The Moon Landing Was Almost Destroyed Because Of One Tiny Mistake
In the few hours Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins spent on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, a completely unexpected issue surfaced that threatened everything. And though the world eventually watched the astronauts return safely home, reports on the most famous space mission would've been awfully different were it not for Buzz Aldrin's quick thinking.
Waiting for Help
On July 24, 1969, just after noon, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins were floating on a raft in the Pacific Ocean, waiting patiently for helicopters from the USS Hornet to pluck them from the water.
Boarding the Naval Craft
Once brought aboard the naval craft, the three bold astronauts were hailed as heroes. Seamen rushed to greet them on the flight deck, but they were quickly hurried to the Mobile Quarantine Facility, where a special guest welcomed them home.
A Presidential Congrats
President Nixon congratulated Buzz, Neil, and Michael, highlighting their contributions to the U.S.A., Earth, and humanity. Yet, in the midst of the celebration, Buzz and the crew couldn't help but think about how the mission nearly ended in catastrophe.
Magnificent Desolation
Buzz Aldrin made the avoided disaster public in his his 2009 book Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon. Apparently, mankind's giant leap nearly faltered on the Moon.
The American Flag
The exploration mission went well: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the lunar module and spent the next few hours collecting samples and taking photographs, famously planting the U.S. flag on the Moon's surface.
Time for Rest
Their work finished, the two astronauts returned to the lunar module — the spacecraft that took them from the command module to the Moon's surface — and ate dinner before settling down for some sleep, which proved difficult.
Cramped Module
Because even though Michael Collins was still aboard the command module, keeping the craft in orbit until the three were ready to return to Earth, there wasn't much room in the lunar module for Neil and Buzz, two grown men trying to stretch out.
Sleeping Arrangements
They made it work, though. Neil Armstrong fashioned a sort of hammock, and Buzz Aldrin curled up on the moon-dust covered floor. Funny enough, it was this sleeping arrangement that might have saved both their lives.
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Serious Trouble
From his low vantage point, Buzz Aldrin spotted an inch-long, metallic something peaking out from the lunar dust. Curious, he "looked closer and jolted," as he realized he and Neil were in serious trouble
A Floating Part
It was a circuit breaker switch, and he didn't need years of NASA training to know it most definitely was supposed to be attached to something important. After scanning the module's instrument panel to see where it came from, he "gulped hard."
Snapped Off
“The broken switch," he wrote, "had snapped off from the engine-arm circuit breaker, the one vital breaker needed to send electrical power to the ascent engine, below, that would lift Neil and me off the moon" and back to Michael Collins and the command module.
Men on the Moon
In other words, if Buzz Aldrin couldn't repair the breaker, he and Neil would be stuck on the Moon. Panicking, they called NASA Mission Control. Engineers told them not to worry. Houston would have a solution after Buzz and Neil got some sleep.
Desperate for Help
But Buzz awoke to find Houston still had no idea how to fix the breaker switch. If the first men to walk on the moon didn't want to be the first men to die on the moon, they had to fix the switch on their own.
Electrical Circuit
“After examining [the circuit breaker] more closely," Buzz remembered, "I thought that if I could find something in the [lunar module] to push into the circuit, it might hold." But since it was a electrical circuit, he couldn't just use his finger.
Tick Tock
With the lunar module due to launch and reconnect with the command module in just a few hours, Buzz Aldrin started searching through the cargo onboard the shuttle. Those in the know back on Earth waited with bated breath.
Dreadful Second Speech
No one in Houston wanted President Nixon to have to deliver the second moon-landing speech he prepared — the one that read, "Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace."
Felt-Tipped Savior
However, Buzz Aldrin realized the solution might be in his pocket: A felt-tipped pen. With only a few hours of oxygen remaining in the lunar module, he and Neil hoped the pen would work. Their lives — and a nation's hope — relied on it.
Time Management
To make sure they had enough time to look for a second solution, Neil and Buzz agreed to forgo their final few hours on the moon and leave for the command module right then and there.
Inserting the Pen
“After moving the countdown procedure up by a couple of hours in case it didn't work," Buzz wrote, "I inserted the pen into the small opening where the circuit breaker switch should have been, and pushed it in."
To the USS Hornet
It worked! "The circuit breaker held," Buzz wrote. "We were going to get off the moon, after all." The spacecraft ascended, and soon, Buzz and Neil reconnected with Michael Collins on the command module and were on their way to the USS Hornet.
Apollo 14
Two years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin so famously took a giant leap for mankind, NASA concluded two lunar landings weren't enough. Organization executives wanted a third, so they cooked up the Apollo 14 mission.
Nine Long Days
The mission saw Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell suit up for what would be a nine-day jaunt to the moon.
Delayed Mission
NASA scheduled the launch for October 1970, but, after the failure of the Apollo 13 mission, delayed it four months. So, it was January 31, 1971, when these three finally took off from the Kennedy Space Center.
A Shocking Discovery
The astronauts hoped, of course, that their scientific agenda up in space would change the way humanity thought about physics. About life. They didn't know, however, that they'd make a discovery destined to shake the scientific community years later.
Thirty-Three Long Hours
On February 5, the crew landed on the moon. Shepard and Mitchell took giant leaps of their own, while Roosa stayed in lunar orbit. Over the next 33 hours, the guys worked.
Photography and Germination
While in the orbiting shuttle, Roosa took photos of the Earth and moon, including the spot the future Apollo 16 was scheduled to land. He also germinated 500 tree seeds, which, fun fact, eventually became known as Moon Trees.
Fore!
Meanwhile, on the moon's surface, Shepard whacked a few golf balls with a club he built with some spare junk. Cool as that sounds, the real game-changing mission involved rocks.
Collecting Moon Rocks
Shepard and Mitchell collected almost 100 pounds of moon rocks. Scientists were no doubt licking their lips thinking of all the rare moon minerals and lunar geological practices these puppies would help them understand.
Landing in the Pacific
Nine days after takeoff, on February 9, the Apollo 14 crew landed safely in the Pacific Ocean. Back on Earth, they delivered their findings to NASA, where scientists eagerly went to work.
One Peculiar Rock
Unbeknownst to the Apollo 14 crew, however, was that amidst those hundreds of rocks was one that would have scientists completely baffled. A rock that had no business being on the moon.
Professor Alexander Nemchin
This was learned decades later, after NASA loaned the rock to Curtin University in Australia. There, in 2018, Professor Alexander Nemchin made an eyebrow-raising observation about the rock (below).
Rare Moon Minerals
The 1.8-gram sample contained granite, a mineral common on Earth but incredibly rare on the moon. "The sample also contains quartz (below)," Professor Nemchin added, "which is an even more unusual find on the moon."
Oddly Earthly
Additionally, the rock contained zircon, and the chemistry was "very different from that of every other zircon grain ever analyzed in lunar samples," he continued, "and remarkably similar to that of zircons found on Earth."
Formed on Earth
In other words, somehow, among all the rocks collected by Shepard and Mitchell, was a rock formed on Earth! Professor Nemchin and his team were stumped: how could a stone make the journey without hitching a ride?
Four Billion Years Ago
Professor Nemchin and his team put their heads together and composed a theory. The story behind the rock's journey, as they saw it, started 4 billion years before the Apollo 14 crew stepped aboard their spacecraft.
Gnarly Asteroids
See, back then, when the Earth was in its infancy, space proved a wild place. Asteroids were constantly slamming into the baby-faced planet, forming the landmasses we call home (because Bruce Willis wasn't around to destroy them).
Chunks of Earth
Some of those pre-Willis meteors hit with so much impact that they launched pieces of the earth's surface a few dozen million miles, all the way up to the surface of the moon.
Changes in Distance
While this sounds insane, the moon during that time period was about three times closer to Earth than it is now. This explained why the rock collected by the Apollo crew was so clearly formed under terrestrial conditions.
Another Theory
An alternative theory is that conditions on the moon billions of years ago were, like, the total opposite of what they are now, and that allowed the rock to form as is. Nemchin and his crew found the asteroid catapult a more reasonable theory.
Painting a Picture of the Past
Either way, as team member Dr. David Kring, of the Universities Space Research Association, said, "it is an extraordinary find that helps paint a better picture of early Earth and the bombardment that modified our planet." You got that right, Dr. Dave!
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