The Moon Page #2

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is starting their menstrual period.

That was a very exciting

natural biologic phenomenon,

that said there's something

in nature about the moon

that coincides with women getting

their period at the full moon.

The fertility cycles of women

are related to the moon cycle,

and I don't think women's fertility

drives the moon,

I think it's the other way around.

No-one knows for sure

why this phenomenon exists,

or how it works.

It is one of the moon's

many mysteries.

Until very recently,

the moon remained an enigma.

And it was this mysterious quality

which fuelled our fascination.

Where did it come from?

What was it made of?

And the biggest question of all -

was it a world like ours?

Did it harbour life?

For millennia,

it was impossible to know.

No-one even knew what the surface

of the moon looked like.

All that changed in 1608, when an Italian

astronomer made a primitive telescope.

For the first time, he was able

to get a close-up look at the moon.

His name was Galileo Galilei.

And what he saw shattered

conventional wisdom.

At the time, the Church insisted

that all heavenly bodies were

perfect, unblemished spheres,

and that the Earth was the only body

in the universe that was flawed.

But Galileo's close-up

view of the moon's surface

revealed a world

that was far from perfect.

He described it as "Rough and uneven,

just like the surface of Earth itself."

Perhaps it WAS a living world,

like our own.

Hundreds of years later, our knowledge

of the moon had barely improved.

Just how ignorant we were

was revealed in 1835.

An American newspaper

published a front-page story

announcing that herds of bison had been

observed tramping across the lunar surface.

Readers were entranced

by this vision.

A few days later, it was revealed

to be an elaborate hoax.

The only way to find out

what was really on the moon

was to go there and take a look.

But over 100 years later, it still

seemed an impossible dream.

All that finally changed

in the early 1960s.

I believe that this nation should

commit itself to achieving the goal,

before this decade is out,

of landing a man on the moon and

returning him safely to the Earth.

Kennedy's bid for the moon

came out of a Cold War battle

to win over peoples'

hearts and minds.

It was an inspired move,

tapping into an ancient dream.

Finally, we would find the answers

to the moon's great mysteries.

How was it formed?

What was it made of? And was it

a home for some form of life?

The moon had always been the symbol

of the remote and the unreachable.

And here,

people are going to leave Earth

and go to the moon!

But, if they wanted

to lay claim to the moon,

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