“One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind” -Neil Armstrong
The moon is a fascinating celestial body, nearest neighbor to Earth, our natural satellite. Pseudo-scientifically speaking, the moon is a major symbol of humanity, representing gods and deities. It’s the promise of a vast expanse of unknown and beyond. Thus, the human consciousness perceives the moon as a mystical heavenly body and acknowledges its power in pure awe. The mystery that the moon holds led to the race of reaching to the moon to uncover its wonders.
Aspirational U.S President John F. Kennedy, after getting inspired by space science achievements of other countries, envisioned sending humans to the moon to demystify it. He famously declared in 1962 ‘We choose to go to the moon’ His declaration began the inter-continental race to reach to the moon; “The Cold War.”
The American Apollo 11 mission was the first successful manned moon landing, through which humanity set foot on to the moon and started its journey of unveiling the mysteries of the universe.
The ‘Race to the Moon’ lead to great advancements for the entire world.
Before Apollo 11
It all started after World War 2,with Russia (erstwhile USSR) and USA eyeing the space as its new frontier. USSR with its Luna series in the 50's, And USA, a decade later with its NASA Apollo missions series in the 60's, achieved partial success. They helped in clearing obstacles and pave way for Apollo 11’s success.
Apollo 11 & it’s journey
The catalyst to the first successful moon landing achievement, Commander Neil Armstrong and Module pilot Edwin Buzz Aldrin Jr. on 20 July, 1969 became the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface.
An average of 6 million people around the world watched mankind take its giant leap. As the landing was being live streamed from space, there came a 2 minute gap in the radio transmission. What actually happened in that 2 minute interval of silence has been subjected to a lot of controversies. This mystery led to a lot of fascinating theories.
Theory 1:
The landing itself was fake.
Theory 2:
The landing was real but the astronauts saw something… Alien species ? Some advanced civilization ?
Theory 3:
There might have been some disturbance in the live stream, due to interference with some unknown extraterrestrial objects. Researchers critics and alike, claim and believe that the astronauts saw a flying saucer like object parked along the edge of a crater in their view.
Conspiracy theorists, after observing the return of Apollo 11 back to Earth, and studying the astronaut’s reactions, say that they didn’t look excited or enthusiastic upon their return. The glorious achievement of being the first people to set foot on the lunar surface, didn’t show on their faces.
People believe that this was a sign of them being disturbed by something they saw on the surface, which they couldn’t share with the public, or were not allowed to.
After Apollo 11, What next ?
After the Apollo 11 mission NASA sent six more manned missions to the moon. The last astronaut to walk the surface was Gene Cernan. All these landings marked not just a milestone in history, but also the beginning to human exploration of the universe, whether real or not. It set fire to the fevered excitement about space.
Although praises did not come alone, there were many critics still believing that the world was made a fool of. But there is a method to this madness. Some were of the belief that the moon was the abode of some incipient life form which could cause harm to humans. The soil samples brought back from the moon also showed some unknown elements. Thus, further confirming the unknown life form does exist.
Apollo 18?
Amongst NASA’s Apollo space series was the Apollo 18 mission. It was not publicized much and is still talked about in hushed voices. Did it discover Alien life forms ?
Was it even real or just fiction? Nobody has the answer to it. The mystery still remains.
Why haven’t we gone back to the moon after 50 years ?
The last time man set foot on the lunar surface was in December 1972,. They left their permanent marks on the cratered surface but over time the mark of achievement has faded. Over the decades, many space agencies had planned to send more people to the moon, but haven’t materialized it yet . According to researchers, reasons are assumed to be political and monetary hurdles and not technological advancement. It might even be the existence of unknown life forms, dangerous to humans, which the Apollo 18 mission supposedly discovered.
Today, private billionaires have started investing in space agencies; they might be the new ray of hope of sending people back to the moon. And finding the truth about the 2 minutes of silence and the Apollo 18 mysteries.
Expectation of new human lunar inhibitions is to create a lunar tourism, perhaps an off world economy, a fuel station for different space missions and the possibilities are endless.
But as necessity is the mother of invention, one day we will go back to the moon and take humanity to its destined rendezvous with mystery, beyond our horizon.
