The Man Who Walked on the Moon

I was going to write this blog entry in 'matter-of-fact' and sophisticated way but I just can't.....I feel like a teenager who just met a rock star and, in a way, I did.  Yesterday there was a Festival of Thinkers panel at our men's college down the road and all teachers were invited.  The panel consisted of;



Charlie Duke (the 10th man to walk on the moon for Apollo 16)



Steve Oswald ( Discover and Endeavor Shuttle Pilot)

Sami Solanki (Astrophysist who is studying solar phenomenon
and is Director of the Max Planck Institute)

Garik Israelan ( Astrophysist who discovered that supernovas create blackholes)

There were other members of the panel, which was chaired by Svante Lindqvist of the Royal Swekish Academy of Sciences Sweden, but these four really impressed me.  They spoke on leadership, risk and exploration.  Charlie Duke was the most elequent speaker and had some really good points to make about teamwork, calculating risk factors and the importance of 'seeing what's over the next hill'. 

The audience was allowed to ask questions so they got the typical "was the landing on the moon real?" to which Charlie answered; "If it was fake, why did they fake it nine times?" and "I don't know about the other guys but they sent me to the moon."  I had a million questions but mine were either science related or more suited for a dinner table conversation rather than a quick panel answer so I went up afterwards and spoke to some of the panel members. 

Steve Oswald told me that a big group of 'old timer shuttle astronauts' were present for the final shuttle launch earlier this year and it was a touching send-off.  He also mentioned a bit about the loss of Challenger and Columbia as he was involved in recovery for both accidents.

Dr. Solanki and I had a quick discussion about funding for his institute as I was curious about the economic woes in Europe and how that was effecting science research...he is involved in four big projects right now.   The President of Germany is a physist so she has kept funding in place for research and education...lucky them.  His research in Solar changes has also been used for pro-global warming and anti-global warming so I wanted ask about that.  He said that he tried to be purely scientific in his research and got a lot of political flack for it but in the end, his research shows that solar differencials do not play a part in our current warming trend....Dr. Solanki also had some great things to say about inspiring young minds to encourage future exploration.

For me, the highlight was meeting Charlie Duke.  He was very sweet, asking where I was from and talking a bit about his trip here to the UAE.  We joked a bit about all the gadgets he needed as he had to remove a cell phone to attach a microphone.  To my delight, he sounds just like he does on all the NASA footage of Apollo 11 (he was CAPCOM) and of Apollo 16 on the moon...a steady, comforting southern twang. 

Here I am shaking Charlie Duke's hand