---
title: A New Reflection on History
date: 2024-09-06T13:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/a-new-reflection-on-history"
section: Articles
---
# A New Reflection on History

*September 6, 2024* — by [Chris Carroll](/authors/chris-carroll)


- *Photos courtesy of Douglas Currie*
- *Portrait by John T. Consoli*

> Physicist Who Helped Send Mirrors to Moon on Apollo 11 Prepares to Launch an Improved Model

*astronaut on the moon*

In July 1969, four faculty members traveled from College Park to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to provide last-minute instruction to a noteworthy pupil: an Apollo 11 astronaut about to become one of the first humans to set foot beyond Earth.

Just days later, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin would be following mission commander Neil Armstrong onto the moon’s surface to deploy a UMD-led experiment. The suitcase-size array of retroreflectors—painstakingly crafted hunks of glass able to reflect light directly back to its source from any angle—would serve as a target for powerful lasers on Earth and provide the first accurate measurements of the distance between the planet and its satellite. In a meeting with Aldrin, then-Assistant Professor Douglas Currie, an expert in laser light, asked if the former fighter pilot with a Ph.D. in astronautics had any questions.


*Douglas Currie headshot*


*Researcher talks with astronauts — In an undated photo, Currie (seated) discusses the project with astronauts and astronomers at the McDonald Observatory in Texas.*


*Currie’s modern mirror design — Currie’s modern mirror design awaits thermal testing in a chamber at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.*


> A lot of what we’re looking to do today builds directly on what was done more than 50 years ago.”

— —Stephen Merkowitz, *Space Geodesy Project Manager, NASA*


“A lot of what we’re looking to do today builds directly on what was done more than 50 years ago, so Doug’s experience working on Apollo is valuable in the present,” Merkowitz says.

Currie chuckles looking at a photo he keeps in his office in the Physics Building: It shows Aldrin strolling across the moon, swinging the original UMD mirror array in one hand and another priceless experiment in another. Times have changed.

“Now we’re told the astronauts have to carry it in both hands, even though it weighs only a fraction of what Buzz was carrying,” he says. “They want you to do one thing at a time, I guess.”


**Sidebar note:**

 Moonwalk practice in Arizona? Meet the professor overseeing safety testing for NASA’s Artemis mission to the moon at [go.umd.edu/back2moon](https://today.umd.edu/back-to-the-moon-but-first-arizona).





**Issue:** [Fall 2024](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2024)


**Types:** [Explorations](https://terp.umd.edu/category/explorations)