The magic of Apollo

Project Apollo might have been commissioned as a feel good project to boost the moral of a bruised Superpower, but it was conceived as a piece of pure scientific exploration. In his final essay marking the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, Dr Christopher Riley looks back at the part scientific curiosity played in inspiring the Moon landings and uniting the world during uncertain times.

One of Arthur C Clarke's "laws" states that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Some technological advancement take place over centuries, and some can occur within a single generation - leaving those who lived through it with that feeling of magic. Apollo was an even faster example. Within eight years, we leapt from being unable to fly in space to living briefly on the Moon. The world's oldest man at the time - Charlie Smith - reportedly born in 1842 was at the launch of the final Moonshot and simply couldn't believe where the men onboard were heading.

Even Apollo 11's Michael Collins, a man intimately connected with the machinations of his mission, once said he felt that there was some magic within the smooth clockwork-like running of his flight. Such technological leaps require springboards of scientific curiosity, and Apollo was no exception. Unsure about where the new president would point them (as Nasa always tends to be when new administrations come to office), the agency had prepared a number of options for President Kennedy to consider. Chief amongst these were plans for a manned lunar exploration programme; conceived not by military strategists for reasons of Cold War bravado, nor by politicians with an eye on national prestige, but by one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th Century - a man passionately interested in our origins. Planetary scientist Harold Urey had first suggested to Nasa that it commence a lunar exploration programme in the 1950s. Urey figured that the Moon, lacking atmospheric weathering and the recycling of its crust through plate tectonics, might preserve some truly ancient geological relics from the early Solar System, long gone on Earth. Ignited by Urey's curiosity, Nasa came up with ambitious plans to investigate his theories, harnessing an armada of robotic mapping missions and culminating in a manned landing. With an estimated price tag of $11bn, there was little chance of it being adopted by the new President, but Nasa had it on the table just in case. Read more @ BBC