Dreaming of the moon - PAU 1998

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Eugene Shoemaker’s dreams may soon come true. In the 1960s, this famous astronomer wanted to be an astronaut, but he became a researcher instead. In 1997, just before he was killed in a road accident, he said: “The biggest disappointment in my life is that I haven’t been to the Moon.” Thanks to his university colleagues, this may happen soon. This year, the spacecraft Lunar Prospector will be sent to the moon. And in the spacecraft are the ashes1 of Eugene Shoemaker, who was born in 1928 and who died in 1997.

Shoemaker was a dreamer. He believed that human beings would one day live on the Moon and he devoted his life to its study. But, in the 1970s, the United States stopped sending astronauts there. However, in 1994 a satellite detected possible evidence of ice in a crater at the Moon’s South Pole. The news shocked the world: “There could be water on the Moon!” So, the United States built the Lunar Prospector, a big, expensive spacecraft that will look for signs of minerals, gases and water on the Earth’s satellite.

“If we find sufficient water, the Moon could be colonised in a few years”, said Bill Feldman, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Water will support life on the moon. It will make trips to other planets possible because hydrogen will be used as fuel for rockets2.”

Who will be as brave as to build a home on the moon? Who will be the first one to open a business there? Nobody knows who the first moon colonisers will be, but we now know one thing for sure: Eugene Shoemaker will be the first one to be on the Moon. The Lunar Prospector will take his ashes there soon. “This is very important to us”, said his wife, Carolyn, “because we will always know when we look at the moon that Eugene is there, waiting for us”.

Smokeless cigarettes

For more than a decade hundreds of scientists at the US tobacco companies have been working to develop a cigarette which is acceptable to non-smokers as well as smokers. Now they have discovered Eclipse, which works by healing tobacco instead of burning it, and so it reduces smoke by 90 per cent.

According to the companies, this product is an intelligent alternative to cigarettes. But the cigarette has not been a success in those European cities where people have been invited to try them. One of them said: “I have a packet at home, but I don’t like them. They always go out. The only people who are smoking them are young people who get them free in discos and bars.” Another said that they tasted of plastic.

Anti-smoking groups believe that this is just a new way of distributing nicotine, but the companies defend themselves by arguing that their purpose is not to develop a healthy cigarette. They simply want to create one which will not disturb non-smokers.