©Mark Ollig
When Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin blasted off from the moon July 21, 1969, they left behind more than just footprints.
Before the astronauts ended their lunar surface extravehicular activity, Mission Control in Houston, TX radioed them.
Mission Control: “Will you verify that the disc with messages was placed on the surface as planned. Over.”
Lunar module pilot Aldrin unzipped his sleeve pocket and removed a silicon disc slightly larger than a one-half-dollar coin.
He carefully placed the disc on the moon’s surface.
“That’s verified,” Aldrin reported back to Mission Control.
He and Armstrong then climbed up the lunar module ladder and into the ascent stage crew cabin named Eagle.
The disc containing statements by four US presidents and messages of goodwill from the leaders of 73 countries now rests on the moon.
Each original message was reduced 200 times in size before being etched onto the disc’s surface.
According to NASA, the reduced-sized image was then transferred to glass and used as a “mask through which ultraviolet light was beamed onto a photo-sensitive film on the silicon disc.”
NASA made the moon disc from silicon because of its ability to withstand the lunar surface’s extraordinarily high and low temperatures, which can range from 260 degrees Fahrenheit to minus-280 degrees Fahrenheit.
Silicon, a chemical element, is a complex crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster.
Because of its purity and stability, silicon was used in 1969 to produce miniature integrated circuits.
The same technology was used 30 years earlier with silicon during World War II to produce electronic diode components.
The moon disc manufactured 52 years ago was considered a highly technological undertaking for 1969.
Sprague Electric Company’s semi-conductor division, located in Worcester, MA, created the moon disc with NASA’s electronics research center’s assistance.
I searched the NASA website for information about the disc and found their copy of a July 11, 1969 document titled “Release No: 69-83F Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages.”
“A small disc carrying statements by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon and messages of goodwill from leaders of 73 countries around the world will be left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts,” stated the first page of the document.
The top of the disc reads, “Goodwill messages from around the world brought to the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 11.”
The following are some of the goodwill messages etched onto the silicon disc still resting on the surface of the moon, near the Apollo 11 Lunar Module descent stage:
“Man has reached out and touched the tranquil moon. May that high accomplishment allow man to rediscover the Earth and find peace,” Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.
“It is our sincere desire that the astronauts, upon the date of their landing on the moon, will have made a significant contribution to a world utopia and peace through the universe,” Chaing Kai-Shek, president, Republic of China.
“From the President of Israel in Jerusalem with the hope of ‘abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth’ (Psalms 72:7),” Zalman Shazar, president of Israel.
“On this unique occasion when man traverses outer space to set foot on Earth’s nearest neighbor, Moon, I send my greetings and good wishes to the brave astronauts who have launched on this great venture. I fervently hope that this event will usher in an era of peaceful endeavor for all mankind,” Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister.
“To the glory of the name of God who gives such power to men, we ardently pray for this wonderful beginning,” Pope Paul VI of the Vatican.
President John F. Kennedy made the following statement May 25, 1961, which NASA imprinted on the moon disc, “We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important, and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”
NASA said each message appears on the silicon disc as a dot, barely visible to the naked eye.
Read the 73 goodwill messages written on the moon disc here: https://go.nasa.gov/30LdNjR.
Suppose beings from a future millennium come across this disc while performing an archaeology dig on Apollo 11’s landing site; they will need to use a microscope (or what is available thousands, if not millions of years from now) to read the messages.
We can only imagine how John F. Kennedy would have reacted to the moon landing if he had been alive to see his challenge to the nation accomplished.
In October 2024, NASA will return to the moon by sending Artemis III, and history will be made once again, as the first woman to walk on the lunar surface will occur.
Stay tuned.
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| The moon disc is a little larger than a half-dollar |
