Paul Murphy

Reflections on Apollo

Sometimes I lecture. Today I gave them a reading paper on the Pauli Exclusion Limit which they handled quite well.  Actually, in terms of Quantum Mechanics, its possibly old hat, and now just provides pop culture with all kinds of gizmos, like black hole, red giant etc.  A prelude to the film...

I Saw 'In the Shadow of the Moon' tonight in fact.  Probably the last time all of the former astronauts will be together to make such a film, Neil Armstrong was absent and, as you know, is now a recluse.  Sadly, the politics of the film were as infantile as the astronaut's crew cuts were in that old 60s news reel stuff which is simultaneously cringeworthy and astonishingly naive and banal all at once. 

The power of the media and advertisement too was omnipresent throughout, even citing Kelloggs as one of the promoters of Apollo.  One of the astronauts was going on and on about how he wasn't bombing helpless civilians in 'Nam while his chums all did their patriotic duty to the accompanient of some terrifically bland footage of a USAF jet bombing what appeared to be sizeable yet empty paddy fields.  To their shame not one came out and pointed out the obvious contrast: here was mankind conquering the Universe, yet committing pointless genocide on earth and what a shame or sham it all was. 

The astronauts were quoting from Genesis while performing complex manoeuvres with their tiny landing module.  It was almost tempting to say that 'Nam was the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law, for an eye for an eye shall leave ye all blind, whereas the Apollo mission pointed to a possible post OT future destiny.  

However, the astronauts themselves were unimpressive as technocratic yet illiterate functionaries or mere militarists, knowing how to guide and operate machines yet lacking a stratum of deep-seated understanding, of criticism of America or even themselves as in the  case of the reclusive Armstrong.  Nixon even appeared to read a prepared statement concluding that the mission was a failure, for there was a real fear that the landing module would fail to leave the moon and relocate the orbiter.  Re-entry was simple.  The capsule was almost, but not quite burned to a crisp, surviving just in time for three parachutes to guide it into the Atlantic or wherever.   The film is worth seeing, but not worth going to see.

In the postscript at the end the astronauts have to deal with  all the conspiracy theories that have abounded since the flurry of missions in the late 60s and 70s.  They dismiss them as lies or fantasies: why would we tell the big lie 9 times they contend?  (better than telling it once...)