Moon landing rekindles interest in space exploration

Dave Owen - aka Space Dave - at the control centre of Te Awamutu Space Centre looking at footage of India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft seconds before its successful landing. Photo / Dean Taylor

Proving the Earth is not the centre of the universe, the James Webb Space Telescope, man on the Moon and the successful moon landing of the Indian Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft – these are all once in ‘super blue moon’ events that spin the wheels of Te Awamutu Space Centre owner “Space” Dave Owen.

Super blue moon rising over Hamilton on Thursday, August 31. Photo / Andrew Boyd

In terms of observations and theories from our planet, he says when man proved the planets and stars did not revolve around Earth it changed the way we thought about everything. More recently the James Webb Space Telescope gave us the ability to see the earliest known stars and galaxies in the universe.

In terms of flight exploration, Owen says it is hard to beat NASA’s manned Moon landings.

“This proved that humans are not forever limited to living on Earth,” he says.

Owen doesn’t suggest India’s successful unmanned Moon landing is in the same league as the 1969 mission, but he is impressed that India has become the fourth country to go to the Moon – and on a relatively shoestring budget.

He says Russia was first to land on the Moon – albeit a planned hard landing, or crash landing. They were also first to succeed with a soft landing, or touchdown, but the USA was famously the first and only to put a man on the Moon.

Part of Te Awamutu Space Centre's Lego display. Dave has channelled his inner youth to create bespoke settings to accompany the commercially available rockets. Photo / Dean Taylor

Russia and China have followed with successful Moon landings – and now India.

But Russia, China and India are joined by Israel and Japan on the unsuccessful side of the ledger with five failures in the past decade.

Overall, there have been 50 Moon landing missions – man is losing 23-27.

Owen says India’s success, especially in a race with Russia which failed just a few days earlier, has rekindled interest in space exploration.

Live monitor showing human-made objects currently orbiting Earth. Photo / Dean Taylor

And it is a big business. As well as the named players, England, Japan and New Zealand have space programmes, as does the European Space Agency.

There are at least a dozen private programmes. Work that used to be part of government agencies is now being contracted by governments and private and commercial concerns.

“There is also a huge rise in space tourism,” says Owen. “It is getting pretty routine.”

When asked if he would go if money were no object, he replied “Definitely.”

Owen says the Indian Space Research Organisation is doing a great job on about one-third of the budget of other national space programmes.

“They have great engineers and scientists and are making good progress,” he says.

And while it is expensive, there is great prestige to being a successful player in the space industry, which Owen believes is attractive to some of the new players.

“There is also commercial benefits to providing space-related services,” says Owen.

“It can be a lucrative export market.”

Some of the hands-on activities at Te Awamutu Space Centre. Photo / Dean Taylor

He says Chandrayaan-3 landed near the Moon’s south pole where there is the possibility of frozen water.

The craft has launched a rover which is on a short-term pathfinder mission to look for that water.

“It is a nuts-and-bolts mission, so don’t expect too much,” he says. “But they are doing real space research and real science, so it is impressive.”

It is exactly that kind of research that Owen promotes at the Te Awamutu Space Centre.

Te Awamutu Space Centre on the corner of Lyon and Whitmore streets. Photo / Dean Taylor

Based at Kihikihi in a modest church building, it is a bastion of one of the most technologically advanced branches of science we undertake.

The centre has real artefacts from space missions and the space industry, lots of monitors looking at different aspects of space exploration and study and various displays related to all and everything space-related.

The centre is always evolving, but post-Covid, as visitors start to return, Owen is especially concentrating on the Virtual Reality experience.

Bespoke VR programming allows Te Awamutu Space Centre visitors to go into outer space.

School visits play a big part in the business, but the centre is open to the public and VR is available to everyone as part of the self-guided, interactive museum.

Owen says when he started to work towards VR, he thought he would be able to source experiences. Not so.

“There was nothing out there, so I have created bespoke VR material that takes the viewer on a tour of space,” says Owen.

“I’m pleased with it so far but am trying to improve it all the time and refine it.

“Viewers get a tour of the solar system that I have tailored for a Kiwi audience.”

In fact, Owen believes his Space Centre is unique in New Zealand. He doesn’t want to make the same claim for the entire world, but admits it is possible.

“Many other centres are bigger and have specialised experiences, but I seem to cover more of the entire realm of space travel and exploration,” he says.

“It is certainly the only place in New Zealand where visitors can see such a substantial collection of space-related artefacts.”

Display that concentrates on the Sun - the star that provides us with life. Photo / Dean Taylor

Te Awamutu Courier claims to be the first newspaper in the world to print news of the first lunar landing in 1969.

The plates were on the press when news came through, so two paragraphs were cut from another story and journalist Ted Hunwick wrote the news which hit the Te Awamutu streets just two hours later.

A copy of the clipping is in Te Awamutu Space Centre and the claim is supported by Space Dave.

“I have not been able to find any evidence of the contrary.”

Scoop: Te Awamutu Courier reported it first in print.

Owen said it was a “fluke of timing” that the Te Awamutu Courier was the first to print the news.

“There was a small window of opportunity that Ted Hunwick took as the paper was nearly going to print.”

For more information about Space Dave, opening hours and events check out spacecentre.nz