"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong, 1969
When you think about "the moon," do you think about complex scientific experiments and things related to NASA? It's less common to think about the findings of our ancestors, who lived when empirical, modern science was not yet as established.
Primitive astrologists and amateur scientists once designated the Moon, shining luminously in the night sky, the "Great Mother." Even if they didn't have scientific instruments, they understood the pattern of seasons by studying how the moon moved. For Ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, the Moon was part of spiritual life, being connected through the years with women's reproductive cycles.
Ancient Babylonians and Indians additionally observed the changing faces of the Moon, basing their calendars on its monthly shifts.
One of the first predictions about the Moon originates from philosopher Anaxagoras (d. 428 BC), who hypothesized that the Sun and the Moon were two large rocks (pretty close, right?)
Another key individual in the field was Aristotle, who proposed a model of the universe that divided it into two parts: an outer celestial and an inner terrestrial spherical region. In a testament to the Moon's significance, the line between these two sections was designated its orbit! Furthermore, Aristotle and Pliny the Elder advocated that the full moon induced insanity in susceptible individuals, truly emphasizing how much the early scientific community believed in the Moon's power and influence. This idea can still be observed today through superstition and supernatural tales.
By the beginning of the Middle Ages, an increasing number of scientists became interested in astronomy, especially in the Moon. Before the invention of the telescope, the Moon was considered a sphere that was "perfectly smooth." Disputing this theory with his invented telescope, Galileo Galilei, in his book Siderius Nuncius, noted that it had mountains and craters in 1609.
Just four months prior, English mathematician Thomas Harriot uncovered the same "unknown features," including craters just like Galileo in his unpublished artistic rendering of the Moon's face.
Later in the same century, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi penned lunar features that are still used today.
Lunar craters, first noted by Harriot and Galileo, were thought to be volcanic until Richard Proctor's theory that collision formed the divots as publicized in the 1870s. This new view used evidence from the experimentation of geologist Grove Gilbert, leading to the development of lunar stratigraphy, which, by the 1950s, was becoming part of astrogeology.
During the late 1950s, the United States Army conducted Project Horizon, a classified feasibility study that proposed constructing a staffed military outpost on the Moon. This fortress would have the potential to operate a wide range of missions, from scientific research to nuclear Earth bombardment.
In his now-famous speech, President John F. Kennedy definitively declared that there would be a human moon landing soon. By the end of 1961, the United States had launched a series of unmanned probes to better understand the lunar surface in preparation for human missions.
On July 21st, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon's surface as the guide of the American mission Apollo 11.
Since the dawn of time, the Moon has been a source of curiosity. However, following the Moon landing, the public's interest in the universe above was reinvigorated. In the decades that followed, there were thousands of new experiments, ideas, and programs to learn more about this incredible satellite.
The most recent program organized by NASA is the Artemis program, a U.S government-funded international human spaceflight effort attempting to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo program. If all goes as planned, the program should take place by 2024.
Considering the past, our present, and our future on the Moon or Moon research, would you like to be extremely close to the lunar surface, or do you like keeping your feet firmly on the ground?
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