Should Inspire the Indonesian People
The Latin phrase Ex Luna, Scientia which means "From the Moon, Knowledge”, was the motto of the Apollo 13 mission.
After the Apollo lunar module, known as the Eagle, landed on the area of Mare Tranquilities (Sea of Tranquility) on 20 July 1969 (United States time), astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the Moon. Neil Armstrong said, "This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This changed the relationship between humans and the moon, the earth’s only natural satellite.
Previously, the moon was more of an inspiration. Composers created beautiful compositions, such as Claude Debussy with "Clair de Lune", Ludwig van Beethoven with "Moonlight Sonata", and Ismail Marzuki with "Chandra Buana".
Some people in the archipelago interpret lunar eclipses as the Chandra (Moon) being swallowed up by Batara Kala (the god of the underworld in traditional Javanese and Balinese mythology). They need to beat kentongan (slit drum) to force it to vomit up the full moon.
Since the moon landing program was unveiled by President John F Kennedy in his speech before Congress on May 25, 1961, the moon has become a source of inspiration and knowledge.
Through the Apollo mission, which ended in December 1972, the US implemented an ambitious space program. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) space flight chief Abe Silverstein was the first person to use the word "Apollo" for an aircraft that followed the previous space program, Mercury.
Before that, 104 years before Apollo 11, French author, Jules Verne, had written a story on a journey to the moon using a rocket ship through his imaginative work, "From Earth to the Moon".
The materials carried by astronauts from the moon were mostly in the form of rocks, weighing about 383 kilograms. No less important than the Apollo program were the scientific and technological advancements achieved.
The US worked to make a super-strong Saturn V rocket that was 111 meters high, almost matching the height of the National Monument (Monas).
Here, the history can be traced from the thoughts of the world\'s leading rocket pioneers, namely Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Herman Oberth, and Robert Goddard, the father of the Saturnus V Rocket, to the Nazi German rocket expert, Wernher von Braun, who brought his rocket team to the US after World War II.
The gains were not only the science of giant rocket design, but also the technique of filling in cryogenic fuel, which had to be loaded into the tank at a rate of 32,176 liters per minute, with the temperature kept very cold, at minus 145 degrees Celsius for oxygen and minus 217 degrees Celsius for hydrogen.
Without advanced rocketry technology, it would be impossible for humans to realize our centuries-old dreams.
No less important is also how NASA gave birth to prime human figures, who were selected as astronauts. The three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were among those known as part of the elite club The Right Stuff, which mostly comprised high-performance fighter jet pilots.
Next goal
The Apollo program involved around 400,000 people and cost US$29 billion. Now, 50 years later, the question arises, where to go next?
Inhabiting the moon is also considered important, especially for strategic space colonization as an expansion of lebensraum (living space), considering that the earth is increasingly less inhabitable.
Great powers may also compete in the future in the space arena, especially, if you consider the possibility of mining.
After Apollo, in the past half-century, developed countries have inhabited space stations, such as the International Space Station (ISS) and have also sent robot vehicles to Mars and Jupiter, even to distant solar system objects, such as Pluto .
Space research and development may not be as prominent as in late 1950s or early 1960s, when the US — in the Cold War era — competed with the Soviet Union, which successfully launch the first satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957, and sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space in April 1961.
The Cold War has now given way to trade wars. However, with the rise of China as a force in space, and also India, the old powers of the US and Russia certainly will not keep silent.
In the US, one striking phenomenon in the past two decades has been the strengthening of the private sector in space investment. Today there are figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and previously there was Richard Branson, who developed Virgin Galactic.
The story of Musk and Bezos is associated with efforts to colonize the cosmos.
Reflections on the 50 years since the moon landing should also include Indonesia’s role in space exploration. Still entangled in capacity constraints, the Republic of Indonesia and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) still cannot do much.
The rocketry program, which in the previous leadership era, had seemed vibrant, is now barely audible. On the other hand, as a country with a large geographic range, Indonesia must also give great attention to aviation and space, both for monitoring weather and natural resources.
Indonesia still admires the moon in songs, but if our leaders are visionary, this romanticism should not stop at songs, but must inspire young people to revive their interest in aerospace, aviation and rocketry and astronomy.
The 50-year anniversary of the moon landing should not pass without arousing the soul of the Indonesian aviation and space sector.