The lecture was organised as part of the Share Learn Inspire
event in which Worden gave fascinating insights into his early career as an Air
Force pilot, as well as his experiences on his voyage to the Moon and back in
1971. The stage was set for a magnificent night, and I think I speak for
everyone in attendance in saying that we got value for money for sure!
The doors of the Millenium Theatre in LIT's state of the art
campus opened at 6:45 p.m. In an effort to make the most out of this Apollo 15
Astronaut Experience, I arrived there pretty early with my father so that I
could get the opportunity to shake the hand and meet the man who guided the Apollo 15 Command Module to the Moon and back.
I had only ever met one astronaut before- when I was lucky
enough to interview ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli in Dublin three years ago.
However, for some reason, this encounter felt that bit different. Maybe it had
something to do with the fact that I was about to have my picture taken with a
man who spent three days orbiting the Moon by himself, and the first man
conduct a spacewalk, or Extra-Vehicular Activity(EVA) on the journey home from
the Moon, forty three years ago. Either way I have to admit I was kind of
nervous!
However, these nerves were soon put to rest when Al greeted
me and my dad with a great big smile and a handshake- how cool was that! So we
had our photos taken. Al was wearing a suit and tie, with the NASA Astronaut
Pin stuck onto his blazer. And here I was, wearing a black sports jacket with a
space shuttle mission patch stuck onto the chest. In an effort to look as much
like a wannabe astronaut as possible, I also brought along my lucky NASA lapel
pin for the added touch!
Apollo 15 CMP Al Worden and I before the lecture. |
Before the rest of the audience showed up and things got
busy, I went back over to Al to ask him a question. At the moment there are
divided opinions regarding the next move NASA will take in its efforts to some
day fulfill the goal of landing a man on Mars. I asked if he thought going back
to the Moon to practice things such as landing, rendezvous and docking, all key
elements of a journey to another heavenly body, would be a good idea. He looked
up at me, smiled and slowly shook his head. What seemed like a good idea to me,
didn't seem like such a good idea to him.
"I think the Moon is nearly acting as an obstacle on
our route to Mars", he told me.
I then asked if he thought the International Space Station
was providing a sufficient platform that would allow us to take the next step
and explore other planets in our solar system. This time thankfully, he agreed!
He said the best thing we could do is to turn the space station from the
orbiting laboratory it is today, into an inter-planetary gas station, which
would certainly make things a whole lot easier for spacecraft making the long
journey to the red planet in years to come.
It was fast approaching eight o'clock, and it was time to
take our seats.
The lecture kicked off with a short speech from Paul Ryan,
founder of the Apollo 15 Experience, and without whom this evening would not
have been possible. Paul introduced Dr Norah Patten, Communications and
Outreach Manager with the Irish Centre for Composites Research. Norah told us
about the links between Ireland and science on the ISS. We learned of the St
Nessan's community college in Limerick, and their experiment which flew to the
station earlier this year aboard the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo craft. The
experiment examined the effects of microgravity on reinforced concrete using
Irish Cement.
Now for the main event- a speech from Al Worden, Apollo 15
CMP.
Al began by saying what a privilege it was for him to be
invited to Ireland, and how impressed he was with the places he had visited
during his tour of Limerick.
Worden visiting local schools. credit: broadsheet.ie |
Worden described his training as a test pilot, in particular
at the Empire Test Pilot's School in Farnborough, England and how it gave him a
great launch pad that enabled him to join the astronaut corps in 1966. Al made
an effort to get the youngsters in the audience to dream big, by telling them
that when he was a kid growing up, there were no such thing as astronauts!
He moved on to describe his voyage into space as the Command
Module Pilot for Apollo 15, as well as all the hardships, training, and funny
stories that went along with it. He lauded Apollo 15 as man's most daring
mission to the Moon, and told his experiences about his own spacewalk to
retrieve film from a camera that he got to do while on the way home from the
Moon.
He joked that while he was alone in lunar orbit, mission
commander Dave Scott and Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin explored the surface
below, he though about leaving them behind, which was greeted with roars of
laughter from the audience. He treated us with fabulous images and video of his
mission to the Moon, but there was one image in particular he showed that
really had an affect on me personally.
Al showed us a magnificent shot of the crescent Earth that he took while in
lunar orbit. Here we see just how small and fragile our home planet really is.
He put it simply- "That's home."
Of course everyone in the room was amazed by such a photo
because it shows the Earth as it really is. Out there in the blackness of
space. Alone. I guess it had such an impact on me because here was a man who
had seen the fragile oasis on which we live, from a distance of a quarter of a
million miles away. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the audience who felt
that extra sense of responsibility for taking care of our planet that bit more.
You can see what Al had to say about the matter for himself in the above video.
The Apollo 15 mission was a success in every sense of the
word. The only failure being that one of the three parachutes didn't deploy
after atmospheric re-entry(This didn't make any real difference, because the CM
was designed to be able to land with only two chutes), and also the fact that
Al couldn't grow much of a beard, having spent two weeks in space!
The event came to a close when Al answered a few audience
questions on the subject of the Apollo 1 fire, the Space Shuttle as well as the
future of the manned space programme.
On behalf of everyone in attendance that night, I would like
to sincerely thank Paul Ryan, organiser of this magnificent event, Dr Norah Patten of
ICOMP, and of course, Mr Al Worden, for coming to Ireland to tell his stories
of his adventure to the Moon.
On a sidenote
I had learned about a week before the event at LIT, that ESA
astronaut Leopold Eyharts was coming to Dublin to give a lecture in Dublin's
Science Gallery. What a shame that the two events were on the same day! I guess
astronauts coming to Ireland are like buses. They rarely come along, and then
two show up at the exact same time!
Thank you for reading Irish Space Blog!