Michael Rosenthal

(9/2019) In July of 1969 we went to the moon. The launch date was July 16, 1969, at 13:32:00. Who would have dreamed that we could do this? The duration of the mission was 8 days, 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds. The landing date was thus July 24, 1969. The mass of the vehicle was 100,756 pounds on launch. The three crew members were Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr. The launch took place from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, and the vehicle landed upon its return in the North Pacific Ocean. The flight was designated Apollo 11. This was the fifth crewed mission of the NASA Apollo Program.

All three of the astronauts had flown one previous spaceflight, and this flight was the final flight for each of them. Armstrong was the Commander, Collins was the Command Module Pilot, and Aldrin was the Lunar Module Pilot.

An estimated one million spectators watched the Apollo 11 launch. Among them were President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady, as well as many government officials who watched the launch from highways and beaches in the vicinity of the launch.

At 12:52:00 Aldrin and Armstrong entered Eagle, the lunar lander, and made final preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 Eagle separated from Columbia with Armstrong and Aldrin, leaving Collins alone aboard Columbia. Armstrong piloted Eagle, and Aldrin chose navigation options. Eagle’s hatch was opened at 2:29:33, and at 02:51 Armstrong began his descent to the lunar surface. More exact details of the activities on the Moon’s surface can be found in the Wikipedia article.

The astronauts spent some 21.5 hours on the lunar surface, and left behind many mementoes, as well as scientific instruments. After seven hours of rest, the crew began to prepare for the return flight, and they lifted off in Eagle to rejoin Collins aboard Columbia. The astronauts landed at 16:50:35 on July 24, 1969 in the North Pacific Ocean, and they were recovered by the U.S.S. Hornet. The splashdown occurred safely with Columbia upside down but was righted within ten minutes by flotation bags. The astronauts were safely home!

On August 13 the three astronauts rode in ticker-tape parade in New York and in Chicago, with some 6 million attendees. Each astronaut was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon and Vice-President Agnew. Many more fascinating aspects of this experience can be found in the Wikipedia article. The United States Postal Service issued two stamps commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing on July 19 of this year.

Now 50 years later there are still people who believe the whole project was a hoax. This has received recent attention because The Trump administration has ordered NASA to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024. The Internet has allowed the doubters to spread the word of their theories. Polls indicate that about five percent of the public believes the Moon landing never happened. There is solid evidence to support the landing such as some 842 pounds of Moon rocks brought back by the astronauts. In 2002 Buzz Aldrin was confronted and hectored by a conspiracy theorist in Beverly Hills. Aldrin decked him with a right cross. This is yet another example of people believing what they want to believe, rather than what is supported by scientific fact. I am so amazed, as I’ve often stated in this column, how susceptible people are to believing what they want to believe, ignoring scientific facts. As we’ve written previously there are still people who believe the earth is flat.

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The global vaccine issue continues. The World Health Organization has named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats. This is not the first example of anti-science medical dissent. A vaccine boycott occurred in 2003-2004 in Nigeria, and it sparked the retransmission of polio across multiple countries. The belief generated was based on the false assumption that vaccines were contaminated with antifertility drugs. This event cost the Global Polio Eradication Initiative over $500 million to regain the progress that was lost from this false assumption. In Japan complaints about side effects caused vaccination against human papilloma virus to plummet. The vaccines have been scientifically proven safe.

The plastic accumulation problem continues. However, I read about one piece of good news. Researchers have engineered a new variety of plastic that can be easily and endlessly recycled. Only 10% of the plastic used in the United States is recycled now. And why can’t we just go back to paper straws? The worked just fine when I was growing up. This new type of plastic requires less energy to break the chemical bonds and can be split apart at room temperature in a strong acid solution. Conventional plastics require heat and catalysts to break down their structure.

How about some good news. Maryland is taking a strong position on developing sources of renewable energy, with ambitious goals to derive half its electricity from renewable sources by the end of the next decade. Governor Hogan has recently issued an executive order forming a task force of cabinet officials, representatives from local government, and the renewable energy industry to recommend new state laws on selecting renewable energy sites. Governor Hogan is especially interested in developing solar farms. People have objected to solar farms, and say that they would obstruct their views, an argument similar to the objection to wind farms offshore along the east coast. It amazes me how some people can be this selfish. I guess I may be a minority in liking to see solar farms and wind farms, aesthetically as well as in support of my scientific and social values.

There is a widely prescribed prescription drug named gabapentin, which is being taken by millions of people to relieve pain. The drug was originally approved 25 years ago to treat seizure disorders, but is now prescribed for a wide range of problems, including relief of acute and chronic pain of all kinds. When a drug is approved by the FDA, it can be prescribed for any condition the prescribing physician chooses, and that is the problem here. This drug is now shown to be highly addictive, in the manner of opioids. The drug is only formally approved for four conditions: postherpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and spinal cord injury. Even for these conditions the drug has been found to be more a placebo than really helping the patient overcome the condition. But this drug is being prescribed by physicians for other pain conditions. This drug is expensive. In 2016 some 64 million prescriptions for it were issued. Though not as dangerous as opioids, overuse can cause long-term problems. The moral of this story, at least to me, is that one must choose a physician who is willing to

do research on treatment before offering solutions. I spent many years as the premedical advisor in an excellent small college in which I taught chemistry, and though I saw many students go to medical school whom I was sure would become good scientists and continue to study their treatment protocol, including drug prescription choices, there were a few in whom I did not see utilizing that scientific approach to the practice of medicine. Choose your physician carefully.

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