Apollo 11

The Moon: an Impulse for Mankind

We have chosen the Moon as our goal of exploration since time immemorial when we first gazed up to the sky.

While the heights of the mountains and the depths of the oceans could be visited with the kind of effort involving known means to control nature, reaching the Moon required a kind of unknown, unimaginable effort.

By a very peculiar coincidence, the Moon has always shown itself with a motionless face to us here on Earth, at such a distance that it did not allow us to identify details with the naked eye, which made it appear to us as a mathematical and perfect object, something of an ideal form more than another world.

The human abstraction of numbers and geometry was born along with the observation and study of the sky: the rhythm and the immutability of the celestial bodies, which we did not then know if they were of the type and substance known terrestrial or of another nature, guided our relation with the seasons, with the cycle of planting the sustenance of our families and the rhythm of life for countless centuries.

However, this imprecision associated with our limitations to observe things should not, in fact, be seen in any way as negative.

Is it not interesting to consider that, were it not for our limitation to perceive the world, we would be unable to identify circles, lines, triangles, and numbers in everything around us? If we had perfectly sharp senses, it would not be possible to look at the pupils of the eyes, the air bubbles in the water, or at the stars, and infer the single concept of a perfect circle, which is a mathematical concept (which is then, in practice, so useful to us in this world).

Viewed with more precision, none of these objects is a perfect circle or sphere. So, if our perception of the world were extremely accurate we might not have been able to conceive of Mathematics, which is now understood as the basis of the language of the universe. The mother of all sciences, as famous as it is and the basis of all understanding, so precise as it is, relied on our limitations and imprecision to be conceived!

Viewed in such an imprecise way, limited by our perspective here on Earth, the heavens inspired us in a special way to explore the secrets and depths of Mathematics and Science. However, if, in the end, Mathematics were so effective in the practice of our interaction with the world, could it be considered an elusive abstraction of the world that surrounds us, or rather something to be discovered by us about the ultimate and underlying nature of the universe?

This discussion, which still continues to this day, has been the source of inspiration for our ancestors since antiquity. It is a fact that Mathematics, the fruit of our abstraction or of existing in a Platonic world, perceptible but intangible, perhaps independently of our existence, does indeed have objective reality in our lives.

In discovering the skies, we discover Mathematics and the fundamental concepts that structure our understanding of Time and Space. The steady rhythm over countless centuries that heavens have demonstrated has given mankind the sense of the regularity of passage of time and life cycles despite the ups and downs of wars, birth, death, and the chaotic events of day-to-day life.

It is not possible to assert categorically that Mathematics exists per se, independent of us, or that it is something intrinsically human, the fruit of our minds. In addition to arising from the imperfection of our senses, it may depend on our human consciousness (with all its feelings, joys, and fears) to be not only perceived but in fact, structured.

The regularities and steady rhythm we draw from the observation of nature, especially from heaven, have helped us to understand something we believe in, but that we can not touch, see or smell, something which it is not possible to objectively prove the existence of, but which is in fact effective in helping us to understand the things around us.

Regardless, if someone wishes to prove in the laboratory that the 'number two' exists, she will encounter serious difficulties: the number two is an underlying part of tangible reality, not embraced by the scientific method; it can not be “bottled up” and shown to the world. Yet scientists are not incredulous about the effectiveness of mathematics or, we might say, in its existence.

Similarly, abstractions (or discoveries) about moral and spiritual human laws were also associated with the heavens; things that similarly we believe in, but that we can not touch with our hands or isolate, put in a bottle in the laboratory, even though they are effective in helping us to understand and situate ourselves in the world.

God is as capable of being bottled in the laboratory and shown to the world as number two is. Seeking to prove that God exists in this way is a venture similar to that of carrying out an expedition to find and unravel the number two. Reality and then belief regarding both may even be based on the same ground.

By abstracting the name and details, the concept of a supreme being is linked to our perception of the concept of infinity, applied this time to the attributes of our consciousness and feelings – and beyond: the relativism of opinions about what 'truth' really is begins to demand a single moral law above all. If we do not put God at the center of our understanding of what these truths are, if we remove this being, we automatically put another in the same place: ourselves. However, in this case, it always involves truths that will be eternally relative to others: two is two and not three.

Our explanation of the world has only become more elaborate and complex, but we also do not fail to put deities, “humanizations,” in the explanations we make of the world - whether it is  these eternal beings we do not know well or ourselves (which, after all, we know nothing about as well, considering what mysterious 'deities' we are).

Today, this understanding of the “human factor” forms the understanding of the universe is a subject of Physics research. It is related to the “Measurement Problem” in Quantum Mechanics. “Problem” because it is a problem for scientists that the objective results of the experiments seem to depend directly on the observer's awareness of the measurement. The universe should behave independently of us, in Mathematical form, according to definite laws. However, we find that nature is intrinsically probabilistic, uncertain and that it somehow depends on our consciousness to evolve in an objective manner.

Several alternative approaches have been tried to contemplate this problem, including efforts to synthesize humans as a bunch of atoms that interact with the sample at the lab, which so far have not delivered consistent theories to support this, or, for example, elaborate multiple universes as an alternative to explain it with infinite factual alternative consequences happening in countless other worlds at the same time. Fact is that the question of the role of us humans is far from being understood in Physics.

Heaven is the place where these mathematical and spiritual universes meet and can be contemplated from here on Earth, the ultimate destination of our exploration. Heaven is not only the place where mathematical and spiritual abstractions become evident more easily, but the infinite is also there to be seen, both here and beyond the stars, right above our heads. Still, could it be possible to touch it (with our own hands)? Touching it means touching these underlying realities, the mathematical and eternal forms we perceive of life in all its attributes.

We can go there!

The nights of April 24 and 25, 1610, in the house of the Duke of Bologna were filled with excitement: on the terrace the Fathers Clavius, chief mathematician of Rome, and Cremonini, Professor of Philosophy at Padua, were perplexed as they looked through Galileo's telescope: Moon showed that the heavens had earthy elements: mountains and valleys. It was a place that could be touched by hands!

Instead of demystifying the place of its eternal trappings, this revelation only hastened the motivation for man to seek to touch this place of eternal, mathematical, and divine things. There would have to be a way to reach it.

“I was conceived on May 16, 1571, after Christ, at 4:37 a.m., I was born on December 27, at 2:30 p.m., after a pregnancy that lasted 224 days, 9 hours and 53 minutes,” wrote in his notebook Kepler, one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe, lover of the precision and mathematical conclusions that astronomy inspired and allowed to reveal to humanity.

On April 19, 1610, he wrote to Galileo as soon as he learned of the revelations of the telescope: "When we have mastered the art of flight, there will certainly be no shortage of human pioneers willing to journey into space. Let us create vessels and candles suitable to the celestial ether, and there will be many people without fear of the empty deserts. In the meantime let's prepare maps of the celestial bodies for travelers. This is what I will do for the moon and you, Galileo, for Jupiter"

Galileo, like Kepler, saw the need to emphasize the appropriateness of the languages with which the universe is described. Mathematics should be complementary to the language that deals with the other concepts abstracted by us from life: "Although Scripture does not incur errors, its interpreters and expositors could, nonetheless, indeed incur errors in a number of ways. Among these errors, one that would be very serious and very frequent would be that, whenever such interpreters wanted to stick to the mere meaning of words, thus producing several contradictions"... "Therefore we find in Sacred Scripture many propositions which have a literal aspect different from the true one, but which are thus written to accommodate people's capacity for understanding,” wrote these words Galileo to Father Benedetto Castelli, his disciple, and professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa.

It is interesting to note that the judgment process that involved Galileo, so superficially exposed today, did not actually address the mobility of the earth and heliocentrism per se (one Father, Copernicus, had already pointed out this celestial arrangement about 100 years before). It was the manner in which the concept of Relativity of the Observer (which was not actually invented by Galileo, as is now believed, but which he understood and promoted) could be understood from his works; something that, strangely, Galileo himself understood as being only geometric, which did not affect the questions of the central role of the human being in the universe as the Church also understood.

The question continues to this day! Do we and our consciousness have a central role in the objective evolution of the Universe? At the time of Galileo, the question of this centrality passed through the geometric location of the Earth. Today this question has only moved to another 'sphere': our own heads:

https://youtu.be/CRa2bsADjno 

At the time, the Church sought to protect the understanding of the central importance of the human being in the universe. This issue has not yet been resolved. It continues to this day to be a subject of intense research in Physics, in Quantum Mechanics. In Einstein's last seminar of his life in Princeton, NJ, this was the central topic in relating how he discovered Relativity, and how Quantum Mechanics seemed strange from the viewpoint of the observer, putting us right in the center of the universe again.

Mathematics emerged from the discussion as the language of Science, complementary to that of Moral Laws, both grounded in the understanding of things that can be evaluated and studied by our consciousness. As enigmatic, intangible, and unencumbered in a laboratory environment as Consciousness and Mathematics are, as the underlying realities, they represent the birth of a new era during which the travel devices that Kepler proposed, would now be developed.

The birth of the split within the underlying world (mathematical and spiritual) did not occur at the time of Galileo, with the observation of the Moon as generally thought, but from the tension between English philosophical currents and those the Continent (European), with the former eventually prevailing after a series of political disputes. In the work “Confessions of Nature,” Leibniz established God's centrality to science: the origin of geometric forms, magnitudes, and movement are not the first qualities of matter, can not be found in the essence of bodies, they come from God. Science is not the monopoly of the non-believer: indeed Leibniz managed to achieve remarkable results in Mathematics. The view of separation between Science and Faith is a philosophical question.

In our days the scientist has become the “new Moses,” who brings from the heights of his philosophy the mathematical tables of the laws that govern the world, and ordinary people must understand that this represents the best of a relative philosophy (for there may be others which ultimately can never be proved in all its breadth).

Quantum phenomena actually defy, instead of corroborating, our current view of the world. According to the Philosophy with which to observe the problem, our observations of the world will be considered a “problem” or, perhaps, integrated back into the union, the glue of the underlying world that was split in the time of the Enlightenment, into a new field of exploration, with new philosophical proposals and then derived theories, experiments and technologies.

Mathematical precision is not to be abandoned in the search of uniting the underlying world of consciousness and physics. This kind of research may open new frontiers.

This was the central question that surrounded the sight of the Moon by the Galileo telescope – whether we are indeed at the center of the universe – and which unleashed several philosophical visions and continues today, more present than ever.

The Moon was the first celestial goal of the encounter with the materialization of this closest underlying universe, one that we could touch and intuit, and even perhaps discover the contents of. Who and how to get there?

Making Contact with the Eternal and the Underlying Reality in a Practical and Transformative Manner

Making contact with the underlying reality would be put into practice if, with the mathematics we abstracted from the sky, the natural elements could be understood, organized and constructed to carry out a “ladder,” from here on Earth to the sky, suitable for the mission to realize the mission to touch, with their own hands, a celestial body – the Moon – first.

The mission of 'Who' and 'How' brings together several other aspects of life: would it be a type of politics, a person, an economic model, a type of social organization, a model of structuring projects in particular? What circumstances would make this a reality?

Who proves to have the model of life more connected to the reality of the underlying and eternal essence that sustains all human life and things, that would be necessary to undertake the trip? This has implications that resonate in politics, economics, social organization, and ultimately in all aspects of practical and spiritual life.

The fact is that to build the 'ladder', the Saturn V rocket and all life support solutions in the new environment and mode to precisely maneuver in this underlying reality, it would be necessary to coordinate the work of half a million engineers and dozens of thousands of companies, and in addition, to create new management models r searching solutions and people all across the globe, and from various cultures and languages.

Many consider the Apollo program a consequence of the cold war, a struggle for power and the means to demonstrate which social organization model would be the winner in this new way. What actually happened, however, was something else: the response to the challenge could be multifold, but the one chosen, to put a target above all that, up there on the Moon, turned the problem into something far larger than the tension and the problem of the moment.

'Models' did not prevail in finding the solution to the “ladder” to the Moon, but were, in turn, transformed by the requirements of the task. The winner was the one who forged himself to the demands imposed by the task.

When President Kennedy was presented with the studies commissioned to the Academy on the most appropriate way to explore space (which seemed as thick as a phone book), an extensive and detailed report, listing the most practical and objective actions, the basis of which would allow the achievement of technological, strategic and practical positioning to solve all immediate problems, he turned to Dr. von Braun asking for an opinion, asking for his view.

It is important to note that he didn’t need to take any such pause nor risk considering any further opinion after the complete and detailed work he received from innumerable and competent sources. Politically and militarily he already had an answer, a line of action that, if followed, should not be contested - the best group of people that could be summed up had given a grounded, thoughtful opinion, considering all relevant aspects of the problem. Equally important to note is that he made this further reflection to a person who, at first glance, was no more than a technician, a rocket mechanic, perhaps a brilliant engineer, but apparently nothing more.

Von Braun wrote a letter of just a few pages addressed to the presidency in response. Kennedy and von Braun understood that the goal of the program was something far from being tied just to the need for tactical missiles in global territories, to promote this or that company associated within cold war efforts or economics; they foresee the future of mankind, a new step for humans.

Kennedy then defined a very clear goal, within a fixed time frame, connected with the immemorial desire of Mankind, not to reach the heart of the Soviet Union with missiles, but rather to reach the hearts of people all over the world, summing up the best of all that humanity could offer under a much greater goal, to include that underlying reality, which would make mankind touch heaven, the eternal. 

The weight of this presidential decision was so special and personal, reflected beyond the immediate circumstances, that it drew the responsibility and weight to another level, well beyond the answer based on a given thick report that could be regarded as a 'balanced' decision.

For this task, which was well above the immediate needs of the cold war or companies' needs, computers that were the size of buildings would somehow be reduced and sent to land on the moon, radar and navigation systems, telemetry, in particular life support and control that were only vague concepts at the time and of no use to a war that could cease to be “cold” at any moment, should be conceived, developed, tested and used successfully within a decade. In just 7 years, the systems were ready. The first manned voyage to circumnavigate the moon took place on Christmas 1968. When Neil Armstrong was born the Ford 29 was the car in style. As a young man, he would be walking on the moon.

Among all the numerous tasks to sustain the program, what seemed to have been sidelined by the goals set by President Kennedy began not only to see a much greater return (beyond tactical missiles, computers would bring a revolution and life support systems in space, several revolutions in medicine), but other currently unknown and seemingly distant needs of the program began to be met: many areas of the United States were underdeveloped, several industrial sectors operated with technologies from the 1930s and '40s, and the educational system was far behind schedule, with nation-states needing to be more “united,” among many other demands.

The great skill of the rulers and technical executives of the time, difficult to repeat since then, was to combine in an integrated way, the development of all these areas of society in a single project. This was the spirit promoted both by Kennedy and Dr von Braun. 

Opportunities for all, open to the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOmHvoE2rMs

Then we set off for the moon landing adventure

A million people along the Banana River; over a billion on TV: mankind watched Michael Collins, Edwin Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong leave for the moon on July 16, 1969. The discovery of penicillin, which revolutionized the medical treatment of infections, the first electric bulb that totally transformed our lives and the Bessemer furnace, which allowed steel in the buildings that structured our cities, all made news in the newspapers as well, but did not receive the global coverage nor the interest and hearts and minds of all kinds of people from every corner of the world as the departure of mankind to another world to touch a celestial body (as depicted in the film Apollo 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOsxYsOh5M)

Launch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cOhZv7dhTo

(which is similar to that depicted in the movie Apollo 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-JdqHxqkHA)

More than three million kilos had to be lifted-off the ground. In less than five minutes the tons that were to follow first into Earth's orbit were expected to be more than 30,000 km per hour, then to the Moon, covering over 11,000 m every second to be able to leave the claws of Earth's gravity. Three days of travel, if made by train or car, would be done in 4 months. After the turbulent climb to leave Earth with all that weight, the exit from Earth's orbit to the Moon would now have a relatively smaller momentum, for a few minutes and then without a connected engine going to the Moon, performing in the middle of the path a maneuver to extract the Lunar Module and continue following to the Moon, until the moment of entering there in orbit and then to descend and to land.

Coupling with the Lunar Module: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6F5oHSqbv4

Upon initiation of the landing on the Moon at the scheduled site, the terrain proved to be much rockier than anticipated, and Armstrong took on the responsibility of continuing the descent procedure manually, overriding the computers in Houston, which received the telemetry information from the Lunar Module, which needed to calculate the approach and send it back. Due to this problem, the fuel was rapidly depleting, and they landed on the edge of it with just enough to return from the surface of the Moon and find the command capsule where Collins was waiting.

Landing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgnOvCiCzEg

Can you believe this?

“Can you believe this? Do you understand that we, you and I, all of us, have in fact begun the actual exploration of another world?” - The impressive predictions of Jules Verne 100 years before the trip and the adventure of when we made history in the voice of Dr. Wernher von Braun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3KbhgDLiSU

Developing systems that make it possible to land men on the moon and bring them back is extremely difficult today, let alone 50 years ago. We were exploring the boundaries of space and our capacity as a species. Contract issues coming from hundreds of contractors, risks of integrating components and astronauts that needed to survive and maneuver the 'ladder' without the smartphone, a tablet or notebook or data and collaborative cloud processing to perform complex tasks in real time (at the time and place where they were needed), all of these were non-standard conditions at the time, but much more so today than we are able to live our day-to-day without the assistance of these tools. The program brought the best of society, boosted the wheel of progress in all areas and organized the industry for the world that we live in consequence today.

Even with all the challenges and time limitations, no Saturn has  ever failed to deliver a flight that fulfilled a mission. No American astronaut was “lost in space,” and spending on the program has reverted to direct profits through tens of thousands of companies that have gained the ability to innovate across multiple segments of human activity. By putting the challenge of a spacesuit that would keep the astronauts alive in such a hostile environment, that it would allow enough mobility to explore the moon, NASA did not exclude the competition from a small mattress company from other specialized providers in clothing for exploitation in harsh environments. In the end, the small mattress company solved the fundamental problems of flexibility for space clothing and had an extraordinary boost not only for itself but rather for the entire community where it was located. The parachutes that would help the capsule gently return to Earth with the three astronauts were not sewn using super modern machines and by specialized companies of the segment at the time, but rather by old English seamstresses who knew how to sew the strongest threads, and, based on that technique, the textile segment underwent a strategic change and renewal in the years that followed the program, mechanizing the techniques that proved the best. All this, not to mention all other solutions which served to stimulate all segments of industry and services, such as Cinema, Education, Global Communication and Environmental Engineering.

After all, though, the most important results of the Apollo program were ... photos Armstrong's footprint on the surface of the Moon, the proof of our contact with this celestial world, and our Earth seen from space: wanting to touch the infinite and beyond, we discover the importance of Earth, our home, this blue point in space which is so fragile and unique under circumstances that seem to go against all statistics of sustainable living conditions, and, most of all, we learned how to work together as a species. 

Since Earth's formation nearly 5 billion years ago, the Moon has played a key role, protecting it, receiving most of the asteroid impacts, balancing our daytime rotation and the seasons, pulling the tides and dictating the rhythm of life of animals and plants since they emerged on the face of the Earth. Then the Moon propelled us into mathematics and philosophy, and then into a technological and  revolution as humans. Now the moon continues to play this role, leading us to use it as a launching pad for our destiny, that is the universe, to take the things that hurt and pollute the Earth away from it, promoting a new wave of technological and social development.

After all the automation, communications and computing revolution we've been through for the past 50 years,  the Moon is our goal again.

With the impetus of the Apollo program, in the spirit of realizing projects beyond the scope of governments (which has been done since the nineteenth century with railroads that served to drive the progress of industry, cities and individual businesses based on private direct investment), it is clear that the same push must happen with space and the Moon, allowing thousands of entrepreneurs to, once again, join under the direction of the best hearts in the world that the model can achieve, as it always has been.

Our New Life in Space and Exploration

Other Worlds

The Moon can be now be explored as our guardian angel  for decades and centuries ahead. It will be the place where we can install fully automated factories for all sorts of goods we need here on Earth, as well as a place for disposal material that we do not want here on Earth. Imagine a future in which Amazon expands its delivery operations not only between points here on the surface of the Earth but between the Earth and the Moon.

At low gravity, industries on the Moon may function quite differently from those on Earth, requiring much less material to be built and maintained since there is no snow, no wind, and no flooding. It will not be necessary to build the parts of the factories to be assembled on the Moon here on Earth; in fact, it will be possible to build them on the Moon itself.

There are several types of extremely dangerous experiments with microorganisms and nanotechnology being conducted here on Earth that can be conducted on the Moon. There it is also possible to mine the various types of materials we need for industrial operations here on Earth and to survive in space.

In a scenario where the Moon is inhabited by humans within a few decades or a hundred years, it will be possible to allocate more people there than here on Earth with the new types of housing to make the future much more interesting.

Not to mention space stations, which may contain an entire city in orbit, using artificial gravity – as was shown in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.,” a concept devised by Dr Wernher von Braun at early stages of the Space Program.

Just imagine what a new class of telescopes could do for Science if assembled on the Moon, observing the universe in a totally new way, opening to us, once again, a new age of philosophical and scientific exploration. In a few hundred years, the Moon will serve as the launching pad for new worlds, so that humanity can continue to expand its boundaries to reach its heritage, which is the universe itself.

The current race between SpaceX and BlueOrigin is to dominate the ability to transport cargo quickly and effectively at a cost in line with the interests of all segments of the industry, making the Earth's orbit and presence on the Moon economically viable.

Moon Village:

https://www.esa.int/About Us/Ministerial Council 2016/Moon Village

First steps on construction of a Lunar base by China:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/01/china-change-4-historic-landing-moon-far-

side-explained/

Blue Origin (Paradise on Earth, Industry on the Moon) https://youtu.be/zxPgw1A9R8Q

Installation of Moon Cities and Industrieshttps://youtu.be/bGcvv3683Os

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGcvv3683Os&feature=youtu.be

Commercialize Space https://youtu.be/hNNbv65fer0

In-orbit Construction https://youtu.be/HkU85zKxK-s

NASA Plans for the future https://youtu.be/ I4iUf7l5DA

Construction on the Moon https://youtu.be/2zaIv1TARPE

Chinese artificial moon

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/china-to-launch-worlds-first

-man-made-moon-bv-2020/new-moon/slideshow/66283655.cms

Mars

https://youtu.be/ticaLvuePjA

Other realms

Research continues faster than ever these days, with computers that explore the fundamental concepts of Quantum Mechanics and make it possible to not only realize the exploration of space but to explore the very reality that structures our understanding and reasoning of the underlying world.

This foundation of physics is the new field of exploration of the most basic concepts of the nature and our humanity. It brings back the theme of our role in the universe, and whether we really are at the center of everything after all.

Quantum computers are sparking a new race in this virtual space (digital), where a new dispute is brewing. In addition to being able to model new drugs in ways never seen before, quantum computers may be able to break the walls of current cryptographic and bring a new automation age. 

NASA Quantum Computing https://www.nas.nasa.gov/proiects/quantum.html

The sound of the new frontier revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-FvH2A7Ed0

IBM Commercial Quantum Computing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRaEvXF4YBg&t=9s

We are only at the start of this new frontier, but there is already a market for these solutions because of the imminent advantages. We live now in an age where we can explore the underlying world.

We place our hope in new Kennedys and von Brauns to make this kind of exploration not just a matter of more efficient tools and immediate profits, but of exploring the new underlying space and the endless possibilities that come with it.

Dario Sassi Thober, Director, Wernher von Braun Center for Advanced Research