In space-flight terms, six landings on the moon back in the Sixties and Seventies doesn't mean much.

Back in those days, going to the moon, geology was important, ... But how do we train pilots to be geologists? We concentrated on observing, not the analytical parts of the rocks.

If you'll excuse a brief history lesson: most people didn't experience 'the sixties' until the seventies. Which meant, logically, that most people in the sixties were still experiencing the fifties--or, in my case, bits of both decades side by side. Which made things rather confusing.

We didn't slow down, unlike the others, when we got to the moon because we needed its gravity to get back, so we hold the altitude record. I never even thought about it. Records are only made to be broken.

Mars is a long ways away. The moon is only 240,000 miles, but Mars is in the millions. It's too risky without spending more time going to the moon.

The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand.