I don’t remember how much of this story I shared before, but it doesn’t really matter, here it comes.
Years ago in a far, far away place called Houston I lived and made some wonderful friends.
Along the way I had the great opportunity to employ a NASA engineer and meet several others as well as some Astronauts. One gentleman I met and became friends with was Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. With the exception of Phil, the smartest most intelligent person I have ever met. He had a photographic memory, could recall specific details beyond comprehension from all his space flights, space walk and could quote various instructions. I guess if your A_ _ is on the line, we all could probably have a pretty good memory. Of course his being on the line is a little different than mine missing a shift.
Anyway, one day we were talking about the Lunar rover and what it took to unload and set up. He explained what it entailed, how he could drive it almost anywhere on the moon, but his biggest issue was the moon dust. Seems it was so fine it would get into everything and all over his spacesuit and mask. He shared how he would drive out to collect moon rock samples actually driving quite a distance away from the Lunar lander.
Given that the Lunar gravity is I think 1/6th of earth(Cecil help me here), it’s easy to move around, but also easy to damage things. I didn’t think much about this until I heard him talking about another incident.
Now, fast forward a few months later and I had the great honor of introducing him as the guest speaker at a wonderful event at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He was taken back when I introduced him as not the great astronaut, last man to walk on the moon, but instead as “THE ONLY PERSON TO HAVE WRECKED A CAR ON ANOTHER PLANET”!!
A little smile came to his face as he stepped up to the podium to defend my announcement.
Seems when Gene was bouncing around the moon collecting rocks, he accidentally hooked the fender of the Lunar rover with his hammer and promptly removed the fender, remember that Cecil 1/6th thing. Given he could not drive far without sending up a rooster tail of Lunar dust, so had to create a solution. He took one of the Lunar maps and promptly clamped it to the remaining part of the fender. He said duct tape would not have worked here because of all the dust, so he clamped it.
Gene shared later that he had received many wonderful and exciting introductions, but this was not one of them, LOL LOL LOL!!
And that ladies and gentlemen is the story of a car being wrecked on another planet.
P.S. I never found out if he picked up the fender or just left it there for posterity, did he try to turn it into an insurance claim or did NASA make him pay for the damage. Of course if NASA wants to recover the damaged car and fender we all know where it’s setting.
Years ago in a far, far away place called Houston I lived and made some wonderful friends.
Along the way I had the great opportunity to employ a NASA engineer and meet several others as well as some Astronauts. One gentleman I met and became friends with was Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. With the exception of Phil, the smartest most intelligent person I have ever met. He had a photographic memory, could recall specific details beyond comprehension from all his space flights, space walk and could quote various instructions. I guess if your A_ _ is on the line, we all could probably have a pretty good memory. Of course his being on the line is a little different than mine missing a shift.
Anyway, one day we were talking about the Lunar rover and what it took to unload and set up. He explained what it entailed, how he could drive it almost anywhere on the moon, but his biggest issue was the moon dust. Seems it was so fine it would get into everything and all over his spacesuit and mask. He shared how he would drive out to collect moon rock samples actually driving quite a distance away from the Lunar lander.
Given that the Lunar gravity is I think 1/6th of earth(Cecil help me here), it’s easy to move around, but also easy to damage things. I didn’t think much about this until I heard him talking about another incident.
Now, fast forward a few months later and I had the great honor of introducing him as the guest speaker at a wonderful event at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He was taken back when I introduced him as not the great astronaut, last man to walk on the moon, but instead as “THE ONLY PERSON TO HAVE WRECKED A CAR ON ANOTHER PLANET”!!
A little smile came to his face as he stepped up to the podium to defend my announcement.
Seems when Gene was bouncing around the moon collecting rocks, he accidentally hooked the fender of the Lunar rover with his hammer and promptly removed the fender, remember that Cecil 1/6th thing. Given he could not drive far without sending up a rooster tail of Lunar dust, so had to create a solution. He took one of the Lunar maps and promptly clamped it to the remaining part of the fender. He said duct tape would not have worked here because of all the dust, so he clamped it.
Gene shared later that he had received many wonderful and exciting introductions, but this was not one of them, LOL LOL LOL!!
And that ladies and gentlemen is the story of a car being wrecked on another planet.
P.S. I never found out if he picked up the fender or just left it there for posterity, did he try to turn it into an insurance claim or did NASA make him pay for the damage. Of course if NASA wants to recover the damaged car and fender we all know where it’s setting.
