- Emmett Seaborn: What we learned about the moon you see is not nearly as important as our going there. Apollo 8, witnesses to the first earthrise in the conciousness of man. Apollo 17, Gene Cernan takes that remarkable photo of Jack Schmitt standing on the moon with the Earth over his shoulder. See that's why we went to the moon. To take those pictures. We didn't go there to conquer it or claim it or simply beat the Russians to it. Sure, we wanted to find out what the moon was made of to satisfy questions of science that have plagued us since the dawn of man. But more than anything else we went to the moon to see if we could make the journey, because if we can do that, if we can voyage from the Earth to the moon then there's hope for all us because we can do anything.