I Met the First Man on the Moon
I Met the First Man on the Moon.
A 3 Finger Salute to the first man to really SEE the Earth from the surface of the Moon.
Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon, and a man I had the honour to have lunch with here on Earth. He died today, August 25th 2012.
I had lunch with Neil Armstrong and television host Laurier Lapierre in Vancouver Canada, when I worked at CKVU television many years ago.
The lunch was in the highest altitude restaurant we could find, closest to the moon.
As Laurier asked questions about the moon trip, I just remember listening to the mind-boggling story of space adventure being told by a very easy-going, unassuming, polite, “normal” guy who loved to fly.
At the end of the lunch, I asked Mr. Armstrong if I could have his signature - and he graciously wrote a nice note to me on CKVU TV letterhead. I have that signature stored away in papers somewhere in Canada.. I must find it as a keepsake from one of humanity’s most famous and reluctant heroes.
Here’s an example from Wikipedia of that signature, I recall the personalized note he gave me being very similar.
(from Wikipedia)
In the ’90’s, I was working in the aerospace / space launch industry, and although I never met Neil Armstrong again, I had many working visits to some of the places where Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins had trained to leave the Earth to go to the Moon, mostly Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Above: Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin,
the 3 Astronauts who traveled to the moon in the 3 part Apollo 11 spacecraft :
1. Command Module with a cabin
2. a Service Module containing propulsion, electrical power, *oxygen and water* and
3. Lunar Module for landing on the Moon.
(Wikipedia)
In those days, working in the surprisingly small and interconnected circles of the aerospace industry, I met some people who Armstrong knew personally, but it wouldn’t be until my travels in China that I would meet Buzz Aldrin, one of Armstrong’s crewmates in the Lunar expedition.
This time, meeting Buzz Aldrin, I had an opportunity to introduce the 3 Fingers of Sustainability_\!/
I hope to also meet Jim Collins in the near future, as these living legends can inspire us to see our own lives in the bigger picture.
“One small step for man, one great leap for mankind”
- inspiring words that galvanized the USA and the world to achieve an enormously difficult technological feat - allowing a selected, highly trained few humans from this lively, lonely planet to sail in a little tin can to a dead world for a few hours and then make it back home alive. Incredibly difficult - but for just a handful of people, with a huge economic cost. Our bonus: we worked out the life support technology to send 3 people at a time away from our natural life support system.
Now, what do we do with this technology? we need to revive that level of inspiration and turn the technology on ourselves. We have to make a really “great leap for mankind” - not to other dead worlds, but to a new set of behaviours, actions and the world-view of Earth itself as our only life-boat - treating our Societies, Environment and Economies with care and respect_\!/
I think Neil Armstrong, now winking back at us from the moon, would approve. He knew, as all travelers into cold, inhospitable space know, that we humans must share a Lifestyle Of Health, Happiness And Sustainability (LOHHAS), and take Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) for the health of Spaceship Earth. As the only humans to actually, physically leave the planet, those astronauts and cosmonauts truly realized that *their life depended on it*.
In sadness, but with fond memories and optimism for our future,
A 3 Finger Salute_\!/ to Neil Armstrong.
May he Rest In Peace Plus One,
Philip McMaster
Peace Plus One - World Sustainability Project
World Sustainability Organization
More and more, I feel like 2012 is the transition year from the old world to a new sustainable world order
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