First-hand history on lunar landing

Edgar Mitchell took schoolchildren in Petaluma to the moon Thursday -- one of the few men able to do it.

Mitchell, a former astronaut, spent nine hours walking the lunar surface on Feb. 9, 1971, as part of the Apollo 14 crew. He shared that experience in a visit to McNear Elementary, answering the all-important question: What's it like?

"It feels like walking on a trampoline, but with a couple of overcoats on," Mitchell said.

Mitchell, in Petaluma to attend a meeting of the Petaluma-based Institute of Noetic Sciences, which he started, lent his experience to students with other gripping questions:

"How do you go to the bathroom in space?"

"Very carefully," Mitchell replied to peals of laughter from the more than 100 students at the school assembly.

Actually, special equipment on board the spacecraft helps keep things hygienic. He also told the students that if you weigh 40 or 50 pounds on earth, you weigh only 10 pounds on the moon.

It's a kids' paradise.

"You can really bounce around," Mitchell said.

The 77-year-old space traveler is the last surviving member of NASA's third moon mission, 37 years ago.

He spent two days on the lunar surface with commander Alan Shepard, collecting nearly 100 pounds of rocks, watching Shepard drive a golf ball and recording the longest moon walk in history.

While staring out at the heavens on his return to Earth, Mitchell had an epiphany about the nature of the universe and human consciousness.

He formed his institute in 1973 to delve into psychic experience and other areas that mainstream science ignores.

"The experience was so powerful we were hesitant to talk about it at first," said Mitchell, a self-described scientist-philosopher. "It made me start thinking about who we are and where we are going."

Mitchell, who lives near Palm Beach, Fla., was a Navy pilot before joining NASA in 1966. He was an alternate lunar module pilot on Apollo 10 and assisted from the ground in the dramatic return of the crippled Apollo 13 in 1970.

As a member of the Apollo 14 crew, he became the sixth man to set foot on the moon. He collected samples with Shepard near the rim of a 1,000-foot-wide crater and later tossed a makeshift javelin after the commander's golf ball.

In retirement he has pursued his interest in the paranormal and is featured in the 2006 documentary, "In the Shadow of the Moon."

The Institute of Noetic Sciences has grown to nearly 30,000 members in 50 countries, according to its Web site.

On Thursday, Mitchell signed autographs and fielded questions from a rapt group of youngsters, including visiting seventh-graders from Sunridge School near Sebastopol.

Many wanted to know what it felt like to be weightless. Others asked about the food or the perils of re-entry.

"There are so many risks," said Jackson Walker, 11. "It seems so exhilarating."

Leslie Mejia, 11, marveled at the technological advances brought by space travel.

"I think it's kind of cool we have invented so many things to help make people's lives easier," Mejia said.

One questioner wanted to know if Mitchell ever had seen a UFO. He hasn't, he said, but he believed reports from friend and fellow astronaut Gordon Cooper, who claimed to have seen them several times in his career.

"We know it's real, but it's been very strongly covered up in our culture," Mitchell said in a separate talk with Sunridge parents and students.

Mitchell praised human invention since his great-grandparents crossed the country more than 100 years ago in a covered wagon. He said cell phones and computer games kids carry in their pockets today are more powerful than anything on board Apollo 14.

But he warned that people must continue to guard against overpopulation and destruction of the planet he saw from so many miles away.

"All of it is creating an unsustainable condition," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.

com.