70 July/August 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com
While immensely
proud of the first moon
landing, Apollo 11
Command Module pilot
Michael Collins, 88 ,
believes there’s no
need to go back.PM: What do you think
is the next step in human
space exploration?
Collins: I always joked that
NASA sent me to the wrong
planet. If we really want to
study space, we should sail
right by the close-up moon and
head to Mars. It’s the closest
thing to a sister planet we have.Why haven’t we made it to
the Red Planet?
Going to Mars makes Apollo
look like child’s play. The
orbits of Earth and Mars are
both gigantic ellipses. The
first thing is to get them in
proper alignment. If you
make a Hohmann transfer,
which is the most economical
fuel transfer in a trajectory,
it will still take about six
months to get there. How-
ever, when you land, you can’t
turn around and come home
because now the planets are
in exactly the wrong align-ment. That means waiting
on [Mars’s] surface for close
to a year before they are back
in proper alignment to get
home. We are talking about a
two-year round trip. The chal-
lenges are immense.Do you think the US needs
to remain the leader in
human space exploration?
I’m very proud that the first
f lag on the moon was an
American one. However, I
will say that after the f light
of Apollo 11, the three of us,
Neil, Buzz, and I, were hon-
ored to make a trip around the
world. I thought everywhere
we went, people would say
‘You Americans finally did it.’
Instead, they all said ‘We did
it.’ The human race had left
our home planet, and every-
one felt they were a part of
that. I thought that was won-
derful. The idea of bringing
different countries togetherto plan and execute a voyage
to Mars would override the
pride I would get if it was sim-
ply an American venture.Should we revisit the lunar
surface as Vice President
Pence declared?
I don’t think the moon is
that important to us, but it
may become important for
the chemical elements that
are rare on Earth. Beyond
that, I can bypass the moon.
I like what I would call the
John F. Kennedy mission to
Mars, “We choose to go.. .not
because it’s easy, but because
it’s hard.”
I look at the night sky and
see all of these miraculous
things. Humankind should
get moving outward bound.
That concept is very impor-
tant to me, and I think it ought
to be important to human-
kind. That’s why I want to go
to Mars.“WE
SHOULD
SAIL RIGHT
BY THE
MOON AND
HEAD TO
MARS”
If the Saturn V rocket
had exploded, it would
have created a fireball
in excess of 2,5000F.
Upon returning to
Earth, Apollo 11
astronauts were
quarantined for
two weeks in case
they had been
contaminated with
dangerous pathogens.
President Richard
Nixon’s speechwriter
drafted a just-in-case
address, July 18, 1969:
“IN EVENT OF MOON
DISASTER: Fate has
ordained that the men
who went to the moon
to explore in peace will
stay on the moon to
rest in peace.
“These brave men,
Neil Armstrong and
Edwin Aldrin, know
that there is no hope
for their recovery.
But they also know
that there is hope
for mankind in their
sacrifice...”
The mission was
so dangerous,
the astronauts
couldn’t get life
insurance. So they
each autographed
hundreds of philatelic
“covers,” envelopes
their friends had
postmarked on July
20, 1969, which they
knew their families
could sell to collectors
to fund their kids’
college education if
they did not return.
Aldrin threw a
Buzz uppercut. In
2002, the former
astronaut punched a
documentary maker
who poked him with a
Bible and demanded
he swear the moon
landing wasn’t staged.
Sorry, hoax theorists:
NASA’s Lunar
Reconnaissance
Orbiter Camera took
photos of the six
American flags left
on the moon. Five are
standing; Apollo 11’s
was knocked down by
takeoff thrust. TIME^ LIFE^ PICTURES/NASA/THELIFEPICTURE^COLLECTION/GETTYIMAGES15 →16 →17 →18 →19 →20 →APOLLO^1150 T
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APOLLO 11