January 6, 2025

Umma Habiba Begum 

11th Grade

The Young Women's Leadership School of Queens

For countless centuries, humanity has gazed upon the bright and commanding presence that dominated the night sky. The Moon has been a constant companion in navigation, much like the stars. It has also been woven into the fabric of many cultures, often with spiritual significance, where it was celebrated and worshiped. The Greeks, perhaps the most famous example, had the Moon noticeably featured in their mythology, with multiple goddesses associated with it, such as Selene, the goddess of the Moon. From merely observing the Moon to landing on it and taking the first step on its surface, mankind has indeed come a long way—a journey that continues to be retold to new generations and will never be forgotten, standing as one of the most extraordinary historical achievements of humanity—a modern odyssey.

mast, allowing them to sail past unscathed. Odysseus’s cleverness also manifested in his face-off with Polyphemus, the Cyclops—a fearsome, one-eyed giant. Trapped in the Cyclops' cave with the threat of being eaten, Odysseus quickly came up with a bright idea for how to escape. He tricked Polyphemus into drunkenness, lulling him into a deep sleep. Odysseus and his surviving men then drove a heated stake into the Cyclops' singular eye, thus blinding him and securing their escape. His decade-long journey back to his beloved Ithaca—filled with great challenges and greater triumphs—ultimately gave rise to the very definition of the word “odyssey”: a long, epic journey filled with countless obstacles marked by hardships and perseverance. 

Despite the limitations in knowledge and the advancement of technology, NASA’s Apollo mission was able to rise above its immense challenges—a feat reminiscent of a true odyssey. After all, going to the Moon in 1969 wasn’t as simple as building a spaceship and launching it into space, as the world had to learn in real-time the nuances of human physiology and the cosmos, all with a minimal margin for error. Prior to the Apollo mission, individuals had only traveled a few hundred miles above the surface of the Earth. The distance to the Apollo astronauts' lunar destination—approximately 238,855 miles—was about 600 times farther than any prior attempt, the equivalent of 30 Earths stacked end to end. All of these factors—the immense distance, the challenges of space travel, and the need for precision—required technology that didn’t yet exist. 

This change led to groundbreaking innovations like the Saturn V rocket and the Lunar Module, which were developed specifically for this mission. The Saturn V rocket was 363 feet tall and weighed 6.5 million pounds, designed to carry the astronauts off the planet and to the moon. It was the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, having a thrust of 7.5 million pounds at liftoff. The Lunar Module (LM), in contrast, was designed to be a much smaller, specialized spacecraft, capable of landing on the lunar surface and supporting moonwalking astronauts. The LM stood only 22 feet tall and weighed 33,000 pounds, designed to carry only two astronauts at a time between the moon and Command Central. During development and on completion, many tests on these spacecraft are taken with the priority of reducing the catastrophic mistakes to make the spacecraft act properly in such extreme space conditions.

The success of the Moon landing opened new doors for humanity to continue exploring the vast expanses of space. Since then, humanity has made multiple trips to the Moon, established the International Space Station, and remotely explored alternate galaxies. These achievements have inspired humanity to seek something greater: conquering the Red Planet. This new age of space exploration marks the start of the second modern odyssey, leading humanity further into the cosmos.