Captain Shepard getting ready for a golf swing It’s been 50 years since Captain Alan Shepard, Captain Apollo 14, played golf in the craters of the Moon’s Fra Mauro.
Shepard took the 6 irons with a folding iron at the time, and hit two balls at the end of one hand swing. It was intended to properly show the state of gravity of the moon, which is only a sixth of the earth, but it impressed golf enthusiasts in the United States.
According to foreign media such as AP, Shepard shouted “miles and miles and miles” after hitting the ball with the fourth and final swing on the color TV screen, but the actual distance flew about 40 yards (36m). Appeared.
It was estimated that it would have flown about 200 yards (182m) for a while, but British video and photography expert Andy Sounders supplemented the image taken at the time with digital technology ahead of the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first golf swing on the moon. Yards, the second ball was suggested as flying 40 yards.
Sounders is also preparing a book titled’Apollo Remastered’ that complements the images taken during the Apollo Plan.
This is also the best result considering that Captain Shepard’s space suit was close to 100 kg and was able to swing with only one hand. Although I practiced one-handed swing on Earth, I hit the ground rather than the ball in the first two swings, and barely hit the ball in the third swing, but it flew in the wrong direction and was close to the shank.
Edgar Mitchell, a lunar lander pilot who landed on the moon with Captain Shepard, threw the pole of the solar wind tester like a spear, which flew more than the first.
Golf ball hit from the moon (in red circle)▶ Click here for a larger view
Jimmy Walker, who has won the US Professional Golf Tour (PGA) tour, spends 200 yards with a 6 iron, and if he could swing with golf shoes like the moon and the earth, the ball flew 4,600 yards (4,200 m) for more than 1 minute. I predicted it would have gone.
Shepard, a former naval pilot, boarded the Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket in 1961 and succeeded in ballistic flight at an altitude of 187 km for 15 minutes, becoming the first American astronaut. However, after having a problem with his inner ear, he was transferred to an administrative position, returned to surgery, and in January 1971, he took the Apollo 14 and stepped on the moon for the fifth time.
Shepard is said to have been inspired by the famous comedian Bob Hope, who loves golf enough to carry a golf club wherever he goes. When he visited the Houston Manned Space Center in 1970, he joked about what it would be like to play golf on the moon.
Shepard took it as a great opportunity to show the gravity of the moon, and asked Jack Harden, chief pro at River Oaks Country Club in Houston, to build a folding golf club that could be fitted with a’Wilson Staff’ No. 6 iron head.
Shepherd also reported that he secretly took a golf club and two balls to the moon, but later said in an interview that he made an official report to NASA’s leadership.
At the time, the director of the manned space center responded with a “nothing” response, but he persuaded Shepard that he was not wasting the blood of American citizens and promised to do it after carrying out all scientific missions and said that he received permission.
The Apollo 14 was the first to use a handcart on the lunar surface to carry scientific laboratory equipment to be installed on the moon, and collected about 40 kg of meteorites. They stayed for the longest time on the moon (about 33 hours) and worked outboard for 9 hours and 22 minutes. This is also the longest outboard activity record, and Captain Shepard’s golf swing was made at the end of the outboard activity as promised.
Apollo 14 crew ▶ Click here for a larger view
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