Fifty years had gone by since July 1969, when the first man stepped on the moon and besides being cool to have the man in the moon and get pictures of it, was it a big step for humankind?  

In May 1961, President Kennedy decided that it was time for the USA to take part in the space race. He wanted to send the first man to the moon and bring him back safely by the end of the decade. The idea and its high price weren’t convincing; for this reason, in 1962, the president gave a second speech, and in 1969 the first man stepped on the moon.   

Most of what we know about the moon today is due to the Apollo project. The program was responsible for sending 12 astronauts to the moon. The Apollo missions also collected one-half ton of rock sample, and detailed pictures of the moon surface, allowing scientists to understand the moon and its history. Even though the reasons the man went to the moon were more related to politics than science.    

Other than the knowledge about the moon, what are the impacts on today’s life?

Besides costing the life of three Americans and $25 billion ($100 billion in today’s economy), the Apollo program also has its positive points. Some of the compact electronics devices we use today are a result of the management of complex technical systems and the miniaturization of computers and electronics on board of Apollos and later spacecraft. Those types of systems are also responsible for the progress in human spaceflight, robotic exploration of the solar system, and satellites orbiting Earth.

Nasa’s successors to the Apollo Program will be the Artemis Program, and its goal is to land humans on the moon surface again by 2024.    

At a high expense, the Apollo program indirect and directly helped science progress. A lot in space science has been accomplished over the past six decades. Many satellites for communications and scientific purposes have been launched. Could you imagine today’s life without them?    

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Here is how Nasa sees those 50 years of the Apollo 11:

This post was inspired in contents from spacenews.com

Article written by Juliane Verissímo - Marketing Department of VisionSpace