THE MEN ON THE MOON: Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame, Chapter 2

2010-02-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

CLICK BELOW and you will find an excerpt from my book, ANTHONY AND THE MAGIC PICTURE FRAME. I wrote and photographed this book with my family. The excerpt is from Chapter 2: The Men on the Moon.

I hope my book inspires our children to reach for the stars.

If you believe in this message for our children, pass this link along.

Michael S. Class

February 5, 2010

USA

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Speaking to hundreds of millions of people watching on TV back home on Earth, Astronaut Neil Armstrong said: “For those who haven’t read the plaque, we’ll read the plaque that’s on the front landing gear of this LM [Lunar Module]. First there’s two hemispheres, one showing each of the two hemispheres of the earth. Underneath it says ‘Here Man from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 a.d. We came in peace for all mankind.’ It has the crew members’ signatures and the signature of the President of the United States.”

It was a proud moment: The American flag was on the moon! But did you know that there was a time when it didn’t seem likely that America would be successful in space? That’s because, when people looked up into the night skies of October 1957, they saw the Soviet Union’s satellite, Sputnik, orbiting the earth. Then on television, just two months later, they watched America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into space end in disaster: The Vanguard rocket carrying the satellite exploded and burned on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. It was a humiliating failure that millions of people saw.

Even worse, Sputnik turned out to be just the beginning of a string of Soviet achievements in space. The first spacecraft to leave Earth’s gravity was the Soviet Luna 1, in 1959. The first probe to reach the moon’s surface was the Soviet Luna 2. That was also in 1959. In 1961, the Soviets put their first astronaut (actually, they called them cosmonauts) in space—Yuri Gagarin. Two years later, they put the first woman in space—Valentina Tereshkova. And the first astronaut to leave the capsule and “walk in space” was cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, in 1965.

There was something else, too. The Soviet Union’s early success in space sent an upsetting message to the rest of the world, especially to Americans: that people living under tyranny and communism could outperform free people living within a system of capitalism and democracy. After orbiting the earth on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin said: “Now let the other countries try to catch us.” Then, as if anybody missed that jab, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev made the point even clearer when he said: “Let the capitalist countries catch up with our country, which has blazed the trail into outer space.”

In response to the Soviet challenge, President John F. Kennedy began thinking about ways for the United States to beat the Soviets and take the lead in space. On April 20, 1961, he wrote a memo to Vice President Lyndon Johnson: “Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to land on the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?”

Then, on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy addressed the American people and told them that the “space race” had become part of the battle between freedom and tyranny, between capitalism and communism. He said: “. . . if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take.” America had to take the lead in space, President Kennedy insisted, because, “. . . whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”

President Kennedy’s words were bold, considering that the U.S. had only succeeded in putting its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space twenty days before—for a fifteen-minute ride. The Soviets had taken the lead in the space race, and President Kennedy knew it. But he said: “Recognizing the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead time, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are required to make new efforts of our own. For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be the first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.”

Then, President Kennedy issued a fantastic challenge to the American people. He said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” It would no longer be a space race between the United States and the Soviet Union—it would be a race to the moon.

There I was standing on the moon on July 20, 1969, only eight years after President Kennedy had issued his historic challenge, and not ten. The American flag stood proudly in the lunar dust. What President Kennedy had hoped for had come true. The free people of the world had claimed the moon in the name of peace. “For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond,” President Kennedy had said, “and we have vowed that we will not see it governed by a hostile fl ag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.”

I placed my hand over my heart as Astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluted the American flag on the moon. Neil Armstrong took our photograph.

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“In my time,” I told the Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon, “some people think that space exploration is too dangerous, and that it isn’t worth the risk of human life. They think we should only send probes and robots to distant planets.”

“Robotic probes have returned impressive pictures and invaluable information, but if you send a robot with a camera to Paris and peruse the pictures at home, you haven’t really done Paris,” Buzz Aldrin said right away. “The people who settled our continent were not afraid of risk; and beyond personal ambition, there was also a desire to be part of something larger, something epochal. If we balk before the challenge of space we will become less than the people who lifted us into the present.”

Neil Armstrong, the combat veteran and former test pilot, succinctly said: “I have been in high-risk businesses all my life.”

To the Apollo 11 astronauts, and all the astronauts before them, risk was an accepted part of the job. They would never let danger, or even tragedy, turn them from the goal of reaching the moon. In 1967, just months before he died in the Apollo 1 fire, Gus Grissom had sent a message from his heart to the whole world: “If we die, we want people to accept it. We’re in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”

Back on Earth after the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong acknowledged that a proper balance always had to be struck between the risk and reward of space travel. He said that, without taking a risk, there could be no reward: “Several weeks ago I enjoyed the warmth of reflection on the true meanings of the spirit of Apollo. I stood in the highlands of this Nation, near the Continental Divide, introducing to my sons the wonders of nature, and pleasures of looking for deer and for elk. In their enthusiasm for the view they frequently stumbled on the rocky trails, but when they looked only to their footing, they did not see the elk.”

Over the radio, I heard Michael Collins say: “To go places and to do things that have never been done before—that’s what living is all about.”

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In my time, space program technology is everywhere, but most people don’t know it. They don’t know that NASA technology is in the everyday things around them, like cordless drills and smoke detectors, and football helmets and virtual reality games. They never hear about how space technology made laser scalpels possible, or how space technology improved CAT scanners, magnetic resonance imagers, kidney dialysis machines, water filters, freeze dried food, artificial heart pumps, air purifiers, sunglasses, artificial limbs, satellite radio, aircraft collision avoidance systems, optical sensor thermometers, land mine removal systems, and even golf balls. There are 500 dimples on the longest-flying golf balls because of NASA research and engineering.

In 1962, President Kennedy predicted that the U.S. space program would unleash technical genius and enrich us all. He said: “The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school.”

President Kennedy’s prediction came true—and still, there are people who insist that man should solve all the problems on Earth before venturing further into space. Fix the planet, they say, before leaving it. But, isn’t America’s space program solving problems on Earth, and not distracting us from them? I think so, anyway.

“We cannot launch our planetary probes from a springboard of poverty, discrimination, or unrest,” Astronaut Michael Collins once said. “But neither can we wait until every terrestrial problem has been solved. Such logic 200 years ago would have prevented expansion westward past the Appalachian Mountains, for assuredly the eastern seaboard was beset by problems of great urgency then, as it is today.”

While thinking about these things, I threw my football as hard as I could toward the infi nite black sky and imagined that it escaped the moon’s weak gravity. In my mind, I saw it whiz miles and miles and miles past Mars and Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, past Uranus and Neptune and Pluto, and, like a tiny Voyager spacecraft, leave the solar system entirely.

Voyager, when will man follow you?

It occurred to me that until the Picture Frame brought me to 1969, I had never seen a man stand on the surface of the moon. In my time, more than three decades after Neil Armstrong put his footprints on the lunar surface, manned space exploration of the moon and planets seems almost as improbable as it did when Sputnik crossed the night skies of 1957. I learned in school that it would take sixteen years for America to repeat the feat of Apollo 11, and perhaps twenty
years beyond that to put a man on Mars. That’s if we ever decide to do it!

I noticed that the Apollo 11 astronauts were packing the last pieces of their equipment into the Lunar Module. They would be leaving soon. I approached them to say goodbye, but I was still thinking about the slow pace of space exploration in my own time. Buzz Aldrin seemed to know what I was thinking. “The Apollo lesson is that national goals can be met where there is a strong enough will to do so,” he said.

We shook hands. Then, I watched the two astronauts climb the ladder to the Lunar Module, crawl inside, and close the door.

In the vacuum of space, the Lunar Module’s engine fired without making a sound. I watched as the tiny spacecraft shot up from the surface of the moon and began its long journey back through the heavens, and toward home.

I waved goodbye.

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I thought: "We are meant to see the earth from this vantage point. It’s our destiny. It’s our purpose. After all, those who study the stars have God for a teacher. We are meant to someday reach the farthest corner of the infinite universe, and to look back in wonder upon God’s magnificent creation.

My father had once read me a passage from a book by astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to stand on the surface of the moon. I remembered it: “Too many years have passed for me to still be the last man to have walked on the moon. Somewhere on Earth today is the young girl or boy, the possessor of indomitable will and courage, who will lift that dubious honor from me and take us back where we belong.”

After the Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Michael Collins said something similar. He said: “Someday in the not-too-distant future, when I listen to an earthling step out onto the surface of Mars or some other planet, just as I listened to Neil step out onto the surface of the moon, I hope I hear him say: ‘I come from the United States of America.’”

I hope to hear the same thing . . . someday.

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Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame, by Michael S. Class.
Read the Book. Remember the Truth. Share it With Your Children.

Web Site: www.MagicPictureFrame.com

ANTHONY AND THE MAGIC PICTURE FRAME:One Father's Gift to His Son Becomes a Gift for All America's Children

2008-10-23T13:35:00.001-07:00

With his father's help, a young man in Seattle stepped back in time to have historic experiences. He met Lou Gehrig, FDR, Jonas Salk, Thomas Edison, and even his own great-grandfather at Ellis Island in 1907 and learned secrets to their strength of will, dedication to purpose, and love of country. The result, accomplished through advanced digital photography and historically accurate text, is Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame: a history book with an inspiring message for today's young Americans.

If your dad told you he could put you on the Moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, would you believe him? And what if your big dream was to jump into the cockpit with Charles Lindbergh as he took off for his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean -- would you say, "Dad, can I please have that for Christmas?"

With his father's help, a young man in Seattle did step back in time to have these experiences, as well as meet Lou Gehrig, FDR, Jonas Salk, Thomas Edison, and even his own great grandfather at Ellis Island in 1907. He learned the secrets to their strength of will, dedication to purpose, and love of country.

Photographer and author Michael Class made all of these magical things come true for his 12-year-old son, Anthony, by using advanced digital photography. After securing permission for photos of historic moments - and endorsements from people in those photos - he placed Anthony in the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh, on the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in the laboratories of Thomas Edison and Jonas Salk, on Normandy beach on D-Day, at Ellis Island, and much more.

Father and son worked together for nearly four years to capture and compile adventures with 20th century American heroes. The result is a museum-quality history book, Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame, full of photos and stories of Anthony "meeting" and learning exciting lessons from inspiring Americans. The Web site, www.MagicPictureFrame.com, displays some of the book's captivating photographs.

Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame lifts spirits as it stimulates young minds. Embraced by the homeschooling community and parents and teachers nationwide, the book is a memorable gift for young adults, grades 6-12. Now, the book is available at a special price of $25 exclusively from www.MagicPictureFrame.com and Amazon.com, and by calling toll-free 1-800-247-6553.

Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame was named "Outstanding Book of the Year" by Independent Publisher; "Reviewers Choice" by Midwest Book Review; and "Editor's Pick" by Homefires: The Journal of Homeschooling Online. Nationally syndicated talk-show host Michael Medved calls the book "entertaining and educational."

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut, says: "The book's vivid narrative and captivating photographs transported me through space and time: I felt that I was once again standing on the surface of the Moon in 1969. Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame tells it like it really was in America's early space program - the adventure, the risks, and the rewards. I almost believe that Anthony was there! I think that parents and teachers will appreciate the inspiring message this unique history book holds for America's next generation. I recommend this book to all young Americans, may they take us to the stars and beyond."