Fly me to the Moon - 40 Years Later!

July 18, 3:03 PMLA Weather ExaminerPablo Pereira

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   When I was a kid, I used to build rocket models and go to a class called Jr. Engineers.  I wanted to fly to the moon too and one day sat down and wrote Neil Armstrong a letter. Thought it would be fun to post on the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.

   Here is the best part.  Neil Armstrong actually wrote me back a personal letter just a month before he left for the Moon!.  Years later when working at a TV Station in Dallas,  Buzz Aldrin was on our morning show.  I brought in the letter and Buzz signed the Envelope.  So now I still have autographs of the first two people to walk on the moon.

   It got me thinking recently.   Why have we not returned to the moon sooner?.  A friend suggested that I have somewhat lived my dream now observing the atmosphere as a career, albeit from the ground.  But the more I continue to study Meteorology,   the more I am convinced the need to get back to the Moon, Mars and beyond.  After all,  it is this space technology that has enabled us to become better weather forecasters.  It is a science and technology still taken for granted in my opinion.  My daily routine involves looking at various satellites in space to better forecast weather here on the ground.

   Why should we care?.   If Global Warming truly exist and our planet will one day fail in its ability to sustain life as we know it,  I think it is time to get on the ball and find out where we might go.  Think about it,   all this was done 40 years ago with very primitive technology as we know it today.  Computers are so much more powerful and the technology is already there to expand on what we started as the mission of the late President John F. Kennedy. 

   So guess it is time to sit down and write NASA another letter:

  Dear NASA, 

    My name is Don Pablo Pereira.  Forty years ago I sat down as a young boy and wrote you a letter about your upcoming Apollo 11 mission.  Neil Armstrong was kind enough to write me back a personal note only weeks before traveling to the Moon.  Like many of my generation,  I sat with my parents and watched what I still consider to this day our greatest achievement.  

   I had made a special request back than.  I asked to be the first Boy on the Moon,  even came up with what I thought was a good time frame to go.  At the time I was saddened to learn that the Apollo program was broken up because of finances with still more missions left on the table.

   Well I guess if first if you don't succeed you should try again.  That goes for me too.  Now I am a trained Meteorologist and Journalist.  I think I could offer much more now as an observer that I could when I was ten years old.  So what do you say,  NASA?.  How about a flight down the road a few years, say 2015  when you finally get your act together and program in order and return back to the Moon. 

   Your future spaceman,  I still hope.

   Don Pablo Pereira