STE. GENEVIEVE – The topics covered in the Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center’s Lecture Series span the earth’s timeline from millions of years ago to as recent as 50 years ago, as in its upcoming Rockets Rule program.
On Saturday, January 14 at 1:00 p.m., Earl Mullins, president and founder of the Space Museum and Grissom Center in Bonne Terre will present his fascinating program, Rockets Rule, which focuses on the discovery and development of the rocket engine and our travel in space.
Mullins was quick to point out that on December 7, 1972, Apollo 17 was the sixth and final mission in the Apollo program that explored the lunar surface, and it was rockets that made this exploration possible.
“The 1960s was a phenomenal decade, but the incredible thing is now we’re repeating many of the discoveries and adventures that started so many years ago,” Mullins said. “And it’s about time we’re going to the moon again.”
During his program, Mullins will compare the space technology of today with that during the Apollo program.
“When you look at the technology today and the technology that we were using then, which at that time was cutting edge, the difference is astronomical,” he said. “NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin and all these new ventures are gaining a lot of popularity and prestige. People fail to remember that there were a lot of pretty brave people who paved the way, and had it not been for them we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
One might wonder where the early astronauts found the courage.
“Most of the astronauts didn’t consider themselves daredevils,” Mullins said. “They really tried to mitigate as much of the risk as they possibly could. It’s like the McDonnell engineers who built the first Mercury and Gemini spacecraft said, ‘We solve 100 unsolvable problems every day.’”
Slide-rules were the tool of the day, as were bare-bones calculators and paper and pencils with erasers.
“The landing computer that set us down on the moon had only 74 kilobytes of memory,” said Mullins. “That’s pretty archaic by today’s standards, and that computer weighed 75 pounds.”
Even though Mullins’s Rockets Rule presentation is indoors he says, “We set things on fire and blow things up, but we haven’t hurt anyone yet.”
The Space Museum and Grissom Center in Bonne Terre has been in existence since 2003 and has received over $30 million worth of assets from NASA, plus numerous items either on loan or donated to the museum.
“We like to say we’re about the history of aerospace and space flight, but we’re also about something a little more important, and that’s about dreaming big like the early space pioneers did, recognizing obstacles, overcoming them, and doing great things. “We’ll bring some of that same spirit to the Ste. Genevieve Museum Learning Center.”
Also of interest to visitors will be a presentation by Bob Schmidt on the Ste. Genevieve Meteorite at 11 a.m. in the theatre room.