AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2024 - 36

BRIEFING
FIRST LOOK /
" The medals were given...
for Neil Armstrong,
Michael Collins, and
Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. "
Just another gold medal
The Prix Pierre Guzman awarded to Apollo 11 crew
BY DENNIS K. JOHNSON
WHEN THE APOLLO 11 astronauts returned from the historic first exploration of
the moon's surface, they were honored by the people of America and the nations of
the world. The crew were feted with innumerable parades, speeches, and black-tie
dinners. August 13, 1969, was a particularly hectic day for the astronauts. It began
with a flight from Houston to New York for the traditional tickertape parade up
Broadway to city hall where they were presented with the city's gold medal. The
motorcade continued to the United Nations before the crew and their wives flew to
Chicago for yet another parade. The day ended with a state dinner in Los Angeles
hosted by President Richard Nixon.
In September, the astronauts traveled individually for celebrations in their
hometowns. Armstrong rode in a parade through his hometown of Wapakoneta,
Ohio, and Aldrin in Montclair, New Jersey. Although Collins was born in Rome,
Italy, he adopted New Orleans as his American hometown.
If touring the United States wasn't enough, on September 29, 1969, the crew and
their wives embarked on a world-circling, 38-day goodwill tour in which they visited
29 cities in 24 countries. The astronauts travelled in style, on a presidential jet that
had been the first jet-powered Air Force One. At every event they were presented
with some award, certificate, medal, key to the city, or gift.
36
AOPA PILOT / December 2024
PRIX PIERRE GUZMAN
One award that went almost completely
unnoticed by the press, and was likely hardly
noticed by the astronauts themselves, was the
Prix Pierre Guzman (Pierre Guzman Prize).
It was established in the will of Anne Emilie
Guzman when she died in 1891. She and her
husband, Marc Guzman, had conceived and
funded the award and named it after their
deceased son, Pierre.
Young Pierre was a fan of Camille
Flammarion (1842-1925), a French astronomer
who authored more than 50 books. He also
founded L'Astronomie, a monthly astronomy
magazine that is still published today.
Flammarion wrote several science fiction
novels and the 1892 book La Planète Mars et
ses Conditions d'Habitabilité (The Planet Mars
and its Conditions of Habitability). It was
during this fin-de-siècle period that the idea of
life on Mars arose. In 1877, Italian astronomer
Giovanni Schiaparelli believed he'd observed
a network of lines on Mars' surface, which he
termed canali. The word means " channels, "
but was poorly translated into English as
" canals, " implying they were built and not
natural formations. For the next few decades
astronomers, including the American Percival
Lowell, proposed that the lines and other
observed features were made by intelligent
beings. Flammarion researched and wrote
extensively about these ideas during the 1880s
and 1890s.
This was also the period when many
classic science fiction novels were written,
including H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds,
(1897), one of the earliest stories written about
an invasion from Mars. So, it's understandable
that the Guzmans believed scientists had
already determined Mars to be inhabited.
When better optics were developed in
the 1920s, the canals were proved to be an
optical illusion caused by nineteenth century
telescopes.
NASA
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2024

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