‘Cancer moonshot’ brings back memories of JFK space-race speech 60 years ago this week
Sep 14, 2022, 2:00 PM
The Strawberry Supermoon sets in front of the NASA Artemis rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Artemis is undergoing tests at the pad before an unmanned mission to the moon. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
(AP Photo/John Raoux)
President John F. Kennedy gave a speech Sept. 12, 1962, at Rice University in Texas to proclaim a goal of sending men to the moon.
Many of you that are reading this column may not have been born at that time and might not heard of the passion that was delivered by the president.
We all know that that dream was fulfilled with the first manned landing on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Just in case you were not here for Kennedy’s speech, here it is again.
More on the Kennedy decision to go to the moon.
Now, 60 years later, NASA celebrates that speech and national goal of returning to the moon with the Artemis program.
Here is how that celebration unfolded.
Getting to the moon is not an easy task.
We will be using many of the great programs of the past and many new technologies which have come about since the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s.
Here we show the plan for the Artemis rocket and the future landings on the moon in detail.
This is the latest with Artemis and when might it launch.
In order to get to the moon and set up a permanent base there, there will be the need to develop a space station of sorts, which will orbit the moon, much like the current ISS Space Station.
The project calls for a space station known as Gateway.
This is needed as a lifeboat for long duration missions to the moon. This will also be a way station for spacecraft going to the moon and leaving for the journey back to Earth.
The future lunar landing missions will look at some 13 locations at the South Pole of the moon. This is being selected as there are regions on the moon which can remain in darkness and offer the ability to set up solar-powered stations on the top of small mountains, to sustain power to the lunar base.
The other reason that this is being considered is the fact that it is too difficult to remain in constant sunlight when temperatures on the moon can reach 212 degrees.
Here are some of the projected lunar landing sites.
Finally, just like the national passion for a moonshot type of program to land a human on the moon, the Biden Administration is looking to help conquer cancer with the Cancer Moonshot program.
We all know of someone who has fought cancer and the strength that one needs to fight it and the love needed from others.
No matter what our political view, the fight to eliminate cancer deserves the same passion as the moonshot of the 1960s.
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