GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Robert Channing Seamans, Jr., Deputy Administrator at NASA and Professor at MIT, part 2 of 3

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Robert Channing Seamans, Jr., Deputy Administrator at NASA and Professor at MIT is interviewed about the early years of NASA and the Kennedy space program. Seamans describes the meeting with himself, Jim Webb, and Robert McNamara in order to establish a space program under the Kennedy Administration, and the drafting of a proposal to President John F. Kennedy to create the space program. Other considerations included the debate over when the "end of the decade" was, and the building of the NOVA spacecraft. Seamans describes the early, negative, reception of John Houbolt's theory of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, and says that he was receptive to the idea. Over time, the theory was investigated and accepted as the best option to save fuel. The final minute of the interview is from the interview with James W. Head.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with Robert Channing Seamans, Jr., Deputy Administrator at NASA and Professor at MIT, part 2 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

0:22:18

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Apollo

Moon

American history

Gemini

Astronaut

Space

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Seamans, Robert Channing, 1918-2008 (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Robert Channing Seamans, Jr., Deputy Administrator at NASA and Professor at MIT, part 2 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 25, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_86D2443D5B564CE7AF91B354D2611A0A.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Robert Channing Seamans, Jr., Deputy Administrator at NASA and Professor at MIT, part 2 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 25, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_86D2443D5B564CE7AF91B354D2611A0A>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Robert Channing Seamans, Jr., Deputy Administrator at NASA and Professor at MIT, part 2 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_86D2443D5B564CE7AF91B354D2611A0A