similar to our environment on Earth, there is no erosion by wind or water on the moon because it has no atmosphere and all the water on the surface is frozen as ice and thus, any mark made on the moon surface is likely to remain forever.

 The events of 20^th and 21^st July 1969 when moon received her first human visit of three American men with their craft are chronicled serially: at about 109 hours, 42 minutes after launch, Armstrong stepped onto the moon. About 20 minutes later, Aldrin followed him. The camera was then positioned on a tripod about 30 feet from the Lunar Module. Half an hour later, President Nixon spoke by telephone link with the astronauts. After Aldrin had spent one hour, 33 minutes on the surface, he re-entered the Lunar Module, followed 41 minutes later by Armstrong. The entire Extravehicular Activity (EVA) duration lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, ending at 111 hours, 39 minutes into the mission. Armstrong and Aldrin spent a total of 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface and collected 21.5 kg of lunar material to bring back to the Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the Moon's surface

During their stay on the moon, they did several activities including hoisting of American flag, photographing and collection of soil samples and rocks among other historical events. However, the climax was the telephone conversion with President Nixon who became next American President after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. That telephone conversation was so historic astonishing to the entire world. President Nixon described it as “the most historic phone call ever made from the White House”.

Nixon: Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you've done. For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one: one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth.

Armstrong: Thank you, Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States, but also men of peace of all nations, and with interest and curiosity, and men with a vision for the future. It's an honor for us to be able to participate here today.

To be continued next week

Nigeria, Creativity in Nigerians and the Missing Link IV

Nigeria, Creativity in Nigerians and the Missing Link IV

This is the concluding part of a 4-series article that chronicled three important issues concerning Nigeria, our motherland in which we accidently found ourselves as citizens. The first issue is Nigeria as a nation with her very rich and unquantifiable natural resources. The second issue is Nigerians as citizens with their unlimited ingenuity, resourcefulness, capacity and making waves in all nooks and crannies of the seven continents of the World. The third issue is the missing link that is supposed to connect the country with these special breeds of Nigerians.   In the first article presented the variety of Natural Resources available in all the 36 states and FCT. They range from precious metals various stones to industrial such as Barites, Gypsum, Kaolin and Marble. Each state and FCT has over three mineral resources. Example, Kaduna state alone has varieties of minerals such as Amethyst, Aqua Marine, Asbestos, Clay, Flosper, Gemstone, Gold, Graphite, Kaolin, Hyanite, Mica, Rock Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Sihnite, Superntinite, Tentalime, Topaz & Tourmaline. Similarly, Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau, Sokoto, Edo, Imo, Zamfara and Katsina states have varieties of mineral resources like to those in Kaduna State. Each of these mineral resources is reported to be in appreciable quantity spread over large area. For instance, there are about 3 billon tonnes of iron ore deposits in Kogi, Niger and FCT, 10 million tons of zinc/lead in Abuja, Kano, Cross River and over 2 million tons of rock salts and over 3 billion tons of coal deposits in Plateau, Enugu, Anambra and other states. Large quantity of gold is found in Zamfara, Sokoto, Oyo, Niger, Kwara and Kebbi states among others.  Two other major natural resources extremely important and dependable to Nigeria are oil and gas. Nigeria is the largest oil producing country in Africa. Experts have estimated that Nigerian oil and gas reserves are 23 billion barrels of crude oil and 160 trillion cubic meters of gas www.nigeria.gov.ng. These mineral resources provide tremendous investment opportunities for economic growth and nation building. Additionally, Nigeria has mean annual rainfall of 1390 mm resulting to 305 billion cubic meters of water annually. Thus, Nigeria has seven distinct climate zones, which provide average annual rainfall ranging from 700 mm in the far north (Sahel savannah) to 4,000 mm in riverine and mountainous areas in the south. Again, the third biggest River with a length of 4,180 Km in Africa, River Niger passes through the country and drains an average discharge of 5,589 m³/s into Atlantic Ocean. The River has six major perennial rivers as tributaries crisscrossing the length and breath of Nigeria making it the most endowed country with unlimited water resources.   

Land resources are similarly in abundance. Nigeria has 91 million hectares of arable land with merely 50 % utilization despite the quantum of water resources, soil fertility, favorable topography and climates.

The second and third parts of the article dwelled on the Nigerians, the population explosion. From 1960 to 2019, Nigerian population was increased by 444%. Today, one person out of 39 people in the World is a Nigerian. In the next thirty years, Nigeria will have an estimated population of 450 million people and will occupy the 3rd position of the top most populous country in the World after India and China. Interestingly, more than 60 percent of Nigerian population is under the age of 24 years. The rate of population growth in Nigeria is “one birth in every four seconds and one death in every fourteen seconds”. This demographic analysis clearly shows that Nigeria is tremendously endowed with human resources. Despite low quality of human resources, the few qualitative Nigerians are excellently performing in their various endeavors. Among this category of Nigerians are duly elected people in to various political offices in diaspora. The citizens of their host countries elected such Nigerians in Europe and America were presented. In United Kingdom alone nine prominent Nigerians were elected either as mayors or British Members of Parliament. Names like Chuka Umunna, Helen Grant, Abimbola Afolami, Kate Osamor and Kemi Badenoch featured. Others were Ernest Ezeajughi, Chinyelu Susan Onwurah and Olugbenga Babatola among several Nigerians. In most cases, they made history as the first black persons to hold such elective posts, which were hitherto exclusive reserve for white men/women or indigenous people of such countries.

On excellent academic feat achieved by Nigerians abroad, an exquisite example of Nigerians performance at graduation ceremony of Howard University, Washington DC in 2016. These few Nigerians endowed with creative capacities and innovative thinking underscore the creativity of Nigerians in excelling amid challenges.   Nigerians graduating from the university won sixteen academic prizes out of a total of twenty sevens available prizes. The total number of graduates came from 46 states of America and 35 other countries across the globe.  Yet, Nigerians won 16 awards and left only 11 awards to American citizens from 46 states and other nationals from 34 different countries. On invention, innovation and business, three among many other Nigerians who distinguished themselves were mentioned. At the end of the three articles, questions were asked.  With all these vast natural resources and few citizens with high innovative acumen and excelling in all aspects of human endeavor, why is Nigerian system not working? Why is the country facing multifaceted problems? What is really the missing link between Nigeria with her vast resources and the few distinguished Nigerians who are superbly doing well in other climes? There are factors for fast-tracking the linkage.

The factors responsible for bringing the missing link are good governance and nationalism. Good governance and nationalism are the strong pillars for a nation building and excellent performance among the comity of nations. What are the factors embedded in good governance and nationalism? How can Nigerian people use them to address our challenges to the national development? 

Good governance is an elusive objective that means different things to different people or organizations depending on what the intention is aimed at. However, there is a general consensus its concept; “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development”. It is therefore an effective and responsible management of an organization, a society or country that includes good consideration of the society’s needs in the decisions making

Good governance centers on the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs of the entire people as opposed to select groups in society. Consequently, the leaders of good governance must revisit policies that have worked in the past, set priorities in a strategic way, consider policies with greater impact on poverty alleviation and development as well as look for innovative ways to implement such policies effectively. What are the factors initiating good governance?

The first factor is the establishment and due adherence to the rule of law, leaders and followers must respect law, regulation, procedure and order in their conducts privately and officially.  Nobody should be above law and the law should treat citizen’s equal before it. Anarchy and chaos hold sway in a society where rule of law is absence. The second one is provision of security. Physical, economical and social security’s must prevail at all time to galvanize economic development and allow peace to prevail. The best of an average citizen comes out when such citizens feel secured and assured socially and economically, corruption has relatively no place where rules of law are strictly observed.  

The third factor of achieving good governance is strategic planning with clear focus for national development. A country must have a national developmental plan, what the country wants to achieve now and in the future; short, medium and long term plans with clear strategies on how to accomplish such plans. There must be national focus and direction and a clearly defined strategy to move the country towards such direction. The strategy must include actions to implement the strategic plan. The choice of the actions must be made based on merit and national spread to create sense of ownership to the citizens.   

The second pillar of a nation building is nationalism. The word nationalism has both negative and positive connation depending on context and individual outlook. However, in this piece, Nationalism is an ideological concept based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests. Thus, nationalism makes people to think of what first they can do to their country before what their country should do for them.

In conclusion, President Muhammadu Buhari has an ample opportunity to midwife and mastermind the erection of these two pillars; good governance and nationalism to galvanize true change in the right direction. Yes, Nigeria should drift from abyss of despair and calamity, move towards economic progress and deservedly acclaim its rightful position. Can Buhari regime make it?  Four years period is enough time to do that