1 00:00:00,290 --> 00:00:03,700 PAT: The Moon has still got a lot of secrets it's keeping. 2 00:00:03,700 --> 00:00:06,000 NATALIE: There's still so many questions locked up in these rocks. 3 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,800 It's exciting times just to be studying them. 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:10,800 DAVE: This is the only long-term information 5 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:12,450 that we have from the 6 00:00:12,450 --> 00:00:16,049 surface of the Moon, are these data. There's there's just nothing else. 7 00:00:16,049 --> 00:00:20,550 ERNIE: Where did all of this stuff come from? how did it form? What was the process? 8 00:00:20,550 --> 00:00:26,189 Does it happen all the time across the universe? Or are we somehow unique, or at least unusual? 9 00:00:26,189 --> 00:00:28,500 What does it all mean? 10 00:00:28,500 --> 00:00:30,500 NARRATOR: I'm Katie Atkinson and this is NASA Explorers: Apollo, 11 00:00:30,539 --> 00:00:34,830 where we tell stories about our Moon and the people who explore it. 12 00:00:34,830 --> 00:00:47,430 In the 1960s and '70s twelve humans walked on the Moon over the 13 00:00:47,430 --> 00:00:53,400 course of six Apollo missions. About 400,000 Americans worked behind the 14 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:58,260 scenes to get them there. There were also millions of people around the world who 15 00:00:58,260 --> 00:01:04,100 listened, watched and celebrated alongside them. They were all explorers. 16 00:01:04,100 --> 00:01:09,330 A quick note on why we're telling these stories right now: Over 60 percent of 17 00:01:09,330 --> 00:01:14,700 Americans living today, myself included, weren't born yet or were too young to 18 00:01:14,700 --> 00:01:18,960 remember the first Moon landings. They've never known a world where people 19 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:32,040 couldn't walk on the Moon. Now there's a new generation of explorers. 20 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,670 Explorers who will witness the first woman walk on the Moon and see the first human mission 21 00:01:35,670 --> 00:01:39,360 to Mars. Some of us might even help get them there. 22 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:43,979 In the meantime, stories about where we've been connect us to where we're going. 23 00:01:43,979 --> 00:01:48,780 What we learn now and in the future builds on what we learned in the 24 00:01:48,780 --> 00:01:55,080 past, especially when it comes to understanding our Moon. 25 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:59,820 If you want to know what the Moon looks like up close, Ernie Wright is the person 26 00:01:59,820 --> 00:02:05,760 to talk to. Even though he's never been there, he's visualized just about 27 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:11,120 every nook and cranny on the lunar surface, sometimes down to a few feet 28 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:16,770 He's one of NASA's resident experts on Moon data. 29 00:02:16,770 --> 00:02:22,590 ERNIE: I work at the Scientific Visualization Studio at Goddard Space Flight Center. The studio uses data from 30 00:02:22,590 --> 00:02:28,620 NASA missions to create animations and illustrations that explain that data. 31 00:02:28,620 --> 00:02:33,440 NARRATOR: Data sonification is the sound equivalent of what Ernie does visually. 32 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:40,140 A chart lets you see data, a sonification lets you hear it. You can listen to a 33 00:02:40,140 --> 00:02:45,090 data sonification over and over again and hear something new each time. 34 00:02:45,090 --> 00:02:50,660 Every instrument, every sound means something. It's music and it's all based on data. 35 00:02:50,660 --> 00:02:55,590 What you're about to hear is a musical representation of lunar science past-to-present. 36 00:02:55,590 --> 00:02:59,550 What you'll hear in the sonification is the amount of scientific activity 37 00:02:59,550 --> 00:03:04,770 associated with the Moon over time. Ernie will walk you through it. 38 00:03:04,770 --> 00:03:11,640 ERNIE: The pitch of the melody is telling you sort of the amount of data that was returned 39 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:14,640 about the Moon over time.There are several instruments that are 40 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:19,260 establishing tempo. There's a clock sound that that tells you about the progress 41 00:03:19,260 --> 00:03:26,780 of the months, and there are cymbals that go off to mark the times of launches. 42 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:33,070 During the Apollo era the pitch rises as we learn more and more about the Moon 43 00:03:33,070 --> 00:03:35,880 and gather more data. 44 00:04:02,970 --> 00:04:07,930 And then there's this period in the middle where it kind of falls, when we 45 00:04:07,930 --> 00:04:13,060 weren't sending people and we weren't sending robotic missions. It falls off a little bit. 46 00:04:13,060 --> 00:04:31,140 And then it starts to rise again to a crescendo in the modern era. 47 00:04:44,890 --> 00:04:49,820 In the sonification there are these two peaks and the valley, but the other 48 00:04:49,820 --> 00:04:57,470 thing to take from it is that there is a continuous note of exploration, that the 49 00:04:57,470 --> 00:05:28,160 sound doesn't really go away. 50 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:33,270 The past and the present and the future are all connected, and you get that sense 51 00:05:33,270 --> 00:05:37,740 when you're listening to it that while there are variations in our level of 52 00:05:37,740 --> 00:05:41,820 interest, and in the amount of data that we're gathering at any particular time, 53 00:05:41,820 --> 00:05:50,300 there's also a continuity, that once we went there we didn't want to stop. 54 00:05:51,230 --> 00:05:55,530 I think what motivates us to answer, you know, the question of the Moon's origin, 55 00:05:55,530 --> 00:06:00,210 or how it formed, is very basic. Because once we understand how the Moon 56 00:06:00,210 --> 00:06:03,810 was formed we know a lot more about how the Earth was formed, we know about how 57 00:06:03,810 --> 00:06:07,350 the solar system was formed. It's all to do with this question of where did we 58 00:06:07,350 --> 00:06:11,610 come from? How did this happen? Where did all of this stuff come from? 59 00:06:11,610 --> 00:06:15,690 How did it form? What was the process? Does it happen all the time 60 00:06:15,690 --> 00:06:21,330 across the universe? Or are we somehow unique or at least unusual? What does it all mean? 61 00:06:21,330 --> 00:06:24,210 NARRATOR: Answers to those big questions are 62 00:06:24,210 --> 00:06:28,650 within reach thanks in part to modern-day exploration of our Moon. 63 00:06:28,650 --> 00:06:32,940 The rising pitch at the end of that sonification, the crescendo, is a sign 64 00:06:32,940 --> 00:06:40,000 that we're learning. We're exploring more. We're driving the pitch up into the future. 65 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,000 NARRATOR: Before the Apollo missions, we knew almost nothing about the Moon. 66 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:52,020 ERNIE: The state of our knowledge before Apollo was almost utter ignorance. We knew where it 67 00:06:52,020 --> 00:06:57,690 would be in the sky, but only approximately. We didn't even know if it 68 00:06:57,690 --> 00:07:03,210 was wet or dry. We didn't know what it was made of or how it related to the 69 00:07:03,210 --> 00:07:08,220 Earth, how it formed. We had no idea. We didn't know what the craters were, and 70 00:07:08,220 --> 00:07:13,170 there was really no way to know until we went there and sampled the surface and 71 00:07:13,170 --> 00:07:15,400 saw it up close. 72 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:22,300 NARRATOR: During the Apollo era we learned so much about the Moon, but astronauts only visited a few spots 73 00:07:22,300 --> 00:07:26,000 ERNIE: If you were exploring the Earth and you landed in six places near the equator, 74 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,400 you would know that a whole lot about the Earth. 75 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:35,430 So even after Apollo there was a great deal to learn, but we knew so 76 00:07:35,430 --> 00:07:40,410 much more. We knew the right questions to ask, and so one of the motivations for 77 00:07:40,410 --> 00:07:43,889 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, I think, was to answer some of those questions which 78 00:07:43,889 --> 00:07:46,000 had been lingering since the Apollo era. 79 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,000 NARRATOR: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, 80 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:54,419 is a NASA spacecraft that's been orbiting our Moon since 2009. LRO has 81 00:07:54,419 --> 00:07:57,200 mapped the Moon like never before. 82 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:00,200 ERNIE: LRO is writing the lunar encyclopedia, 83 00:08:00,210 --> 00:08:05,490 the lunar atlas. It's the thing that you go to first to look up all 84 00:08:05,490 --> 00:08:08,600 kinds of information about the Moon. 85 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,600 NARRATOR: Thanks to LRO we've learned so much more 86 00:08:10,620 --> 00:08:15,870 about our Moon. In 2017 scientists discovered that there's frost, frozen 87 00:08:15,870 --> 00:08:19,889 water, at the Moon's poles. We've also observed that the Moon is 88 00:08:19,889 --> 00:08:25,020 shrinking over time a result of it cooling since its formation billions of 89 00:08:25,020 --> 00:08:30,210 years ago. Our knowledge of the Moon is now so much more nuanced than it was 50 years ago, 90 00:08:30,210 --> 00:08:36,000 but NASA never stops learning. That really comes across in the data sonification. 91 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:41,400 Let's listen to it again now the Ernie has broken down what each sound means. 92 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:43,099 [clock ticking, music starts] 93 00:08:54,379 --> 00:08:58,579 JFK: But why, some say, the Moon? 94 00:08:58,579 --> 00:09:02,500 Why choose this as our goal? 95 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:10,500 ARCHIVAL: Five, four, three, two, one, zero. 96 00:09:10,500 --> 00:09:12,500 ARCHIVAL: We have liftoff! We have liftoff! 97 00:09:12,500 --> 00:09:20,500 [consecutive launch audio from Apollo missions] 98 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:30,500 JFK: And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? 99 00:09:30,500 --> 00:09:34,500 Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? 100 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,500 Why does Rice play Texas? 101 00:09:43,500 --> 00:09:45,000 [astronauts and engineers speaking] 102 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,500 We choose to go to the Moon. 103 00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:51,500 [astronauts speaking] 104 00:09:53,380 --> 00:09:55,400 We choose to go to the Moon 105 00:09:55,400 --> 00:10:00,400 [rocket sounds] 106 00:10:00,900 --> 00:10:10,400 We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy. 107 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:12,400 [astronauts laughing] 108 00:10:13,900 --> 00:10:15,400 But because they are hard. 109 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:20,400 ASTRONAUT: Ok Houston, we have a problem here. 110 00:10:21,900 --> 00:10:29,400 Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. 111 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:41,400 ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. 112 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:46,400 Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept. 113 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,400 One we are unwilling to postpone. 114 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:58,900 ARMSTRONG: Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed. 115 00:10:58,900 --> 00:11:00,400 And one we intend to win. 116 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:02,400 117 00:11:15,660 --> 00:11:22,149 NARRATOR: In that version of the sonification, you heard tape from the archives, 118 00:11:22,149 --> 00:11:27,339 like selections from JFK speaking and excerpts from Apollo mission audio. 119 00:11:27,339 --> 00:11:31,360 This kind of historical data helps us understand the full impact of our 120 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,860 journey to the Moon Holly McEntire agrees. She's a NASA 121 00:11:35,860 --> 00:11:39,399 archivist who believes that these stories remind us where we came from 122 00:11:39,399 --> 00:11:43,600 and inspire us to keep looking forward. 123 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,600 HOLLY: I think probably what I love most about 124 00:11:46,620 --> 00:11:52,690 being an archivist is just being able to capture the human experience within 125 00:11:52,690 --> 00:11:56,950 those records. So sometimes we have records that are very black and white, 126 00:11:56,950 --> 00:12:01,720 this is evidence of what happened, but my favorite part are the records that kind 127 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:06,160 of tell more of the human experience. So maybe they're a memo from one specific 128 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:11,200 person to another person, or maybe they're someone's personal photographs 129 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:16,000 that they took, or maybe it's an oral history. Those are the types of records 130 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:20,440 that really drive me because I really just love to hear the human take 131 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:21,800 on what happened. 132 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:23,800 NARRATOR: So in that spirit, we're asking you to help NASA tell the Apollo 133 00:12:25,899 --> 00:12:30,550 story. What do you remember about the first Moon landing? Or what are you 134 00:12:30,550 --> 00:12:34,360 looking forward to as NASA prepares to return to the Moon by 2024? 135 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:38,620 So far we've received hundreds of submissions from people all over the 136 00:12:38,620 --> 00:12:44,380 world. This first memory comes to us from France. Here's what Elena remembers. 137 00:12:44,380 --> 00:12:50,800 ELENA: Hello, NASA. I'm a retired American wildlife biologist living in France. 138 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:55,570 I was 23 years old when the first people walked on the Moon. I was living in Seattle, 139 00:12:55,570 --> 00:13:01,000 Washington, and working as a legal secretary. At that time I was an avid fan 140 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,260 of the Star Trek series on television, and I still am. 141 00:13:05,260 --> 00:13:10,960 I really wanted to see this historic event. I couldn't quite believe that it 142 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:17,650 wasn't a national holiday. But it wasn't, so I called in sick at my law firm to be 143 00:13:17,650 --> 00:13:22,960 able to see it. At the time I didn't have a television, so my boyfriend John and I 144 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:27,910 had to go to a friend's house to watch it. The friend only had a small black-and-white 145 00:13:27,910 --> 00:13:31,510 TV and he wasn't interested in watching it at all. 146 00:13:31,510 --> 00:13:37,750 It was just John and I. But we got to watch it and it was thrilling. I'm a firm 147 00:13:37,750 --> 00:13:42,220 supporter of the space program and I hope that we continue to peacefully 148 00:13:42,220 --> 00:13:48,010 explore the universe to learn more about life, the universe and everything.Thank 149 00:13:48,010 --> 00:13:55,050 you, NASA, for the opportunity to share in this great celebration and anniversary. 150 00:13:55,650 --> 00:14:01,090 NARRATOR: Thank you, Elena, for sharing that story with us. We want you to send us your 151 00:14:01,090 --> 00:14:12,130 Apollo memory. Visit nasa.gov/apollostories to learn more. 152 00:14:12,130 --> 00:14:15,160 NOAH: You helped design how astronauts can stay alive and comfortable while working on the Moon. 153 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:21,550 DENIS: Science is something you test, you experiment, you get results. And that 154 00:14:21,550 --> 00:14:24,000 modifies the way we look at the world. 155 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,000 ERNIE: Where did all of this stuff come from? 156 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:29,830 How did it form? What was the process? Does it happen all the time 157 00:14:29,830 --> 00:14:37,800 across the universe? Or are we somehow unique, or at least unusual? What does it all mean? 158 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,699