Eugene Merle Shoemaker’s most desired dream was to be able to know and one day be on the surface of the Moon, and although in life he could not fulfill his great desire, today His remains are buried on the surface of the place you always wanted to visit.
Dr. Eugene Merle Shoemaker, also known as «the great Gene»was a renowned American geologist, responsible for the invention of planetary sciences. In addition, he was one of the pioneers in the exploration of the Solar System and lunar science, specializing in the study of craters.
Born in Los Angeles in 1928, his intelligence was that of a genius. In three years he completed secondary school and at 16 he entered university, at the California Institute of Technology, dedicated to the study of natural sciences and engineering. In 1948 had already been received and began his doctorate at Princeton.
There he met the sister of a fellow student. It was Carolyn Spellman, who in addition to having a degree in History and Politics, had taken a course in geology. They were soulmates and in 1951 they married.
They had three children and Eugene convinced her to study astronomy and join his team. She did so and became a prominent scientist.
Meanwhile, Eugene had been hired in 1950 by the United States Geological Survey to search for uranium deposits in Utah and Colorado, and there he specialized in craters.
Lover of the Moon, he mapped it with the aim of making the first lunar geological map. He founded the Astrogeology Research Programand created astrogeology, which demonstrated that all craters on the Moon were produced by meteorite impacts.
Since he was the top specialist on the subject, he participated in the missions Lunar Ranger (the first American lunar missions, in the sixties), collaborated in the training of astronauts of the Program Apollo in the Barringer and Sunset craters, and was one step away from fulfilling his greatest dream: reach the Moon as an astronaut.
It was very close. He was the first scientist appointed to step on it but he was excluded because he suffered from Addison’s disease, a disorder of the adrenal gland.
He had to settle for testing the operation of the first astronaut suitsput the finishing touches to the most precise maps of the Moon, be responsible for the safety of the first manned trip, Apollo 11, and as if that were not enough, chose the landing site.
He also commented on television about the flights of the Apollo 8 and 11 missions, he was the director of lunar geology in those of Apollo 11, 12 and 13, and most importantly: he was the teacher of the astronauts, teaching them all the secrets of the Moon, for example, to Neil Armstrong y Buzz Aldrin, the first men to set foot on it.
His life as a scientist added great achievements such as discover a cometShoemaker-Levy 9 that impacted Jupiter in 1994. The comet, which Shoemaker discovered with his wife Carolyn and David Levy, was exceptional because it was the first time humans They were able to witness a planetary collision.
Even a small town in Wyoming installed an intergalactic landing strip to receive the possible refugees from Jupiter.
Honors for a brilliant career
The geologist won one of the highest awards in science: the National Medal of Science, for his discovery of meteorite impact craters. His life came to an unexpected end on July 18, 1997, when he died in a car accident while exploring a meteorite crater in Alice Springs, Australia.
It was a head-on collision in which he died instantly and his wife was seriously injured. And the posthumous honors arrived. His name was given to a crater of the Moon already another from Mars, to an asteroid and a space probe.
Shortly afterward he received the highest honor awarded posthumously by NASA: His ashes were going to be deposited on the Moon.
On January 6, 1998, NASA’s Prospector lunar rover, part of the Athena II rocket, took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, toward the south pole of the Moonin search of ice and with Shoemaker’s ashes. They were in a polycarbonate capsule made by the company Celestis Inc. who charged U$S 600 per ballot box.
The capsule with its ashes measured 8 centimeters long and seven in diameter, It was wrapped in a vacuum-sealed aluminum sleeve, and laser-engraved with his name and dates of birth and death, over an image of Comet Hale-Bopp (the last one Shoemaker analyzed and studied), an image of the Arizona meteorite crater where he had trained the Apollo astronauts, and a quote from Romeo and Juliet.
On July 31, 1999, the mission ended when NASA deliberately crashed the ship on the surface of the moon, near the lunar South Pole, in an area inside a crater, making Gene Shoemaker the only person whose ashes have been scattered on any celestial body outside of Earth, in this case the Moon.
Next to Gene’s ashes was a card with a quote from William Shakespeare, belonging to the play Romeo and Juliet: «And when I die take it and cut it into little stars, and it will make the face of the sky so beautiful that everyone will be in love with the nightwithout worshiping the strident sun».
The exact verses for the man who He fell in love with the Moon, and rests on it.
GML
