Apollo 14 astronaut and moon walker, Edgar Mitchell has passed away at the age of 85. Mitchell accompanied Apollo 14 mission commander and ex-Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard to the Fra Mauro region on the surface of the moon in February 1971, leaving command module pilot Stuart Roose to orbit the Moon. While the mission was mainly successful, it became infamous for Shepard’s use of a tool to strike a golf ball on the lunar surface which led to much media criticism.
Following his trip, Ed Mitchell became interested in research into Extra Sensory Perception and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973. Mitchell was an ex-US Navy pilot with a PhD in aeronautical engineering, Mitchell became a test pilot before entering the astronaut corps. Late in life, Ed Mitchell became a cause célèbre for astronauts wanting to sell artefacts originally awarded to them by NASA but which NASA later tried to ban them from selling.
Mitchell himself was trying to sell a 16mm Maurer movie camera called the DAC (Data Acquisition Camera), which had been to the Moon’s surface, in order to raise funds for the healthcare of his son. It was only after much acrimony between the former astronauts and the Administration, that NASA had to finally back down, although only after Mitchell had returned the camera to settle the NASA lawsuit against him. The camera is now at the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.
Comment by David Todd: NASA’s mean spirited treatment of Ed Mitchell over the Maurer DAC camera was not one of its finest moments. Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the Moon. His death means that there are only seven surviving moon walkers of the original 12 left: Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Alan Bean (Apollo 12), David Scott (Apollo 15), John Young and Charles Duke (Apollo 16), Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). NASA (or ESA) had better get a move on and design a manned lunar lander, if these brave fellows are going be alive long enough to witness mankind’s return to the Moon. Then again, China might get there next.
