Still gives me chills watching (and more particularly listening to) the landing.
Travel 45th Anniversary of Apollo 11 landing
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Still gives me chills watching (and more particularly listening to) the landing.
Bluelegs
Celebrating what we're good at
45 years and our space exploration has barely advanced at all. 
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In terms of an actual person going out there, yes. But getting to the moon was a monumental effort and it's a drop in the ocean compared to the distances to get anywhere else.45 years and our space exploration has barely advanced at all.
In unmanned probes, we've done quite a bit since then.
LukasTheGreat
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We're just about to leave the solar system for the first time, that's pretty incredible.
JuddsABlue
Norm Smith Medallist
45 years and our space exploration has barely advanced at all.
Recently the first event man made object lef the solar system which is a pretty big achievement
Although I see what you're getting at, we've certainly been lacking in our efforts in space travel, although we have learned a great deal since then
Bluelegs
Celebrating what we're good at
For comparrisons sake. The wright bros first powered flight took place in 1903 66 years before the moon landing.
Papa Juggs
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- #7
I last 3 landings were the most important to science but the first one of course has a special place in the history of mankind.
It really sucks that Neil isn't here any more. It's a huge loss for everybody. He's not a big hero for doing what he did as he was just the monkey that they put in the pod. It was the engineers and the massive amount of taxpayer money footed by the American blue collar worker that made this possible. Every one of them are the true heroes.
If you want to know exactly what has been done in the last 30 years you can sum it up in one picture.
The final cost? 7 lives and any chance of exploration outside of Low Earth Orbit. The science is loosely justified and it's pretty much just a fancy floating TV studio for astronauts to talk to school students.
The whole place smells of farts, is full of dead skin and there's mold behind every crack and crevice.
For the same price there could have been a small Moon base well on the way. It was shortsighted jealously by the Americans over the MIR space station which the Russians built that fueled the need for it and nothing more.
It really sucks that Neil isn't here any more. It's a huge loss for everybody. He's not a big hero for doing what he did as he was just the monkey that they put in the pod. It was the engineers and the massive amount of taxpayer money footed by the American blue collar worker that made this possible. Every one of them are the true heroes.
If you want to know exactly what has been done in the last 30 years you can sum it up in one picture.
The final cost? 7 lives and any chance of exploration outside of Low Earth Orbit. The science is loosely justified and it's pretty much just a fancy floating TV studio for astronauts to talk to school students.
The whole place smells of farts, is full of dead skin and there's mold behind every crack and crevice.
For the same price there could have been a small Moon base well on the way. It was shortsighted jealously by the Americans over the MIR space station which the Russians built that fueled the need for it and nothing more.
It was an amazing achievement. When you actually read up about the work that went into it by thousands of people, the training of the astronauts, the uncertainty health and safety wise, the risks, the bravery and thoughtfulness of all involved…it was truly an incredible undertaking, one that deserves great praise. I encourage all to seek out the doco "For All Mankind". A beautiful film of all the moon walks stitched together with the real life footage to an ambient Brian Eno score.
Papa Juggs
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In the Shadow of the Moon is good too.
Love the way they talk about the Saturn V. That rocket was truly the pinnacle of engineering even today it hasn't been equaled.
Love the way they talk about the Saturn V. That rocket was truly the pinnacle of engineering even today it hasn't been equaled.
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Armstrong (and the rest) was more than a monkey in the pod. His piloting skills and nerve played a huge part in landing Apollo 11 with less than 20 seconds of fuel left, and also on Gemini (7 or 9) when he and Dave Scott were in serious trouble.
It was a huge effort by a lot of people though, agreed there.
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Or has it ooohhohohoohohohohoho45 years and our space exploration has barely advanced at all.
There really could be people living on the moon right now. It seems expensive, until you realise that the cost of 4 people living on the moon for 1 year is 1/6th the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. It is all priorities....
Papa Juggs
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He was an incredible pilot that's for sure. Still piloting the LEM was about the easiest thing he had ever done. He was cool under pressure with the computer alarms and fuel running low but doesn't mean he wasn't well overqualified for the job.
That Gemini 8 flight was a great tragedy for space flight that is still being felt today. It led to a fear over Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
There was nothing Neil could do to get that beast under control because the thruster was stuck on. It was nothing to do with the docking together of the vehicles. He always had the option of firing RCS to control the roll once they undocked it just meant that the mission had to be immediately aborted.
Still to this day the farthest landing from the planned landing zone.
It was the guys like Dave Scott that got truly lucky with their mission assignment. Getting to use the Lunar Rover and spend many hours exploring the surface of the Moon would have been a special thing to experience.
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On one hand, it's pretty ludicrous and even more astounding when you think how quickly it escalated from just being able to stay above the ground for a few minutes, to being on a whole new planet. Then I guess it makes you realise how parochial and unsophisticated our technologies really are – for all the advances we have, the things that separate modern man from one even 150 years ago, I don't know... it feels like we should be pushing space travel even more.
iluvparis
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Not sure how planned it was, or whether he meant to say it or just said it by accident but 'One step for man, one giant leap for mankind' has to be one of the ALL TIME great calls in the history of human civilisation.
inb4ipreferhuddo's13
inb4ipreferhuddo's13
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It was planned, but he muffed it on the big stage. He meant to say "that's one small step for A man..."
Still a history defining moment.
I actually get more excited listening to the final descent (in full with a transcription and detailed notes of what was going on here - http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html). So calm and professional right the way down despite the fact that it must have been the most intense moments of their lives. And I just love Neil's presence of mind to change the call-sign from "Eagle" to "Tranquility Base" once they touch down.
Papa Juggs
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What do you mean we?
In the Western World Australia is the one country that spends the least on space flight related activity.
If you mean the USA then they're a corrupt system of cronies that would prefer to give billions to bankers than send a probe to Europa.
If you mean mankind as a whole then there's always China. Woot go China!!!
This stuff is interesting. I'm intrigued by the possibility of private investment. Suborbital travel would be great.
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did he muff it up though? i heard that the transmission cut out "A"?
That, and a certain call to have a wicket-keeper come on to bowl for Australia. ;-)
It is amazing looking back, and I wonder sometimes how plagued (or not) the whole space program was by internal politics, which seems to get in the way of everything these days. It was given such a huge budget, and perhaps the whole 'space race' was a product of the times; in the wake of WWII the USA and USSR were well and truly the world's only superpowers and so far ahead of the pack economically and from a military standpoint. Perhaps it was the one time a nation could afford to 'splurge' on something like this.
No doubt the US taxpayer is to be thanked a lot for this, as well as countless engineers who were given an opportunity of a lifetime to apply their skills in a way that hitherto was purley confined to academia. It would have been such a great job to have.
What was the feeling among the public at the time? Was there any cynicsm (rightly or wrongly) that it was all about beating the Russians, or expanding defence capabilities, exploring colonisation/mining potential; or was it regarded as simply an exercise in human endeavour, something mankind chose to do, as JFK famously said.
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- #22
That was the story they put out. It's hard to tell really, in a transmission from the lunar surface, but it seems more likely that he just missed it. There's also speculation that the couple of pauses that follow ("...step for man ... one ... giant leap for mankind") were because he realised he'd messed it up but had no choice really other than to carry on, though it sounds to me just as likely that he's talking while moving and walking on the moon which should be enough to distract anybody momentarily.
I have sometimes interpreted it as him simply being overcome emotionally at the time. I know he was a trained professional and all that, but * me if what he was doing at that precise time wasn't a big deal!
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I say "we" as mankind. If it's the Chinese or the Canadians or the Kiwis, go for it!
In terms of major manned flights (further than the moon) I'd expect an international cooperative effort to be most likely.
$60 billion to the US budget would be a drop in the ocean, it wouldn't have had to be at the expense of the F-35 or any military project. It comes down pure and simple to the lack of public support. If there was the public support in the US for a moon base the money would be found quick smart. Like most Western countries the mindset from the 60's to now has changed from 'Let's have a great country' to 'Where's my handout / tax break / Obamacare' etc.
Certainly from an Australian point of view, given the 10 - 15 billion spent on the home insulation and BER programs, I'd have taken putting all that money into developing our own moon program (with then any democratic country that wanted to join welcome as a partner) over that waste every day of the week. The science spin offs over time would have mitigated a lot of the costs.
Edit: Heck, even now, I'd happily take all the money ear marked for direct action on climate change, the PPL or be happy for the increase in the fuel levy if all the money went into an Australian Moon program.
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