Hippies on the Moon - with Apollo (four decades before Golden Spike)
PEOPLE WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS WORLD
February 20, 1973
The new pro-space movement that emerged in the mid and late-1970s was woven together from many threads. One was first expressed in organizational terms by a small, idealistic group called the Committee for the Future (CFF). While it never had much direct influence, the CFF enunciated many of the themes taken up later by other pro-space individuals and organizations.
The CFF originated from conversations in the early 1960s between artist-philosopher Earl Hubbard and his wife Barbara Marx Hubbard (an heiress to the Marx toy-making fortune) and from Ms. Hubbard's own search for meaning, described in her book The Hunger of Eve. In February 1962 just as she started her scan through literature, looking for the crucial self-image of humanity, John Glenn was fired into space from Cape Canaveral.
Barbara and Earl became passionate advocates of the idea that the Space Age was the birth of a new era. While some humans would be attracted to nurturing and bringing harmony to the Earth, she wrote later, others would go beyond the Earth to build new worlds and to be transformed into new beings.
July 20, 1969, the date of the first Moon landing, also was the publication date of Earl's book The Search is On, in which he argued that it was time to move toward goals beyond material abundance.
We must want to build a future for all Mankind, he argued, by exploring the universe and by developing new worlds. In September 1969, the Hubbards discovered a fellow believer in Colonel John Whiteside, then the chief US Air Force Information Officer in New York City. By 1970 they had decided to try and get a Presidential candidate in the 1976 campaign to endorse the goal of building the first "space community."
The Hubbards, Whiteside, and a small group of friends met in June 1970 at the Hubbard home in Lakeville, Connecticut to found the Committee for the Future. There they produced the "Lakeville Charter," which said in part, Earth-bound history has ended. Universal history has begun. Mankind has been born into an environment of immeasurable possibilities. We, the Committee for the Future, believe that the long-range goal for Mankind should be to seek and settle new worlds. To survive and realize the common aspiration of all people for a future of unlimited opportunity, this generation must begin now to find the means of converting the planets into life support systems for the race of Man.
In the fall of 1970, Los Angeles film producer George van Valkenberg pointed out to the Hubbards that two Saturn V rockets would be left over from the Apollo program. The CFF leaders came up with the idea of the first "citizen-sponsored lunar expedition," which could pay for itself through the sale of lunar materials and television and story rights; there could be a general subscription to let the public participate in financing the project.
This came to be known as Project Harvest Moon.
The CFF formed the New Worlds Company in January 1971 with the help of $25,000 from Barbara's father. The purpose was to rally support for the next great goal: a lunar community. This would help generate popular pressure for the funding of the necessary intermediate steps such as the Space Shuttle. Through the offering of shares in the lunar enterprise to millions of people, a constituency with a vested interest in the development of the Moon and outer space activities would be created.
Barbara Marx Hubbard and John Whiteside briefed space program officials about the proposal. According to Barbara, Christopher Kraft of the Johnson Space Center said, "This step into the universe is a religion and I'm a member of it". In the House of Representatives, Congressman Olin Teague introduced a resolution calling for a study of the feasibility of a citizens lunar mission.
The Committee for the Future chairman is Joseph S. Bleymaier, a retired U.S. Air Force general who a few years ago played an important role in the development of U.S. military missile and space programs. In the 60's Major General Joseph Sylvester Bleymaier was deputy director of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. He also headed the MOL Systems Office located at Headquarters Air Force Systems Command's Space and Missile Systems Organization, Los Angeles Air Force Station, California.
General Bleymaier was born in Austin, Texas in 1915.
After graduating from the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in 1950, General Bleymaier became assistant director, Command Support Division, Deputy for Development, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.
General Bleymaier graduated from the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., while assigned to Headquarters Air Research and Development Command, Baltimore, Md. He then became assistant director of astronautics and remained with Headquarters ARDC until October 1958, when he was reassigned to Headquarters Air Force Ballistic Missile Division, Los Angeles, Calif.
As assistant for subsystems development and deputy commander for ballistic missiles, General Bleymaier was responsible for the development and integration of propulsion, guidance and reentry vehicle subsystems which were components of the Air Force Atlas, Titan and Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In April 1961, Bleymaier was designated deputy for Launch Vehicles Space Systems Division, Los Angeles, Calif., and in November activities under his jurisdiction included the development, procurement and production of standard launch facilities to meet national space program requirements. He was further responsible for the Air Force portion of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ranger and Mercury programs and the Navy navigation satellite program.
General Bleymaier became system program director for the Air Force Program 624A - The Titan III, and 623A - Large Solid Motor Development. In this position, he was executive manager of the research and development program to provide the United States military establishment with a standardized space launch system having an initial liftoff thrust in excess of two million pounds.
General Bleymaier assumed responsibilities as deputy commander for manned systems at the SSD in March 1963. While in this position he was cited by President Johnson for his contributions to the Defense Cost Reduction Program during 1965. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, referred to this program as the "best managed program in the Department of Defense."
In October 1965, General Bleymaier was assigned as commander, Air Force Western Test Range, with headquarters at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. As commander, he was responsible for the maintenance, operations and modification, as needed, of the western portion of the global range in support of Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other range users' programs as directed by the National Range Division and consistent with established national policies and priorities.
General Bleymaier's promotion to major general became effective in April 1967 and on July 1, he assumed his present position as deputy director of the MOL Systems Office at SAMSO Headquarters on July 1, 1967.
He retired from the Air Force in 1969 and the next year he become Chairman of the Hubbard's Committee For the Future.
The committee's headquarters is at Lakeville, Connecticut. Harvest Moon would require little or no money from the federal government, committee witnesses have made it clear to a House subcommittee on Manned Space Flight that would come from individuals and organizations all over the world.
Gen. Bleymaier and his associates have asked the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to donate surplus Apollo lunar exploration equipment and simply astronauts to man the Harvest Moon mission. If the space agency should agree to these proposals, they would have to be cleared first with Congress.
Truth be told Gen. Bleymaier takes a realistic view of the committee's chances, for he has dealt over the years with the committees of Congress and many of the federal agencies they oversee. But he thinks it's worth a vigorous try.
The committee describes Harvest Moon as a "worldwide citizen-sponsored lunar expedition to begin experiments as to the utility of the moon for man." The mission would involve a manned lunar landing at Hadley-Apennine. the touchdown site last year of the Apollo 15 astronauts. Some of the equipment left behind by the Apollo la spacemen might be used for Harvest Moon, but it envisions a whole set of new experiments as well.
John J. Whiteside, executive director of the committee, says he and other organization representatives will tour the world in April (1972) to outline the committee goals during visits to Britain. Germany, France, Italy and Japan. The group is seeking permission to visit the Soviet Union as well. Perhaps Harvest Moon will get off the ground, perhaps not.
But, as Gen. Bleymaier says, nobody can fault the Committee for the Future for trying to find new ways to unite people and nations, especially since nobody is having much luck doing it so far. And if Harvest Moon gets off the ground, so much the better. You can't stop the world and get off, but Harvest Moon or something like it someday might give the adventurous a chance to find out if the satellite moon is any improvement over its planet Earth -- at bale or no expense to the taxpayers. That in itself would be unusual.
On 28 sept. 1972 John J. Whiteside, executive director of the committee, said the original project was scrapped after a July 18 meeting with NASA officials who were skeptical about the possibility of flying a lunar mission after Apollo 17. He said there would only be one lunar lander left and it had been partially cannibalized, making a mission in it highly risky
While the committee has not asked the Russian government to sell it a rocket, reaction to the project during discussions in the Soviet Union was "not unfavorable," Whiteside said.
The project might sound like pie in the sky, but people of wealth and repute are involved. A prime mover in the committee is Mrs. Barbara Marx Hubbard, its organizing director and daughter of toy millionaire Louis Marx, who she said acts as the committee's elder statesman and adviser. For the record, Louis Marx retired in 1972, selling his company to Quaker Oats for $54 million.
The Committee for the Future wants to buy a rocket from the United States or Russia and launch its own space mission, funded and backed by private individuals from all over the world.
Plans for the flight of “Mankind One” were discussed Wednesday at a news conference by four committee spokesmen, including science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Others on the committee are Dr. Harold W. Ritchey, board chairman of Thiokol Chemical Corp. and John Yardley, vice president of McDonnell-Douglas.Thiokol and McDonnell Douglas are both in the aerospace field.
The original plan had been to launch a private flight to the moon, and pay tor it by selling moon rocks and selling them on Earth, said John J. Whiteside, committee executive director.
But he said last June (1972) NASA officials cast cold water on that idea, saying only one moonship would remain after the mission of Apollo 17, and that one had been cannibalized for spare parts, making it a risky craft for a space voyage.
The committee is now thinking along the lines of an orbital mission, perhaps with a Skylab type of ship equipped with a giant illuminator, that would reflect sunlight, about ‘ a sixth as much as the moon, on night- darkened areas of the world
Whiteside said the committee has sent: representatives to the Soviet Union, and while it hasn’t asked the Russians to sell it any spacecraft yet the discussions to date have been “not unfavorable.
CFF then rewrote the bill to propose a “citizens in space” mission in Earth orbit, called “Mankind One,” but NASA opposed that as well and it met a similar fate.
Mankind One would have been one hell of a mission.
Mankind One was the brainchild of famous German rocket scientist Kraft Ehricke, another acointance of Barbara Marx Hubbard. Ehricke was Executive Advisor in the Space Division of North American Rockwell Corporation. In May 1972 as Project Harvest Moon was quashed by NASA as unrealistic, Ehricke presented the Committee For the Future a new mission.
(note: the following is from David Portree Beyond Apollo blog)
Ehricke proposed that Apollo 17, scheduled for the end of 1972, be postponed until the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and dispatched to a new destination: a geosynchronous orbit (GSO) 22,300 miles above the Earth. An object in a GSO requires one day to complete one revolution of the Earth. Since Earth revolves in one day, an object in equatorial GSO appears to hang over one spot on the equator.
“The mission into geosynchronous orbit,” Ehricke wrote, would provide “additional return on America’s investment in Apollo” by dramatizing “the usefulness of manned orbital activities.” He added that his proposal, which he dubbed Destination Mankind, “would inspire many, as did the lunar missions before it, but in a different, perhaps more direct manner, because of its greater relevance to some of the most pressing problems of our time.”
Ehricke described a representative 12-day Destination Mankind mission. Reaching GSO would require about as much energy as reaching lunar orbit. The three-stage Destination Mankind Apollo Saturn V rocket would lift off from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at about 8:30 p.m. local time. Following first and second stage operation, the S-IVB third stage would fire briefly to place itself, the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM), and a Payload Module (PM) into 100-nautical-mile parking orbit. One orbital revolution (about 90 minutes) later, the S-IVB would ignite again for Transynchronous Injection (TSI). After S-IVB shutdown, the astronauts would separate the CSM and turn it 180° to dock with the PM, which would be attached to the top of the S-IVB in place of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). They would then extract the PM, maneuver away from the S-IVB, and settle in for the 5.2-hour coast to GSO.
The Destination Mankind CSM would ignite its Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine to enter a GSO at 31° east longitude. This would place it over the equatorial nation of Uganda – if the CSM entered an equatorial GSO. The mission’s GSO would, however, be inclined 28.5° relative to Earth’s equator, so the CSM would oscillate between 28.5° south latitude (over South Africa’s east coast) and 28.5° north latitude (southwest of Cairo) and back every 24 hours.
The CSM would reach its southern limit at 10 a.m. local time and its northern limit at 10 p.m. local time. This 57°-long stretch of the 31° east longitude line would constitute Destination Mankind’s “Afro-Eurasian Station.” (The Meteosat-2 image at the top of this post approximates the view from Destination Mankind’s Afro-Eurasian Station.)
Destination Mankind mission objectives would fall into three general areas: science, technology, and public relations.
Science objectives would draw upon an Apollo Geosynchronous Scientific Experiment Package (AGSEP) carried in the PM. The crew might assess the astronomical value of a GSO observatory, perform high-energy particle experiments, and observe and image the Earth. At the Afro-Eurasian Station, the astronauts could view Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and India. Earth imaging and observation might be conducted in collaboration with observers at “ground truth” sites on land and on ships at sea.
Ehricke placed the most emphasis on the technology objectives of his Destination Mankind mission. He was particularly enamored of a solar illumination experiment using a circular reflector assembled by spacewalking astronauts. The experiment would provide reference data for design and operation of future space-based reflectors, he explained. He calculated that a 100-meter reflector in GSO could light Earth’s surface one-tenth as brightly as a full moon in a selected area. This level of illumination, though “subvisual,” would be useful for night meteorology and surveillance of border and coastal areas, Ehricke wrote.
Ehricke also rated “Public Exposure” as an important mission objective. Destination Mankind astronauts would become TV stars. They would describe their Earth observations – “especially aspects useful and of interest to regional populations” – via TV broadcasts from space. Their spacewalks would also make good TV fare. In addition, the astronauts would erect “Manstar,” a 500-to-700-foot-diameter reflective balloon visible over a wide area of Earth’s surface as a modestly bright star. Ehricke called Manstar “a visible manifestation for all mankind of the potential value of space.”
The Destination Mankind CSM and PM would remain at the Afro-Eurasian Station for an unspecified period (perhaps two days), then the astronauts would fire the CSM’s SPS to climb to a slightly higher orbit and begin a two-day “drift” westward across the Atlantic to their Panamerican-Pacific Station.
Upon reaching their new station, located at 90° west longitude, the crew would fire the SPS to lower their orbit and halt their drift. The CSM and PM would oscillate between 28.5° south (over the Pacific off northern Chile) and 28.5° north (over the Gulf of Mexico south of New Orleans), again reaching the southern limit at 10 a.m. local time and the northern limit at 10 p.m. local time. Equatorial crossing would occur above the Galapagos Islands. The astronauts would spend their time much as they did at the Afro-Eurasian Station, then would fire the SPS again to drift westward across the Pacific.
The last stop on the Destination Mankind crew’s world tour would be the 98° east longitude line, which Ehricke dubbed the Australo-Asian Station. They would reach the north point in their south-north oscillation over southern China and the south point over the east Indian Ocean west of Perth. Near the end of their stay at the Australo-Asian Station, they would discard the PM.
The Destination Mankind crew would return to Earth from the Australo-Asian Station. They would perform a Trans-Earth Injection burn as their CSM crossed the equator near Sumatra moving north at 4 p.m. local time. Fall to Earth would last 5.2 hours, and splashdown would occur in the Pacific west of Hawaii at just after 6 a.m. local time.
Unfortunately Mankind One was dead on arrival; just like Harvest Moon it was too complicated for the CFF to handle.
Meanwhile, things were changing in the CFF, which moved its headquarters to Philadelphia. Its emphasis began to shift away from space and toward other issues. A gap grew between Barbara and Earl Hubbard, who separated. Although Earl gradually dropped out of the CFF, he went on to publish another book called The Need for New Worlds, which elaborated on themes in his earlier work.
In the second-half of 1973, the CFF opened its new headquarters in a mansion known as "Greystone" (which was owned by Barbara's sister Jacqueline) in Washington, D.C., and called it the New Worlds Training and Education Center. However, the CFF gradually de-emphasized the space theme, giving more time to other future-oriented issues.
That last event by itself had General Bleymaier drop out of the CFF. The former Air Force general went his own way. From his days at the CFF he derived a master plan he shared with a young space activist with the name of George Koopman. Together they shaped a new venture that drew some inspiration from the earlier CFF space plans – but they got ride of all of Barbara Marx Hubbard hippy, mystical rethoric.
