INTERVIEW WITH AN ASTRONAUT

MOST people dream of walking on the moon. But if this dream cannot be achieved, it would then suffice to talk to one of the 12 men who did.
So when ex-National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) astronaut Charles Pete Conrad Jr - the third man to walk on the moon – was in Kuala Lumpur recently in his capacity as staff vice president in charge of new business at the McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co, Business Times took the opportunity to talk to him about his "moonwalk".
"You are not the first person who asked me this question. A lot of people had come to me and ask if I had really walked on the moon."
"Let me tell you a story. About 15 years ago, there were some engineers who had written a book saying that we did not walk on the moon. These pictures had no stars in the background and the writers said we hid in the desert and took the pictures there instead.
"When the book was published, a reporter called me up one day to confirm whether I did walk on the moon. He said his editor also asked him to call the other 11 astronauts.
"I told him I didn't know and before I could finished my sentence, I could sense that he (the reporter) felt as if he had won the Pulitzer Prize with the story.
"I told him that if I didn't go to the moon, Nasa had done a really outstanding job faking it though I was there," he reminisced.
Conrad was the commander of the Apollo 12 - mankind's second voyage to the moon - in 1968. During the mission, he spent seven hours and 45 minutes on the lunar surface exploring the "ocean of the storms" region during the mission.
When asked if going to the moon was his highest life achievement, Conrad - in typical American sense of humour - answered: "You have got to realize that I spent seven years eating, sleeping and breathing (about space) and when I got there, it was the right place to be at that time.
"I've never looked back. It was a great achievement as far as I was concerned but I didn't feel as strongly about my flight to the moon as I did on my last flight when I commanded the first space station, Skylab, in 1973.
"The most personal time I had in space was when we salvaged the Skylab. It was damaged when we were put into orbit by the last Saturn V," he added.
During his 11 years' tenure as a Nasa astronaut beginning in 1962, he scored several new records. He established a new space endurance record of 190 hours for the Gemini V mission in 1965, new space altitude record for the Gemini XI mission and new space mission endurance record of 672 hours of the Skylab 1 in 1973.
The only souvenirs he kept from his "moonwalk" days were the flag, name and Nasa tags on his space suit. The space suit, however, is now the property of the Smithsonian Institute.
The moon rocks, some of which dates 4.3 billion years, are also kept at the institute and available for destructive and non-destructive testings, he added.
Conrad left Nasa from McDonnell Douglas after establishing an individual space endurance record of 1,179 hours, including 14 hours and 19 minutes of extra vehicular activities.
For his services, he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honour, two Nasa distinguished service medals, two US Navy Astronaut Wings and Distinguished Flying Cross, two US Navy Distinguished Service medals, the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award for 1966, FAI Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal and Dela Vaulx Medal (1970 and 1974). He is also enshrined in the Avaition Hall of Fame in 1980.
He may left Nasa but is still involved in McDonnell Douglas' space programmes. "I stick my nose in a little bit of everything," he said.
McDonnell Douglas, which is the largest contractor on the US space station programme called Space Station Freedom, is currently working with three other contractors on a single stage orbit vehicle which takes off and lands vertically unlike the present Discovery which takes off vertically and lands horizontally.
The vehicle, he hopes, will become the "DC-3 of Space". "The DC-3 is the cheapest ever commercial aircraft. This is what we need for space travel and exploration ... a vehicle which can take us to space over and over again.
"A first-class round ticket around the world can possibly buy you eight to 10 hours in orbit. It enables you to see the world in the daylight.
As such, the idea of making return trips to the moon and space tourism becomes viable.
"If we can bring down the launch cost in the US$5 million (US$1 =RM2.60) category and if people know they can be launched into space at any time, I cannot imagine the amount of people coming out for commercial and business purposes.
It happened with the aircraft being introduced and it will be the same for spacecraft when we hit the economic combination," he said.
The Challenger incident in 1986, when the Nasa's fourth spacecraft exploded 73 seconds after takeoff killing all seven crew members, including teacher Sally Ride, may put people off any space programmes but Conrad is determined to make McDonnell Douglas' single stage orbiter works.
"We are working on a more reliable space vehicle. Whether the vehicle is carrying man or cargo, that is not important.
"The important thing is for us to get the vehicle back," he said.
Conrad said it was unfortunate that he political parties in the US were not supportive of the American President George Bush's plans called Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and the Home Planet earth.
(The SEI is a programme which will see return trips to the moon and subsequently, inhabitants on the moon. The programme extends itself to include Mars which is the next closest planet to consider going to.
(The Home Planet Earth programme entails the use of satellites to understand more about the environment and what is happening to Earth.)
He said little progress has been made on the two programmes. "We hope that President-Elect Bill Clinton and Vice-President-Elect Al Gore will be more supportive of the programme.
"Gore, as a senator, was a member of the Senate Committee on Space. He is very familiar with the programmes. He is also every much an environmentalist and he knows that technological advancements can help us with our problems.
"We do not expect them to back the SEI as much as the Home Planet Earth. There is a need to put up smaller satellites to monitor the depletion of the ozone layer and pollution.
"A single stage orbit vehicle makes this easier to do. We really need a cheaper way of doing it, too," he said.
Conrad said McDonnell Douglas' single stage atmospheric vehicle will be ready by April 1993. Testings will take place at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Following these, the first prototype will be ready in 1996 while the operational vehicle will be completed in 1998. "No, I have no intentions of going back to the moon. There are many other interesting things happening now and I will like to enjoy them before I cash them in. For starters, I want to test fly the prototype vehicle," he said.
For a man who already has achieved the dream (of walking on the moon), he is easily satisfied.

This article first appeared in the Business Times on January 18, 1993.