touch the moon

The Johnson Space Center is a primo destination for those who visit our new home town of Houston.  Here after an hour drive southeast of Katy, you walk the paths of many astronauts and engineers who have ventured into outer space.  They are our modern-day explorers.

What is stunning is the computer capacity in the days of Apollo.  256K is about all the capacity NASA engineers could muster in those days.  But, put that modest capacity into the hands of some very smart people and they landed a man on the moon.

These courageous explorers brought back samples from the moon: rocks and soil.  In this Space Center, inside a very thick vault, these samples are available for us average citizens to see.  One very hard, shiny, black rock is fixed in a display case so that we average people could touch what these very intelligent people brought back for the rest of the world to marvel.

When my finger slid across the moon rock, it reminded me of obsidian.  It almost looked like an arrowhead before it was shaped to better attach to an arrow shaft.  I liked the memory that it made; now I had touched the moon.

I felt proud to be an American.  Each of the heroes who lived and died to accomplish these great feats had shared their exploits with the world.  All around me people speaking foreign languages were here at the center to see,

feel, touch and remember this great human effort and achievement.

Well done, NASA.  We are very proud of you!

photo credit: brucefong cellphone photography

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