A very long trip indeed. How long, depends on your perspective. From a mathematical point of view, according to space.com the Moon is about 384,403km (240,252 miles) from Earth. Travelling in a car at 60mph, it would take over 166 days to get there! In July of 1969; Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins, Propelled by a Saturn V rocket, aboard Apollo 11 made the trip there and back in 8 days. 8 days, just 3 men in space, travelling to somewhere where no human had ever been before. Regardless of actual distance, that must have seemed like the longest journey they had ever encountered!
In April 1970; Jim Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise, headed for the Moon aboard Apollo 13. Almost 322,000 kilometres from Earth, their spacecraft suffered major damage due to an oxygen tank explosion. The next couple of days were spent frantically trying to return safely back to Earth after having to abort their mission to land on the moon. Although they returned to Earth ahead of schedule and were in space only 6 days as opposed to 8 days, those 6 days must have felt like a lifetime to those 3 men floating through space with a dwindling oxygen supply aboard a crippled spacecraft, wondering if they would ever reach home!
I have always been interested in space and the stars and Moon. As a young boy I used to look up at the Moon and wonder what it would be like to go there, an impossible dream.
The distance from the Earth to the Moon, is different for everyone. 240,000 miles, 4 days, a lifetime…
