Charles Duke was only 36 years old when he walked on the moon. The Apollo 16 astronauts stayed there for 71 hours and 14 minutes. He and John Young spent 20 hours exploring the rough lunar surface on a rover, collecting rock and soil samples. The Apollo 16 took three days to return to earth.
Duke, now 79, recently visited Bangkok for the opening of the "Nasa: A Human Adventure" exhibition, at the Bangkok Convention Centre in CentralPlaza Lardprao. He recalled the steps he took to become an astronaut, one being to always set short-term goals for himself. At 16, he worked towards going to the United States Naval Academy when he knew he wanted to serve the nation. After college, he enrolled in a flight school, then joined the US Air Force. "It was October of 1957 when the Sputnik went up," he says. "That was the beginning of the space age."
Four years later, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel to space. "Looking at the pilots who had been selected, I realised I needed to go to graduate school," he said. "All that was building a career pattern and experience that I would need to eventually get into the space programme."
What was it like seeing the Earth from space?
Incredibly beautiful. We were about 30,000km away, and as we turned our spaceship around, the Earth floated into the window. It was suspended in the blackness of space. At that point, you could almost see the whole circle of the Earth. Our view was of the Arctic Circle, down across Canada, to the US, Mexico, Central America. You could see clearly this land mass and the Rocky Mountains and the coast of California. Canada was under snow and it was just pure white. The ocean was crystal blue.
Everybody has seen photographs that we took, but you can't capture the emotions that you have when you are on your way to the Moon and there is the Earth out there and it was so isolated. You couldn't see any stars. The sun shines all the time out in space so it always stays light. So there is this Earth in the blackness.
How did it affect how you see the world you are living in now?
I think that picture was the beginning of the modern environmental movement and concern about resources of the Earth. I think God has given us an Earth that is substantial. We should use the resources to raise our standard of living and take care of one another.
At the time, I was just in awe and wonder about what I saw. I didn't see Earth as fragile or tender. One thing that did occur to me, especially from the Moon, is that you don't see any countries, any difference in races or cultures. You just see Earth and we're just all down here together and maybe we can learn to get along with one another. I grew up in South Carolina. When I was a kid, it was very prejudicial. I never felt that way, but that's the way the culture was. Later on in my life, I realised there was a God. I became a Christian. God is love and I began to love all people. We are all made in the image of God.
Travelling to space is seen as a pinnacle of human achievement in science. Why did you become into a devout Christian after Apollo 16?
It was six years [after the flight]. It wasn't from a change in opinion of science. I think what led me to become a committed Christian was that I was searching for peace in my life. I thought that if I got to the level in my career as an astronaut that, well, life would be complete. Yet the drive that I had which took me to the Moon was still there. Now what do I do? I was 36 years old and I've reached the top, if you will. Some of my friends say I've climbed the ladder of success. I was at the top and I realised the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.
My wife had become a believer and I've watched her change. I had friends who were Christian, who were at peace and have purpose in their lives.
God is not in conflict with science. If you believe that God created the universe, he's the author of science. You see that we live in a universe that has order, that gravity is gravity. It works every time. You jump off a building and you're going to experience gravity. You fly to the Moon, you're going to experience orbital mechanics. The planets move in order, they are not random movements. There is order in the universe. I think you can be a better engineer and a better scientist with an understanding that there's a created order that we live in.
Tell me about the photo of your family you left on the Moon.
My boys were five and six as I was training. I was gone all the time. We trained in Florida but our families lived in Texas. We saw one another a few days a week, if even that. They knew dad was an astronaut. I wanted to do something that involved the whole family. I asked, "Would you guys want to go to the Moon with dad?" And they got very excited. We took a picture in our backyard and they were both just beaming. They realised they were going to go to the Moon in this photograph. On the back of the photograph, we had written, "This is a family of astronauts, Charlie Duke from planet Earth who landed on the moon April 1972", and we all signed it.
Do you still remember the last words your wife and your sons said to you before your mission to the Moon?
I [think] my wife said, "Have fun." The last three weeks before the flight, we were in quarantine. We couldn't see our kids or give them a hug. They really had no concept of what was about to happen until we actually lifted off. My wife was excited for me; she knew how much it meant.
Did you ever fear you weren't going to come back to Earth?
Never thought about it. We knew we could have problems, which we did. But we were well trained. We could handle not just a problem, but a catastrophic failure on Apollo. We accepted the risk. You know you could get killed.
