the explorers journal - The Explorers Club

the
e x p lor e r s
j o u r n a l
EST. 1921
destination moon
summer 2009
buzz aldrin
a new era in global space leadership
Bill “Earthrise” Anders
right place, right time
Peter Diamandis
moon dreams
vol. 87 no.2 I $8.00 I www.explorers.org I

the explorers journal
summer 2009
destination moon
cover: the Apollo 11 lunar module
Eagle returns from the surface of the
moon to dock with the command module
Columbia on July 21, 1969. Photograph
by Michael Collins, courtesy NASA.
Static Test Firing of the Saturn V S-1C Stage rocket, January 1, 1967. Photograph courtesy NASA.
destination
moon
features
specials
regulars
A new age in global space leadership
by Buzz Aldrin, p. 20
Moon Dreams
by Peter H. Diamandis, illustrations by Andrew Collis, p. 25
Digging the Moon
by P. J. Capelotti, p. 28
Right Place, Right time
Jim Clash catches up with Bill “Earthrise” Anders, p. 30
Legacy of Earthrise
images courtesy NASA’s Earth Observatory, p. 32
a century after shackleton
interview by Nick Smith, p. 14
Hidden Caves of Rapa Nui
text and photographs by Marcin Jamkowski, p. 42
Slowly Down the Amazon
Nick Smith in conversation with John Hemming, p. 48
president’s letter, p. 2
editor’s note, p. 4
exploration news, p. 8
extreme Medicine, p. 54
extreme cuisine, p. 56
reviews, p. 58
what were they thinking, p. 64

the explorers journal
summer 2009
president’s letter
our place in the universe
Where once the inhabitants of Earth enjoyed the luxury of believing
that the planet they occupied held a central location in the
universe, around which all else orbited, evidence gathered over
time eventually tipped the scale and humankind succumbed to
the realization that our Earth was just one of a number of planets
circling the sun. Despite the dramatic philosophical modifications
that were required for us to shift away from the concept of
a geocentric Earth, the importance of our planet and its position
did not dim in our minds but rather retained much of its lustre
as a featured player in our solar system as we have continued to
accord it a premier role within the universe.
Today, we are required once more to reconsider and revamp
our self-deigned positioning as exploration and technology have
been able to far transcend the reaches of our own solar system,
indicating that the universe is crowded with planets orbiting
the distant stars we see in the night sky. Since the first planet
beyond our solar system was detected in 1995, more than 300
“exoplanets” have been observed—and a far greater number
have yet to be discovered—demonstrating conclusively that
the structure of our solar system is not exclusive and indicating
possibly that the developments and procedures that led to the
formation of our planetary system are not especially inimitable.
With each new planetary recording, it has become increasingly
clear that not only are we not at the center of the universe, we
are merely a solar satellite of a type found orbiting a myriad of
stars.
We are on the verge of a new reality, on yet another reassessment
of how the Earth fits within the greater universe. Our
quest to understand our place in the universe will be the subject
of our 2010 Explorers Club Annual Dinner on March 20, “The
Balancing Edge of Infinity: Exploring the Universes Out There.”
I hope to see you there.
Lorie Karnath

SAVE
T H E
DATE
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Cipriani Wall Street, New York City
THE PRESIDENT, DIRECTORS AND
OFFICERS OF THE EXPLORERS
CLUB & ROLEX WATCH U.S.A.
Request the honor of your company at the 2009
Ll Toa Ards Dne
On the Brink of Uncertainty, Exploring Risk:
A Survival Guide from the Field
Photo: David Jordan www.lavajunkie.com
2009 Lowell Thomas Award Recipients
Bob Barth, CWO, USN (ret), FN’96
Yvon Chouinard, MN’09
Kenneth M. Kamler, M.D., FR’84
Arthur D. Mortvedt, MN’84
James M. Williams, FN’93
Richard B. Wilson, MN’92
Master of Ceremonies: Miles O’Brien
Guest speakers include
Dennis N.T. Perkins, MBA, Ph.D, author of
Leading at the Edge, Leadership Lessons from Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition
Also featuring The Calder Quartet and Andrew WK
performing a special composition for The Explorers Club
by Christine Southworth.
Should you risk not attending Avoid this and reserve early. Tickets go on sale June 1, 2009. Seating for the dinner is on a first-come, first served basis. Seating
requests require advance payment. For reservations, please visit www.explorers.org or contact The Explorers Club: 212-628-8383 or events@explorers.org

the explorers journal
summer 2009
editor’s note
A giant leap indeed
In his 1951 work, The Exploration of Space, Arthur C.
Clarke outlined the extraordinary challenge of building
a rocket capable of reaching the 25,000-mile-per-hour
velocity necessary to simply escape Earth’s gravitational
pull, much less carry a payload and enough
fuel for a return voyage. He stated that, “When one
allows for this, the initial weight of a chemically fuelled
spaceship on taking off from the Earth would be not
hundreds but hundreds of thousands of tons—and the
whole project becomes, if not impossible, certainly
fantastic.”
Fantastic indeed, but possible, thanks to the
pioneering efforts of visionary rocketeers such as
Wernher von Braun, whose Saturn V rocket propelled
us to the Moon. In describing the launch of Apollo
11, Buzz Aldrin told The Explorers Journal, “Gulping 15
tons of fuel a second, cooled by water cascading at
50,000 gallons a minute, the Saturn V rocket rose with
the force of 100,000 locomotives, burning 5,000,000
pounds of fuel in the first 150 seconds, getting a full
five inches to the gallon.”
On July 20, it will be 40 years since Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin first stepped foot on the Moon. This
issue, in celebration of that momentous event, we have
brought together a number of luminaries and new comers
in the field of lunar exploration to share with us their
thoughts not only on where we have been but where
we are going in the realm of space exploration.
So, leave your cares below, pull the switch, let’s go—
Destination Moon!
A pioneer of America’s space program, Wernher von Braun
stands by the five F-1 engines of the Saturn V launch
vehicle, Designed and developed by Rocketdyne under the
direction of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Each of
the F-1 engines burned 15 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene
per second to produce 7,500,000 pounds of thrust.
When assembled, the Apollo Saturn V, soared to a height
of 111 meters (363 feet), and fully fuelled, weighed 6.5
million pounds. image courtesy NASA.
Angela M.H. Schuster, Editor-in-Chief

the explorers journal
Summer 2009
the explorers club
President
Lorie M.L. Karnath, MBA, hon. Ph.D.
Board Of Directors
Officers
PATRONS & SPONSORS
Honorary President
Don Walsh, Ph.D.
Honor a ry Direc tors
Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D.
George F. Bass, Ph.D
Eugenie Clark, Ph.D.
Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D.
James M. Fowler
Col. John H. Glenn Jr., USMC (Ret.)
Gilbert M. Grosvenor
Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.
Richard E. Leakey, D.Sc.
Roland R. Puton
Johan Reinhard, Ph.D.
George B. Schaller, Ph.D.
Don Walsh, Ph.D.
CLASS OF 2010
Anne L. Doubilet
William S. Harte
Mark S. Kassner, CPA
Daniel A. Kobal, Ph.D.
R. Scott Winters, Ph.D.
CLASS OF 2011
Capt. Norman L. Baker
Jonathan M. Conrad
Constance Difede
Kristin Larson, Esq.
Margaret D. Lowman, Ph.D.
CLASS OF 2012
Josh Bernstein
Lt.(N) Joseph G. Frey, C.D.
Gary “Doc” Hermalyn, Ed.D.
Lorie M.L. Karnath, MBA, hon. Ph.D.
William F. Vartorella, Ph.D., C.B.C.
Vice President, Chapters
Lt.(N) Joseph G. Frey, C.D.
Vice President, Membership
Daniel A. Kobal, Ph.D.
Vice President, Operations
Garrett R. Bowden
Vice President, Research & Education
Margaret D. Lowman, Ph.D.
Treasurer
Mark S. Kassner, CPA
Assistant Treasurer
William S. Harte
Secretary
Robert M.T. Jutson, Jr.
Assistant Secretary
Kristin Larson, Esq.
Patrons Of Exploration
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Mr. & Mrs. Donald Segur
Michael W. Thoresen
Corporate Partner Of Exploration
Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc.
Corporate Supporter Of Exploration
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the explorers journal
EDITORS
President & publisher
Lorie M. L. Karnath, MBA, hon. Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief
Angela M.H. Schuster
Contributing Editors
Jeff Blumenfeld
Jim Clash
Michael J. Manyak, M.D., FACS
Milbry C. Polk
Carl G. Schuster
Nick Smith
Linda Frederick Yaffe
Copy Chief
Valerie Saint-Rossy
ART DEPARTMENT
Art Director
Jesse Alexander
Deus ex Machina
Steve Burnett
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exploration news
edited by Jeff Blumenfeld, expeditionnews.com
8
Polar Centennial
expedition update
commemorating firsts and monitoring climate change
Catlin Arctic Survey
British Polar explorers Pen
Hadow, Ann Daniels, and
Martin Hartley were forced to
end their epic trek across the
Arctic, 500 kilometers from
the North Pole on May 13, on
account of sea ice breakup,
which occurred two to three
weeks earlier than expected.
The aim of their expedition,
which began at Point Barrow,
AK, on February 28 and
which was carried out with
the support of the University
of Cambridge Department
of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics, was to
measure the thickness of the
remaining permanent Arctic
Ocean sea ice.
Peary-Henson
Commemorative Expedition
Lonnie Dupre of Grand Marais,
MN, is no stranger to the rigors
of Arctic travel but after 53
days on the ice, he was relieved
and happy to reach the North
Pole at 9:22 a.m. on April 25.
As leader of the Peary-Henson
Commemorative Expedition, he
had another burden to carry in
addition to the 175 pounds of
food and supplies on the sled
he was dragging behind him. “I
didn’t want to let the memory of
Robert E. Peary down,” he says.
“I believe Peary and Henson
did make the Pole in 1909, and
I didn’t want to do anything less
on this special expedition to
honor their achievement.”
While Dupre and team were
happy to see the North Pole,
some of what they saw on the
way was deeply disturbing.
Lonnie, who was the first man
to reach the North Pole during
the summer on his “One World”
expedition in 2006, said, “I’ve
never seen such large areas
of recently open water. Not
even in summer. The ice on
these leads was very thin. Any
thinner and in many places,
we would not have been able
to cross.” Also, multiyear ice
floes are almost nonexistent.
“There’s only young ice, one to
two years of age. That’s a clear
result of climate change.”
At the North Pole, Dupre,
Maxime Chaya, and Stuart
Smith unfurled the official flag
of Philadelphia’s Academy of
Natural Sciences, which also
supported one of Peary’s first
expeditions in the late 1800s.
Just before reaching the Pole,
they lashed together their
sleds to use as catamarans
to get across a final stretch
of open frigid water. It was a
race against both time and
the “Polar treadmill,” the
Photograph courtesy BBC

southward-heading ice drift
that snatches away overland
progress as explorers approach
the North Pole. For
every kilometer they skied,
they lost about a third of it
to the treadmill. By the time
they reached the Pole, the
explorers had skied more than
1,000 kilometers, averaging
20 kilometers per day.
The Victorinox
North Pole 09 Expedition
John Huston of Chicago, and
Tyler Fish, 34, of Ely, MN, also
reached the North Pole on
April 25—becoming the first
Americans to make an unsupported
ski trek there—during
the Victorinox North Pole 09
Expedition, a brutal 54-day
race across some 700 kilometers.
At nearly a dozen points
they encountered open leads
of water where the ice sheet
had fractured and pulled
apart; to traverse these leads
Huston and Fish donned dry
suits and swam across, pulling
their gear along behind them.
During the last four days, the
duo battled fierce winds, temperatures
of -30ºF to -50ºF,
low visibility, and a sea-ice
drift, which pushed them
back. They had departed from
Ward Hunt Island, the northern
tip of Canada’s Ellesmere
Island, on March 2.
Rare Hillary footage
saved from trash
film find in New Zealand
Rare footage of Sir Edmund
Hillary about to embark on
his historic expedition to
Antarctica has been found
EXPLORATION NEWS
in a New Zealand loft among
junk destined for the trash. The
black-and-white 16mm film in
perfect condition was discovered
in February in the loft of
CB Norwood, a farm machinery
company in Palmerston
North that supplied tractors for
the expedition. It shows Hillary
being teased by team members
for having a haircut and
the team leaving Christchurch
aboard the ship Endeavour
bound for Antarctica in 1957.
The “rusty old can” containing
the film was found by a
CB Norwood staff member.
Another staffer, Paul Collins,
took the film home to play on
his projector. “It was magic,
absolutely magic,” he told The
Dominion Post. Hillary led the
New Zealand component of
the joint Commonwealth Trans-
Antarctic Expedition, which
was the first party to reach
the South Pole since Robert
Falcon Scott’s expedition in
1912. Copies of the footage
have been donated to the Sir
Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre
at Aoraki/Mt Cook.
IUCN Red list
Irrawaddy
dolphins found
unknown population documented
Some 6,000 Irrawaddy
dolphins have been found
living in freshwater regions
of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans
mangrove forest and adjacent
waters of the Bay of
Bengal. Prior to this study,
carried out by scientists from
the Wildlife Conservation
Society, the largest-known
populations of Irrawaddy dolphins
numbered in the low
hundreds. In 2008, the species
was listed as vulnerable
in the IUCN Red List based
on population declines in
known populations.
The Irrawaddy dolphin,
which is related to the orca
or killer whale, grows to a
length of 2.5 meters and frequents
large rivers, estuaries,
and freshwater lagoons in
South and Southeast Asia.
In Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady
River, the dolphins are known
for “cooperative fishing” with
humans, where the animals
voluntarily herd schools of fish
toward fishing boats. With
the aid of dolphins, fishermen
can increase the size of
their catches up to threefold.
The dolphins seem to benefit
from this relationship by easily
preying on the cornered fish
and those that fall out of the
fishermen’s nets.
“This discovery gives us
great hope that there is a future
for Irrawaddy dolphins,”
said Brian D. Smith, who
led the study. “Bangladesh
clearly serves as an important
sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins,
and conservation in this
region should be a top priority.”
Smith and his colleagues
note that the dolphins face a
long-term threat of declining
freshwater supplies, caused
by upstream water diversion in
India, coupled with sea-level
rise due to climate change.
the explorers journal

EXPLORATION NEWS
Freeze Frame
Project launched
rare polar images online
Deep flight super
falcon unveiled
first production model winged
submersible to be used by NOAA
Engineering wunderkind
Graham Hawkes has just unveiled
his Deep Flight Super
Falcon, the first production
model winged submersible
and the culmination of some
20 years of design experimentation
in underwater flight
vehicles. Through his pioneering
efforts, Hawkes has made
the same transition sub-sea
that the Wright Brothers did
in air, progressing from ballooning
to fixed-wing aircraft.
One of the first projects for
Super Falcon is the launch
of VIP in the Sea, a program
created by Hawkes Ocean
Technologies and NOAA
National Marine Sanctuaries
to enable communicators—
scientists, politicians, policymakers,
educators, and
artists—to experience the
oceans as never before,
bringing them on flights
beneath the sea. The program’s
goal is to have VIPs
experience the oceans
firsthand, so they can make
that personal connection,
which is critical in promoting
education, exploration, and
preservation of our ocean
planet. The first VIP dives
will take place this summer
at the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary.
“We are very excited to
help launch VIP in the Sea,”
said William J. Douros, West
Coast Regional Director of
NOAA’s Office of National
Marine Sanctuaries. “It is an
excellent way to showcase
our national marine sanctuaries
and call attention to the
need to conserve and protect
our ocean territories. Until
now, the technology was not
available to take VIPs safely
and comfortably into the
deeper parts of the oceans.
We see Super Falcon as an
ambassador to the seas.”
Thousands of rare and fragile
images spanning some
150 years of polar exploration
have been painstakingly
restored for the digital age
by Cambridge University’s
Freeze Frame project, which
has made more than 20,000
images from the Scott Polar
Research Institute (SPRI)
archive available free to
people around the world.
The digital archive, which
features the expeditions of
Sir John Franklin, Captain
Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir
Ernest Shackleton and their
modern counterparts, provides
fascinating insight into
the beauty and privations
of life at the poles; from the
Heroic Age of Exploration
to Sir Ranulph Fiennes’
Transglobe Expedition of
the 1980s. Also on the site
are extracts from diaries,
expedition reports, letters,
and personal papers
of expedition members.
For more information:
www.freezeframe.ac.uk.
Deep flight super falcon flies over the wreck of the Rhone, BVI. Photograph by Graham Waters. Shackleton’s Terra Nova, courtesy Freeze Frame Project.
10

EXPLORATION NEWS
Cucudeta zabkai, one of the previously undescribed species belonging to a completely new genus. Photograph by Wayne Maddison.
jumping spiders and
a new gecko
Papua New Guinea species finds
A jumping spider and a
striped gecko were among
dozens of new species found
on a Papua New Guinea expedition
to help Barrick Gold
Co. decide how to develop its
mines. Fifty types of spiders,
three frogs, two plants, and
the gecko, which were among
the species documented on
the recent trek, are believed
to be new to science, said
the Washington D.C.-based
Conservation International.
Jumping spiders are found
in every part of the world except
Antarctica. Capable of
jumping 30 times their body
length, some of the 5,000
documented species are
common in households.
Two of the jumping spiders’
eight eyes have evolved to
be large, with high-resolution
vision to spot prey. Female
jumping spiders also use this
heightened visual faculty to
watch males, who show off
their colorful bodies during
courtship dances.
Some of the species discovered
are highly distinctive, occupying
“lonely” branches on
the evolutionary tree of jumping
spiders, said Wayne Maddison,
a professor of zoology and botany
at the University of British
Columbia, who collected 500
spider specimens.
This cooperative expedition
by Conservation International,
the University of British
Columbia, Montclair State
University, and local Papuan
researchers was funded by
Porgera Joint Venture, 95
percent owned by Barrick, the
world’s largest gold producer.
The discoveries will increase
the mining industry’s ability to
balance development needs
with protecting the wildlife
and forests of the people in
Papua New Guinea’s Kaijende
Uplands. New Guinea has
proven a rich hunting ground
for biologists. In 2006,
Conservation International
said it found a “lost world” of
35 previously undocumented
species on the Indonesian
half of the island.
TKTKT
the explorers journal

SPECIAL REPORT
Earth’s oceans
in focus
explorers take action
One need only gaze at Earthrise, the iconic image
of our planet shot by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill
Anders on Christmas Eve 1968 (see page 30),
to realize that most of Earth’s surface is covered
by water. It is water that sustains us and all other
living things on the planet. Ocean exploration,
although relatively new, has revealed the Earth’s
magnificent features at depth, confirming the idea
that we inhabit a “blue planet.” Yet it is clear from
a number of important studies in recent years that
humanity has been a poor steward of its most
vital resource. At present, less than 1 percent
of Earth’s oceans are protected from dragging,
drilling, mining, overfishing, or dumping of waste.
As explorers, many of us have seen this damage
firsthand and we are alarmed.
Signs of distress include more than 300 dead
zones in coastal waters near dense human populations.
These anoxic (oxygen-depleted) areas are
caused by algal blooms and fed by runoff of sewage
and fertilizers. Lethal jellyfish thrive in anoxic
waters, and their exploding populations pose an
increasing hazard to beachgoers and fishermen.
12
Adding to this damage is ocean acidification
resulting from carbon emissions, especially CO2,
entering the oceans, changing ocean chemistry
and propelling climate change. In acidic waters,
coral reefs and other calcareous skeletonized species
disintegrate. Half of the world’s coral reefs
have disappeared already and scientists predict
that coral may become extinct in 50 years.
To begin addressing the challenge of preserving
what is left of Earth’s marine resources, The
Explorers Club convened its first State of the
Oceans Forum on March 22. Chaired by marine
toxicologist Susan Shaw (FN’07), founder of the
Marine Environmental Research Institute, and
moderated by renowned oceanographer Sylvia
A. Earle (HON’81), the panel included coral reef
scientist, Nancy Knowlton, of the Smithsonian
Institution; oceanographer and deep-sea robotics
pioneer, David Gallo (FN’90) of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution; David Guggenheim
(FN’08) founder of 1planet1ocean; and wildlife
expert Jim Fowler (HON’66).
“The oceans are truly in crisis,” said Shaw in her
Photograph courtesy Charles Moore, Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

opening remarks. It is time for explorers to take up
the challenge and find solutions. Today is a start.”
Earle—the inspiration behind the recent launch
of Google Ocean—addressed the global problem
of overfishing. “With our new technologies and
predatory nature, we are strip-mining the sea—we
have eaten 90 percent of all the large fish in the
sea, and we’re now consuming all the medium to
small fish.” In addition to wasteful and barbaric
fishing practices such as shark-finning and excessive
bycatch, megatrawlers and draggers are
bulldozing the ocean floor, stripping large areas
of marine life. Scientists predict that without intervention
global fisheries will collapse by 2050.
Shaw described the oceans as “sinks and
reservoirs of pollution,” explaining that organic
pollutants flowing from our homes, offices, farms,
lawns, and landfills are entering our coastal waters
and the ocean food web. “We have long held
the belief that the sea was so vast, it could dilute
all the poisons from land. This became a doctrine
that enabled states to continue ocean dumping
until the early 1990s.” Shaw said, noting that
few realize that many of these pollutants are so
persistent, their breakdown can be measured in
geologic time. “As top predators, marine mammals
accumulate high levels of man-made, toxic
chemicals in their bodies.” Since 1980, Shaw has
been documenting die-offs of seals, dolphins, and
whales, which have increased dramatically worldwide
(see THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL, Spring 2008).
“These animals are telling us that something is
very wrong in the sea. We are poisoning their
habitat, their food, and, ironically, ourselves.”
The world produces more than 100 million tons
of plastic each year, some 10 percent of which
ends up in the sea. According to the United Nations
Environment Programme, there are 18,000 pieces
of plastic per square kilometer of ocean. Much of it
can be found in “garbage gyres”—floating masses
of debris trapped in ocean current vortices. The
largest of these is the Texas-sized North Pacific
Gyre, first documented by Captain Charles
Moore (MN’04) of the Algalita Marine Research
Foundation. Plastics kill hundreds of thousands of
marine mammals and millions of seabirds annually.
While most of us are aware of the problem of
wildlife entanglement, the more silent and perhaps
deadly aspect of plastic trash is the chemicals they
deliver to the sea as they photodegrade. Not all of
the plastic trash floats. According to Greenpeace,
some 70 percent of discarded plastic sinks to the
bottom of the sea, smothering the ocean floor and
killing the marine life found there.
“On Earth, we are 7 billion people impacting
an incredibly sensitive system,” said David Gallo,
expressing concern about human damage to our
oceans. He emphasized the need for change in
the ways we use the sea, saying, “We have only
explored a small fraction—a mere 3 percent—of the
oceans and we’re already overexploiting them.
How we go forward from here will set the stage
for centuries to come.”
In addition to highlighting the plight of our
oceans through exhaustive statistics, panelists
put forth a number of ideas for marine conservation.
Chief among them are establishing networks
of marine protected areas, reducing the use of
toxic chemicals and carbon emissions, promoting
green technologies, and reaching a broader
public with an ocean message.
“Coral reefs, considered the rainforests of the
sea, support an estimated 25 percent of all marine
species,” said Nancy Knowlton, who believes it is
possible to build resilience into coral reef systems.
“We know how to do this. It involves two
things—controlling fishing pressure and improving
water quality. When areas are protected, we see
a big difference. We know protection works. It’s
a matter of political will, not the science, not the
technology. Our biggest challenge,” she added,
“is to develop technology to significantly reduce
CO2 emissions.”
“Much of the historic mismanagement of our
marine resources can be blamed on public ignorance
about the state of the oceans,” said David
Guggenheim, who launched the Ocean Doctor
Expedition, taking it to schools across the country.
“Kids have a natural affinity for the oceans, and
they are worried, they want to help. The need for
education has never been greater.”
As an important first step, the panelists have
drafted a Call to Action for explorers, which can
be found on our website www.explorers.org,
while a podcast of the forum has been posted
at http://1planet1ocean.org/video-state-of-theoceans-forum-a-call-to-action.
Based on the extraordinary
response to the forum, two follow-up
ocean sessions have been planned. The first is
set for Monday, December 7, 2009; another will
be held in spring 2010. For information, contact
Susan Shaw: sshaw@meriresearch.org.
the explorers journal

a century after
Shackleton
This year marks the centenary of the British Antarctic
Expedition 1907–1909, better known as Nimrod after the ship on
which Ernest Shackleton and his men traveled to the White
Continent. Explorers Journal Contributing Editor Nick Smith
discussed the significance of Sir Ernest’s first major expedition
as leader with his only granddaughter, the Honorable
Alexandra Shackleton.
interview by Nick Smith
The story of Nimrod, the first major expedition
to be led by Sir Ernest Shackleton (HON’1912), is
one of the great tales of the Heroic Age of Antarctic
Exploration. Admiral Sir Edward Evans—who had
been on Captain Scott’s Discovery expedition of
1902–1904 with Shackleton–described it as “a
good, sound, scientific program.”
“Farthest North, Farthest South,” Ernest Shackleton, right, with Robert E. Peary at The Explorers Club Annual Dinner, March 29, 1912.
14

Shackleton’s compass from the nimrod expedition (private collection). Photograph by Nick Smith.
But the British Antarctic Expedition 1907–1909,
to name it correctly, has been overshadowed
by other events in the Polar regions, including
the failure of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition and
Shackleton’s heroic rescue mission of the crew
of the Endurance. So well known are these later
expeditions that it is easy to forget the real impact
of Nimrod, the stout little sealer that departed
London on July 20, 1907. Having been tugged
from New Zealand to the limits of the Antarctic
ice, the vessel, overloaded with coal, had a steaming
radius that would allow its captain to explore
as far as the Bay of Whales, before settling on
Cape Royds as the expedition’s shore base.
From this historic hut—where Shackleton
wintered in 1908—a party of four men set out on
one of the greatest sledge journeys in history.
After passing Scott’s “farthest South,” every new
feature became Shackleton’s own discovery. His
expedition attained the South Geomagnetic Pole,
made the first ascent of the highest mountain on
the “White Continent,” discovered coal and fossils,
experimented with motorized transport, and
made a heroic attempt on the Geographical Pole.
Despite the many brushes with death, Nimrod
was, as Evans later wrote, an “eminently successful
expedition.”
On March 4, 1909, Nimrod departed the
Antarctic ice edge on the home leg of the British
Antarctic Expedition. And although the expedition
had not succeeded in its ultimate goal—the attainment
of the South Pole—it was arguably the most
important and significant excursion to Antarctica
of its time. Every one of Ernest Shackleton’s men
returned to safety.
Nick Smith: How did Nimrod come about
Alexandra Shackleton: Nimrod was Shackleton’s first
expedition as leader. He went South originally with
Captain Scott on the Discovery expedition. He was
part of Scott’s southern party that got to within a
few hundred miles of the Pole. But he regarded
the Pole as unfinished business. And so he put
together the Nimrod expedition. There were scientific
objectives as well as those of exploration, but
in fact what he really wanted was the Pole.
NS: What do you think Nimrod achieved
AS: Nimrod achieved a lot. The first ascent of Mt.
Erebus as well as the publication of the first book
in the Antarctic, Aurora Australis. Lots of valuable
scientific work was undertaken. Coal was discovered
and the South Magnetic Pole was reached.
It sounds quite simple to reach the Magnetic Pole,
the explorers journal

ut in fact it moves about according to the angle
of the Earth’s magnetic field. After an epic trek of
1,260 miles (2,027 km) unsupported—a record
that stood for 80 years—the expedition managed
to achieve that. But it wasn’t all success. The first
motorcar was taken and that didn’t work out.
NS: But your grandfather didn’t get to the South
Pole
AS: Ernest Shackleton did not get what he most
wanted from the Nimrod expedition. He did not get
to the Pole. He got 366 miles (589 km) nearer than
the Discovery expedition, but at 97 miles (156 km)
from the Pole he took the decision to turn back.
They were all in a bad state physically. The elevation
of the Polar Plateau was affecting
them badly as well as the
lack of food. He could possibly
have struggled on to the Pole, but
he knew it was unlikely that he
would bring his men back alive.
So he decided to turn back: a decision
that has been described
as one of the great decisions in
polar history, one of which I am
extremely proud. To turn his back
on glory for the sake of life—it really
defined him as a leader and
it defined his priorities. We are
all defined by our priorities. His
priorities were quite simply his
men. Afterwards he said to my
grandmother: “I thought you’d
rather have a live donkey than a
dead lion.”
NS: The British Antarctic Expedition 1907–1909
is more commonly known after the ship Nimrod.
What can you tell me about the ship itself
AS: The ship was a very small, 40-year-old sealer,
originally called Bjørn. Small and tatty. All my
grandfather’s ships were secondhand. In fact, the
only purpose-built polar ship of the time was Scott’s
Discovery, which cost Scott as much as the entire
Nimrod expedition. Nimrod set sail from London,
but in fact Ernest Shackleton joined the ship in New
Zealand. In order to save coal, Nimrod was then
towed—the longest tow for a very long time—down
to the Antarctic Circle. Nightmare tow, nightmare
weather. The Koonya was the tug that carried
out the tow and at one stage the weather was so
16
bad the ships could only just see the tops of each
other’s masts. It was an incredible feat of seamanship
that the line was kept as it should have been.
And Nimrod was quite overloaded with supplies for
winter. My grandfather said that the ship looked like
a reluctant schoolboy being dragged to school.
NS: In the context of the Heroic Age of Antarctic
Exploration, Nimrod is not the best known of expeditions,
but perhaps is one of the most important.
Why do you think it has been overshadowed
AS: It’s not Shackleton’s best-known expedition,
but I think it was as important as the others, quite
honestly. Of course, with the Endurance expedition
there was an epic rescue involving an 800-
mile crossing of stormy seas in
the 23-foot James Caird, with
the men waiting on Elephant
Island and the rescue party
climbing the unclimbed peaks of
South Georgia.
NS: In 1908, Nimrod returned to
New Zealand and then in 1909
it arrived back in Antarctica to
collect the expedition team…
AS: Every single man returned.
That’s why when I recently went
to visit my grandfather’s Nimrod
expedition base hut at Cape
Royds—beautifully conserved
by the New Zealand Antarctic
Heritage Trust—it looked as if
they had just stepped out. It was
an incredible experience. First
you notice the smell of wood and
leather, and then you notice that it’s lit by natural
light. And then you notice the hams hanging
up and the socks and the clothes and the Mrs.
Sam stove. I felt a great wave of grief because I’m
looking at the past, and the past as the cliché has
it, won’t come again. But afterwards, after I had
processed the experience, I decided that the hut
itself is not a sad place because everyone came
back alive.
NS: The point of your recent voyage to Antarctica
was to visit your grandfather’s hut
AS: Yes. A documentary was being made about
me by a New Zealand filmmaker Mary-Jo Tohill to
record the visit to my grandfather’s hut for the very
Shackleton’s polar medal with bars, the only medal in existence to commemorate three expeditions (private collection). photograph by Nick Smith.

first time in the Nimrod year. It’s a long voyage.
The Ross Sea is a very long way away. The ice
was extremely bad and we couldn’t get to all the
places we wanted to get to, even in a powerful
icebreaker. But we did get to Cape Royds and it
was an astonishing experience, for which I’m very
grateful. All my life I wanted to visit it.
the nimrod. Photograph courtesy Alexandra Shackleton.
NS: What is the hut like
AS: It’s about 30 by 15 feet. Fifteen men wintered in
it, and other expeditions used it, too. It’s a permanent
building in that it’s still there, but it was prefabricated
in England, taken apart, and re-erected
there. The packing cases were taken apart and
used for things like furniture, and of course the
covers of Aurora Australis. Two members of the
expedition took a short course and they were lent
a small press. But of course it was incredibly difficult
because there was all the volcanic dust—the
scoria—that one walks through because Erebus,
a live volcano, is nearby. And the ink would freeze
and you’d drop a plate and you’d have to start all
over again. It was painstaking and a huge achievement
of very high standard. You would not think
that they had not printed before.
NS: Do you think Aurora Australis tells us much
about the Nimrod expedition
AS: Aurora Australis is effectively a Nimrod anthology.
The subjects range from science to fantasy, from
humor to poetry. Ernest Shackleton contributed two
of his poems. The humor has changed a bit—some
of the things they thought funny we don’t think quite
so funny today. And of course generously illustrated,
too. We don’t know exactly how many were produced—probably
not more than a hundred. One was
discovered recently in a barn in Northumberland. I
think it was sold for about £56,000 and I think that
was the top price. Obviously, condition makes a
difference and whether Shackleton or any of the
others had signed it. I think Aurora not only throws
light on the members of the expedition and how they
thought a hundred years ago, but also on the leader
who chose these men. They are like this, and he
chose these people.
NS: What do you think is the legacy of Nimrod
AS: The significance of Nimrod is that it defined
Ernest Shackleton as a leader. There has been a
great upsurge of interest in him over the past ten
years for one reason: Leadership.
Nimrod, The 1907–1909
British Antarctic Expedition,
in cold, hard facts
Excerpted with permission from A Chronology of
Antarctic Exploration: a Synopsis of Events and Activities
from the Earliest Times until the International Polar
Years, 2007–09, by Robert Keith Headland
Party of 15 men wintered at Cape Royds
on Ross Island; climbed Mount Erebus
(3794 m), 10 March 1908; Shackleton
and 3 others (Jameson Boyd Adams,
Eric Stewart Marshall, and John Robert
Francis [Frank] Wild), discovered and
sledged up the Beardmore Glacier to
the farthest south of 88º 38' S (01º 62'
[180 km] from the South Pole) where
Shackleton took possession of the Polar
Plateau for King Edward VII, 9 January
1909; insufficient supplies necessitated
their return; discovered nearly 500 km
of the Transantarctic Mountains, flanking
the Ross Ice Shelf; discovered coal at
Mt Buckley. Tannatt William Edgeworth
David leading a party of three reached
the region of the South Magnetic Pole
(72º 42' S, 155º 27' E) and took possession
for Britain of Victoria Land there, 16
January 1909. Dogs and ponies used for
some sledge hauling. Visited Macquarie
Island, searched for “Dougherty’s Island.”
First experiments in motor transport in
Antarctica, an Arrol Johnston motorcar
was used with limited success; ciné
photographs of penguins and seals were
made. The expedition used New Zealand
postage stamps specially overprinted
“King Edward VII Land” and an expedition
canceller; Shackleton was appointed
Post-Master. Book Aurora Australis,
printed at Cape Royds, 90 copies made.
the explorers journal

destination
moon
“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on
the Moon. July 1969 a.d. We came in peace for all
mankind.”
On July 20, it will be 40 years since Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepped on the
Moon in one giant leap for humankind. Between
July 1969 and December 1972, 12 astronauts
spent 160 hours on the Moon, traveling 100
kilometers across its surface both on foot and in
lunar rovers. In addition to thousands of photographs,
the astronauts collected 837 pounds of
rocks from the lunar regolith for study, rocks that
continue to yield important information, not only
about our celestial companion but also about the
birth of our solar system. Yet it has been 37 years
since our last manned mission there. Some blame
the delay on politics—the end of the Cold War and
the space race. Others contend it is just a matter
of money. But, of course, there’s the plain old danger
inherent in space travel. As Buzz Aldrin told
the explorers Journal in the wake of the February
2003 Columbia disaster, “The most dangerous
part of our Apollo 11 Moon landing, the descent
to the lunar surface, was accomplished in the face
of onboard computer failures, faltering telemetry,
a field of boulders, and only seconds of remaining
fuel, which prompted Flight Director Gene Kranz
to quip, ‘You’d better remind them there ain’t no
damn gas stations on the Moon.’” In a recent
interview with Explorers Journal columnist Jim
Clash, Neil Armstrong amplified Aldrin’s remarks,
saying, “Our landing was a very high-risk situation.
Walking on the surface was, in my opinion at the
time, far less risky. But it was genuine exploration
at a place where no other human, as far as we
knew, had ever stepped before.”

DESTINATION MOON #1
A n e w a g e
in global space leadership
As many of my fellow Americans and people the
world over mark the fortieth anniversary of my
flight to the Moon aboard Apollo 11, we should
understand the true legacy of that pioneering
mission. Beyond the science, beyond the
engineering excellence, beyond the Cold War
by Buzz Aldrin
challenge, Apollo was much more. The entire
space program, with special emphasis on the
attention given to Apollo, was a crown jewel in
America’s strategic global vision. It was not only
a testament to the strength of America’s capitalist
economy and technical prowess, but a vision of
Buzz Aldrin floats in space during the Gemini XII mission, November 12, 1966, image courtesy NASA.
20

leadership that we wished the world to emulate.
Cast in terms of a peaceful quest for scientific
and engineering excellence, it was a powerful foreign
policy tool. Nations that may have opposed
U.S. foreign policies, such as our presence in
Vietnam, and even our Cold War adversaries, admired
America for the boldness and openness of
its lunar exploration program. While NASA went
to the Moon, it did so with the hopes, dreams, and
the admiration of the people of Earth, who embraced
the journey as an endeavor for humankind.
We went to the Moon, but it was a journey shared
and embraced by all. New global partnerships
were formed and cultural exchanges made. It became
a shining symbol of all that America aspired
to be, and why we sought to be the world’s leader
in science and technological progress.
During the three decades since Apollo, however,
America has decidedly remained in low-Earth
orbit. With a space transportation system that has
been hobbled by budget cuts and two avoidable
Space Shuttle accidents, the nation’s resolve to
fully support human space travel has been weakened.
And sadly, our leadership tradition, forged
during the glory days of the early space program,
has given way to a focus on hardware and not on a
broader vision. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
If we wish to resume our leadership role in global
space exploration we need to return to strategic
thinking in terms of the value of space exploration.
Today, the American space program’s most
successful achievement—the building of the
International Space Station (ISS), our permanent
home in Earth’s orbit—has been overshadowed by
cost overruns, political turf battles, and a colonial
mentality in which the U.S. dictates who gets to
play and who doesn’t. In this context, the ISS has
yet to realize its full potential as a truly international
endeavor for space-faring nations across the
globe. While many international partners helped
to create this incredible engineering achievement,
we have not always treated them as true
partners. Access to the station is limited, and it
is difficult for new partners to become players in
this new high frontier. Instead of using the ISS as
a symbol of America’s strategic leadership and
technological capability, its use is limited to only
a handful of nations.
In this year of Apollo commemorations, it is
time to open the space frontier to the world—for all
who would choose to participate in it. As we near
completion of the International Space Station, we
should rededicate it to a purpose that is worthy
of its name—an international global commons for
the space-faring community of nations—led by, not
dominated by, America.
It is time that every nation that would like to play
a role in the ISS be given an opportunity to do so.
If we, as Americans, seek to improve our image
aboard, then we can better do so with engagement
than with competition. And, we should add these
new players to the ISS as true partners, not just
participants. We should see their quest for space
in the same light as own: for national strategic values
and for technological development. With the
support and agreement of our current partners, by
welcoming nations with space ambitions such as
China, India, and Brazil to the station, we enhance
our own stature, not weaken it. We should take full
advantage of China’s manned space program to
carry American astronauts to and from low-Earth
orbit. We currently purchase flights aboard the
Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and with
our expanded partnerships we would also have
opportunities to partner with China for use of its
Shenzhou for this same purpose. We should also
welcome India’s new fledgling manned space program
to the new global commons that the space
station can represent for the world.
Through partnering and using the resources of
many nations, we will lower the cost of access to
space while forging stronger bonds that we can
build upon to journey to more distant destinations
in space—the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It will
be a true low-Earth orbit outpost that brings the
strengths and accomplishments of each partner
into developing research capabilities, logistics
vehicles, and launch support to sustain the station
well beyond current plans to end its life by
2016. With global use, the station can continue
to serve mankind—and Americans—for many years
to come, reaping the rewards from the billions
we have invested in its use. But we must start in
Earth’s orbit. It is time we made the International
Space Station truly international.
biography
A Fellow of The Explorers Club and recipient of its Lowell Thomas
Award (1989), Buzz Aldrin served as pilot of the Gemini 12 mission in
November 1966 and as lunar module pilot for Apollo 11 in July 1969.
For more on Buzz, visit his website at www.buzzaldrin.com
the explorers journal

international space station
The International Space Station as seen from the departing Space
Shuttle Discovery during STS-119 in March 2009. In view are the four
pairs of solar arrays mounted along the newly completed Integrated
Truss Structure.
22

He’s a Mars Man:
Catching up with
Apollo 11’s Mike Collins
“Mars at the Moon’s edge,” July 2003. Photograph by Ron Dantowitz, clay center observatory.
Astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the
Moon in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module while
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin piloted
down to its surface, isn’t interested in rehashing
the past—only looking to the future.
When asked to describe his thoughts
as Armstrong stepped onto the Moon,
Collins, 78, and author of the acclaimed
Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s
Journey, bristles a bit. “If I ever knew the
answer to that, I’ve said it so many times
it’s gotten trite.” Same response when
asked about the significance of the fortieth
anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic
lunar landing this July. “I don’t know how
I feel 40 years later. Those questions I’m
not good at answering.” But bring up
the subject of Mars and, like Aldrin, he
comes to life. “You can put me down as
being a Mars fan,” says Collins. “I would
like us to have Mars be our next objective,
and I’m a little concerned the focus
today is too much Moon and not enough
Mars. I have the feeling that a base on
the Moon could be—in terms of money,
time, effort, and focus—a bottomless pit,”
he continues, “and it’s going to postpone
the exploration of Mars, a much more
interesting place and the closest thing
to a sister planet. If we spend too much
time on the Moon we’re not going to get
to Mars, not in my lifetime, nor in your
lifetime.”
—Jim Cl a s h
the explorers journal

DESTINATION MOON #2
Moon in hd
Ja p a n’s S elene mi s s i on
The Selenological and Engineering Explorer
(Selene) project, launched in September 2007 by
Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is
the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program.
The aim of the 22-month-long mission has been to
gather data on the Moon’s origin and evolution—its
elemental and mineralogical composition, topography,
surface and subsurface structure, and the
nature of its remnant magnetic and gravity fields.
In October 2007, Kaguya, the Selene project’s
main satellite, began orbiting the Moon at an altitude
of 100 kilometers above the lunar surface,
capturing images of it with a high-definition television
camera aboard the craft while two smaller
units—a relay satellite and a VRAD satellite—were
put into polar orbit.
This past February, Kaguya descended to an
altitude of 50 kilometers, and in April began orbiting
at 30 kilometers above the surface to continue
the data-collection process.
In addition to the HD imagery, a laser altimeter
aboard Kaguya has enabled scientists to generate
a global lunar topographic map with a spatial resolution
of less than 0.5°, providing lunar topography
at scales finer than a few hundred kilometers.
Equipment installed on Kaguya has also allowed
for the observation of plasma and high-energy
particles.
The mission ends this June with a controlled
drop of Kaguya on the lunar surface. For more on
the project, visit: www.kaguya.jaxa.jp.
—AMHS
North pole area of the moon. image courtesy JAXA/NHK.
24

DESTINATION MOON #3
moon dreams
by Peter H. Diamandis
It has been 33 years since any nation placed a robotic
explorer on the lunar surface. Now, national
space agencies around the globe—in China, India,
Japan, Russia, Europe, and the United States—are
racing back to the Moon with a bevy of planned
orbiters, landers, and, eventually, human crews.
These important national space programs may
lose this race to one of the many entrepreneurial
teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize.
The first era of lunar exploration lasted for a
decade and a half, with robots and human explorers
alike accomplishing the unthinkable and
giving us our first glimpses of our celestial dance
partner. The six Apollo missions that put our human
footprints on the Moon remain to this day
one of the crowning achievements of our species,
and spawned new dreams of humankind playing
ambassador to the universe, conducting our explorations
of ever more remote planets.
But as the political fire that ignited the space
race began to dwindle, so did the enthusiasm of
those responsible for allocating taxpayer funds
for these missions. Exploration as bragging rights
proved not to be a sustainable model, and our
tenuous presence off Earth was drawn back to
the confines of low-Earth orbit.
At last, a new era of lunar exploration has begun.
Unlike our first forays into lunar exploration, this
new generation of explorers has the potential to
sustain our presence off-planet, for this time, a fleet
of private companies, as well as the governmental
missions, are making their way toward the Moon.
Dozens of privately funded entities around the
world are casting their eyes toward the heavens as
they compete for the $30 million Google Lunar X
Prize, the largest international incentive prize ever
offered. Like famous explorers and prizewinners
before them, they are all motivated by scientific
curiosity and by profit motive as much as by the
quest for glory.
These teams—18 of them thus far, working in
more than 40 countries—represent the future of
space exploration. Together, they are pioneering
radically new low-cost approaches that will allow
more frequent and diverse opportunities for reaching
out to the cosmos, paving the way for a much
larger pool to participate in the lunar equivalent of
a gold rush. In competing for the Google Lunar X
Prize, these groups will be demonstrating the capacity
to repeatedly and cheaply carry payloads to
the Moon for prices within the grasp of university
labs, research and development companies, and
even individual aficionados, breaking down a barrier
and unleashing a flood of potential pioneers.
Although it is too early to say which Google
Lunar X Prize team will be the first to make it to
the lunar surface, the biggest beneficiary will be
the world’s space agencies. In the same way that
NASA and ESA don’t have to build their own computers—they
can buy them now from Apple, IBM,
or Dell—one day, the agencies will be able to fly
their science on board standardized, and low-cost
lunar lander systems provided by entrepreneurs.
Imaginations are sure too be rekindled and an
interplanetary wanderlust will again emerge.
Registration for the prize ends December 31,
2010.
information
For Google Lunar X Prize guidelines, information on registering
for the competition, or to follow the blogs of those
already in the running, visit googlelunarxprize.org
biography
A fellow of The Explorers Club since 1994, Peter H. Diamandis, Ph.D.,
is the Founder and Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, an educational
nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical
breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.
the explorers journal

last-off,
bounce, and roll
illustrations by Andrew Collis
Balls that roll, legs, and a rocket-propelled car are among
the ideas put forth by the 18 teams now in the running for
the Google Lunar X Prize. Half the contestants are going
minimal, doing just enough to fulfill the prize requirements
of landing, roving, and sending back video. Seven have advanced
payloads as part of their mission architecture. Bonus
money will be awarded for craft that survive the lunar night,
find H2O, or visit earlier lunar mission sites. More money
is on offer for finding Helium-3, a commodity that could
create the lunar equivalent of a gold rush. —Ros s v o n Bu r g
CHANDAH
Euroluna
Advaeros
Team FREDNET
Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA)
Independence-X Aerospace
Astrobotic
Team Italia
26

JURBAN
Omega Envoy
LunaTrex
SELENE
Micro-Space
STELLAR
Next Giant Leap
SYNERGY MOON
Odyssey Moon Limited
White Label Space
the explorers journal

DESTINATION MOON #4
d i g g i n g
the moon
a new frontier in archaeology
by P. J. capelotti
Of the 40 expeditions to the Moon that achieved impact
on the surface, 24 were launched by the United
States and, of these, eight were manned Apollo
missions. Between 1969 and 1972, the Apollo missions
alone left 23 large-scale artifacts on the Moon,
including Lunar Module ascent and descent stages;
Saturn V third-stage rockets (S-IVB); subsatellite
science probes; and lunar rovers. Around these
“archaeological assemblages” are smaller artifacts,
including scientific instrument packages and their
power generators; personal artifacts; and the only
piece of artwork brought to the Moon and left there.
Other evidence of human exploration has been left
in the form of footprints and rover-tread paths left
behind by astronauts and the vehicles they brought
with them to venture beyond their Lunar Module
basecamps. This legacy of manned exploration of
28
the Moon can be thought of in archaeological terms
as a “culture.” In this case, they are the culture of
Apollo, and form a crucial database within the lunar
archaeology of Homo sapiens.
The progress of aerospace technology and the
projection of privately funded space vehicles carrying
paying passengers into orbit have combined
to motivate both theoretical discussions and actual
(if remote) mapping of Apollo sites, as well as
in-depth explorations of how this database could
be both preserved and utilized for studies within
the field of aerospace archaeology. These discussions
have resulted in the publication of a new
Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology,
and Heritage, which is to be released this summer
by CRC Press LLC.
Cultural resource management of such aerospace
Buzz Aldrin’s bootprint on the moon, image courtesy NASA.

The heavily cratered far side of the moon is captured during Apollo 16, April 1972, image courtesy NASA.
sites in extreme environments as those of the Apollo
program on the Moon will likely be based on many
of the same principles that currently guide the attempts
at stabilization, preservation, and study of
historic sites in Antarctica, where scientific exploration
during the International Geophysical Year (IGY)
of 1957–1958 led directly to the Antarctic Treaty of
1961, which in turn became a template for future
international space treaties.
Under the treaty, nations such as New Zealand
have established protection and study regimes for
historic sites in Antarctica. The extreme environment
in which the Apollo database is embedded
is a temporary advantage in its preservation. It
should preclude most cultural transformational
processes for several decades until the expected
advent of regular tourist or development travel to
the Moon. The natural transformation processes
of extreme temperatures and radiation can be partially
ameliorated through a program of shielding
the major artifact concentrations. But other natural
processes, such as potential damage or destruction
by meteorites, cannot be accounted for.
While the static basecamps of the Apollo missions
would constitute the main foci of cultural
resource protection regimes, equally important
will be the preservation of the Apollo wreck sites.
These are artifacts that demonstrate, like the
impact zones of the Saturn V S-IVB Third-Stage
rockets, reuse of one form of technology for a
distinct scientific experimental series, or, like the
undiscovered wreckage of the Apollo 10 descent
stage and the undiscovered ascent stages of
Apollo 11 and Apollo 16, techno-cultural failure in
the course of exploratory voyaging.
Concepts such as these will be at the forefront
of any future analysis of the human movement into
space. The quality of that analysis will depend on
the level of preservation of the evidence of such
human behaviors that survives on the Moon.
biography
A fellow of The Explorers Club since 1993, P. J.
Capelotti, Ph.D., is author/editor of more than
a dozen nonfiction books, including Sea Drift:
Rafting Adventures in the Wake of Kon-Tiki
(2001), and a volume of poetry, God’s Meadow:
a Summer of Poems on the Edge of Oslo Fjord
(2004). He is an assistant professor of anthropology
at Penn State Abington College.
Old Devil Moon
It is likely that the oldest remnants
of Earth can be found on the Moon.
Samples brought back from the Apollo
missions suggest that as much as 1 percent
of the lunar soil, or regolith, is from
other places, including ours. The Moon
is a storehouse for information about
Earth’s origins and the early solar system
because it has functioned as a debris
collector for billions of years, in particular,
during the heavy bombardment
phase after our solar system’s formation
between 3.8 and 4.2 billion years ago.
There are no sedimentary rocks on Earth
older than 3.5 billion years but there is
likely to be a fairly large amount of Earth
material on the lunar surface thrown up
there from large terrestrial impacts. Pieces
of Earth could constitute as much as 120
kg per 100 km 2 of lunar surface. Tektites
and other debris will be identifiable as
well as ejecta from events on other inner
planets. These may include time
capsules from Venus and Mars, which
will show us what those worlds were
like 3 billion years ago when both were
possibly “blue planets” like the Earth.
It is also possible that the evidence of
first life on Earth may be preserved on
the Moon by the very deadness of the
place. Without any atmosphere or much
geological activity, except for impacts,
what goes there stays in much the same
pristine condition as when it arrived.
—Ro s s v o n Bu r g
the explorers journal

DESTINATION MOON #5
Right Place,
Right Time
catching up with Bill “Earthrise” Anders
interview by Jim Clash
On Christmas Eve 1968, William Anders, Frank Borman, Apollo 8 spacecraft. Up to that point, the farthest into
and James Lovell became the first humans to travel space man had ventured was a few hundred kilometers
to another world, orbiting the Moon ten times in their into Earth orbit. Apollo 8 flew nearly 377,000 kilometers
Earthrise Photograph by Bill Anders, courtesy NASA
30

(234,000 miles) to the Moon on the powerful Saturn V
rocket, at the time untested in manned flight. It was on
one of Apollo 8’s initial lunar orbits that Anders shot
Earthrise, a photograph that became an iconic image of the
twentieth century.
Explorers Journal columnist Jim Clash caught up
with Anders, now 75 and a retired USAF Major General, at
his home in Orcas Island, WA, where he runs the William A.
Anders Foundation and Heritage Flight Museum.
JIM CLASH: You have said the Apollo program was
more politically motivated than scientific. Why
is that
BILL ANDERS: A lot of people think that because
NASA pushed the thought, Apollo was a program
of exploration. And yet, as Frank Borman is fond
of saying, it was just another battle in the Cold
War. To many people who weren’t born or old
enough to absorb what the Cold War was about,
it is hard to imagine the United States and Soviet
Union poised on the brink of mutual annihilation.
And that things like the missile gap, who got into
space first, whose education system was better,
were such strong political drivers of the 1950s.
President Kennedy, with the suggestion of
[vice president] Lyndon Johnson, was grasping
for ideas to show the world that America wasn’t
a second-rate country, that capitalism wasn’t a
flawed theory. That was the main motivation for
Apollo. It was not exploration, more a jingoistic
program demonstrating national technological
preeminence that would catch the imagination of
the American public.
So when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
planted the flag on the Moon, in a sense Apollo
was over. The momentum kept rolling for a while
but it became apparent to the Nixon administration,
where I was working at the time, that risks
associated with further lunar flights didn’t equal
the return of a few more lunar rocks. Personally,
I was very interested in the exploration part, but
most Americans weren’t—and still aren’t.
JC: Your Apollo 8 mission wasn’t originally scheduled
to go to the Moon, just orbit the Earth. Why
was it moved up
BA: We were in a race with the Soviets, and the
Moon happened to be the line that Kennedy had
drawn in the sand. When it looked like, from the
CIA’s perspective, the Soviets would launch a
capsule around the Moon, George Low had insight
in thinking that if the Soviets did that they’d get 90
percent of the PR value of landing just by orbiting.
So there was a change, this bold move—NASA
couldn’t do it today because they have so much
oversight they’d tangle in their underwear—to leapfrog
our flight over the one in front of us, and go on
the Saturn V manned for the first time to the Moon.
It’s important to note that I believe the Russians
never thought they were in a race to the Moon.
Kennedy was the one who said we were, and I
think it caught the Russians by surprise. They,
with a certain amount of intellectual justification,
figured maybe we ought to focus on going around
the Earth initially, not try a stunt. But it turned out
they did have a modification of their Earth orbit
program with a more powerful rocket that could
make a big figure eight around the Moon.
JC: How did you feel about the flight change
BA: Frankly, I was disappointed. I wanted to land
on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and I had been
teamed up in Gemini. After the [Apollo 1] fire, he
and I were the first two to check out in the Lunar
Landing Training Vehicle and I thought, with a
certain amount of justification, that we would be a
lunar crew. I don’t think Deke [Slayton] had picked
out yet who would be first on the Moon, but his obvious
favorites—you could tell by body language—
were Borman, Armstrong, [James] McDivitt. They
were considered good leaders, and I thought that
with me assigned to the Lunar Module in Earth
orbit, I would turn around and get on the fourth or
fifth lunar landing flight later.
But when Apollo 8 was moved up and my Lunar
Module taken away with the “battlefield promotion”
to Command Module pilot, it screwed me for landing
on the Moon. And it didn’t take long to realize
I was in the Command Module rut. I mean, can
you name all the guys who flew in the Command
Module around the Moon not getting to land while
their colleagues, in some cases juniors like me,
bounced around on the surface Who was the
Command Module guy on the last lunar landing
flight I’m not sure I can tell you.
In retrospect, being first around the Moon, taking
the Earthrise picture and all that is like being
a Viking voyager or somebody who went to the
New World but didn’t go ashore. We did cross
the ocean, so it wasn’t a bad gig. But I would have
been a lot happier to swap Apollo 8 for a lunar
landing on Apollo 15 or something like that.
the explorers journal

JC: So you’re disappointed you never walked on
the lunar surface.
BA: Oh yeah. I was the boy amateur geologist in the
program—Jack Schmidt [the geologist who landed
on the Moon on Apollo 17] was a late add. When
NASA had geology trips, I’d volunteer—I even did
a couple of them twice! And probably suffered a
bit in the eyes of the hard-bitten test pilots, because
it’s not “the right stuff” to be interested in
lunar rocks. I was also good at landing the Lunar
Landing Training Vehicle. So, given my choice, I’d
rather have landed. But I don’t have big angst over
the fact I “only” was on the first flight away from
the Earth.
JC: As a matter of fact, some say Apollo 8 was
more adventurous than Apollo 11.
BA: If you break it down into three phases—getting
from Earth to Earth orbit, from Earth orbit to lunar
orbit, and from lunar orbit to the lunar surface—I
would probably not volunteer for the second one.
We had better calculations on how to get into Earth
orbit, and if you are still trapped by Earth’s orbital
mechanics you are always going to come back.
You may come back too fast, but you can’t bounce
out. And once in lunar orbit—I don’t want to depreciate
the job of the Lunar Landing Vehicle—it’s
pretty much an engineering issue of how to get
down. You only have to deal with lunar gravity, and
we certainly had great simulators in the LLTV. So
I don’t really tout this to my lunar-landing friends,
but I think getting from here to there the first time
was indeed an historic step.
JC: Once in orbit around the Moon, describe what
you saw on the mysterious dark side.
BA: You just made a common error. The backside
isn’t necessarily the dark side. The dark side depends
on what phase the Moon is. The front and
back appear constant because the Moon is locked
into a synchronous rotation—its rotational period is
exactly the same as its orbital period. So we always
see the same side, as if a string were tied to the
front middle of the Moon whirling around.
JC: Okay then, seeing the Moon’s backside, was
there much difference from photos you had seen
taken by unmanned spacecraft
BA: Indeed there had been Soviet and U.S.
orbital photography of the back. But those photos
weren’t that clear. It didn’t jump out at us at
first that there was much difference. Yet when
we got into lunar orbit and had our first sunrise
backwards with our rear end pointed at the sun
looking down, the surface was amazingly rougher
than expected. There is still debate as to why the
back is so much rougher than the front. Both have
been hit by asteroids and meteors, so there must
be something in lunar physiology that has flooded
the front more with smoothing-out lava, maybe
gravity imbalances.
JC: How about isolation on the Moon’s backside—
anything palpable
BA: You bet. We knew we were the only three humans
back there and could only talk to each other.
If anything happened, nobody could fix it or would
know for decades.
One interesting, cute thing is that Frank, who
was the trajectory guy, decided a hard way to
check whether the computers were on the right
trajectory was whether they could compute the
instant of loss of signal as we went behind the
Moon. Because the signals are line of sight, like
a laser—not long-wave radio waves that bend over
the surface of the Earth. In all of our simulations,
Frank really got focused on that thought. “Okay
Anders, make sure you can get LOS (loss of signal).”
So in the simulator, I always said “Right on,
Frank,” but I’d forget to say it sometimes. And he’d
say, “How was it” and I’d say, “Right on, Frank.”
When we were actually going around the Moon,
they gave us an LOS time and, sure enough to the
second, the static came up over the radio. Frank
asked, “How was that” I said “Right on, Frank,
but remember, those guys down there are our
buddies and probably pulled the antenna whether
they calculated right on or not!” We had a good
chuckle but it all worked out.
Now going backwards into the dark portion of the
Moon, after we’d been in sunlight all the way from
Earth, it was suddenly blacker than pitch and the
heavens just blazed away with stars, so many you
couldn’t tell the constellations. We hadn’t seen any
stars until then because of scattered light from water
and urine crystals floating around in the spacecraft.
So there were massive stars everywhere you
looked, except backwards, the direction we were
going. On my side of the spacecraft was this black
hole, the Moon. It was eerie. We were headed
right toward it and only going to miss by what, 60
miles That’s like if you were racing a train to the
32

intersection in your hotrod, and you missed by the
skin of your paint.
JC: Tell me about your famous Earthrise photo.
BA: After two revolutions, it became clear that
the Moon was kind of boring. On Earth, you
have rivers, oceans, continents, highlands, and
mountains, but the Moon looks like one beat-up,
sandblasted ball with hole upon hole. I use the
unpoetic description “dirty beach sand”—you can
imagine the poets give me hell. Once we circularized
orbit and ended up going forward for the
first time, me, Lovell, and Borman suddenly say at
once, “Look at that!” And here was this gorgeous,
colorful, beautiful planet of ours coming up over
this ugly lunar horizon.
All of us are fighter pilots, engineers, astronauts—
not photographers. But when the Earth came up,
we clamored for cameras. I had them all on my side.
Borman says, “Give me a camera, Anders!” I was
using one with a short lens and black-and-white film
and, him being the boss, I scooted that one over in
zero G. Lovell also wanted one, so that left one for
me with a long lens and color film. I did not like the
long lens because it was more weight and could
bang into the instrument panel. We all started blazing
away. My side window was clear—the rest had
an oil scraped on them—and my great photographic
technique was to point this thing at the Moon and
click, changing f-stops with every click.
As it turned out, one of my color long-lens
pictures was decided by NASA to be the official
Earthrise. So I’m getting Emmys and being made a
member of the photographer’s union, all the while
thinking this is a little phony. Earthrise isn’t that
good a picture if you really look at it; it’s not quite
in focus. Photographers are probably jealous this
was picked as one of the top pictures of the twentieth
century. I mean, you’ve got to be kidding! But
right place, right time.
JC: How many photos did you take of Earth rising
BA: I’d guess 10, maybe 30. We were saving film.
Our objective was not to take pictures of the Earth.
There were lots of lunar craters I was supposed to
take, and approaches to landing sites, but here I
was off mission taking unauthorized pictures. I felt
a little bit of guilt.
JC: Wasn’t there discussion later about whether
you or Frank took Earthrise
BA: There’s always been a semi-humorous debate.
Borman honestly thinks he took the first picture.
And it may be that he did. I’ll let him have that
honor. But it’s not Earthrise because he had
black-and-white film!
JC: Just what is it about that particular photo
BA: The view points out the beauty of Earth—and
its fragility. That little atmospheric thing you and I
are enjoying now is nothing more than the skin on
an apple around the core. Earthrise helped kickstart
the environmental movement. I gave a nice
print to Al Gore, which he used in the first scene
of Inconvenient Truth. I got no credit and he probably
now thinks he took it right after he invented
the Internet. It’s curious to me how the press and
people on the ground have kind of forgotten our
history-making voyage, and what’s symbolic of the
flight is the Earthrise picture. Here we came all the
way to the Moon to discover the Earth.
JC: When you look at the photo, can you believe it
was 40 years ago
BA: I keep thinking: Is this true or just an old man’s
dream that we went there There are two other
images that hit me in the solar plexus. The night
before launch, I was in the parking lot with a
couple of buddies looking up at the Moon with its
tiny sliver on the right side. Every time I see that
[phase] now, I won’t say it gives me a chill but let’s
say there’s a hormone that sets in that’s close to
the “holy crap” hormone—did we really do that
The other picture with a big message, which has
not surfaced yet, is one I took with a normal lens
that shows the Earth about the size of a fist at arm’s
length. It’s a crappy little picture whose message
is: “Hey, don’t think you’re so special down there
Earth. At lunar distance, you’re the size of a fist at
arm’s length. At 10 lunar distances, the Earth is onetenth
the size of your fist. At 100 lunar distances,
you’re down to a BB.” And 100 lunar distances is
hardly anywhere, not even halfway to Mars.
I think humans, even educated ones like you
and me, have not really shifted from the Ptolemaic
view of Earth as center of the universe. Earth is
only a dust mite out there. There are billions of
galaxies, solar systems, planets—probably lots of
civilizations—yet, in terms of religion and politics,
we still act like we’re the center, and that humans
are not just some kind of freak, unimportant, leftfield
type of event.
the explorers journal

DESTINATION MOON #6
legacy of
earthrise
NASA’s earth observatory at ten
images courtesy NASA’s Earth Observatory
As Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who took
the Earthrise photo, noted in his interview (see
page 30), “we came all the way to the Moon to
discover the Earth.” In 1999, NASA launched
its Earth Observatory, a website inspired by
Anders’ iconic image of our “blue marble” and
supported by the science community itself.
According to Rebecca Lindsay, the Earth
Observatory’s website editor, the idea for the
site was hatched in the late 1990s during an
impromptu brainstorming session between the
late Yoram Kaufman, then project scientist for
the agency’s Terra mission, and David Herring,
whom Kaufman had hired to be the mission’s
outreach coordinator. Returning from a conference
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the
two found themselves stuck in the back of a cab
on an LA highway when an intense rainstorm
brought traffic to a standstill for more than an
hour.
Herring, now the communications director at
NOAA’s Climate Program Office, says he was
impressed with how easily Kaufman could talk
to anyone—scientists or nonscientists—about
the importance of NASA’s Earth science missions.
In his talks, says Herring, Kaufman often
compared the Earth to a middle-aged patient
whose doctor had started paying more attention
to his vital signs. Satellites, he contended,
are the equivalent of a doctor’s stethoscope or
thermometer.
As the rain pounded down on their cab,
Herring and Kaufman talked about how to use
that metaphor to help people understand why
we need to study the Earth and to see for themselves
the critical role NASA satellites play in
monitoring our planet’s vital signs. They decided
to create a virtual observatory, where anyone
on the Internet could see what NASA satellites
were seeing and learn what NASA scientists
were learning from EOS missions.
In the decade since the Earth Observatory
website was launched, it has become a keystone
of NASA’s Earth science outreach. Today,
more than 650,000 unique visitors stop by each
month; a number that has climbed toward one
million during major events like Hurricane Katrina
in 2005 or the California wildfires in 2007.
To see these and other spectacular images
of Earth from space, visit them online at http://
earthobservatory.nasa.gov.
Cloud Streets and von
Karman Vortices over
the Greenland Sea
On February 24, 2009, cold northerly winds (perhaps katabatic
winds from Greenland) encountered moist air over the Greenland
Sea, and their meeting generated dozens of parallel rows
of clouds, commonly called “cloud streets,” in the skies around
the island of Jan Mayen. The island added its own influence to
the weather, creating an obstacle to the prevailing winds. Like
water in a stream as it flows around a boulder, the wind diverged
on the north side of the island and converged on the south side.
Downwind of Jan Mayen, the air swirled into a string of spiraling
eddies, known as von Karman vortices.

A r c t i c E c l i p s e
NASA’s Terra satellite was rounding the top of the globe, making its
way from the eastern tip of Siberia and across the Arctic Ocean toward
northern Norway and northwest Russia, when it captured this unique
view of a total solar eclipse on August 1, 2008. The circular disk of
the Moon casts an oval-shaped shadow across the bottom edge of
this image. In the region of totality, where the Moon entirely obscures
the Sun, the shadow is complete. The edges of the shadow are fuzzy,
gradually lightening from black to red, brown, and yellow until the
shadow is no longer discernable.

Ship Tracks South of Alaska
On March 4, 2009, the skies over the northeast Pacific Ocean were
streaked with clouds that form around the particles in ship exhaust.
The ship tracks are brighter than the regular clouds because the cloud
particles in them are smaller, but more numerous, than the particles
in the natural clouds.

S u n g l i n t o n t h e
Amazon River, Brazil
The setting sun glints off the Amazon River and numerous lakes in its
floodplain in this astronaut photograph from August 19, 2008. Large
areas of sun glint are common in oblique views (shot from an angle,
rather than looking straight down from the spacecraft). About 150
kilometers of the sinuous Amazon are shown here; the area is about
1,000 kilometers inland from the Atlantic Ocean.

hidden caves of
Rapa Nui
text and photographs by Marcin Jamkowski/Adventure Pictures
“A cave!” shouts Rafał Karda , pointing to a crack
in the rock high up on the cliff face, his words
barely audible over the roar of waves crashing
down below. Negotiating a steep overhang, he
shoves a cam in the rock and begins the final pitch,
hoisting himself up to the cave entrance some 20
meters above the pounding surf. “It’s quite narrow!
Come on up.” Working our way up the wall, Beata
“Betka” Michalak and I follow Rafał’s lead.
The entrance is indeed tight. Crawling on our
knees, we work our way into the cave—its floor a
dried-up river of molten rock covered with mud;
the chamber itself carved centuries ago by gases
billowing out through the magma during an eruption
of Pua Ka Tiki Volcano. In some places, the
ceiling is so low we have to dig into the mud to
make more room. Thirty meters in, however, the
cave becomes sufficiently small that only our petite
colleague, Betka, can squeeze through. After
several more meters, she too has to give up—the
rest of the chamber is accessible only to mice.
From the lack of evidence for human activity in
the cave, it is likely this one was just too difficult
to reach for the ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui,
Many of the caves we documented on Rapa Nui could only be accessed by repelling down seaside cliffs.
42

Włodek “Jacus” Porebski rappels down into a large cave known as Ana Ohoka, which served as an underground cistern.
better known as Easter Island.
As we continue to make our way along the cliff
face, we spot another cave entrance, this one
larger and far more accessible. Upon entering the
cave, we find a corridor that winds its way some
400 meters into the volcanic rock. From the abundance
of human skeletal remains and obsidian
tools—spear points, adze heads, and chisels—near
the entrance, it is clear that this cave was used
as a burial site. We now begin the painstaking
task of mapping the cave and documenting the
archaeological remains within it, which will take
us several days.
Ever since the Dutch navigator Jakob
Roggeveen first spied Rapa Nui on “Easter
Sunday,” April 5, 1722, the 160-square-kilometer
island has intrigued scholars and adventurers
who have been lured to this remote outpost of
civilization in large part by the enormous moai
hewn from volcanic tuff, hundreds of which once
gazed upon the island, which is surrounded by a
seemingly endless sea. Erected more than five
centuries ago by the island’s inhabitants—who
came here from eastern Polynesia, settling Rapa
Nui perhaps as early as a.d. 800—the moai are
thought to be representations of deceased ancestors.
Nearly all were quarried from the slopes
of Rano Raraku, a volcanic cinder cone on the
island, and transported throughout Rapa Nui in
what has been hailed as one of the great feats of
human engineering and organizational will.
Beyond the moai, Rapa Nui harbors a vast
corpus of rock art, most of which is devoted to
the later Tangata manu, or birdman cult, and is
concentrated at the site of Orongo on the southwest
tip of the island. The birdman cult, which
involved an annual competition to collect the first
sooty tern egg of the season from the islet of
Motu Nui, more than a kilometer offshore, was in
practice until the mid-nineteenth century, when
the explorers journal

Ana Vaiteca
Beata “Betka” Michalak approaches two skulls that were placed in the
burial cave, likely during a ritual secondary entombment.

it was suppressed by Christian missionaries. By
that time, Rapa Nui’s population had dwindled to
111 from an estimated 7,000 to 20,000 inhabitants
in the sixteenth century.
Despite Rapa Nui’s remote location—more than
2,000 kilometers away from the nearest inhabited
island, Pitcairn, and 3,600 kilometers from Chile,
which now governs the island—some 50,000
visitors a year make their way to this UNESCO
World Heritage Site to see the statues. Yet, there
is another “side” of Rapa Nui—the hundreds of
caves that dot the island, once used as dwellings,
cisterns, storage facilities, burial chambers,
and sanctuaries for worship. Some were used
for the cultivation of crops, sheltering seedlings
and garden plants from the harsh salt-laden sea
breeze. According to local tradition, as recently as
50 years ago, one of the caves was still in use as
a “maternity ward” while in another, examined by
Thor Heyerdahl, was said to be a place “where
young girls were shielded from the sun so their
skin might become lighter.”
Since our 18-person team began working
here in 2001, we have documented 320 such
caves, ranging from shallow rock-shelters and
lava tubes to multichamber labyrinths. Nearly
46
60 of these contain evidence of human activity—
burials, hearths, rock art, and tools made of
obsidian, basalt, and bone. Although the caves
are scattered throughout the island, the largest
concentration has been found a few kilometers
north of Hangaroa town.
Before our arrival, several dozen caves on the
island had been identified, documented, and, in
some cases, excavated by earlier explorers such
as Percy Edmunds, W. S. Routledge, Heyerdahl,
and more recently cavers from Spain. Yet no one
had carried out a comprehensive mapping of the
caves, three of which are now open to visitors. The
goal of our mission—led by speleologist Andrzej
Ciszewski (FI’99) and carried out in partnership
with the Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF),
the Chilean forestry service that oversees Rapa
Nui National Park—is to create the first complete
digital inventory of the island’s caves.
The interior architecture of each cave is recorded
using a laser-mapping device, which collects
the x, y, z coordinates of given points, including
the locations of artifacts within the chambers.
These are then integrated, along with field notes
and photographs, into a GPS map/database of
the entire island.
Petroglyphs carved in a cave known as Ana Toki Toki depict the deity Make-Make, creator of humanity and chief god of the Tangata manu, or Bird-Man cult.

Working here has presented several formidable
challenges. Some of the caves can only be accessed
via technical climbs or through underwater
entrances, while others, still considered sacred by
the island’s inhabitants, require us to carry out our
work in a more culturally sensitive manner.
“This is the first systematic undertaking of such
type on Rapa Nui,” said Maciej Sobczyk of the
University of Warsaw’s Center for Precolumbian
Studies, who has been carrying out the archaeological
portion of the work with Susana Nahoe
of CONAF.
According to Sobczyk, most of the burials
encountered so far appear to be secondary interments,
that is, the bodies we left exposed to
the elements and predatory seabirds or buried
elsewhere until only skeletal remains were left,
at which point the bones were ceremonially
deposited in the caves accompanied by offerings.
While the 14 C dating and DNA analysis of
the human remains have yet to be carried out,
rock art found in the caves, which is associated
with the birdman cult, suggests they were likely
placed there sometime between the sixteenth
and nineteenth centuries.
“It is clear from what we have found so far
that these caves played a significant role in the
life of Rapa Nui society,” said Andrzej Ciszewski.
“Through our mapping and documentation project,
we are laying the cartographic groundwork
for the future expeditions by archaeologists, anthropologists,
and geneticists, seeking to unravel
the history of this fascinating island.”
Acknowledgments
Support for our expedition has been provided by the National
Geographic Society Expeditions Council, AMC, the Polish
Mountaineering Association, and The Explorers Club. The
expedition is deeply indebted to Professor Zdzisław Jan
Ryn (FI’99), the former Polish ambassador to Chile, who
has worked tirelessly for many years to forge a cooperative
relationship between our governments.
biography
Marcin Jamkowski (FI’05) is a science writer and expedition
photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic,
Newsweek, and other magazines in his native Poland and in
the United States. For more information, visit his website
www.AdventurePictures.eu.
Relic Species of Rapa Nui
Flag N o 52
The Natural History of Rapa Nui Caves
Project—led by Jut Wynne (FN’07) of the
Merriam Powell Center for Environmental
Research of Northern Arizona University
and Armando Azua-Bustos of Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile—is taking
to the field with Explorers Club Flag N o 52
this summer to determine if any of the
original life forms on Easter Island have
survived in its volcanic voids, given the
island’s long history of forest clearing
and intensive livestock grazing. The expedition
will be focusing on arthropod
biodiversity, comparing species found
within the caves with those that exist
on the surface. “As buffered environments,”
says Wynne, “caves often harbor
life forms that have gone extinct due to
environmental change. These organisms
retreat underground to seek shelter when
surface conditions become unfavorable.”
According to Wynne, several Rapa Nui
caves studied last year contain moss and
fern gardens, which have yielded species
new to science. The expedition will be
investigating some 20 caves previously
mapped by Andrzej Ciszewski and his
team. To follow the expedition—which will
be in the field from June 25 to July 19—visit:
jjudsonwynne.blogspot.com.
—AMHS
the explorers journal

Slowly down
the Ama zon
in conversation with John Hemming
interview by nick smith
John Hemming is a giant in the field of South American
exploration, his career spanning some five decades.
During the period 1971–1972 alone he visited 45 tribes,
being present during first contact with four: the
Suruí, Parakanã, Asurini, and Galera Nambikwara. In
1987–1988 he led the largest European multidisciplinary
scientific research project in the Amazon, the Maracá
Rainforest Project, and has been to more unexplored
areas in the region than just about any non-Brazilian.
He is famous for exploring the unknown territory of
the Iriri River and has been on expeditions to most of
the Inca ruins in the Peruvian Amazon.
During this period, he embarked on an impressive
48
parallel career as a leading writer on Amazonia, publishing
The Conquest of the Incas, which was followed by his
extraordinary trilogy about Brazil’s indigenous peoples:
Red Gold (1978), Amazon Frontier (1985), and Die If You Must (2004).
Explorers Journal Contributing Editor Nick Smith met up
with Hemming, a Corresponding Member of The Explorers
Club since 1979 and recipient of its Citation of Merit and
director of the Royal Geographical Society from 1975 to
1996, to discuss his most recent book, Tree of Rivers: the Story
of the Amazon, which has just been released by Thames &
Hudson. Aimed at the more general reader, it is probably
the best introduction to the cultural, environmental, and
geographical issues of the region today.
Photograph by Nick Smith.

Nick Smith: How did your relationship with the
Amazon start
John Hemming: It goes back a long time. I first got
sight of the Western Amazon in 1960 when I spent
the whole year in Peru. Much of that was in their
Amazon part, which is the richest in biodiversity. I
was hacking around there and I got quite a taste
for it. The following year, in 1961, Richard Mason
who I’d roomed with at Oxford, got this idea of
going down what he thought was the longest unexplored
river in the world, the 1,100-kilometer Iriri.
I’m not sure whether he was right or not, but I joined
up as deputy leader and the only other Brit was
Christopher Lambert, who later went on to be the
impresario of The Who. When the Brazilian government
heard what we were doing they became very
interested—so their mapping people (the IBGE)
asked if they could send three of their best surveyors
with us. We’re talking 1961, long before satellites or
even aerial photography of that part of Brazil.
NS: What was it like, hacking through the rainforest
JH: It was a great expedition, literally cutting our
way through with a machete and working off a
compass bearing. Because the region was completely
unexplored, we had to explore, going down
rivers to see where they went and so on. We knew
all water ended up in the Amazon, but we built our
canoes on what turned out to be the wrong river.
The watershed we wanted was another five kilometers
on, and so we had to build another canoe.
Building a canoe took about a week.
We tried to keep our trails as straight as we
could. We had an old wooden box compass lent
to us by the RGS and we’d just hack or push our
way through. Sometimes it was quite open forest,
but other times it was really dense.
That’s when I was in really beautiful forest, knowing
that every step taken led into territory where
no nonnative had ever been. We were bumping
into animals the whole time…it was lovely.
NS: But it wasn’t all plain sailing…
JH: We got attacked. We were ambushed by an
indigenous group no one knew existed. It just
happened to be Richard who walked into it. It
was incredibly bad luck. I now know a great many
tribes in Brazil and we’d hit the most belligerent
of the lot—the Panará. They were contacted 12
years later, when it was discovered that any tribe
within 50 kilometers of them was so scared they
were moving their villages. The Panará words for
“stranger” and “enemy” are the same. They were
at war with everybody. They left Richard’s body on
the trail that we’d cut. We later carried it out and
embalmed it for burial in the British cemetery in
Rio de Janeiro.
NS: During your association with the Amazon you’ve
written a trilogy about the Brazilian Indians…
JH: After Richard was killed and I had met the
Villas Boas brothers, I became fascinated by
the Indians. After my book, The Conquest of the
Incas, I decided to write about the Indians of
Brazil, which I had hoped to keep down to one
volume, but it spun out into three.
NS: You spent the best part of 35 years writing
the trilogy
JH: I did quite a few other things too! I ran the Royal
Geographical Society and the Maracá project. We
had 150 scientists on that project. It’s amazing
what success that project had. One of our alumni
became Secretary of State for the Environment in
Amazonas, the largest state in Brazil. He has more
rainforest under him than there is in the whole of
Africa. Another one of the Maracá scientists became
head of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa
da Amazônia (INPA), the big Amazon research
institute. By one of those happy coincidences, the
Brazilian TV people sent a camera crew to film
us for an agricultural program. For some reason
clips of this got onto the most watched TV show
in the whole of South America, a Sunday evening
program called Fantastica, a bit like the old Ed
Sullivan Show. So 45 million Brazilians watched
this. The UK Foreign Office minister at the time,
who I knew slightly, went to Brazil for an appointment
with the president. He later told me that the
only thing the president had wanted to talk about
was “your bloody expedition.” Maracá led directly
to an agreement on rainforest research between
Britain and Brazil. It was really quite impressive.
NS: And the trilogy itself provided you with everything
you needed to write your new book, Tree of
Rivers (reviewed on page 62)
JH: Yes. I drew heavily on these earlier books, apart
from the concluding chapter and the archaeological
chapter, which are original research for this project.
What I was trying to do—and I don’t think that I’ve
succeeded—is what Alan Morehead did for the Nile.
the explorers journal

Mighty Amazon
The mouth of the Amazon, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean,
is captured in enhanced color by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Image by Jacques Descloitres, MODIS
Land Response Team, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

Obviously, I didn’t because the Nile and the Amazon
are two different rivers with different histories, and
I’m a different type of writer, but that was vaguely the
objective in the back of my mind. Of course, I’ve been
lucky right from the beginning. I had a very indulgent
father, which meant that I could slip in and out of the
family publishing business whenever I wanted. He
was terribly nice and didn’t mind if I wandered off for
a year or two and disappeared into the forest.
NS: There are so many threads to the new book:
cultural, environmental, geographical, historical, and
scientific. How did you get all this into 11 chapters
JH: It was rather fun. I don’t think it was difficult. I
particularly loved all these wonderful people: Henry
Walter Bates, Alfred Russel Wallace, and the
naturalists, particularly Richard Spruce. Bates was
the first paid secretary of the Royal Geographical
Society; Darwin was one of his sponsors. I had his
portrait above my head during the 21 years that I
ran the RGS. If you had visited me then, you would
have seen me at my desk with Bates looking down
on me. Charles Waterton was wonderful as well.
He went out to the family sugar estates in Guyana
and then wrote what was quite a bestseller in its
day. He was the first person to write with enthusiasm
about the beauty of the rainforest in English.
He was also the first eco-warrior. He successfully
sued a nearby soap factory for polluting the air.
The Cabanagem are also important to me. This
was the oppressed underclass that rose up in a
full-scale rebellion in the 1830s. They were being
so oppressed that they finally rebelled. It’s rather
sad because one’s sympathies are so much with
them, but it was a mess of a rebellion and no one
knew quite what they wanted. The leaders all fell
out with one another in the way they do in revolutions.
And there was a lot of bloodshed.
NS: What do you think of modern exploration
52

ainforest reflections
Some 30 percent of the surviving Amazon rainforest lies within the
183,000-hectare Xixuaú-Xiparina Ecological Reserve in the Roraima
State of Brazil. Photograph by Carrie Vonderhaar, courtesy Ocean
Futures Society.
JH: Some of the scientists on the Maracá project
were doing things every bit as tough as the socalled
explorers that get the headlines today. I had
guys going out for months on end into unexplored
bits of forest. That’s how they did their research.
There’s a quotation from underwater explorer Robert
D. Ballard, who has achieved world fame with the
discovery of Titanic and Bismarck. He is much
prouder of his work on hydrothermal vents on the
deep-ocean ridges. He says that science is the
only thing that matters: if you’re not doing scientific
research you’re not an explorer, you’re just wandering
around. There are so many marvelous scientists
working everywhere in the world. Take the marine
environment. Human beings only really got under the
surface of the water in 1940s, and the deep oceans
only in the late 1960s with the first independent
deep-water submersible. In the 40 years since then
we’ve discovered everything that is known about
fish, currents, the ocean bed, continental drift.
NS: Can you tell me what there is left to explore
JH: The reason I called one of my books The
Golden Age of Discovery is because discovery
is often a better word than exploration. When
you say “discovery” you are covering something
almost infinite. Bates collected 14,700 species
of plants and animals of which some 5,000
were new to science. At Maracá we weren’t
a collecting expedition, but we couldn’t resist
putting up a few nets every now and then. That
bit of Sunday-afternoon collecting yielded almost
200 species new to science. But that’s
just discovery—those insects haven’t been
analyzed at all. The amount of research to be
done is staggering. Think about it in another
context—human beings are just one species and
there’s still infinite research going on about how
our bodies work. And the Americans are leading
the way. Wherever you go there are brilliant
American scientists.
the explorers journal

Extreme medicine
your health and safety in the field
A day at the beach
poisonous marine creatures and
other hazards of summer
by Michael J. Manyak, M.D., FACS
Anyone who ventures into the sea risks contact
with hazardous marine life. Most encounters are
accidental but explorers may seek close contact
as part of an expedition. Fortunately, most marine
life injuries are minor if attended to promptly, but
serious injury requiring first aid and evacuation
can occur. Avoidance and heightened awareness
are important both to institute appropriate treatment
and to limit symptoms, according to Craig
Cook, M.D., (MN’01), medical editor for Sport
Diver magazine. Excluding the large vertebrate
54
predators, there are many smaller critters that
can cause severe irritation or even fatality.
The most likely source of envenomation for
the shallow-water swimmer or diver is from
jellyfish. The most commonly encountered ones
rarely cause serious stings and the stinging cells
(neumatocysts) can be neutralized by vinegar
in some cases. Cook reassures us that there
is no truth to the tale that urine has any effect
on neumatocysts so it is wise to politely decline
that option. The pelagic Portuguese man-of-war
Bristleworm. Photograph courtesy Craig Cook, MD.

elongs to the same class as fire coral and is
less commonly encountered, usually when an
offshore wind brings them inshore. While there
have been deaths from these invertebrates, the
most dangerous is the box jellyfish of Australia
and Indo-Pacific areas, whose toxin causes excruciating
pain and respiratory and cardiac dysfunction.
Vinegar should be applied to prevent
further neumatocyst discharge but pressure
immobilization, administration of box jellyfish
antivenin (obtained in Australia), and immediate
evacuation is advised.
Bottom-dwelling creatures can cause problems
in shallow water. Stingrays account for
more than a thousand injuries and about 18
deaths per year. The most famous case occurred
when “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin
died after ignoring two of the most important
tenets regarding stingrays—not to provoke or
swim directly over them. Envenomation from the
dorsal spines of the well-camouflaged scorpionfish
and stonefish occurs from stepping or
placing a hand on them. Mild to severe pain is
experienced, but for stonefish envenomation,
the pain is immediate, excruciating, and usually
unrelieved by narcotics. Treatment for stingray
and fish envenomation consists of immersion in
hot water until relief occurs. Stonefish antivenin
should be administered if available. X-rays are
needed to rule out retention of any barbs. Wear
thick-soled reef shoes and shuffle your feet to
avoid entrapping any of these creatures.
Two other denizens of the deep require
mention despite the rarity of encounters. The
blue-ringed octopus found in the Indo-Pacific is
shy and bites only if handled. Its rapidly acting
venom causes paralysis, requiring ventilatory
support. Interestingly, its bite causes no pain.
The venom of the extremely toxic sea snake,
on the other hand, causes pain with neuromuscular
paralysis. Fortunately, these snakes are
nonaggressive and usually must be provoked
to bite. Their small fangs (less than 4 mm) may
not penetrate a wet suit.
Cook advises that shallow water harbors
other hazards. The calcium framework of coral
can lacerate or abrade skin with insertion of
organic material leading to itchy lesions that can
be secondarily infected. Treatment consists of
wound scrubbing with a brush and tetanus toxoid
for deep lacerations. Only fire coral causes
envenomation, even after light contact. Not a
true coral, it is related to the stinging hydroids.
Both can be treated with vinegar though not all
species respond. Sea urchins and crown-ofthorns
starfish contain venom that accounts for
the severe pain and swelling seen with puncture
wounds. Treatment for both is by hot water
immersion for 30 to 90 minutes. Retained fragments
are a concern. Bristleworms, which are
related to leeches and earthworms, are common
in tropical and semitropical waters and have
very fine spines that easily lodge in skin. The
pain and swelling is due to these bristles, which
may be removed by placing and removing tape.
Topical pain medication and steroids may be
useful. Symptoms of sea bather’s eruption, also
known as sea lice, consist of burning, itching,
and reddish rash caused by the small larvae of
jellyfish or, rarely, anemones or crabs. This rash
syndrome lasts for five to seven days and symptomatic
treatment provides some relief. Be wary
of collecting cone-shaped shells in the water, live
cone snails can inject a lethal paralytic toxin.
Marine seafood poisoning is another risk to be
considered. It is important to note that NONE
of the following toxins are deactivated by heat
or refrigeration nor do they have disagreeable
taste, odor, or appearance.
• Ciguatera poisoning occurs with ingestion of large carnivorous
fish, which eat smaller prey that feed on neurotoxin-producing
unicellular dinoflagellates. Symptoms are
diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and various peripheral
neurological complaints. Treatment is supportive.
• Pufferfish produce a powerful painful neurotoxin that
requires cardiopulmonary support for survival. Avoid these
species in the field even if prepared by an expert.
• Scombroid poisoning occurs when game fish are not
refrigerated, allowing histamine to accumulate, causing
hives, diarrhea, vomiting, and cramps. Treatment is with
fluids and antihistamines.
• Shellfish poisoning presents at least four occasionally
lethal syndromes with severe gastrointestinal symptoms with
or without neurologic symptoms. Some are associated with
dinoflagellate overabundance (red tide) and can be airborne.
Fortunately, most communities that experience red tide
monitor their occurrence. Treatment is supportive.
So enjoy your forays to the beach and into the
ocean—just be careful where you step, what you
pick up, and what you eat!
the explorers journal

DESTINATION MOON SPECIAL
Extreme Cuisine
food for the epicurean adventurer
chef to the stars
NASA meal creator Emeril Lagasse
a chef will tell you of their particular patrons. Few,
however, have had any as pick y as NASA, which approached
Emeril Lagasse for suggestions on how to spice up food
sent to astronauts at the International Space Station.
"After some discussion with NASA," says lagasse, "it
just made more sense for me to design and cook the
meals with their food specialists and then have them
packaged to NASA specifications." When asked about
astronaut input, Lagasse told The Explorers Journal,
"they are pretty busy with other things. But they do
like strong flavors and spices as their tastebuds tend
to get dulled in space," which is why lagasse's kicked-up
Cajun was just the ticket. "Working with NASA was an
out-of-this-world experience," he says. "I was honored
to have the opportunity and it was a thrill to talk
with our astronauts and hear firsthand how our meals
would make a difference in their quality of life."
Herewith are several of the Lagasse recipes sent into
space by NASA. This summer, Lagasse will appear in two
military specials filmed at Fort Lee: Operation Emeril and
Army Green, which will air on Planet Green.
serves 4
Spicy Green Be a ns
with Garlic
ingredients:
• ¼ cup clarified butter or vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 small green peppers, jalapeÑo or serrano, stemed and seeded, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• teaspoon cayenne
• 1 pound green beans, tough ends removed
• ¼ cup water
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
In a large sauté pan, heat the butter over medium-high heat. Add
the sliced garlic, peppers, turmeric, cumin, and cayenne, and cook,
stirring, until the garlic begins to turn golden, about 2 minutes.
Add the green beans, water, salt, and stir well. Cover and cook over
medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender,
4 to 5 minutes. Add the sesame seeds and cook uncovered, stirring,
until toasted, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and adjust
seasoning to taste.
56

serves 6
Rice Pudding with
Rum Raisins
ingredients:
• ¾ cup golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons rum extract
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup long-grain white rice
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1½ cups whole milk
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• teaspoon salt
1. Place the raisins in a small bowl.
2. In a small saucepan heat the rum over medium heat. Pour the rum over the
raisins, cover, and let soak at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Drain.
3. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into a small ramekin, reserve.
4. Combine water, rice and vanilla bean pod in a heavy, medium saucepan.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered,
until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
5. Uncover rice, discard the vanilla bean, and let cool.
6. Preheat oven to 350º F.
7 Butter 1 large (6- to 8-cup) soufflé dish with the tablespoon of
butter, and place inside a roasting pan.
8. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, brown sugar, eggs, egg
yolk, salt, and reserved vanilla seeds. Stir in the raisins and 1½ cups
cooked rice. Pour into the buttered dish. Add enough hot water to
the roasting pan to come halfway up the dish. Bake until the pudding
is set in center and brown around edges, about 1 hour. Remove dish
from pan and cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
9. Serve warm with whipped cream.
Kicked Up Bacon-Cheese
Mashed Potatoes
serves 4–6
ingredients:
• 4 baking potatoes, like russets, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1¾ teaspoons salt, plus more for seasoning
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons butter
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
• 8 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• ½ pound sharp Cheddar, grated
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup chopped fresh chives
Place the potatoes and 1 teaspoon salt in a heavy 4-quart saucepan and
cover with water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer,
and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Drain in a
colander and return to the cooking pot. Add the cream, butter, remaining
teaspoon salt, and black pepper. Place the pan over medium-low
heat and mash with a potato masher to incorporate the ingredients
and achieve a light texture, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the bacon, grated
cheese, sour cream, and chopped chives and stir until thoroughly
combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

eviews
edited by Milbry C. Polk
288 pp • New York: Henry HOlt, 2008
• ISBN-10: 0805083103, ISBN-13: 978-
08050831015 • $26
Dark Summit
In Dark Summit, climber and
author Nick Heil attempts to
uncover just what happened on
by Nick Heil
the slopes of Everest in 2006,
when 11 climbers died on the
peak while one, Lincoln Hall,
presumed dead miraculously
survived. The events echoed
the disaster of a decade
earlier when eight perished
during a storm on May 11,
1996. Heil begins his book with
a brief recap of the history of
Everest climbs from the 1800s
to the present—sharing in short
but telling detail the stories
of men and women who have
been attracted to and challenged
by the world’s highest
peaks. In his estimation, there
are no real villains in these stories
but rather key differences
in the ways that people react to
life-or-death situations.
Heil then focuses on the story
of David Sharp, a climber left to
die high up on the mountain as
40 other climbers passed by
him on their way to the summit.
While the media was quick to
condemn the climbers for ignoring
Sharp, Heil reveals more
of what transpired and reports
on the efforts of a few courageous
individuals who stayed
with the climber for a time trying
to revive him.
Heil points out that the real
problem is the increasing numbers
of climbers who attempt
Everest on the cheap and
unscrupulous outfitters on the
take. He also notes that films
and images of the peak have
created a feeling of familiarity,
which masks the reality of the
highest mountain on Earth.
‘Everest, he says, is an extraordinarily
dangerous place, one
where growing crowds and a
proliferating number of commercial
operators creates the
illusion that it is “safer.”’ Give
this to your climbing friends.
58

Lucy’s Legacy
by Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong
320 pp • New York: Harmony, 2009
• ISBN-10: 0307396398, ISBN-13: 978-
0307396396 • $25
Paleontologist Donald C.
Johanson, founder of the
Institute of Human Origins now
at Arizona State University,
and science writer Kate
Wong have written an evocative
account of Johanson’s
years in the field and the
circumstances that led to
his 1974 discovery of “Lucy”
(Australopithecus afarensis) in
Ethiopia. Johanson had spent
many seasons searching for
fossils of our most distant
ancestors in the hot dry sands
and rock beds of Ethiopia
when a glint caught his eye.
It was a shard of fossilized
bone. Eventually, 40 percent
of a 3.2-million-year-old female
skeleton was recovered.
Johanson declared her to be
from a transitional species in
the evolutionary march from
ape to human. The discovery
sparked a surge in fieldwork,
REVIEWS
which eventually netted some
360 specimens of A. afarensis.
Johanson discusses not
only his experience working
in Ethiopia through tense and
difficult political situations, but
explains the processes used
to tease clues out of bone and
rock and earth to understand
Lucy and the landscape that
she lived in.
Johanson and Wong also
seek to make sense of the
increasingly complex human
family tree by reviewing the
species Lucy evolved from
and the variety of her descendants,
including us. They discuss
discoveries at Dmanisi in
the Republic of Georgia and
at several sites in Southeast
Asia, which show that our
ancestors left Africa 1.7 to
1.8 million years ago, and look
into how they evolved and why
they died out. They also discuss
the recent discovery of a
new, albeit controversial, species
of diminutive hominids,
H. floresiensis, nicknamed
“Hobbits,” which lived on the
island of Flores near Bali until
about 17,000 years ago, as
well as possible interactions
between modern humans and
Neandertals. Every discovery,
they say, not only adds a
valuable piece of information
but also creates new lines of
inquiry. Understanding the
evolution of humanity is much
like deciphering the image of
a complicated puzzle with only
a few random pieces on the
board. Johanson and Wong
help us glimpse the larger picture.
Knowing where we came
from, they argue, allows us “to
better know ourselves and our
place in nature.”
How to build a
dinosaur
by Jack Horner and James Gorman
230 pp • New York: Dutton, 2009 •
ISBN-10: 0525951040, ISBN-13: 978-
0525951049 • $25.95
In How to Build a Dinosaur,
provocative paleontologist
Jack Horner, embarks on
a challenging experiment
at the outer edge of science.
Horner’s latest book,
co-authored with New York
Times science writer James
Gorman, proposes that it is
possible to grow a dinosaur
from a chicken embryo.
The idea came to the
Montana State University
professor when one of
his former students, Mary
Schweitzer, discovered remnant
red blood cells in some
of the dinosaur bones she
was processing. While not
unheard of, it was highly unusual.
But her next discovery,
that some of the fossilized
bone from a Tyrannosaurus
rex fossil excavated by
Horner was “springy” and
contained blood vessels, was
the explorers journal

astonishing. She was able to
extract proteins from the 68-
million-year-old vessels and
establish a link to the chicken.
Horner believes that, by learning
what codes in the genetic
program were turned off, and
figuring out how to turn them
on again, we will uncover
the processes that lead to
evolutionary advancement.
Nature does not discard, he
says, it just turns off what is
not needed in response to
evolutionary pressures.
60
Magnificent
D e s o l a t i o n
by Buzz Aldrin with Ken Abraham
336 pp • New York: harmony, 2009
• ISBN-10: 0307463451, ISBN-13: 978-
0307463456 • $25.95
On the occasion of the fortieth
anniversary of the Apollo
11 lunar landing, Buzz Aldrin
has written Magnificent
Desolation: The Long Road
Home From the Moon, a
personal account of that historic
space mission and his
troubled life in its wake.
While millions watched as
Armstrong and Aldrin set foot
on the Moon, few were aware
of how dangerously close
Apollo 11 came to aborting its
landing less than 20 meters
from the lunar surface due
to computer failures, which
forced the pair to manually
land the spacecraft amid
a field of boulders with a mere
20 seconds of fuel remaining.
Throughout the book, Aldrin
discusses the strengths and
failings of the American space
program, past and present. He
also talks of his own failings,
including an honest account
of his descent into depression
and alcoholism upon returning
to Earth. He also tells of his
days as a car salesman when
he found himself down on his
luck, and shares with us how
discovering true love led him
to triumph over adversity and
ultimately saved his life.
the way of Herodotus
by Justin Marozzi
384 pp • New York: Da Capo Press,
2008 • ISBN-10: 0306816210, ISBN-13: 978-
0306816215 • $27.50
REVIEWS
Author and journalist Justin
Marozzi spent four years
prowling the Mediterranean,
hoping to find traces of
the places Herodotus of
Halicarnassus wrote about
some 2,500 years ago.
Herodotus’ major work, The
Histories, has inspired others
to call him not only “the
father of history” but also of
anthropology, geography,
journalism, and even exploration.
Herodotus roamed far
and wide, recording what he
saw and relaying the oftenoutrageous
stories he heard.
Although Herodotus’ stated
intent was to preserve the
memory of the past by putting
on record the astonishing
achievements of Greek and
the non-Greek peoples, his
way of getting to the story
was roundabout and full of
fascinating digressions. His
reportage inspired explorers
for millennia to seek out the
places he described, from the
land of dog-headed men to
the lost continent of Atlantis.
He delighted in the strange
and bizarre, especially when
it concerned sex, which may
partly account for the book’s
continued popularity. In The
Way of Herodotus: Travels
with the Man Who Invented
History, Marozzi reveals that
traveling following Herodotus
led to amusing encounters and
unexpected adventures. Like
his mentor, Marozzi sprinkles
his narrative with historical
sidebars, witty often off-color
stories, and wonderful discoveries
and observations of
the rich and varied part of our
world that is as inspiring today
as it was 2,500 years ago.

T H E E X P L O R E R S C L U B c h a p t e r c h a i r s
46 east 70th street, New York, NY 10021 I 212-628-8383 I www.explorers.org
National chapter chairs
interNational chapter chairs
Alaska
John J. Kelley, Ph.D.
Tel: 907-479-5989
Fax: 907-479-5990
ffjjk@uaf.edu
Atlanta
Roy Alexander Wallace
Tel: 404-237-5098
Fax: 404-231-5228
awallace3@bellsouth.net
Central Florida
G. Michael Harris
Tel: 727-584-2883
Fax: 727-585-6078
gmh@tampabay.rr.com
Chicago/Great Lakes
James S. Westerman
Tel: 312-671-2800
Fax: 312-280-7326
jimw@carbit.com
George Rogers Clark
Joseph E. Ricketts
Tel/Fax: 937-885-2477
jer937@aol.com
Greater Piedmont
John Adams Hodge
Tel: 803-779-3080
Fax: 803-765-1243
jhodge@hsblawfirm.com
Jupiter Florida
Rosemarie Twinam
Tel: 772-219-1970
Fax: 772-283-3497
RTwinam@aol.com
New England
Gregory Deyermenjian
Tel: 978-927-8827, ext. 128
Fax: 978-927-9182
paititi@alumni.clarku.edu
North Pacific Alaska
Mead Treadwell
Tel: 907-258-7764
Fax: 907-258-7768
meadwell@alaska.net
Northern California
Alan H. Nichols, J.D., D.S.
Tel: 415-789-9348
Fax: 415-789-9348
sacred-mountain@att.net
Pacific Northwest
Ed Sobey, Ph.D.
Tel: 206-240-1516
ed.sobey@gmail.com
Philadelphia
Doug Soroka
Tel: 215-257-4588
dsoroka@errc.ars.usda.gov
Rocky Mountain
William F. Schoeberlein
Tel: 303-526-0505
Fax: 303-526-5171
billschoeberlein@comcast.net
San Diego
Capt. Robert “Rio” Hahn
Tel: 760-723-2318
Fax: 760-723-3326
rio@adventure.org
Southern California
David A. Dolan, FRGS
Tel. 949-307-9182
daviddolan@aol.com
Southern Florida
Pamela L. Stephany
954-568-5938
pamstephany@aol.com
Southwest
Brian Hanson (Chapter Liaison)
Tel: 512-266-7851
brianphanson@sbcglobal.net
Southwest Florida
Jim Thompson
Tel: 727-204-4550
otexplorer@gmail.com
St. Louis
Mabel Purkerson, M.D.
Tel: 314-362-4234
purkerm@msnotes.wustl.edu
Texas
C. William Steele
Tel: 214-770-4712
Fax: 972-580-7870
speleosteele@tx.rr.com
Washington, DC
Polly A. Penhale, Ph.D.
Tel: 703-292-7420
Fax: 703-292-9080
papenhale@yahoo.com
Argentina
Hugo Castello, Ph.D.
Fax: 54 11 4 982 5243/4494
hucastel@mail.retina.ar
Australia-New Zealand
Christopher A. Bray
Tel: 61-403-823-418
chris@chrisbray.net
Canadian
Amanda S. Glickman
Tel: 250-202-2760
amanda@paparumba.org
www.explorersclub.ca
East Asia
Dr. Michael J. Moser
mmoser@omm.com
Great Britain
Barry L. Moss
Tel: 44 020 8992 7178
barola2780@aol.com
Iceland
Haraldur Örn Ólafsson
Tel: +354 545 8551
Fax: +354 562 1289
haraldur.orn.olafsson@ivr.stjr.is
Norway
Hans-Erik Hansen
Home Tel: 47 22-458-205
Work Tel: 47 67-138-559
hans-e-h@online.no
Poland
Monika M. Rogozinska
Tel: 48-22-8484630
Fax: 48-22-8-484630
m.rogozinska@rp.pl
Russia
Alexander Borodin
Tel: 7-095-973-2415
Alexanderb@sibneft.ru
Western Europe
Robert E. Roethenmund
Tel: 49-173-611-66-55
rroeth1@attglobal.net

ensure a future for the world
center for exploration!
REVIEWS
Tree of Rivers
by John Hemming
368 pp • New York: Thames and Hudson,
2008 • ISBN-10: 0500514011, ISBN-13: 978-
0500514016 • $39.95
The Lowell Thomas Building
buy a brick campaign
Founded in 1904 “to promote exploration by all
means possible,” The Explorers Club © has become
the premier resource for expedition planning and research.
This fabled venue has also played a primary
role for those pushing the limits of knowledge and
human endurance as a place to share the results of
their expeditions with the greater public.
Today, we have embarked on a multiphase restoration
of our historic headquarters and the extraordinary
archives it houses—phase 1 will cost an estimated
$1.5 million. To underwrite this effort, we are offering
for sale “virtual bricks.” The purchase of bricks—which
cost $50 each—will enable us to procure the necessary
materials and expertise to carry out this important
project. Directors and Officers of the Explorers Club
have already purchased more than $1,200 worth of
bricks toward the capital campaign, which has been
generously funded by a $300,000 grant from the
estate of Richard H. Olson (FN’79). To learn more,
please contact committee co-chairs President Lorie
M.L. Karnath or Director Will Harte at 212-628-8383,
or e-mail: president@explorers.org.
the explorers club
46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021
212-628-8383 www.explorers.org
After graduating from Oxford in
1961, John Hemming headed
to central Brazil to explore the
Iriri River. The experience so
captivated him that he spent the
better part of his life becoming a
leading authority on indigenous
peoples in the region (see page
48). His books on the region, including
Red Gold, have earned
him high regard.
Hemming’s latest book, Tree
of Rivers: The Story of the
Amazon, synthesizes his years
of research of this elusive, intriguing
part of the world. The
Amazonian Basin, called the
lungs of the world, is also home
to a rich diversity of plants, animals,
human cultures, and to a
motley crew of exploiters and
explorers who have probed its
depths for treasure and seeking
scientific knowledge.
In Tree of Rivers, Hemming
recounts the stories of explorers,
beginning with the arrival of

REVIEWS
the first Europeans in the 1500s
as a way of leading into the
lives and conditions of the native
peoples. From descriptions
written by sixteenth-century
Conquistadors, we learn about
the practices of Precontact
natives. Within a century of
contact, however, many native
peoples had succumbed to
European diseases and thousands
more were pressed into
slavery, effectively emptying
the forest.
By the nineteenth century,
naturalists such as Alexander
von Humbolt, Henry Walter
Bates, and Alfred Russel
Wallace had discovered the
real wealth of the basin. And
although they were more intent
on learning about the Amazon
than capitalizing on it, their
discoveries led to the rubber
boom and the subsequent
exploitation of local peoples to
collect the rubber.
By the twentieth century, a
new breed of scientists came
to the Amazon. While cultural
anthropologists focused on the
unique tribal cultures, archaeologists—including
Betty Meggers
and Anna C. Roosevelt—have
found the earliest evidence for
human habitation in the Amazon,
which stretches back nearly
12,000 years.
Today, the Amazon is again
being ravaged, perhaps irreparably.
Vast acreage falls to
the axe and flame in the quest
to tame the untamable in the
search for riches. For the global
population who depend on the
Amazon Basin for the health of
the world, this is untenable.
Tree of Rivers is a great historical
narrative and an important
lesson in human behavior.
T HE E X PL OR E RS CLUB
LEGACY SOCIETY
Thank you for your support!
Robert J. Atwater
Capt. Norman L. Baker
Barbara Ballard
Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D.
Samuel B. Ballen
Mark Gregory Bayuk
Daniel A. Bennett
Josh Bernstein
John R. Bockstoce, D.Phil.
Bjorn G. Bolstad
Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, Ph.D.
Garrett R. Bowden
Harry Davis Brooks
Lt. Col. Jewell Richard Browder*
August “Augie” Brown
John C.D. Bruno
Lee R. Bynum*
Virginia Castagnola Hunter
Julianne M. Chase, Ph.D.
Maj. Gen. Arthur W. Clark,
USAF (Ret.)
Leslie E. Colby
Jonathan M. Conrad
Catherine Nixon Cooke
Constance Difede
Mr. & Mrs. James Donovan
Col. William H. Dribben, USA
(Ret.)
Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D.
Lee M. Elman
Michael L. Finn
Robert L. Fisher, Ph.D.
John W. Flint
Kay Foster
James M. Fowler
W. Roger Fry
Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.
George W. Gowen
Randall A. Greene
Jean Charles Michel Guite
Capt. Robert “Rio” Hahn
Allan C. Hamilton
Scott W. Hamilton
O. Winston “Bud” Hampton,
Ph.D.
Brian P. Hanson
James H. Hardy, M.D.
Judith Heath
Robert A. Hemm
Gary “Doc” Hermalyn, Ph.D.
Lotsie Hermann Holton
Charles B. Huestis
Robert Edgar Hyman
J.P. Morgan Charitable Trust
Robert M. Jackson, M.D.
Kenneth M. Kamler, M.D.
Prince Joli Kansil
Lorie M.L. Karnath
Anthony G. Kehle, III
Anne B. Keiser
Kathryn Kiplinger
Thomas R. Kuhns, M.D.
Hannah B. Kurzweil
for additional
information contact
Carl C. Landegger
Michael S. Levin
Florence Lewisohn Trust
J. Roland Lieber
Michael Luzich
James E. Lockwood, Jr.*
Jose Loeb
John H. Loret, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Margaret D. Lowman, Ph.D.
Robert H. Malott
Leslie Mandel
Robert E. McCarthy*
George E. McCown
Capt. Alfred S. McLaren, Ph.D.,
USN (Ret.)
Lorus T. Milne, Ph.D.
James M. Mitchelhill*
Arnold H. Neis
Walter P. Noonan
Martin T. Nweeia, D.D.S.
Dr. John W. Olsen
Kathleen Parker
Alese & Morton Pechter
William E. Phillips
Prof Mabel L. Purkerson, M.D.
Roland R. Puton
Dimitri Rebikoff*
John T. Reilly, Ph.D.
Adrian Richards, Ph.D.
Bruce E. Rippeteau, Ph.D.
Merle Greene Robertson, Ph.D.
Otto E. Roethenmund
James Beeland Rogers, Jr.
Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr.
Gene M. Rurka
Avery B. Russell
David J. Saul, Ph.D.
Willets H. Sawyer, III
A. Harvey Schreter*
Mr. & Mrs. Donald Segur
Walter Shropshire, Jr., Ph.D.,
M.Div.
Theodore M. Siouris
William J. L. Sladen, M.D., D.Phil.
Susan Deborah Smilow
Sally A. Spencer
Pamela L. Stephany
Ronnie & Allan Streichler
Arthur O. Sulzberger
Vernon F. Taylor, III
Mitchell Terk, M.D.
C. Frederick Thompson, II
James “Buddy” Thompson
Marc Verstraete Van de Weyer
Robert C. Vaughn
Ann Marks Volkwein
Leonard A. Weakley, Jr.
William G. Wellington, Ph.D.
Robert H. Whitby
Julius Wile*
Holly Williams
Francis A. Wodal*
* Deceased
the explorers club
46 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021
212-628-8383
development@explorers.org

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING
great moments in exploration as told to Jim Clash
Riding Bombs
with Kathryn D. Sullivan
Twenty-five years ago, Kathryn D. Sullivan, now a director
at Ohio State’s John Glenn School of Public Affairs,
became the first American woman to walk in space
(October 11, 1984) outside the Shuttle Challenger. Just over
a year later, that spacecraft exploded 73 seconds into
flight, killing a crew of seven. Undaunted, Sullivan flew
again—in 1990 on Discovery and in 1992 aboard Atlantis.
JC: Tell us about that first space walk
KS: It is intense. There’s nobody there but you,
and the equipment—the only thing in between a
hard vacuum—so you tend to pay close attention.
It’s a good idea to get it right. The walk is a lot
like swimming in the pool we trained in. But the
view’s a whole bunch better. I looked down and
there was Venezuela sliding beneath my boots.
JC: Are you a role model for other women
KS: That would have been my first space walk if
10,000 people had done it before me. From that
point, the little historical fact doesn’t play any
role. But when it’s parents, teachers, or young
high school folks figuring their way through the
world and I’m identifiable as having something
worth saying, it’s an extraordinary opportunity.
So, whenever possible, I do what I can.
JC: Where were you when Challenger exploded
KS: I was en route to a connection in Dallas when
I got the news—and, of course, went right to the
space center because, who can go home at that
point Words don’t come. What could have
done it There are long phases of being numb,
then you fall into necessary activity patterns of
looking after families and showing proper courtesies.
Finally, the world begins to move again,
and you get into trying to figure out what really
happened, what are we going to do about it.
JC: Ever think, “I’m not going back up”
KS: We were there because this was important
work. If that painful moment was grounds to
give up, we had made the wrong estimation. I
grew up with families who know what airplane
crashes and explosions are. This business consists
of riding bombs. And if you do absolutely
everything right, you can marshal the energy to
do something astonishing, like put yourself into
orbit. If you do even a few things wrong, it’s going
to act like a bomb.
More of Jim Clash’s columns and videos can be found at www.
forbes.com/tothelimits or www.youtube.com/jimclash.
64

the explorers journal
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image by Cristian Donoso, diving in western patagonia