GBH Openvault
NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell, NASA astronaut who was Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 14, part 3 of 3
Part of To the Moon Interviews.
1998
Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell, US Navy Officer, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut who was Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 14 is interviewed about Apollo 14. Mitchell explains the mission's difficulties in achieving their objectives because of the heaviness of the Lunar Mobile Equipment Transport (LMET), and explains the bet between Apollo 14 and the backup crew. On returning from the moon, Mitchell ruminated on his relationship to the moon through his body's atoms, and thought about how humanity needed a new story about themselves (outside of religion and ancient history) that was adequate for the scientific age, both of which resulted in Mitchell's understanding of the unity of things and a feeling of ecstasy. These thoughts and realizations led him to attempt experiments while returning to Earth, and led him to his post-NASA work on consciousness and the paranormal. Mitchell believes that we should return to the moon, since going to the moon made humanity think about themselves from a different perspective. The interview ends with an audio-only interview with Mitchell, in which he mentions how abort options for Apollo 14 were manual-only, and explains how the Apollo 14 navigated above the lunar surface.
- Series
- NOVA
- Program
- To the Moon
- Program Number
2610
- Title
Interview with Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell, NASA astronaut who was Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 14, part 3 of 3
- Series Description
NOVA is a general-interest documentary series that addresses a single science issue each week. Billed as "science adventures for curious grown-ups" when it first aired in March, 1974, NOVA continues to offer an informative and entertaining approach to a challenging subject. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over.
- Program Description
Alan Binder, former Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, is interviewed about the Lunar Prospector. Binder says that if moon travel became viable again, he would want to go to the moon, but says that in order to get financial and public support for space exploration, scientists need to sell the science of the moon. Another option, according to Binder, is to make travel to the moon commercially viable, and lists many benefits of going to the moon, including using it as a fuel source, or colonizing the surface for human habitation (audio cuts out from 00:07:30 - 00:09:00). Binder explains the work of the Lunar Prospector and talks about the necessity of having computers to do a lot of the work. On Apollo, Binder calls the program the most significant event of the 21st century, and talks about the roles of the Apollo program, the Clementine spacecraft, and hte Lunar Prospector. The interview ends with Binder's views on his relationship with NASA, which he characterizes as being needlessly bound up in beaurocracy and red tape.
- Duration
0:15:08
- Asset Type
Raw video
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Moon
- Space
- Gemini
- American history
- Astronaut
- Apollo
- Creators
- WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)
- Contributors
- Mitchell, Edgar, 1930-2016 (Interviewee)
- Rights Summary
Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell, NASA astronaut who was Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 14, part 3 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 19, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C1684D2D8C2D4DE6B3F9339F9241FA46.
- MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell, NASA astronaut who was Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 14, part 3 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 19, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C1684D2D8C2D4DE6B3F9339F9241FA46>.
- APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell, NASA astronaut who was Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 14, part 3 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C1684D2D8C2D4DE6B3F9339F9241FA46