Barbara Blake

Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times

It was one of the most profound moments in world history, as American astronaut Neil Armstrong's foot touched the surface of the moon and he delivered the now-iconic proclamation: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

On July 20, 1969, half a billion people across the globe held their collective breath around their televisions as they witnessed the awe-inspiring culmination of President John F. Kennedy's ambitious vow in 1961 that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The Apollo 11 mission with Armstrong, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins was a historic milestone that united Americans in a positive way, a welcome respite from civil rights turmoil, the war in Vietnam and the assassinations of Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

But the first moon landing and other missions in the Apollo space program offered more than unity for Americans and thrills to astronomy wonks and the star-gazing public. Forty-five years after that breathtaking vision of a human on the moon's surface, the benefits of lunar exploration continue paying dividends on Earth, directly and indirectly.

One of the indirect but significant impacts has been on the scientific adventurers inspired by the brilliance of the technological pioneers within NASA, who solved unfathomable puzzles required to put men on the moon and return them safely home.

One of the beneficiaries is Michael D. Tanner, deputy director of Asheville's National Climatic Data Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"I remember as a 10-year-old watching the moon landing on TV and becoming excited about the possibilities ahead. … The Apollo 11 mission inspired a generation of engineers and scientists, and I am one of them," Tanner said.

"I certainly view it as one thing that turned me toward a career in the Air Force, NASA and now NOAA here in Asheville."

Asheville photographer Tim Barnwell, one of the longest-term members of the Astronomy Club of Asheville, said the Apollo 11 mission not only inspired career choices for many in his generation, but served to bring the nation together in the midst of political and social unrest in the late 1960s.

"I was 8 or 9 years old, and it had a big impact on me — I wanted to be an astronaut growing up, and my interest in space stretches back to that," Barnwell said.

"It (the moon landing) was one of the first (live) televised things, and I remember the whole extended family coming into the room to watch it on TV," he said. "And most of America was watching — it brought the whole country together, and that's almost impossible to do anymore. It captured the whole nation."

Winning Cold War

The moon landing rekindled the excitement felt in the early 1960s during the first Mercury flights, fueled by parades, speaking engagements and a world tour by the astronauts to create goodwill in the U.S. and abroad. It also set the stage for five more Apollo landing missions through 1972, each increasing the time spent on the moon.

The more tangible and direct legacies of Apollo 11 have to do with environmental awareness, technological advances and global perceptions, particularly involving the space race with the Soviet Union.

Don Cline, president and founder of the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman, N.C., on the site of a former NASA satellite tracking station, said the most immediate benefit of putting a man on the moon was a "huge victory" in the Cold War.

"In 1969, the United States was embroiled in a battle with the Soviet Union for the hearts and minds of much of the world's population," Cline said.

"Getting to the moon first established the U.S. as the world's technology leader and served as a very clear demonstration of the superiority of democracy and the free enterprise system over totalitarianism and a government-controlled economy," he said.

The lunar missions also helped ignite the environmental movement, "which was in its infancy in the '60s," Cline said.

"For the first time, people actually saw 'Spaceship Earth,' and it prompted many people to begin thinking differently about our planet," he said. "Someone once observed, 'On the way to the moon we discovered the Earth.'"

Power of photos

Moira McGuinness, a communications specialist with the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote on an EPA blog on the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing that photographs taken on the lunar missions played a key role in advancing a commitment to protect Earth and indirectly led to the establishment of the EPA in 1970.

The first iconic photo was "Earthrise," shot by astronaut William Anders during Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968. The second was called "Blue Marble," taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972, an image of a tiny, fragile Earth floating in the lifeless blackness of space that is still featured today on flags and other materials used by environmental demonstrators.

"The image of the world from the perspective of a desolate lunar surface became an iconic reminder of our need to protect the Earth's fragile resources — Earth seems so big and indestructible from our perspective, and so tiny and vulnerable when seen from space," McGuinness wrote.

In Life magazine's "100 Photographs that Changed the World" issue, wilderness photographer Galen Rowell called "Earthrise" "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."

Enrique Gomez, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Western Carolina University, said it was Stewart Brand, publisher of the storied "Whole Earth Catalog," who lobbied NASA to make the photos available for public consumption.

"It was more an afterthought than something central to the mission, but once they released the photos — it was part of the dawning of the environmental movement," Gomez said.

Technological gifts

The most visible legacy of the Apollo program comes from the pioneering brilliance of the NASA scientists and engineers who figured out how to successfully accomplish the then-unimaginable — in less than a decade.

Gomez is a physicist, and his enthusiastic explanation of the breakthrough technology used in Apollo missions is best offered to other scientists who have an ear for such detail. In short, the new and then-somewhat cumbersome technology involving "integrated circuits" was the beginning of conveniences we now take for granted.

"One concrete thing we live with every day is the technology we carry in our pockets — smartphones and tablets — and it has changed our entire culture, the way we relate to each other," Gomez said.

"But it really helped jump-start an entire industry, and it is a result of the huge technology investment that went into developing the Apollo program that we have this."