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LatestYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > Features > Latest > From the Moon to Pontefract! From the Moon to Pontefract!Ever wondered what it's like to walk on the Moon? One group of Pontefract pupils have been finding out from Alan Bean, one of just 12 men who've actually done it! BBC Radio Leeds' Steve Bailey took a 'giant leap' to Ponte to meet the man himself...  Alan Bean descends onto the Moon, 1969 It was way back in November 1969 that Captain Alan Bean stepped out of the lunar module on to the surface of the Moon after a journey of a few hundred thousand miles. Fast forward to 2007 and Alan's still reliving that amazing moment when he became the fourth person ever to walk on the Moon, this time in Pontefract to share his memories and his thoughts with pupils at Carleton High School. Talking to BBC Radio Leeds' Steve Bailey before his appearance, he says he's happy to be here in West Yorkshire: "I'm glad to be in Pontefract. It's a beautiful place, and it's beautiful weather compared to Houston Texas, where I live!" Weather probably wasn't too much on Alan's mind back in 1969, though. What he and the other members of the crew of Apollo 12 were trying to do was land their lunar module in one piece and in one precise spot. Alan says this was actually a very different task to what Neil Armstrong and his team had faced earlier that year: "Their object was to land on the Moon safely, do an exploration, pick up some rocks and things and then return to Earth. That was a difficult task and took our best efforts. When the second mission came up, they said, 'Look, in later missions we're going to land near craters and mountains because that's where interesting geology is. We want you to demonstrate how to make a pinpoint landing'."
It was, of course, a pretty tall order but one which Alan Bean and Pete Conrad, the mission commander, were happy to accept as they descended to the Moon's surface. One successful landing later, and the two men prepared themselves for a repeat of that historic 'giant leap': "After we landed on the Ocean of Storms [one of the Moon's craters], Pete Conrad and I took several hours to get on our backpacks and button-up our suits and all those other things. He went down first, he grabbed some samples real quick in case we had to leave. I photographed him and did some other things with the lunar module and then I came down. Now, I didn't have an historic job to do like Neil Armstrong...I was thinking about getting my balance, which takes a couple of minutes up there in one-sixth gravity! I got my balance and as soon as I did I began checking my checklist to see what to do...I wanted to get all those things done. Every minute and second was programmed, so it was easy to get behind and hard to catch up. I was a case of getting down to business!" Busy he may have been, but that didn't mean he couldn't take in the view - and what a view it was! Alan says that the photographs of the Moon taken by the Apollo astronauts only tell half a story: "They don't do justice to the panorama because pictures are only so wide and so tall, but they are very accurate. The colours you see in those pictures are grey with a very shiny black. The difference I noticed, being there, was just all the black sky surrounding me. Looking in every direction was, as Buzz Aldrin had said, 'magnificent desolation'. It's strange to be on a whole planet where there are only two of you. It's a funny thought that if people flew over, they'd probably never see the two of you down there, whereas when we fly low we see cities, highways and cars. None of that! Just grey rocks and dust and two humans running around. We knew we were a long way from help."  Alan Bean: Suited and Booted! (C) NASA Before heading off to meet the students at Carleton High in Pontefract, BBC Radio Leeds' Steve Bailey asks Alan Bean whether he thinks there will be people on the Moon again anytime soon. Alan says he's not convinced - and appears somewhat sad that's the case: "No-one knows. If the Chinese really started doing something, flying vehicles that could get to the Moon, and they said they were going then maybe American people would say we ought to go back. In the absence of anyone else doing that, I don't see us going back to the Moon for 50 years. It costs a lot of money. The President talks about us going back to the Moon but he hasn't given us any money to do it...It cost us 200 billion dollars to go before and my guess is that it'll cost us at least 150 to 180 billion to do it now. I don't see the American public wanting to spend that money to go back to the Moon...We wish they would, I don't think they will. The future will tell." Despite this, Alan clearly believes that there is still hope for a return to the Moon - and the remaining Moonwalkers are keeping an eye on developments: "Of the twelve Moonwalkers there are nine of us left. We're happy to be here but realise that time moves on and we're watching the next generation to see what THEY do. We're proud of what our generation did, but we want to see what other generations do." And as Alan goes off to talk to Pontefract's younger generation, he gives us this last thought: "On a daily basis, I figure I'm one of the luckiest guys on Earth!" Want to hear more from Moonwalker Alan Bean during his visit to Pontefract in October 2007? Click on the AUDIO LINKS below to hear him talking to BBC Radio Leeds' Steve Bailey about Moonwalks, Moonbugs and more! Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer last updated: 15/10/07 You are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > Features > Latest > From the Moon to Pontefract! |
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