December 2, 2021 • 26 mins
The rarest of all occupations on Jobsolete, only 24 men have ever gone to the Moon. All of them were from the United States. Helen and Matt learn about the legacy and impact of the Moon Astronaut. While we cherish the history of the Apollo program, the real excitement comes from the fact that this decade the occupation will return. That’s right, we’re going back to the moon for the first time in 50 years!
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is jobs elete where we talk about jobs that
are long gone, and this one is far out. Today
we're going to the moon. Well we're not literally going
to the moon, but we are learning about those few
folks who actually did. In this episode, let's talk about
moon astronauts, the space race, sadistic torture training, twenty four
(00:27):
American men. That's it, peeing on a tire. Not because
it is easy, but because it is hard. Don't forget
to eat and sleep in space. And after fifty years,
we are finally going back God's speed, Wally Funk. So, Helen,
what do you know about moon astronauts? I only know
(00:48):
I think what most people learned in school, which is
we went there in the sixties. Neil Armstrong that famous quote. Actually,
I just learned that that famous quote, which I always
thought was one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind, is actually one small step for a man,
(01:09):
one giant leap for mankind. I just learned that. I
just learned it too. That's it's still blowing my mind.
I can't we've been misquoting this whole time. Yeah, so yeah,
I think most of the audience also has that basic
knowledge of this these really inspirational and dramatic events. The
Apollo mission program, which took place from nineteen sixty nine.
(01:30):
In nineteen seventy two, twenty four people have been to
the Moon. Only twelve people have walked on the Moon. Incredibly,
four of them are still alive at the time of
this recording. All were American men. Here's some facts about
the Moon that are really fun. Did you know the
Moon is four point five one billion years old? Nope?
(01:54):
I yeah, I didn't either. It's three hundred and eighty
four thousand kilometers or two three nine thousand miles from
Earth on average. To put in perspective, like if you
were to travel all the way around Earth, that's twenty
five thousand miles. So it's a boot spit out there.
But yeah, so we're learning about the moon astronauts this
very rare, exceptional job that that only twenty four people
(02:18):
have ever done. Well, should we go? Should we do it?
Should we hop into the job sleet time machine? Yeah,
maybe a space capsule as well. Yes, we're gonna hop.
It's not a it's not a job slee time machine today, folks,
it's a job sleeked space capsule. Back to nineteen sixty nine.
(02:39):
Boo boo bood. Okay, So some background here. This is
the nineteen sixties and the Cold War is still going on.
We've got the Soviet Union on one side and the
United States on the other. The space race is a
big part of the Old War. It's really what drives
(03:02):
a lot of this, these ambitions to go to space
to beat the Russians, and the Russians did beat the
Americans to space initially, but then once the sixties came,
NASA was created and just really was things were really
taken off pun intended. We spoke with expert Loretta Hall.
(03:23):
She's an author and freelance writer whose work concentrates on
the history of human space exploration. It was literally a war,
but it was a war that was only fought in
technological and propaganda ways, and it was deadly serious. But
it was the format that those Cold War ended up
(03:46):
taking was competition in the area of human spaceflight, something
that had never been done before. But with the technological
development that accompanied and followed World War Two, it began
to look like this would be something that would be
possible to do, to actually put people into space and
(04:08):
even reach the moon. Wow, you know what, I keep
thinking about all the poor animals that they had to
shoot into space to experiment before they could put humans
in space. Wasn't there a dog and a few chimpanzees
that went out into space first, you know? I mean, well,
there's also disasters with humans as well, so it was
a dangerous job, of course. I think that this is
(04:29):
something that you think about, these these moon astronauts. I
I know people that are just they're afraid to get
in an airplane to be shot off the planet to
uh distant rock and hopefully you get there okay and return. Well,
I think that leads us into the qualifications. What did
you other than total bravery encouraged to be like willing
(04:52):
to get shot off into space? What are some of
the other qualifications that one needed to be a Moon astronaut. Well,
as you can imagine with the particular job, there are
many qualifications. Instead of using their names, there was like
a numerical code that identified each candidate, so it was
a secret operation until the final selection was announced. There
(05:15):
were age restrictions. I think the upper age limit was
thirty five. There were height and weight restrictions, not only
for the size constraints of the capsule, but also for
the power, the lift capability of the vehicle, and it
could only carry so much weight into orbit, and so
(05:37):
there were those There were education requirements. The candidates had
to have a degree in engineering or a physical science
like physics or chemistry, and then they had to have
test pilot experience, and especially jet pilot experience were pretty
much limited to the US military, and at that time
(06:01):
women were not allowed to perform those kinds of functions
in in the military. The process automatically excluded women, and
there's some debate about whether that was intentional or not
so unfair that women were shut out of this, especially
knowing what we know now about how women were so
essential to the space program, but also just hearing her
(06:22):
talk about the qualifications, you're looking for a needle in
a haystack. If not only did you have to be
a jock, but you couldn't be too big of a jock.
You had to be a smallish person to be able
to fit into the tight spaces and also be light
enough for the rocket to get you off the ground.
You had to also have these degrees and flight experience.
(06:44):
That I see why they're only twenty four people who
have done this job. Yeah, there, but there were thousands
of people interested, and it makes sense that most of them,
of course came directly from the Air Force, which the
Air Force had only been around for a few years.
Keep in mind, like that was really new too. And
now we're going to get into the tests, because just
because you're a candidate doesn't mean it's an easy road.
(07:07):
Like after that. You know how sometimes for a job
there's a oh, there's a second interview, or even a
third interview, or maybe you'll get a tour of the
place you might work at or something like this. The
process for a moon astronaut, like as far as trying
to even get the job, could last years. And not
only that, like so you're dedicating thousands of hours, but
(07:28):
also what they went through is incredible, some of the
tests they made them do. The person who is most
responsible for developing these tests is a man named Dr
William Randolph Loveless the second and he first developed these
tests for the candidates that were for the Mercury program,
which was the first program NASA developed for astronauts to
(07:51):
go to space. So Loretta Hall is now going to
tell us about some of those tests. The doctor Loveless
and his staff developed a testing regimen for the Mercury
candidates that Loveless described later as being probably the most
thorough physical examination ever given. And the candidates came to
(08:13):
Albuquerque in groups of six at a time, and they're
testing lasted for seven and a half day straight, and
the testing went at least eleven hours every day. Three
of the days it went longer than eleven hours. And
the number of tests that each person underwent is a
(08:33):
little bit hard to pin down because it depends on
how you classify tests and subtests and so on. But
it was over eighty different physical examinations. They were x
rayed from head to toe, They were subjected to physical
testing that was at times excruciating. And then after they
(08:55):
finished that testing, they went on to Wright Patterson Air
Force Base in Ohio and did another phase of testing
that was physical stress tests as well as psychological evaluation. Wow, yeah,
it all makes sense. It's it's so interesting that it
started out with like hundreds of potential candidates and they
(09:18):
just were like, boom, you can't do the You can't.
First of all, you had to have the stamina to
go through seven days of testing eleven hours each day
at least, so that already if you don't have stamina.
But also I feel like I've seen in some movies
and stuff that they were like gravity tests and like
(09:38):
you'd beat They would spin you around in a thing
and see if you with bar fall your guts out.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of
(09:58):
this stuff just seems like straight up torture. A fairly
substantial needle was inserted at the base of the thumb
in one hand, and then an electric charge was passed
through that needle to stimulate the muscles in the hand,
and it caused the hand to just clench and release
very rapidly, over and over, and it was quite painful.
(10:21):
But that was to measure the electric conductivity of the
muscles and the nervous system in the human body. That's
just some straight up medieval torture right there. You a
needle into the thumb and then you electrocute your hand
and you're like the monkeys, like a claw with your
hand and WHOA. I did not know about that. I
(10:43):
imagined it was stuff like anti gravity, the springing around
around you barf and then maybe they dunk you underwater
and stuff like that. You know, many of these tests
were designed to not specifically to predict whether the individual
was healthy and off for space travel, but to basically
measure anything that Dr Lovelace and his staff could think of,
(11:07):
so that after a person had taken a spaceflight returned
to Earth, they could measure those same sorts of things
over again and compare them with the pretest and get
an idea of how space flight had affected the human body. Basically,
they were measuring everything they could think of. They had
the end of each candidate had to pass a three
(11:31):
ft rubber hose down from their mouth and keep swallowing
until the other end of the hose reached into their stomach,
so that they could the doctors could measure the acidity
of the stomach contents. They had multiple enemas with sometimes
with radioactive barium. That was not particularly fun. Okay, I
(11:53):
think Dr Lovelace was a little twisted. I think you're right.
I think because none of these examples that she just
is anything that could possibly happen to you in space.
There's other stuff too, though that does make sense. They
were put into isolation tanks, a large tank of water.
I don't know how you could go to space after
going through this program. I feel like you would be
like psychologically and physically damaged after just going through the
(12:16):
training to be able to then have to go shoot
yourself on from its space. That's a good point. Yeah,
I am going to bet money that every single Moon
astronaut was like, you know what, space is a piece
of cake. It was the training that was worse than
going space is a vacation after all this horrible torture
(12:38):
in the training. Well, for this episode, I actually left
out the skills uh portion. And the reason why I
was thinking, I was like, well, if you could just
survive the qualifications part, then you got it. That's that.
That is the skill surviving all of the training is
the skills that is Yeah, you're like you're superhero because
(12:58):
even just to get to the training, you have to
be so qualified, like we talked about previously, you have
to have an engineering degree, you have to have a
flight experience, you have to be so strong but small.
Let's now look at tools of the trade. Tools of
the trade. I'm going assuming our rocket ship and a
space suit for the geological activities that would take place
(13:21):
on the Moon. Dr Harrison Schmidt, who was one of
the scientist astronauts in the last group that was selected
for the Apollo program and the only scientists to actually
go to the Moon on Apollo seventeen. He was a
geologist by profession, and he helped develop or modify the
(13:42):
tools that geologists use on Earth two function on the
surface of the Moon where gravity is different and we're
completely sure of what the structure, how strong the rocks
would be, or how substantial those the sand surface would be.
(14:02):
So he developed tools that could be used for that
kind of geological work and would also function when the
astronaut was wearing that very cumbersome space suit that severely
limited his use of his hands and his ability to
bend over or even stand back up again when he
(14:24):
fell down, and so there were certainly tools for that.
And and then of course they had to develop the
self contained life support system for when they were taken
an e v A or a spacewalk, or when they
were out of the spacecraft and exploring the surface of
the Moon. So there were significant technological requirements and tools
(14:47):
that had to be developed. Wow, that is so cool,
And I was just thinking as she was describing all
this stuff that not only did you have to have
all the scientific expertise, but you also needed to have
a lot of imagine nation because if you're literally the
first human beings to go to the Moon and you're
a geologist, you have to just imagine what's the gravity,
(15:10):
what are the soil samples going to be? Like? What
are the rocks gonna be? Like? You have no idea
because no one's ever seen them before, so you just
have to imagine, Well, it could be like this, or
it could be like this. And if you're wearing a
giant space suit, there's a way that you could pick
up soil samples this way, but there there's there's this
(15:30):
other way, and let's figure it all out. It's so fascinating. Yeah,
And I think the space suit itself, like that is
the ultimate tool, like and to be able to go there,
to begin with the space suit. One space suit like
at the time would have costs around a hundred thousand
dollars to make. Today, by the way, it's like millions.
But they basically it's like a little space capsule, you know,
(15:54):
because one tiny little leak and you're screwed. So I
think that is the most morton tool clearly, is to
protect your ability to breathe, So I think it starts
with that. Like everything else's secondary. Now, this is just
a fun little story apparently, and this is something the
Russians did but not the Americans. When Eura Garin was
(16:17):
on his way to take off on that first human
orbital flight, he paused and urinated on the tire of
the transfer vehicle that he had been writing into the launchpad.
And ever since then, every well I don't know if
it still goes on today, but I know for a
long time, every cosmonaut on his way to a launch
(16:40):
vehicle would urinate on the tire of the transport vehicle.
And that included Valentina Sarishkova, the first woman flew into space.
That was part of their that became part of their ritual.
It's you know what, I'm on my way to space.
I want to pee on something. So this is this
(17:11):
This is supposed to be the typical day portion of
the show. This was not a typical day. There was
no typical day when you flew to the Moon. So
there were several tests that were made in the days
leading up. The conditions had to be right in the
atmosphere and on the surface of Earth as well. And
so basically it was like an a typical day for
these Moon astronauts. I mean, yeah, it's it's that makes
(17:32):
so much sense, like every everything, like literally all the
stars have to be aligned for for a successful space mission.
And I know for us who follow NASA and follow
a space missions like you often hear, oh we had
to cancel. We had to cancel the flight because the
weather wasn't good. And it's oh, yeah, that makes total sense.
If you're shooting yourself off into space, you can't have
(17:55):
bad weather. This is still something astronauts deal with. It
must be h just a whirlwind psychologically. Yeah, if only
twenty four people have ever done this job, Yeah, there
is no typical day. Yeah, no typical day. But it's
it's such a unique experience to be the first people
(18:17):
ever to do a certain thing and something like that,
like the first people ever to go to the Moon.
That is like, that's that's mind bending. Yeah, most people
are familiar with the first three in the Apollo eleven mission,
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin who's still alive by the way,
(18:37):
and Michael Collins. Those were the first three. However, like
that with that movie Hidden Figures, there were so many
other people involved that made this possible, and there has
been this push lately to recognize not only all these
people involved with NASA with the entire program, but other
Moon astronauts as well as women in particular who have
(19:01):
paved the way for these Moon astronauts. So are two
notable people this episode are Jerry Cobb and Wally Funk.
There's been more of a push to recognize unheralded women
who contributed to the American space programs, so the hidden
figures type of phenomenon. So Jerry Cobb and Wally Funk
(19:25):
are probably the two most most well known of those
particular people. Jerry Cobb being the first woman to actually
undergo those tests and do extremely well on them, which
then gave impetus to well, let's test some more women
and see if she's just a fluke. And then Wally
Funk being the one the youngest of the group who
(19:47):
not only passed the physical exams with flying colors, but
also went on and did other tests including the isolation
tank and several others, and has been trying her dardist
to get into space ever since. She's the only one
of the Mercury thirteen women who continued for the rest
of her life to to try and get herself into space,
(20:12):
and she's still trying. She's going Wally Funk is going
to space next week. As at the time of this recording,
we're recording this in the middle of July, but next
week she is scheduled to go to space as apparently
with Jeff Bezos her Bezos. Yeah, just hanging out. I
this is an incredible It's just so happens that we
(20:36):
happen to be recording at the time that it was
just announced that Wally Funk, who is eighty two years old,
and we just heard she passed all the qualifications. She
passed all the tortuous tests. She was like the perfect candidate,
and they denied her going to space because she was
a woman. And now at the age of eighty two,
(20:56):
she's gone to space. Incredible. Here's two questions, would you
go to space if given the opportunity? And how much
money would you pay to go to Well? I would
think a few thousand dollars would be worth it. And
we spent much to Disney World. You're like, I spent
(21:16):
too grand to go to space. The reason that it
ended primarily was financial that was also the time period
of the Vietnam War, so the United States government was
spending a lot of money there and on other initiatives
at home, and the space program was expensive. After we
(21:37):
had six moon landings and explored the surface of the
Moon that many times, there were people who said, well, Okay,
been there, done that, Why go again? That was the
feeling at the time. So I feel like there's still
that idea that it takes so much money and so
many resources to go to space, like why are we
(21:58):
spending all that money when we have all these social
problems here at home? And it was also to be fair,
it was also like this big science experiment and we're
collecting samples and we're studying the Moon, and we're getting
a perspective we never saw before. Maybe we can learn
more about Earth when we learn more about the Moon's
YadA YadA, which leads us to I think more of
the bigger legacy of the Moon astronauts and really the
(22:20):
whole Apollo program, because it was meant to be this
inspirational thing that one of my all time favorite speeches
is John F. Kennedy, we will go to the Moon
and we will do other things. If it gives me chills.
That was a pretty good Kennedy impression. You just did.
Thank you now. Yeah, So I think a lot of
it is that inspirational side of it. We have continued
(22:42):
to have man space flight programs and the International Space
Station has been continuously occupied for I think it's twenty
five years, and we are learning a lot from that endeavor,
even though it's not as impressive in many ways sending
people to the Moon. So the program didn't completely end.
(23:05):
The Moon program certainly went on hiatus. There has been
a real legacy of a feeling of being able to
pull together as a country to accomplish a very complex goal.
And the the idea of creating the technology to be
(23:27):
able to send people to the Moon and back safely
within a decade was an extremely hard challenge to meet,
and we did it. There's a feeling of national pride
and accomplishment I think that comes from that, and not
only just national pride but human pride. So basically, if
(23:52):
we can go to the Moon and back, then we
can do anything. I think is the whole It inspired
so many things. It's almost intangible, like how it translated
to so when people say that it was a waste
of money or it will be a waste of money
to go back to the moon. I think they are
slightly missing the ball. I don't know what do you think.
I do agree with what Loretta Hall said in that
(24:15):
it was an incredible feat. And you know, people complain
about big government and government not really getting things right,
but this was one example of the government was singularly focused.
There was a super specific goal, we are going to
the moon, and that it happened in ten years, that
they put their best and brightest minds to the task
(24:38):
and just made it happen and sent people to the
moon and brought them back safely. And that's really amazing.
That's so incredible, and it almost makes me feel a
little bit sad and wistful. Imagine if we had that
focus to end hunger, or end homelessness, or get us
all universal health care. We have the ability to do it.
(24:58):
It's just not the focus to that, isn't there. So
on the one hand, it's, oh my god, yes, we
can do this amazing, incredible feat if we really set
our mind to it. And then on the other hands, well,
apparently we haven't set our mind too. It's inspirational and
frustrating because you're like, I know we can I know
we can see we did this. I think we can
(25:19):
end the show that on an inspirational note, because we
now know that there are plans, multiple plans to return
to the Moon, like over the next five years. NASA
has announced plans to return to the Moon. They are
partnering with space x, which is Elon Musk's aerospace company.
It's a private company. They want to quote land the
(25:41):
first woman and next man on the Moon's Yeah. By
the time everybody's listening to this episode, yeah, that's two years.
Job Slete is produced for I Heart Radio by Zealots
manufacturing hand Forge Podcast for You. It's hosted by us
(26:01):
Helen Hong That's Me and mattat That's Me. The show
was conceived and produced by Steve sa Markey, Anthony Savini,
and Jason Elliott. Our editor is Tommy Nichol, Our researcher
is Amelia Paulka, our production coordinator is Angie Hymis, and
theme music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. A special
(26:22):
thanks to our I Heart Radio team, Katrina Norvelle, Nikki
i tore Ali Cantor, Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, conal Byrne
and Bob Pittman.
This is jobs elete where we talk about jobs that
are long gone, and this one is far out. Today
we're going to the moon. Well we're not literally going
to the moon, but we are learning about those few
folks who actually did. In this episode, let's talk about
moon astronauts, the space race, sadistic torture training, twenty four
(00:27):
American men. That's it, peeing on a tire. Not because
it is easy, but because it is hard. Don't forget
to eat and sleep in space. And after fifty years,
we are finally going back God's speed, Wally Funk. So, Helen,
what do you know about moon astronauts? I only know
(00:48):
I think what most people learned in school, which is
we went there in the sixties. Neil Armstrong that famous quote. Actually,
I just learned that that famous quote, which I always
thought was one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind, is actually one small step for a man,
(01:09):
one giant leap for mankind. I just learned that. I
just learned it too. That's it's still blowing my mind.
I can't we've been misquoting this whole time. Yeah, so yeah,
I think most of the audience also has that basic
knowledge of this these really inspirational and dramatic events. The
Apollo mission program, which took place from nineteen sixty nine.
(01:30):
In nineteen seventy two, twenty four people have been to
the Moon. Only twelve people have walked on the Moon. Incredibly,
four of them are still alive at the time of
this recording. All were American men. Here's some facts about
the Moon that are really fun. Did you know the
Moon is four point five one billion years old? Nope?
(01:54):
I yeah, I didn't either. It's three hundred and eighty
four thousand kilometers or two three nine thousand miles from
Earth on average. To put in perspective, like if you
were to travel all the way around Earth, that's twenty
five thousand miles. So it's a boot spit out there.
But yeah, so we're learning about the moon astronauts this
very rare, exceptional job that that only twenty four people
(02:18):
have ever done. Well, should we go? Should we do it?
Should we hop into the job sleet time machine? Yeah,
maybe a space capsule as well. Yes, we're gonna hop.
It's not a it's not a job slee time machine today, folks,
it's a job sleeked space capsule. Back to nineteen sixty nine.
(02:39):
Boo boo bood. Okay, So some background here. This is
the nineteen sixties and the Cold War is still going on.
We've got the Soviet Union on one side and the
United States on the other. The space race is a
big part of the Old War. It's really what drives
(03:02):
a lot of this, these ambitions to go to space
to beat the Russians, and the Russians did beat the
Americans to space initially, but then once the sixties came,
NASA was created and just really was things were really
taken off pun intended. We spoke with expert Loretta Hall.
(03:23):
She's an author and freelance writer whose work concentrates on
the history of human space exploration. It was literally a war,
but it was a war that was only fought in
technological and propaganda ways, and it was deadly serious. But
it was the format that those Cold War ended up
(03:46):
taking was competition in the area of human spaceflight, something
that had never been done before. But with the technological
development that accompanied and followed World War Two, it began
to look like this would be something that would be
possible to do, to actually put people into space and
(04:08):
even reach the moon. Wow, you know what, I keep
thinking about all the poor animals that they had to
shoot into space to experiment before they could put humans
in space. Wasn't there a dog and a few chimpanzees
that went out into space first, you know? I mean, well,
there's also disasters with humans as well, so it was
a dangerous job, of course. I think that this is
(04:29):
something that you think about, these these moon astronauts. I
I know people that are just they're afraid to get
in an airplane to be shot off the planet to
uh distant rock and hopefully you get there okay and return. Well,
I think that leads us into the qualifications. What did
you other than total bravery encouraged to be like willing
(04:52):
to get shot off into space? What are some of
the other qualifications that one needed to be a Moon astronaut. Well,
as you can imagine with the particular job, there are
many qualifications. Instead of using their names, there was like
a numerical code that identified each candidate, so it was
a secret operation until the final selection was announced. There
(05:15):
were age restrictions. I think the upper age limit was
thirty five. There were height and weight restrictions, not only
for the size constraints of the capsule, but also for
the power, the lift capability of the vehicle, and it
could only carry so much weight into orbit, and so
(05:37):
there were those There were education requirements. The candidates had
to have a degree in engineering or a physical science
like physics or chemistry, and then they had to have
test pilot experience, and especially jet pilot experience were pretty
much limited to the US military, and at that time
(06:01):
women were not allowed to perform those kinds of functions
in in the military. The process automatically excluded women, and
there's some debate about whether that was intentional or not
so unfair that women were shut out of this, especially
knowing what we know now about how women were so
essential to the space program, but also just hearing her
(06:22):
talk about the qualifications, you're looking for a needle in
a haystack. If not only did you have to be
a jock, but you couldn't be too big of a jock.
You had to be a smallish person to be able
to fit into the tight spaces and also be light
enough for the rocket to get you off the ground.
You had to also have these degrees and flight experience.
(06:44):
That I see why they're only twenty four people who
have done this job. Yeah, there, but there were thousands
of people interested, and it makes sense that most of them,
of course came directly from the Air Force, which the
Air Force had only been around for a few years.
Keep in mind, like that was really new too. And
now we're going to get into the tests, because just
because you're a candidate doesn't mean it's an easy road.
(07:07):
Like after that. You know how sometimes for a job
there's a oh, there's a second interview, or even a
third interview, or maybe you'll get a tour of the
place you might work at or something like this. The
process for a moon astronaut, like as far as trying
to even get the job, could last years. And not
only that, like so you're dedicating thousands of hours, but
(07:28):
also what they went through is incredible, some of the
tests they made them do. The person who is most
responsible for developing these tests is a man named Dr
William Randolph Loveless the second and he first developed these
tests for the candidates that were for the Mercury program,
which was the first program NASA developed for astronauts to
(07:51):
go to space. So Loretta Hall is now going to
tell us about some of those tests. The doctor Loveless
and his staff developed a testing regimen for the Mercury
candidates that Loveless described later as being probably the most
thorough physical examination ever given. And the candidates came to
(08:13):
Albuquerque in groups of six at a time, and they're
testing lasted for seven and a half day straight, and
the testing went at least eleven hours every day. Three
of the days it went longer than eleven hours. And
the number of tests that each person underwent is a
(08:33):
little bit hard to pin down because it depends on
how you classify tests and subtests and so on. But
it was over eighty different physical examinations. They were x
rayed from head to toe, They were subjected to physical
testing that was at times excruciating. And then after they
(08:55):
finished that testing, they went on to Wright Patterson Air
Force Base in Ohio and did another phase of testing
that was physical stress tests as well as psychological evaluation. Wow, yeah,
it all makes sense. It's it's so interesting that it
started out with like hundreds of potential candidates and they
(09:18):
just were like, boom, you can't do the You can't.
First of all, you had to have the stamina to
go through seven days of testing eleven hours each day
at least, so that already if you don't have stamina.
But also I feel like I've seen in some movies
and stuff that they were like gravity tests and like
(09:38):
you'd beat They would spin you around in a thing
and see if you with bar fall your guts out.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of
(09:58):
this stuff just seems like straight up torture. A fairly
substantial needle was inserted at the base of the thumb
in one hand, and then an electric charge was passed
through that needle to stimulate the muscles in the hand,
and it caused the hand to just clench and release
very rapidly, over and over, and it was quite painful.
(10:21):
But that was to measure the electric conductivity of the
muscles and the nervous system in the human body. That's
just some straight up medieval torture right there. You a
needle into the thumb and then you electrocute your hand
and you're like the monkeys, like a claw with your
hand and WHOA. I did not know about that. I
(10:43):
imagined it was stuff like anti gravity, the springing around
around you barf and then maybe they dunk you underwater
and stuff like that. You know, many of these tests
were designed to not specifically to predict whether the individual
was healthy and off for space travel, but to basically
measure anything that Dr Lovelace and his staff could think of,
(11:07):
so that after a person had taken a spaceflight returned
to Earth, they could measure those same sorts of things
over again and compare them with the pretest and get
an idea of how space flight had affected the human body. Basically,
they were measuring everything they could think of. They had
the end of each candidate had to pass a three
(11:31):
ft rubber hose down from their mouth and keep swallowing
until the other end of the hose reached into their stomach,
so that they could the doctors could measure the acidity
of the stomach contents. They had multiple enemas with sometimes
with radioactive barium. That was not particularly fun. Okay, I
(11:53):
think Dr Lovelace was a little twisted. I think you're right.
I think because none of these examples that she just
is anything that could possibly happen to you in space.
There's other stuff too, though that does make sense. They
were put into isolation tanks, a large tank of water.
I don't know how you could go to space after
going through this program. I feel like you would be
like psychologically and physically damaged after just going through the
(12:16):
training to be able to then have to go shoot
yourself on from its space. That's a good point. Yeah,
I am going to bet money that every single Moon
astronaut was like, you know what, space is a piece
of cake. It was the training that was worse than
going space is a vacation after all this horrible torture
(12:38):
in the training. Well, for this episode, I actually left
out the skills uh portion. And the reason why I
was thinking, I was like, well, if you could just
survive the qualifications part, then you got it. That's that.
That is the skill surviving all of the training is
the skills that is Yeah, you're like you're superhero because
(12:58):
even just to get to the training, you have to
be so qualified, like we talked about previously, you have
to have an engineering degree, you have to have a
flight experience, you have to be so strong but small.
Let's now look at tools of the trade. Tools of
the trade. I'm going assuming our rocket ship and a
space suit for the geological activities that would take place
(13:21):
on the Moon. Dr Harrison Schmidt, who was one of
the scientist astronauts in the last group that was selected
for the Apollo program and the only scientists to actually
go to the Moon on Apollo seventeen. He was a
geologist by profession, and he helped develop or modify the
(13:42):
tools that geologists use on Earth two function on the
surface of the Moon where gravity is different and we're
completely sure of what the structure, how strong the rocks
would be, or how substantial those the sand surface would be.
(14:02):
So he developed tools that could be used for that
kind of geological work and would also function when the
astronaut was wearing that very cumbersome space suit that severely
limited his use of his hands and his ability to
bend over or even stand back up again when he
(14:24):
fell down, and so there were certainly tools for that.
And and then of course they had to develop the
self contained life support system for when they were taken
an e v A or a spacewalk, or when they
were out of the spacecraft and exploring the surface of
the Moon. So there were significant technological requirements and tools
(14:47):
that had to be developed. Wow, that is so cool,
And I was just thinking as she was describing all
this stuff that not only did you have to have
all the scientific expertise, but you also needed to have
a lot of imagine nation because if you're literally the
first human beings to go to the Moon and you're
a geologist, you have to just imagine what's the gravity,
(15:10):
what are the soil samples going to be? Like? What
are the rocks gonna be? Like? You have no idea
because no one's ever seen them before, so you just
have to imagine, Well, it could be like this, or
it could be like this. And if you're wearing a
giant space suit, there's a way that you could pick
up soil samples this way, but there there's there's this
(15:30):
other way, and let's figure it all out. It's so fascinating. Yeah,
And I think the space suit itself, like that is
the ultimate tool, like and to be able to go there,
to begin with the space suit. One space suit like
at the time would have costs around a hundred thousand
dollars to make. Today, by the way, it's like millions.
But they basically it's like a little space capsule, you know,
(15:54):
because one tiny little leak and you're screwed. So I
think that is the most morton tool clearly, is to
protect your ability to breathe, So I think it starts
with that. Like everything else's secondary. Now, this is just
a fun little story apparently, and this is something the
Russians did but not the Americans. When Eura Garin was
(16:17):
on his way to take off on that first human
orbital flight, he paused and urinated on the tire of
the transfer vehicle that he had been writing into the launchpad.
And ever since then, every well I don't know if
it still goes on today, but I know for a
long time, every cosmonaut on his way to a launch
(16:40):
vehicle would urinate on the tire of the transport vehicle.
And that included Valentina Sarishkova, the first woman flew into space.
That was part of their that became part of their ritual.
It's you know what, I'm on my way to space.
I want to pee on something. So this is this
(17:11):
This is supposed to be the typical day portion of
the show. This was not a typical day. There was
no typical day when you flew to the Moon. So
there were several tests that were made in the days
leading up. The conditions had to be right in the
atmosphere and on the surface of Earth as well. And
so basically it was like an a typical day for
these Moon astronauts. I mean, yeah, it's it's that makes
(17:32):
so much sense, like every everything, like literally all the
stars have to be aligned for for a successful space mission.
And I know for us who follow NASA and follow
a space missions like you often hear, oh we had
to cancel. We had to cancel the flight because the
weather wasn't good. And it's oh, yeah, that makes total sense.
If you're shooting yourself off into space, you can't have
(17:55):
bad weather. This is still something astronauts deal with. It
must be h just a whirlwind psychologically. Yeah, if only
twenty four people have ever done this job, Yeah, there
is no typical day. Yeah, no typical day. But it's
it's such a unique experience to be the first people
(18:17):
ever to do a certain thing and something like that,
like the first people ever to go to the Moon.
That is like, that's that's mind bending. Yeah, most people
are familiar with the first three in the Apollo eleven mission,
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin who's still alive by the way,
(18:37):
and Michael Collins. Those were the first three. However, like
that with that movie Hidden Figures, there were so many
other people involved that made this possible, and there has
been this push lately to recognize not only all these
people involved with NASA with the entire program, but other
Moon astronauts as well as women in particular who have
(19:01):
paved the way for these Moon astronauts. So are two
notable people this episode are Jerry Cobb and Wally Funk.
There's been more of a push to recognize unheralded women
who contributed to the American space programs, so the hidden
figures type of phenomenon. So Jerry Cobb and Wally Funk
(19:25):
are probably the two most most well known of those
particular people. Jerry Cobb being the first woman to actually
undergo those tests and do extremely well on them, which
then gave impetus to well, let's test some more women
and see if she's just a fluke. And then Wally
Funk being the one the youngest of the group who
(19:47):
not only passed the physical exams with flying colors, but
also went on and did other tests including the isolation
tank and several others, and has been trying her dardist
to get into space ever since. She's the only one
of the Mercury thirteen women who continued for the rest
of her life to to try and get herself into space,
(20:12):
and she's still trying. She's going Wally Funk is going
to space next week. As at the time of this recording,
we're recording this in the middle of July, but next
week she is scheduled to go to space as apparently
with Jeff Bezos her Bezos. Yeah, just hanging out. I
this is an incredible It's just so happens that we
(20:36):
happen to be recording at the time that it was
just announced that Wally Funk, who is eighty two years old,
and we just heard she passed all the qualifications. She
passed all the tortuous tests. She was like the perfect candidate,
and they denied her going to space because she was
a woman. And now at the age of eighty two,
(20:56):
she's gone to space. Incredible. Here's two questions, would you
go to space if given the opportunity? And how much
money would you pay to go to Well? I would
think a few thousand dollars would be worth it. And
we spent much to Disney World. You're like, I spent
(21:16):
too grand to go to space. The reason that it
ended primarily was financial that was also the time period
of the Vietnam War, so the United States government was
spending a lot of money there and on other initiatives
at home, and the space program was expensive. After we
(21:37):
had six moon landings and explored the surface of the
Moon that many times, there were people who said, well, Okay,
been there, done that, Why go again? That was the
feeling at the time. So I feel like there's still
that idea that it takes so much money and so
many resources to go to space, like why are we
(21:58):
spending all that money when we have all these social
problems here at home? And it was also to be fair,
it was also like this big science experiment and we're
collecting samples and we're studying the Moon, and we're getting
a perspective we never saw before. Maybe we can learn
more about Earth when we learn more about the Moon's
YadA YadA, which leads us to I think more of
the bigger legacy of the Moon astronauts and really the
(22:20):
whole Apollo program, because it was meant to be this
inspirational thing that one of my all time favorite speeches
is John F. Kennedy, we will go to the Moon
and we will do other things. If it gives me chills.
That was a pretty good Kennedy impression. You just did.
Thank you now. Yeah, So I think a lot of
it is that inspirational side of it. We have continued
(22:42):
to have man space flight programs and the International Space
Station has been continuously occupied for I think it's twenty
five years, and we are learning a lot from that endeavor,
even though it's not as impressive in many ways sending
people to the Moon. So the program didn't completely end.
(23:05):
The Moon program certainly went on hiatus. There has been
a real legacy of a feeling of being able to
pull together as a country to accomplish a very complex goal.
And the the idea of creating the technology to be
(23:27):
able to send people to the Moon and back safely
within a decade was an extremely hard challenge to meet,
and we did it. There's a feeling of national pride
and accomplishment I think that comes from that, and not
only just national pride but human pride. So basically, if
(23:52):
we can go to the Moon and back, then we
can do anything. I think is the whole It inspired
so many things. It's almost intangible, like how it translated
to so when people say that it was a waste
of money or it will be a waste of money
to go back to the moon. I think they are
slightly missing the ball. I don't know what do you think.
I do agree with what Loretta Hall said in that
(24:15):
it was an incredible feat. And you know, people complain
about big government and government not really getting things right,
but this was one example of the government was singularly focused.
There was a super specific goal, we are going to
the moon, and that it happened in ten years, that
they put their best and brightest minds to the task
(24:38):
and just made it happen and sent people to the
moon and brought them back safely. And that's really amazing.
That's so incredible, and it almost makes me feel a
little bit sad and wistful. Imagine if we had that
focus to end hunger, or end homelessness, or get us
all universal health care. We have the ability to do it.
(24:58):
It's just not the focus to that, isn't there. So
on the one hand, it's, oh my god, yes, we
can do this amazing, incredible feat if we really set
our mind to it. And then on the other hands, well,
apparently we haven't set our mind too. It's inspirational and
frustrating because you're like, I know we can I know
we can see we did this. I think we can
(25:19):
end the show that on an inspirational note, because we
now know that there are plans, multiple plans to return
to the Moon, like over the next five years. NASA
has announced plans to return to the Moon. They are
partnering with space x, which is Elon Musk's aerospace company.
It's a private company. They want to quote land the
(25:41):
first woman and next man on the Moon's Yeah. By
the time everybody's listening to this episode, yeah, that's two years.
Job Slete is produced for I Heart Radio by Zealots
manufacturing hand Forge Podcast for You. It's hosted by us
(26:01):
Helen Hong That's Me and mattat That's Me. The show
was conceived and produced by Steve sa Markey, Anthony Savini,
and Jason Elliott. Our editor is Tommy Nichol, Our researcher
is Amelia Paulka, our production coordinator is Angie Hymis, and
theme music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. A special
(26:22):
thanks to our I Heart Radio team, Katrina Norvelle, Nikki
i tore Ali Cantor, Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, conal Byrne
and Bob Pittman.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.