Editing The Green Hills of Earth (section)

== Apollo 15 ==

The [[Apollo 15]] astronauts named a number of craters in their landing area after favorite science fiction stories. Near "[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]" (after the Frank Herbert novel) and "[[Earthlight (crater)|Earthlight]]" (Arthur C. Clarke) craters was [[Rhysling (crater)]], named after the blind singer of the spaceways in "The Green Hills of Earth".  They intended to read a bit of "Green Hills of Earth" at the crater, but the exigencies of lunar exploration kept it from happening. To squeeze it in, [[Flight controller#Spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM)|Capcom]] Joe Allen told them to "come home again to the homes of men, to the cool green hills of Earth"<ref>{{Cite web|title=site: Robert A. Heinlein - Archives - Rhysling Crater (Luna)|url=http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/lunacrater.html|access-date=2022-02-17|website=www.nitrosyncretic.com}}</ref> as their last [[Extra-vehicular activity|moonwalk]] was ending:

{{Quote box | quote = 
Allen: As the space poet Rhysling (the blind poet in Robert Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth) would say, we're ready for you to "come back again to the homes of men on the cool green hills of Earth."<ref name=Allen/>

[Scott - "That's from the Green Hills of Earth. That's one we talked about before the flight. Have you read that one?"]
[Jones - "Oh, yeah! That was a favorite when I was a kid. Had you read it?"]

[Scott - "Sure. (Quoting from memory):<br>

''We pray for one last landing''<br>
''on the globe that gave us birth''<br>
''To rest our eyes on fleecy skies''<br> 
''and the cool green hills of Earth''.
<br>"]

[Scott - "In thinking about perception kind of stuff, if you think about where we are (at Hadley), the thing that's really different about the Earth is 'cool green hills' with the fleecy skies and the blue sky. So Heinlein's perception of a meaningful thing for the Blind Poet of the Spaceways is pretty good. That he could transport himself out."]

[Jones - "It was written sometime in the 40s, I think."]

[Scott - "And here we have black skies, and a gray surface. Dramatic difference. I always think it's amazing. Some of those science fiction guys can really project themselves out there that way."]

[Jones - "The good ones could."]

[Scott - "Cause one of the questions people ask about this is, 'Is the sky really all black?' Yeah. 'When it was daylight?' Yup. 'Wow!'"]
| source = --[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a15/a15.clsout3.html Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal "The Hammer and the Feather"]
}}
Scott's memory of this last verse does not match either of the versions in the story itself, which is fitting considering that 
"most of the verses were collected after [Rhysling's] death from people who knew him"<ref>
{{Cite book|last=Heinlein|first=Robert A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQakBQAAQBAJ&q=%22most%20of%20the%20verses%20were%20collected%20after%20%5BRhysling's%5D%20death%20from%20people%20who%20knew%20him%22%20inauthor:Heinlein|title=The Green Hills of Earth|date=2014-12-22|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-0-575-11311-4}}</ref> and "The Green Hills of Earth grew through twenty years".<ref>
{{Cite book|last=Heinlein|first=Robert A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQakBQAAQBAJ&q=%22The%20Green%20hills%20of%20Earth%20grew%20through%20twenty%20years%22%20inauthor%3AHeinlein|title=The Green Hills of Earth|date=2014-12-22|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-0-575-11311-4}}</ref>