Reflections on Apollo and the next Giant Leaps
THE GIANT LEAPS SYMPOSIUM by Dick Dahl
MIT’s three-day Giant Leaps event in early June brought together Apollo veterans and modern-day leaders in aerospace engineering, energy, environment, public policy, and education in a rare opportunity to examine the lunar program and how its lessons might be used in the future.
In his introductory remarks at a one-day symposium, Aeronautics and Astronautics Department head Ian Waitz said that MIT saw the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing as a perfect opportunity to look back at the history
of Apollo and to future challenges in aerospace. In reflecting on that historic accomplishment, Waitz said that the famous “earthrise” image taken by astronaut Bill Anders stands out as a visual metaphor that MIT adopted for the “Giant Leaps” event. “I think we all understand that when the world vicariously stood on the moon and looked back at the earth and out to the heavens, our perspective of all three of those things changed,” he said. “And likewise, we hope today as we look back on history and we stand here today and then look out to the future, that our perspective will change. We’ve sought to extend the metaphor yet further for aerospace, not only looking out at the future of aerospace exploration but also looking at earth and air transportation and some of the challenges of energy and environment.” Richard Battin, who became the director of the Apollo guidance navigation system, remembered the earliest days of MIT’s involvement. On Oct. 4, 1957, when the USSR touched off the space race with its launch of Sputnik, Battin worked in Draper’s MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, located in a less-than-posh space next to the railroad tracks on Massachusetts Ave. With the support of a contract from the Air Force, the lab responded to Sputnik by devising a space vehicle of its own. It became known as the Mars Probe, which its planners intended
Giant Leaps Symposium
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