Posted: 2019-07-19 14:10:00

Apollo 11 brought immediate joy and global unity as 600 million people watched in awe and wonder. The world, for those special moments, became one. In the midst of racial unrest, burnings of buildings, the Vietnam War and youth rioting, President Kennedy's Camelot dreams became reality before our eyes. And that is an enduring happy memory, easily shared with billions. Even today, if I say "Apollo", people smile.

A photo of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon taken in 1968 by the first humans to venture beyond low Earth orbit.

A photo of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon taken in 1968 by the first humans to venture beyond low Earth orbit.Credit:NASA

The world was readied for Apollo 11 by the December 24, 1968, Christmas reading of Genesis from the Bible by the crew of Apollo 8 and the Earthrise photo by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders. Both reached deep into hearts and minds. Never before had we each and all quite absorbed the special nature of Spaceship Earth, the uniqueness of that blue and white globe in the eternal blackness of space. So, in Apollo's time, nation after nation and state after state passed environmental laws to protect the environment. Sadly, the regulations and controls of many Australian environmental laws have gone far beyond sensible or necessary requirements. If Apollo 11 was governed by versions of the precautionary principle now enshrined in Australian law, it could never have happened.

A new space race is now afoot, this time between the USA and China. But Chang'e-4 and Yutu-2 are working on the far side of the moon, the side we on Earth never see. The first Yutu is stuck motionless in the dust since January 2014, on the near side we always see.

Schoolchildren who watched Apollo 11 are now grown, with bright memories of the time, with tales to tell their children now. They remember where they were when Neil Armstrong made that "one small step".

When I talk to schoolchildren today, anywhere, the very mention of an astronaut, particularly a first-name mention of an Apollo astronaut I know or knew personally (I enjoyed showing and discussing life-sized models of my experiments with Aldrin in 2012 in Washington), ignites a forest of hands eager to ask questions. Apollo is intergenerational, a much-needed bond amid the noisiness and rush-rush indifferences of modern times.

Buzz Aldrin deploys an experiment on the surface of the moon.

Buzz Aldrin deploys an experiment on the surface of the moon.Credit:NASA

Dream with me, please. Let each of us take only five private minutes sans those abominable mobile phones - with a quiet family member or friend, or simply alone - to gaze in open-air wonder at the moon, full glory or crescent, night or day, in urban or rural areas. Concentrate your mind up there, focus on Buzz and Neil and their extraordinarily isolated bravery walking and stirring up inescapable fine moon dust.

That magic aura of Apollo 11 will refresh your mind and heart, if only you let it. New perspectives can follow. Discuss with your family if you can see a Man on the Moon. Frankly, I prefer the rabbit. Yutu means Jade Rabbit.

And most of all, if you watched Apollo 11 happen when you were young, share your thoughts with children. Just think, in only two generations' time, when you are gone, they will need to know and tell loving stories of your personal thoughts and photos to share celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the greatest human adventure of your lifetime.

Professor Brian O'Brien is adjunct professor of physics at University of Western Australia, and was a professor of space science at Rice University, Houston, 1963-1968, and a NASA principal investigator. He was the first Australian awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement for his radiation experiment

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