Just Another Gold Medal

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.

“The medals were given...for Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.”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.

To win, don’t land on Mars

According to an Associated Press report from Paris published in U.S. newspapers on October 21, 1969, if the Apollo 11 astronauts had landed on Mars, they wouldn’t be eligible for the gold medals of the Prix Pierre Guzman...

“It was to be given, Mrs. Guzman said, ‘without exclusion of nationality, to him who finds a means of communicating with a heavenly body and to receive a response to that signal. I exclude the planet Mars, which appears to be sufficiently well known.’”

The prize of 100,000 French francs included the stipulation that the interest on the money would be awarded every five years to a person who made a significant advancement in astronomy. The prize was to be administered by the French Academy of Sciences. It was formally announced in 1900, and the first cash prize was awarded in 1905.

“Mrs. Guzman provided the French Academy of Science with the equivalent of $20,000, and in the years since 19 cash prizes have gone to French astronomers. The last award, $870, went in 1965 to the director of the Toulouse Observatory.”

By 1969, the prize fund had dwindled to the equivalent of $2,160 and the academy used the remaining funds to strike gold medals for the astronauts.

On December 10, 1969, AP reported from Paris that, “the medals were given Monday to the U.S. Embassy scientific attaché, Edgar Pirst, for Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.”

Although it wasn’t big news, there were still some people who criticized the awarding of the prize, arguing that the moon was never intended to be included as a heavenly body. By then, with the prize funds depleted, it’s likely the academy just wanted to be rid of the responsibility.