GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Alan Binder, Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, part 3 of 4

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Alan Binder, former Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission is interviewed about his job. Binder describes his work with various institutions and institutes to get a spacecraft designed for the Lunar Prospector Mission, and explains the objectives of the mission. Binder talks about the potential to discover water on the moon and the potential for colonization of the moon if water is found, although the water on the moon is probably in the polar regions or is trapped beneath the surface. Ideally, Binder would have a rover and then a man on the moon, and says that humans, and not robots, are necessary to building an infrastructure on the moon for colonization. Binder ends by explaining the technology of searching for water on the moon and talking about his hopes of returning men to the moon, although attempts to go to the moon were starting over the work of the 1950s and 1960s. The final minutes of the interview are audio-only of a discussion with Robin M. Canup (ID "barcode52077_Canup_01") on the discovery of other Earths and other forms of life in space, and from the Mission Control operations.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with Alan Binder, Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, part 3 of 4

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

0:23:24

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

American history

Apollo

Space

Astronaut

Gemini

Moon

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Binder, Alan (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Alan Binder, Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, part 3 of 4,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 19, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_EAE2B4CDA9014C36A9FA0EFE99D6165C.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Alan Binder, Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, part 3 of 4.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 19, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_EAE2B4CDA9014C36A9FA0EFE99D6165C>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Alan Binder, Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, part 3 of 4. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_EAE2B4CDA9014C36A9FA0EFE99D6165C