Page 20 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – Friday, July 19, 2019 CELEBRATING | FROM PAGE 22 later began their excursion on the lunar surface and returned home four days later, the upper stage of the Lunar Module powering them off the surface of the Moon to dock with the Command Module piloted by the intrepid Michael Collins. What a spacecraft was the Lunar Module! Has any more absurd or outrageous flying machine ever been devised? An unsung mechanical hero of the Apollo program, it was splendidly designed and constructed by the Grumman Corporation. It didn’t need to be streamlined for the vacuum of space, but it needed the smallest mass possible for its maneuvers. Parts of the walls were the thickness of soda cans. Because glass is heavy, the engineers changed the window design until there were just tiny triangular windows. The original LM design was rounded, but slicing off parts of it yielded those peculiar sharp edges—and lower mass. They didn’t even provide seats for Aldrin and Armstrong. America should be proud of what it accomplished with the Moon missions, even if we never again spend that kind of money on human space flight. In his essay, “Religion and Rocketry,” C. S. Lewis said that if humans conquer space we will do it as oppressors and plunderers. We are a fallen race—original sin is empirically proven by humanity’s spotty track record. We should take his cautions seriously. Indeed, we landed on the Moon in part because we wanted to win the Cold War against the Soviets, each nation wanting to prove the technological superiority of its form of government. The rockets that carried the astronauts were adapted from technology that would have enabled us to throw megaton-class hydrogen bombs at each other. The space race was a non-violent way to wage that war. America’s race to the Moon was a public affair; everyone saw the failures and the successes along the way. We showed that a free and open society could perform great feats. But when we got there, the astronauts did not talk about manifest destiny, victory on the battlefield, or making a lot of money by destroying the environment. Instead, they left a plaque on the lunar surface that read, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” —Dr. Glenn A. Marsch is a professor of physics at Grove City College where he teaches physics and an innovative course, Studies in Science, Faith and Technology. He is a contributing scholar with the Institute for Faith and Freedom. During a sabbatical in 2013, he was a visiting research professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University conducting biophysics research on drug-metabolizing enzymes in the laboratory of F. Peter Guengerich. “COMPLETE GLASS SERVICE CENTER” Storefronts & Entrance Doors Custom Mirrors • Table Tops • Auto Glass Insulated Glass • Window & Screen Repairs 2034 Revere Beach Parkway, Everett 617-389-GLAS pride contracting inc. excavation and construction pedro maldonado 781-241-3543 president and contractor saugus, massachusetts sales@pridecontractinginc.com general contracting Frank Berardino MA License 31811 • 24 - Hour Service • Emergency Repairs BERARDINO Plumbing & Heating Residential & Commercial Service Gas Fitting • Drain Service 617.699.9383 Senior Citizen Discount Like us on Facebook advocate newspaper Facebook.com/ Advocate.news.ma construction, landscaping snow plowing, paving
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