One night, 40 years ago, a 12-year-old boy in Peru watched on a black and white television screen grainy, yet riveting, images of a man planting the first human footprints on another world.
Minutes after he had watched the images of Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, Pedro Medelius, a native of Lima, told his parents that when he grew up, he would like to be a scientist at Nasa.
Medelius today recalled the incident and his parents’ words — “well, you’ll have to work very hard to get there”. “They did not appear convinced, but they were supportive,” he said in an interview to The Telegraph.
He studied electrical engineering in Peru and in the University of Florida, and joined the Nasa Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in 1991 where he joined a team of engineers working on the electronics of the Space Shuttle.
On Monday, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Medelius will be at work, but expects a ceremony. There will also be a celebration at home — his daughter, Marie, who was born on the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing — turns 15 this Monday.
The Apollo missions have thrown up myriad technology spinoffs — from ready-to-eat, freeze-dried foods to athletic shoes, from water purification systems to special insulating materials used in homes and industries.
But in addition to spawning such tangible, quantifiable technology offshoots, the first human stroll on the moon also appears to have inspired a generation of youngsters to pursue careers in science and engineering.
“The excitement that human space flight generates is as important as technology spinoffs,” Medelius, who has received a prestigious Nasa Silver Snoopy Award for service to the Space Shuttle astronauts, said over phone.
“Kids need to get excited about science — in the long run, this benefits all of society,” said Medelius who was commended in October 1996 for “highly imaginative engineering” that helped improve space shuttle safety and reduced operating costs.
An online survey of about 800 scientists worldwide who have published research papers in the journal Nature over the past three years has revealed that half of them had been drawn to science by the Apollo missions.
High school students who watched the Apollo missions veered not just towards astronomy or planetary sciences but even towards life sciences and — like Medelius in Peru — engineering.
“I am sure (the landing) played an important role in driving me into electronic space business that I manage today at Texas Instruments,” said semiconductor expert James Salzmann, inscribing his thoughts on a special webpage containing recollections of the Apollo 11 landing created by Space Foundation, a US-based, non-profit organisation.
The Nature survey results published on Friday show that 90 per cent of the scientists believe human spaceflight has prompted technological innovations.
The Apollo missions have produced spinoffs that have made their way into everyday life -- lightweight water purifiers based on silver ions, and a super-durable athletic shoe where the foam was dumped in favour of a fatigue-resistant mechanical system.
The challenge of packing enough nutritious food into the cramped living quarters of the Apollo spacecraft spurred the development of freeze-dried foods that preserve the nutritional value and taste but are lightweight and have a long shelf life.
Two Indian laboratories -- the Central Food and Technology Research Institute and the Defence Food Research Laboratory -- independently developed this technology during the 1980s for subcontinental dishes -- dal to biryanis to chicken chettinad.
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