Rusty Schweickart, an Apollo 9 astronaut, is from NASA’s old guard, when, during the 1960s, the U.S. was in a desperate Cold War space race with the former Soviet Union to put a man on the Moon. Schweickart’s flight launched just a few months before Apollo 11, which, on July 20, 1969, did put men on the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first-ever humans there.
Apollo 9 was a low-Earth orbital mission where the Lunar Module (LM) and Command Module docked for the first time in space, a warm-up for the next several lunar missions where the LM would take astronauts all the way down to the lunar surface. It was a critical flight in the Apollo program, and one during which Schweickart also became the first person to walk in space with the full Apollo lunar space suit and life support system.
Given all of the recent activity within the aerospace industry, both private efforts and with NASA, we thought now would be a good time for a seasoned veteran’s thoughts on all of it. Following are edited excerpts from a longer telephone conversation we had with Schweickart, 88, this past week.
Jim Clash: When you did your Apollo 9 spacewalk, I imagine the feeling, and the view outside of the spacecraft, were pretty unique?
Rusty Schweickart: I was out there for 47 minutes. I’d say the feeling is similar to climbing to the top of a high mountain. You pretty much know what it will look like from up there. But the effort and work you put into the climb exceeds the anticipation you had about it. The EVA was similar. Intellectually, I knew I was above the atmosphere, so I’d be seeing the curvature, blackness of space, etc. It’s all of those things you already know. But the total experience getting there [of launch, flight, etc.] exceeded my anticipation. The most spectacular visual thing is the beauty of Earth and the extremely bright, blue horizon – the thin skin around the planet – and the absolute deep blackness of space. That contrast is incredible, very profound.
Clash: I know there’s been disagreement about whether we should go directly to Mars, or back to the Moon first, then to Mars from the Moon. Your thoughts?
Schweickart: To the extent one has to choose sides, my preference had been to go directly to Mars. But I’ve come to believe that this is unrealistic. The long-term effects of radiation, the isolation, a number of unavoidable substantial issues we’ve identified, make it more appropriate to go back to the Moon first, take more time to understand what it really will take to get to Mars.
I also feel that we need a presence on the Moon, not just one-off flights. And I think that this should all be done internationally. Beyond the environment of this planet, we are Earth’s people – Americans, Russians, Chinese, Indians and everything else – and we should go out there as that. Then, depending upon what we learn about radiation and the rest of it, go to Mars when we are able.
Clash: How does SpaceX’s Elon Musk fit in?
Schweickart: You can’t talk about any of this without taking into account Musk and his idea of sending large crews to Mars, even at first. It is significantly different from what anyone else is thinking now. Sending a crew of two, three or four is a very serious sociological, psychological challenge. Having more people involved in a Mars mission may be important. I have no doubt that we will end up there, but how and when we do is yet to be determined. And that’s a good thing.
Clash: What do you think of the relatively new suborbital space tourist movement?
Schweickart: I have mixed feelings. It’s great in that people who would not otherwise have the opportunity, get to experience weightlessness for a few minutes. It’s just long enough to sink in, as opposed to say, jumping off of a diving board [laughs]. To a certain extent, there’s the opportunity to look out of the window and see the contrast of Earth below and infinite space above, kind of like I did on Apollo, but it’s a little too short a time to really appreciate it. On the negative side, I fear that it won’t be very long before somebody says, “Well, that’s a hell of a lot of money for a 10-minute experience.” You’re going to get a lot of that downside, too.
(Editor’s Note: In subsequent parts of this interview series with Rusty Schweickart, we will explore the possibility of life other than ours in the universe – and whether it has visited Earth – Artificial Intelligence, asteroid mining and more. Stay tuned.)