The Times and Democrat from Orangeburg, South Carolina • 39

4t Page 1D, Orangeburg, S.C., rvS) Sunday, July 16, 1989 Vj I VJD I Section 1 I I ZZfW I i 1 fiV CP i 4 1 AP Laserphoto Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. poses beside the U.S. flag on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Part of the lunar module Eagle is at left.

The footprints of the astronauts are visible in the soil of the moon. This photo was taken by astronaut Neil A. Armstrong. ffin)sDT) mm IjTo) 0u 1 U. through time: That's one small step What has moon's 'stark beauty' told us after 20 years? By HOWARD BENEDICT AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

When two explorers first set foot on the moon two decades ago, they found a lifeless world, baked by day and frozen by night in temperatures ranging from 230 degrees below zero to 270 degreees above. They found no wind, no storms, no clouds, no water, no magnetic field, the thinnest of atmospheres and gravity one-sixth the strength of Earth's. "It has a stark beauty all its own," said Neil Armstrong. Buzz Aldrin described it as "magnificent desolation." Armstrong, Aldrin and 10 other Americans who followed them to the moon in the next 3 years returned with 842 pounds of rocks and soil. They left behind sensors that sent data on moonquakes, meteors, radiation and the solar wind.

Slowly, almost grudgingly, this trove is yielding secrets about the moon and its place in the solar system. A picture is emerging of a birth in searing heat, a brief, violent life of boiling lava and shattering collision, and geological death 3 billion years ago when volcanic activity ceased. The moon's surface has remained essentially unchanged since, except by impact from an occasional meteorite and almost imperceptible dustings from solar and cosmic radiation. This stability means much of the history of the solar system during those 3 billion years can be read by studying lunar rocks. But the revelations go back even further because samples dating to more than 4 billion years and fragments at 4.6 billion back to the begining have been found in the Apollo samples.

Most experts agree the solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago when great masses of gaseous matter called the solar nebula began condensing to form the sun and planets. The nebula condensed into debris ranging from pebbles to miles-wide boulders, that collided and fused to create celestial bodies. Scientists believe the young Earth underwent the same period of meteor bombardment and volcanism that the moon did for half a billion years. The weak lunar gravity couldn't keep volcanic gases from escaping into space. But Earth, with its stronger gravity, held on to its volcanic vapors and they helped form an atmosphere and oceans, creating conditions for the development of life.

Because erosion, tides and weather have scoured Earth's surface, the oldest rocks found date back only 3.7 billion years. The older lunar rocks, therefore, are helping scientists piece together Earth's formative years. However, less than 20 percent of the samples have been studied. The rest are in air-tight, nitrogen-filled stainless steel cabinets locked in vaults at the Johnson Space Center and at Brooks Air Force Base Please see Secrets, 2D By HOWARD BENEDICT AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Twenty years have passed, nearly a generation, since Neil Armstrong called those momentous words down from the moon.

Two decades since Earthlings watched those flickering television images, saw that tentative first step on the dusty surface and looked on in wonder as two Americans hopped about in weak gravity, planted and saluted their flag, picked up bits of lunar treasure and spoke with their president a quarter million miles away. Most people living then can tell you today where they were when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took those first steps on the moon Sunday, July 20, 1969. They were realizing a goal that John F. Kennedy had set in frustration and desperation. Kennedy came to office in January 1961 with a pledge to "get this country moving again." The economy was sluggish, Fidel Castro had taken over Cuba, and the United States trailed the Soviets in the highly visible arena of space.

The space chasm widened April 12, 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin blasted into orbit, the first man to fly in space. American prestige was rocked again five days later. On April 17, a brigade of Cuban exiles, sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency, stormed the beach at Cuba's Bay of Pigs in an effort to overthrow Castro. His forces routed the ill-equipped exiles, leaving the United States and its young president in shame and disarray.

Kennedy accepted the blame and decided bold action was needed to restore America's honor. Space was the answer, he concluded, and he gave Vice President Lyndon Johnson the task of determining what could be done. On April 28, the National Aeronautics and Space Council, which Johnson chaired, submitted a preliminary report to the president. "The moon is a good target for us," it said. Even as the president and his advisers were discussing moon trips, some in the administration were concerned about the first U.S.

man-in-space flight, now set for May 2. With everything going wrong for the nation, the impact of a failure could be devastating. But Kennedy let the launch date stand, and, on May 5, after a three-day weather delay, astronaut Alan Shepard rode a slender Redstone rocket and a cramped Mercury capsule 115 miles up and 302 miles Please see Trip. 2D 1 rr, o-. V.

I I f- Man on the moon Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. walks on the surface of the moon on July 20. 1969. in this photo taken by astronaut Neil A.

Armstrong, who shortly before had become the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong and the lunar module Eagle are reflected in Aldrin's helmet. (AP Laserphoto).