These were days of high emotion, when mankind witnessed events both nerve-wracking and fascinating. Two pairs of brothers had gathered around the television set that afternoon; they lived in Orlando, and they all wanted to be astronauts when they grew up. But to be an astronaut you had to be good at maths, which wasn’t a problem for most of them. “And you can’t be afraid of mice!” added the mother watching over them. She was referring to the fact that for the Apollo 17 mission, the crew was made up of no less than eight astronauts, rather than the usual three – assuming you counted the five mice on board: Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and the girl mouse, Phooey.
These kids all dreamed of going to the moon and exploring space. For five days now they had spent their afternoons following the exploits of Eugene Cernan, Commander of the Apollo 17 mission, Harrison Schmitt, lunar module pilot, and Ronald Evans, the command module pilot. The children loved to listen to the two astronauts describing their experiences on the lunar surface. Apparently Eugene Cernan wanted to play a round of golf! Made sense; there was plenty of room and nothing but craters up there. But for Harrison Schmitt, who had landed the lunar module two days before, there was no time to lose. The two astronauts had a limited supply of oxygen, and had to collect over 200kg of moon rocks while they could. Ronald Evans, who had been orbiting the moon with the mice, passed on a sad message to mission control back in Houston: one of the mice had died. Meanwhile, Eugene and Harrison were experimenting with the famous rover for the third time. The children were glued to the screen. It looked so beautiful and spectacular, that empty lunar void. The astronauts must feel so alone up there. “Well, they are over two hundred thousand miles from Earth – it’s a long journey!” the mother sighed. When the first man walked on the moon, these boys had been only babies. But they all knew the name of the famous hero who was the first to set foot on another celestial body: Neil Armstrong.
The purpose of the Apollo 17 mission was to collect lunar rock samples and study the possibility of (relatively) recent volcanic activity. Harrison Schmitt drove a probe into the surface. There it would remain, sending measurements back to Earth so scientists could study seismic activity on the moon. Eugene Cernan was working close to the rover when, all of a sudden, his hammer caught the vehicle’s right rear fender, pulling it off. Dust rose up and covered the astronauts’ space suits. Damn! Back in the ship, Ronald Evans was monitoring the mice. Four of them were still alive, and in mourning. Soon it would be time to pick up their colleagues and head back to Earth.
The first man, Neil Armstrong, had walked on the moon in 1969. His words then would forever be remembered: “That’s one small step for man...one giant leap for mankind!” Conversely, Eugene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon. As he stepped aboard the lunar module, he said: “As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come (but we believe not too long into the future), I'd like to just say what I believe history will record: That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind.”
“Godspeed to the crew of Apollo 17,” he concluded, as the children watching at home whooped and hollered with applause.
Alan Alfredo Geday
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