Carlos Villagomez owns a golf ball that he believes was flown to the moon. If certainly it was, he may maintain the reply to a greater than 50-year-old little bit of trivia that in any other case could also be endlessly misplaced to time.
Villagomez was gifted the ball by Alan Shepard, the primary American astronaut to fly into area, fifth human to stroll on the moon and the world’s first (and to this point, solely) lunar golfer. Wrapping up his second of two moonwalks on NASA’s 1971 Apollo 14 mission, Shepard took a swing at a few golf balls.
“I’ve a bit of white pellet that is acquainted to thousands and thousands of Individuals. I will drop it down. Sadly, the go well with is so stiff, I am unable to do that with two arms, however I will attempt a bit of sand-trap shot right here,” mentioned Shepard 54 years in the past right this moment (Feb. 6).
Shepard had NASA’s permission to carry out the “moon shot” as long as it met the company’s standards, together with that or not it’s a non-commercial exercise. To keep away from any firm from making an attempt to revenue from his one-sixth gravity drives, Shepard stored one key element secret: the model of the balls.
“I’ve by no means advised anyone. I’ve by no means advised my spouse,” Shepard as soon as mentioned, as quoted by Sports Illustrated.
Associated: Alan Shepard: 1st American in area
Possibly Maxfli?
What Shepard did do was reward Villagomez — his good friend and barber — a signed golf ball simply after exiting quarantine following his return to Earth.
“He shook my hand and I felt one thing there, and he gave me a ball,” Villagomez mentioned in “The Barber, the Astronaut, and the Golf Ball” by filmmaker Jonathan Richards, based mostly on the book of the same title by authors Barbara Radnofsky and Ed Supkis. “I wasn’t going to say, ‘Was this on the moon’s floor?’ I did not need to put him on the spot like that.”
“I figured I’d ask him later, [but] I by no means requested him,” mentioned Villagomez.
Whether or not or not Shepard took a 3rd ball to the moon after which gifted it to his barber with none provenance is the main target of the ebook and the movie. But when he did, and assuming all three balls have been of the identical make, then Shepard flew Maxfli balls, a model established in 1910 by the sports activities division of the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company, at the moment owned by Dick’s Sporting Items.
Why Maxfli? Effectively, maybe it was because of Shepard’s humorousness, suggests Radnofsky. Maxfli might need appealed to him given his hope that the balls would go for “miles and miles and miles,” as he proclaimed on the moon. (In actuality, his “most flight” was only about 40 yards [36.5 meters], as later measured utilizing pictures of the balls on the lunar floor.)
However then once more, Villagomez’s reward isn’t the one declare on a model of ball.
Commemorative Moonball
Jack Harden, a Houston-local golf professional, helped Shepard create the makeshift membership that was used on the moon by sawing off the pinnacle of a Wilson Workers Dyna-Energy 6-iron and modifying it in order that it may connect to the deal with of a lunar pattern assortment system that was already on board the Apollo 14 lunar module. (Shepard donated the flown membership to america Golf Affiliation in 1974, and right this moment it’s on show within the USGA Golf Museum in Liberty Nook, New Jersey.)
Harden additionally reportedly gave Shepard a few two-piece Spalding-brand vary balls that have been personalized with Harden’s title (“Property of Jack Harden”), which then turned the balls that the astronaut flew to and hit off the moon — not less than in accordance with Harden’s son in an interview revealed in Sports activities Illustrated after Harden, Sr. died (the article, “Capturing for the Moon” by Jaime Diaz, was timed to Shepard’s loss of life in 1998).
Whether or not Spalding knew of Harden’s reward or was profiting from the second, the corporate provided a free “Commemorative Moonball” to prospects who purchased a dozen of its “Dot” balls. An advert mentioned that the promo was “to rejoice Spalding’s area flight as first golf ball on the moon” and that the Moonball was “an unique version of the two-piece Spalding golf ball that landed on the moon.”
Associated: The moon: All the pieces you could find out about Earth’s companion
Every of the so-called Moonballs was adorned with an illustration of an astronaut (presumably Shepard) taking part in golf on the moon and was additionally inscribed, “First Golf Ball On The Moon, Feb. 6, 1971.”
Shepard was not amused. “We lower them off shortly,” he mentioned in a NASA interview quickly earlier than his loss of life.
…give me your reply true
One attainable subject with Harden’s story impacts one other separate declare, too.
In 2015, the Rogers Daisy Airgun Museum in Arkansas debuted an exhibit dedicated to Shepard and his moon shot. Central to the show is a matted photograph of the Apollo 14 crew that has been inscribed partially, “Our honest thanks for the Daisy golf balls by Victor … They’re out of this world.”
Though the Daisy Firm is finest identified for its BB weapons (therefore the “airgun” museum), it did promote Daisy-branded golf balls when it was owned by the Victor Comptometer Company. The museum says it was Daisy balls that flew to the moon, based mostly on the inscribed matte and the friendship that was shared between the corporate’s senior public relations govt and NASA’s director of public affairs in Houston on the time. The latter is claimed to have sourced the golf balls for Shepard to fly.
Each males have additionally since died, leaving solely anecdotes, after which there may be what Shepard, himself, mentioned concerning the balls. “There have been two golf balls, for which I paid — there was no expense to the taxpayer.”
If Shepard purchased the balls himself, that would appear to rule out their being gifted or acquired by others.
Again to the moon
Whether or not the balls have been Maxfli, Spalding, Daisy or another firm’s might solely ever be answered if we will get eyes on the balls on the moon.
Whereas the U.S., China, and different nations have plans to return astronauts to the lunar floor inside this decade or the subsequent, none are identified to be focusing on the Apollo 14 touchdown website, the Fra Mauro highlands, or areas close by. Many of the renewed focus is on the lunar south pole, the place water ice in completely shadowed craters may change into a useful resource for sustaining a base and producing rocket gasoline.
Additional, there are rising efforts to guard the human heritage websites on the moon from being disturbed. In 2021, the U.S. passed a law requiring home corporations seeking to ship new missions to the moon to keep away from the {hardware} and gear left there by the Apollo missions. Likewise, NASA’s Artemis Accords requires its greater than 50 (and nonetheless rising) occasion nations to guard historic human and robotic touchdown websites as considered one of its 10 ideas.
Most lately, the moon was added to the World Monuments Watch, an inventory of areas spanning 5 continents — and now the lunar floor — that must be preserved for the historical past they characterize.
Blind shot
Even in the event you may discover a secure, non-intrusive technique to get shut sufficient to learn the model marks on Shepard’s two golf balls on the moon, there could also be nothing to see.
The 2 “little white pellets” have been dropped into an surroundings that swings from 250 levels Fahrenheit (121 levels Celsius) within the daylight to minus 208 levels Fahrenheit (minus 133 levels Celsius) in the dead of night, and that’s to say nothing concerning the publicity to radiation from the solar and cosmic rays.
“In time, the duvet would flip brown and, with the chilly of the lunar evening, in all probability crack and fall off,” mentioned one producer after testing golf balls in lunar circumstances, in accordance with Sports activities Illustrated. “[The ball’s cores would] get arduous and brittle” [and] “then they’d in all probability sit there endlessly within the vacuum.”
Shepard acknowledged that the balls had in all probability “exploded by now,” however regardless of that, desired a happier final result.
“Maybe the children of right this moment will go up and play golf with them,” he mentioned.
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