On July 20th, 1969, an estimated 600 million people witnessed the live broadcast of the first manned lunar landing known as Apollo 11. The cultural impact of this event was not only felt in the hearts and minds of individuals everywhere, but in the sciences as well. Leaders in the fields of robotics and lunar logistics, such as Carnegie Mellon University, continue to build upon the technological achievements set forth by this historic day. Most recently, NASA chose CMU’s Field Robotics Center – in partnership with Astrobotic – to manufacture a lunar rover known as the MoonRanger. The rover will be used to accomplish long-range exploration missions and produce detailed 3D maps of the moon’s surface. Without the work of the Apollo 11 astronaut crew, and the countless supporting individuals who made that historic day possible, spectacular achievements such as this would never be realized.
Read more about the anniversary of the Moon Landing and its connection to CMU on the Libraries Blog.