14 DAY TRIAL // What should you do in order to have your name on a plaque on the Moon? You could try becoming the president of the United States (Richard Nixon). But you could also be the designer of the spacesuit toilet seat.
The first plaque put on Moon reads:
Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.
And then followed the signatures of the astronauts and of Richard Nixon (although he wasn't either on the Moon or particularly peaceful).
But other plaques have been placed on the Moon since then. One of them also bears the name of Thomas Shanahan Jr., an aeronautical engineer who worked on the Apollo 13 moon mission and was involved in designing a toilet seat that spacewomen can use privately, while in space. Before Shanahan, spacewomen probably had to go to the toilet before venturing into a spacewalk, while now they are free from such concern and able to focus only on the important scientific details of their missions.
Shanahan died from lung cancer at the age of 67 and was buried on Monday (on Earth, near Chicago).