I was not quite 3 years old, but I remember my parents sitting us kids down and telling us "watch this....its very important..."
40 years later, to the day, my dad sent me this email. ...
July 20, 2009
Jeff-
This 40th anniversary of the first moon landing brings back to me a few memories. I had been working down in El Segundo at Hughes Aircraft Co. for several years. That big 12-story building on Imperial Highway was completely devoted to that shot to the moon and they had the primary contract from JPL. Several batteries were under consideration for use in the cabin that was going to the moon. The worry was what would happen to the heat generation in an environment with no air. The batteries were not in with the people. I invented the isothermal calorimeter to measure exactly how much heat would be given off on both charge and discharge. The work that I did with that calorimeter determined which battery was going to the moon. The battery under investigation was put in a big container of Freon 11 which boils at about 75 degrees F and it keeps the battery at that temperature no matter what it is doing. I have a bunch of good pictures of that big device which I can show you. I later got a patent on it and built another one at JPL.
When Spring came in 1969 we were getting nervous about when that space craft was going to take off. We came up with the saying "We may in May". We didn't make it so we came up with "The moon in June". Again we didn't make it so we came up with "We fly in July". And we did!!
Dad
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I am so proud to be my father's son.
My dad passed away a few years ago at age 88.....
He was brilliant and I miss him dearly. ....
Jeff
