GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Young, astronaut and engineer who served as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission, part 1 of 2

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

John Young, astronaut and engineer who served acted as pilot and commander of multiple Gemini and Apollo missions, is interviewed about the space program. Young believes that we should go back to the moon to continue learning about "our sister satellite", and wants to keep sending rovers to the Moon to learn about water on the moon. Young believes that humans should attempt space colonization, and says that it is better to make mistakes and learn from them, than to not make mistakes at all. After the space program ended in 1972, Young was one of the men responsible for keeping the dream of the moon alive, and thought that mankind would have established further lunar branches in the years since the final Apollo mission. Young says that the highlight of his Apollo 16 experience was simply getting the mission done, and talks about some of the technical difficulties on the mission, and the astronauts' surprise at not landing in a volcanic site, contrary to NASA's projections. He explains the landscape of the site, and the rocks and craters in the area, as well as the difficulties in navigating the landscape. Young describes how he came to be part of the Apollo program, and describes training with Lee Silver, and talks about flying over the moon on Apollo 10. Before Apollo 10, there was debate about the structure and landscape of the moon, including ideas that it was all impact craters, volcanoes, or blobs of water. Young liked the idea of the scientist-astronauts, and thought it was a good idea to bring professional scientists into the program.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with John Young, astronaut and engineer who served as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission, part 1 of 2

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

0:23:32

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Astronaut

American history

Moon

Gemini

Apollo

Space

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Young, John Watts, 1930-2018 (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Young, astronaut and engineer who served as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission, part 1 of 2,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed November 23, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_612E1035483A4AF2AD6B1F688FC22311.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Young, astronaut and engineer who served as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission, part 1 of 2.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. November 23, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_612E1035483A4AF2AD6B1F688FC22311>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Young, astronaut and engineer who served as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission, part 1 of 2. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_612E1035483A4AF2AD6B1F688FC22311