GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 2 of 3

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, is interviewed about the Apollo program. He describes the feeling and sound of the Saturn V craft doing the all-up test, and how the test helped NASA identify problems with the spacecraft that eventually was modified to be used in the Apollo 8 mission. Mueller explains how George Low and pressure from the Russians pushed them to come up with a successful mission for Apollo 8, and says that an issue with Apollo 8 would have been catastrophic for the entire NASA program. Apollo 10 was the "pre-cursor to the lunar landing", and it was decided that it would not land for safety reasons. Mueller describes the Apollo 11 mission and their near-crash during landing due to MASCONS and gravitational differences, as well as his own relief at their success. After Apollo 12, Mueller says that he decided to leave because of the pressures of the job and his own financial needs, among other reasons, including his desire to not be part of the problem of government in Washington. Mueller also explains the relationship between the scientists and the engineers, and he describes a 1968 plan to return to the moon, to be followed by a trip to Mars, which Mueller still believes in. Mueller then explains his work on reusable rockets to go to the moon, which he hopes would "transform space activities in the future". The interview ends with Mueller's reasons why he thinks we should return to the moon, and the final segments are audio-only segments on Russian rockets, and learning to operate spacesuits on Gemini.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, 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

0:26:30

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Moon

Space

Astronaut

Apollo

American history

Gemini

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Mueller, George Edwin, 1918-2015 (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 2 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 26, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_EE7FB78607844A22A9591704A28AAD10.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 2 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 26, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_EE7FB78607844A22A9591704A28AAD10>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 2 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_EE7FB78607844A22A9591704A28AAD10