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Moon landing one of the most impactful moments in history

I was too young to remember U.S. President John F. Kennedy's speech at Rice University when he pledged to go to the moon within the decade. But I remember 1969 as if it was yesterday.
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I was too young to remember U.S. President John F. Kennedy's speech at Rice University when he pledged to go to the moon within the decade. But I remember 1969 as if it was yesterday.

My schoolmates and I were of an age where the prospects of being an astronaut seemed glorious and the chance to go to the moon a hoped-for dream. Watching each launch of a rocket - even the tragedies - was a step forward into a future we could only imagine.

I watched the landing with anticipation and heard the fateful "Houston, tranquility base here... the Eagle has landed."

It was one of the most impactful moments in human history broadcast around the world to a collective cheer.

It has been 50 years since the first moon landing. Only six other missions were successful; we all hung on tenterhooks during the disastrous Apollo 13 mission. A total of 12 people have had the opportunity to stand on the Moon's surface. A brief two year period where we were promised the stars.

We haven't been back since.

Or, at least, humans haven't returned to the moon. There have been multiple landings of unmanned vehicles and probes. Most recently, China landed a probe on the far-side of the moon. As the moon is tidal locked, we always see roughly the same face (about 52 per cent of the moon's surface).

Landing on the far-side affords us a view we do not ordinarily get to see.

From a scientific perspective, it also allows scientists to possibly see something new and different as the far-side is not shadowed by the Earth. It is more exposed to cosmic rays and interactions with the solar wind. The chemistry of the far-side of the moon might be quite different.

Other probes have studied the gravitational field of the moon, particularly the polar regions. By monitoring the subtle changes in gravity, scientists have been able to detect the presence of mineral deposits. But more importantly, there are signs a significant body of water frozen as ice exists in the southern polar crater.

The presence of harvestable water makes possible a moon colony as water can be broken down into oxygen and hydrogen.

Both are required to fuel rockets and oxygen is critical to life as we know it. Being able to manufacture oxygen from water would allow for extended stays.

Of course, there are many people who do not believe we have been to the moon at all.

Television shows - from NOVA to The Big Bang Theory to Mythbusters - have tried to provide the evidence and demonstrate the reality of the moon landings. Ironically, many Americans feel the whole thing was a hoax - and deny what is probably one of the greatest achievements in U.S. history.

Although it is a television show, The Big Bang Theory did provide a method for detecting human presence on the moon.

A reasonably powerful laser can be bounced off of a target left by each mission and the returning signal detected back on Earth. The time lapse provides a precise measurement of the distance between Earth and Moon.

One of the more curious comments I have seen about the moon landing was a comparison between the size of the Saturn V rocket needed to lift the command and lunar modules off of Earth and the size of the lunar module itself as it blasted off the moon.

One is a staggering 110 metre tall behemoth and the other the size of a Volkswagen bug.

But the two were meant for entirely different tasks. It doesn't take a Saturn V to get anything to outer space. Consider the Russian rockets used to supply the International Space Station or the SpaceX probes. The size of the Saturn V came about as a necessity to get the Apollo mission to a speed where it could reasonably reach the moon in a couple of days.

The thrust was required to get to the 40,000 km/h velocity necessary for the trip.

The trip down to the moon was a matter of braking and reducing the net velocity to zero on impact. Neil Armstrong managed to do it with only 30 seconds of reserve left. The trip back into space left a lot of mass behind but simply required matching velocities with the command module. It was the command module which then provided the thrust to get the astronauts on their way home and Earth's gravity did the rest.

Fifty years ago, humans set foot on the moon. Why? In his speech at Rice University, Kennedy invoked Gregory Mallory's reason for climbing Everest - "Because it is there." He finished by saying "Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there."

Yes, space is the final frontier.