Professor Lee Silver: The original rock star teacher
How do you get a group of test
pilot/engineers
interested
in
a
bunch of rocks? How can you teach
these hard-nosed astronauts to be
geologist detectives around rocks
and soil, especially on the surface of
the Moon? For some time the Apollo
astronauts (and would-be geology
students) had been bombarded
lectures that did not excite them.
This had been a nagging problem for
NASA as they prepared for the Moon
landings. After all, one cannot spend
billions of dollars going to our nearest
pictures.
Given the chance to spend a
week proving his teaching methods
and the absolute need for good
planetary science on Apollo, Silver
took a party of astronauts on a
Orocopia Mountains.
With the beautiful Orocopias at
their feet, Silver’s students including
James Lovell, Fred Haise, John Young,
Charlie Duke and Jack Schmitt,
entered a new and beautiful world
of geological discovery. Silver began
organising further cross country
investigative acumen and sharpness
akin to a test pilot’s that spoke the
Interpreting each other’s detailed
descriptions each of the astronauts
became quick students in geological
observation. Under Silver’s tutelage,
their innate curiosity ran wild,
collecting a variety (or a “suite”) of
rock samples each one telling a line
in the story about the evolution of the
Orocopia Mountains. Silver imposed
time and sample limits on collecting
would face on the Moon and their
rock collections became more
the actual missions.
Observing and sampling within the
exposed strata of geological time
on the Earth, the Apollo astronauts,
observation, were prepared to tell
the story of the Moon.
began on Apollo, Silver himself was
in the back-room of Mission Control
steering the geology ground teams
and acting as a back seat driver for
the lunar roving astro-geologists on
the Moon.
Dave Scott and Jim Irwin had been
their Apollo 15 mission, a piece of
the primordial lunar crust that would
prove the Moon’s age. On August 1,
1971 on Hadley Delta, Scott radioed
back to the ground that he and Irwin
Lee Silver points out some geological observations to his astro-geologists in training, Charlie Duke and John Young.
Credit: NASA/U.S. Geological Survey via Retro Space Images
Neil Armstrong himself broke the
mission parameters, exploring beyond
of view to collect 80 kilograms of
interesting lunar rock samples. He
began the “meat part” of the Apollo
missions, but not seeing where he
had collected the rocks from, there
was no detailed context to their story.
Enter Caltech Professor of Geology
Lee Silver. As an Apollo lunar sample
investigator, Silver had been invited
by his old student Harrison “Jack”
Schmitt to meet with James Lovell
and Fred Haise (assigned to Apollo 13)
to discuss teaching the astronauts
www.RocketSTEM .org
same language and spread among
his Apollo apprentices.
Soon after, further astronauts
David Scott and James Irwin whose
are attributable to Professor Silver’s
teachings.
Using
the
Earth’s
natural
environment as a stand in for the
Moon’s was a masterstroke. The new
geology students practiced dress
rehearsals of their missions, standing
by Lunar Module substitutes (trees)
and describing the 360 degree
landscape views as a geologist
would.
rock would later prove to be 4.5 billion
years old giving rise to the widely
accepted theory that a Mars sized
body had collided with the Earth
spinning off matter that later formed
the Moon.
“hitting a home run” which validated
his supreme teaching efforts to
embed science within the Apollo
missions.
Were it not for Lee Silver, the Moon’s
story and relationship with the Earth
would still be relatively unknown.
His unique and exciting teaching
methods imbued a sense of urgent
of science, always looking to push the
boundaries of knowledge and follow
the observational evidence wherever
it leads.
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