Edgar Mitchell (1930 - 2016)

Yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 14, which visited the Fra Mauro Highlands, the original target of the ill-fated Apollo 13.  Unfortunately, her sole surviving crewman passed one day before.

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that, you son of a bitch." - Edgar Mitchell

Almost no one knows the name "Edgar Mitchell", but he was one of only 12 humans in Earth's history to have set foot on the moon. With only seven surviving people who have walked on the face of another astronomical body, I wonder if that number will reach zero before it grows again.