To The Moon!

Are you able to remember that old television show called “The Honeymooners”. “Ralph Kramden” played by Jackie Gleason, used to yell, “ TO THE MOON, ALICE” , when he got upset.
The Honeymooners was an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956. I remember watching reruns of this show and having lots of laughs.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. He and Buzz Aldrin walked around for three hours. ( Hey, I just made the connection of “Buzz Lightyear” from the Disney movie, Toy Story!) Most of us who witnessed this will never forget it.

Why haven’t we been back to the moon?

Well, this week Nasa was actually set to launch a large rocket to the moon but they felt they had to cancel the launch.

Reuters photo.

“Controllers struggled to get an engine on the 100m-tall vehicle cooled down to its correct operating temperature.

They had previously worried about what appeared to be a crack high up on the rocket but eventually determined it was merely frost build-up.

The SLS is the biggest rocket ever developed by Nasa. It will be used to send astronauts back to the Moon.

The maiden flight, part of Nasa's Artemis programme, is just a demonstration with no-one on board. But ever more complex missions are planned for the future that will see people live on the lunar surface for weeks at a time.” BBC News.

I remember reading a book about the first men on the moon where it was indicated that they actually saw aliens/life forms there and it was partly this that kept Nasa from returning. I find that fascinating.

I’ve always been interested in space travel.

If you were physically able and given the chance to fly to the moon….would you?

The purpose of the new Orion spacecraft is to carry astronauts between Earth and the Moon but it is not designed to land there.

On future missions, the astronauts will transfer in orbit into a landing craft to take them down to the surface.

The landing system is being built for Nasa by SpaceX. There are also plans for the first-ever space station orbiting the Moon, known as the Gateway.

In the future, Orion will dock with Gateway and astronauts will transfer to the landing craft. After their mission on the Moon's surface, they will transfer back to the space station and into Orion again for the journey home.

To return to the Earth, Orion will accelerate around the Moon and slingshot itself back towards Earth.

Does this sound like a movie? Well, these are the plans for future moon visits.

Nasa is hopeful that in 2025 humans will return to the moon.

And I’ll be watching for more about this mission.