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     Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at
    NASA, part 3 of 3
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One of the interesting things about our vehicle is the use of Russian engines for powering it. It turns out that the Russians that developed a marvellous new Locks-Carrison engine for their lunar program. And they had built about 250 of them and then they canceled the program because we landed there and it didn't want to be second to us. And we picked them up through Arrowjet for our vehicle. They are better than any Locks-Carrison engines that we have in this country. And they represent probably a significant, in fact we couldn't carry out the program without those engines. And it is ironic that 30 years later the engine that they had developed for their lunar program has turned out to be very useful for the next step in the space.
There you go. That's what happened. The question about Neil's words on the moon, who thought of what Neil was going to say and was it reviewed by NASA? Neil thought of the words he was going to say. Some review was done but it was not in detail and in particular what he said when he finally got there was different than we had heard before. What did you heard? Just the new usual thing about the marvellous of stepping on the moon and so on. But I thought those were, that was a tremendously good statement. At that moment what went through your mind Dr. Miller that Apollo 11 landing and Neil stepping on the moon. I mean I know it's all engineering and getting it done but there had to be some kind of human emotion about all that. Well human emotion was thank goodness that's over and it's successful. Now of course we still had a day or two of worry about can they in fact light that engine and will it bring them back into orbit because straight into them there would
have been very embarrassing but we had done enough testing and knew enough about the system to feel quite comfortable. It was sort of anti-climatic really when you think about it after all of these years of concerted effort to finally have it work and work perfectly. It's probably not as far away as people now think. I think that what we'll find is that as time passes the local supplies of energy diminish and we are going to need to have some nuclear
source of energy to keep the population of Earth going and Helium 3 is by far the most benign nuclear fuel and it will it's byproducts are not radioactive which is the key to a successful nuclear reactors. So I think that and one of the interesting things there have been some calculations made that the Helium 3 on the moon is sufficient to power the Earth for about a thousand years. So you really have a source of energy that is both benign and good and long lived and also it makes it economically feasible to actually have a lunar colony or a lunar workforce to produce that and bring it back here. You can make money out of it which of course is
Series
NOVA
Episode
To the Moon
Raw Footage
Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 3 of 3
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-qn5z60d99m
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Description
Program Description
This remarkably crafted program covers the full range of participants in the Apollo project, from the scientists and engineers who promoted bold ideas about the nature of the Moon and how to get there, to the young geologists who chose the landing sites and helped train the crews, to the astronauts who actually went - not once or twice, but six times, each to a more demanding and interesting location on the Moon's surface. "To The Moon" includes unprecedented footage, rare interviews, and presents a magnificent overview of the history of man and the Moon. To the Moon aired as NOVA episode 2610 in 1999.
Raw Footage Description
George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA who was instrumental in creating the testing philosophy for the Saturn V launch vehicle that helped during Apollo, is interviewed about NASA. Mueller explains how Neil Armstrong's quote upon stepping onto the moon was decided, and his feelings upon Armstrong's arrival on the moon. Helium 3 is cited as the most benign of potential fuels for the future, and Mueller says it is possible for lunar Helium 3 to power the Earth for centuries.
Created Date
1998-00-00
Asset type
Raw Footage
Genres
Interview
Topics
History
Technology
Science
Subjects
American History; Gemini; apollo; moon; Space; astronaut
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:04:33
Embed Code
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Credits
Interviewee: Mueller, George Edwin, 1918-2015
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: 52256 (barcode)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Original
Duration: 0:04:33
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 3 of 3 ,” 1998-00-00, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed December 26, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-qn5z60d99m.
MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 3 of 3 .” 1998-00-00. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. December 26, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-qn5z60d99m>.
APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with George Mueller, engineer and associate administrator at NASA, part 3 of 3 . Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-qn5z60d99m