By Simone D'Amico July 31, 2022
Yesterday, I had the greatest honor of my professional career to meet former NASA Astronaut Col. David Randolph Scott together with the satellite team of the Stanford Student Space Initiative (SSSI). The significance of this meeting to me is manifold and certainly goes beyond a short post considering my field of research which revolves around space rendezvous and space robotics.
David Scott is the 1st human (together with Neil Alden Armstrong) that performed docking between two vehicles in Earth’s orbit (Gemini 8, 1966). Rendezvous and docking technology enabled the Apollo program and the landing of humans on the Moon. Indeed, David Scott was the 7th human to walk on the Moon and the 1st (together with James Benson Irwin) to drive a roving vehicle there…the Moon buggy (Apollo 15, 1971).
The meeting was in occasion of the donation to the Wende Museum (http://wendemuseum.org) in Culver City of a 4-billion-years-old Moon’s original crust rock that David Scott found and collected during the Apollo 15 science mission. I was so impressed by the humbleness of this man given his historical significance and by his message of peace and universal values shared by humans.
No spoilers here, but it will be an incredible journey for SSSI and me to work with David Scott, the Wende Museum and his Director Justin Jampol on the next historical project dedicated to the Cold War and the Space Race.
Simone D'Amico is the founder and director of SLAB, and the faculty advisor for the Stanford Student Space Initiative.
