Armstrong managed to land the Eagle on the lunar surface when there were only 17 seconds of fuel left the descent to the Moon, the computer was signalling several alarms and Armstrong decided to take the controls and pilot manually. First, he found a very sloping area and decided to rule it out; later on, a surface with too many rocks that was not appropriate for the landing of the module. Gonzalez Pintado remembers that «Armstrong was informed that he had 60 seconds of fuel left and, a little while later, that he only had 30 left». He then discovered a place he believed to be suitable and landed the spacecraft seven kilometres away from the area that was previously planned. He only had 17 seconds of fuel left. «It was the first trip to the Moon and they had to make it exciting», jokes the engineer. There were still six hours to go before the astronauts descended from the lunar module. «They told them to sleep for a while and we all started to laugh because after two years of training, the journey and the landing, how could they possibly sleep? Well, they didn’t let them». Houston told them to wait because they wanted to broadcast the descent on the lunar surface at a reasonable hour in all the U.S. territory. When it was time, Armstrong took longer than expected to get out because the module’s manufacturer had made the hatch a little smaller to reduce weight, however, he didn’t realize that the astronauts survival backpack had remained unchanged. His very bulky suit also prevented him from seeing where the steps of the short ladder were and he jumped down. «When he finally set foot on the Moon, we all heard how he defined the experience: magnificent desolation,» points out Gonzalez Pintado who planned to stay in Fresnedillas for only two years but says «that it was impossible. After a manned flight you feel a great sense of responsibility, and you consider the astronauts as part of your own family. I couldn’t quit», he says. And after the Apollo program, came the Skylab, the Apollo-Soyuz, the space shuttle, the Mariner, Vikings, Voyager, Galileo... After 43 years of work, history When they started the descent there was another setback: the signal that should have reached the Earth from the lunar module was lost. «In seconds we thought all sorts of things —explains González Pintado—. First, that the receiver wasn’t working, but had those from the other stations failed as well and at the same time? This was not very likely to happen. There was probably a problem with the Eagle’s automatic antenna». In fact this is what really happened, and Armstrong passed all communications to ambidirectional antennas to be able to speak with Houston through the Columbia. The astronauts also realized that the lunar module was going much further than expected. Houston confirmed it and warned them that the area where they were going to land was not on the map. On top of that, in the last stage of Return to the Moon MAN could return to the Moon in the next decade. NASA has announced the construction of Gateway station, which will be located in orbit around the moon as a base for manned missions to the lunar surface and Mars. «We are going to go back to the Moon in a sustainable way and we are going to stay there», said Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, who has stated that the project will be carried out «with commercial partners» unlike the Apollo program 50 years ago. One of the tasks of the Gateway will be to support the Artemisa program with which man will once again set foot on the moon before the end of 2014. Astronauts will first arrive at the station, and from there, aboard reusable spaceships, will land on the moon. The Gateway is led by the U.S. Space Agency and is supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) —which has committed itself to providing the service module for the new Orion spacecraft—; Russia; Japan and Canada, in charge of the robotic arm. The project was analysed in Paris Air Show. The forum was inaugurated by Pedro Duque, President of the ESA Council and interim Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, who highlighted «Spain’s increasing role in space research». Mr. Duque met with NASA’s administrator to explore future lines of collaboration between Spain and the U.S., including possible contributions to Gateway and Artemisa. They also reviewed those cooperation programs that INTA, the Astrobiology Centre and the CDTI (Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology) have with NASA, which may result in missions to the Red Planet: Mars Science Laboratory, Insight and Mars2020. 34 Revista Española de Defensa July/August 2019
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