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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Science We Came in Peace for All Mankind

Posted by Anthony Hecht on Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 10:44 AM

Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 (if you believe in that sort of thing).

Apollo 11 is one of the most staggering achievements in human history, and The Boston Globe's Big Picture blog takes a look back in the way they do best—with gorgeous, giant photographs.

Note that Command Module pilot Michael Collins—the man who drew the shortest straw ever—is the only human being who had ever lived up to that time who is not in front of the lens in this shot. Freaky.

I also particularly like this photo of Neil Armstrong's face, hours after he became the first human to walk on the moon.

NASA has also posted some restored moonwalk video from the mission, and the real-time audio feed of the mission. It has a lot of stuff like, "Plus zero, zero, zero, zero, option zero zero one-niner seven, zero three. LEM wait, three-three, two-niner zero, over." It's surprisingly riveting.

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I wait in anticipation for BGBPB updates. This one is amazing as always. I mean, for highly-staged cold war psyche-out fakery. .

Posted by jackie treehorn on July 16, 2009 at 10:47 AM

Collins was historically the loneliest man in the universe to that date, when he was orbiting around the dark side of the Moon, out of radio contact for 45 minutes at a time with everyone else in existence.

Buzz Aldrin, a Presbyterian Church elder, snuck a pastor's home Communion kit to the surface of the moon and secretly received Communion on his own in the lander while on the moon's surface (because NASA was already being sued by atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair over conducting prayer in space).

Posted by Peter F on July 16, 2009 at 10:54 AM

I remember the day well. It was by far the most exciting thing that happened that year. Everyone was happy and so proud of our country.

Posted by crazycatguy on July 16, 2009 at 10:59 AM

It was an amazing time to be alive. I remember it like it was yesterday. (Actually, now that I think about it, I probably remember it better than I remember yesterday.)

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on July 16, 2009 at 11:02 AM

Someone post a link to Buzz Aldrin punching a detractor in the face!!

Posted by StillNon on July 16, 2009 at 11:02 AM

Having witnessed the moon landing when I was in my 20's this is really exciting for me. I also point out a moon lannding event that everyone should go to.
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/cal…

Posted by oldmanandthesea

on July 16, 2009 at 11:03 AM

Oh here's that video

http://www.spike.com/video/buzz-aldrin-p…

Posted by StillNon on July 16, 2009 at 11:03 AM

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxap…

Phil Plait, the guy who blogs for "Bad Astronomy," does a great job of addressing the hoax theories.

Educational and amusing.

Posted by Ackham on July 16, 2009 at 11:08 AM

@7 & 8 - Yes, thanks. These people all deserve a good punch in the face from Buzz Aldrin.

Posted by Anthony Hecht on July 16, 2009 at 11:16 AM

That pic of Armstrong's face is pretty wonderful.

Posted by Fnarf

on July 16, 2009 at 11:16 AM

Oh wow oh wow oh wow.

I hope this anniversary inspires NASA to scrap the shuttle missions and go back to the Apollo-style crafts. These photos are so incredible. This happened way before my time, but I am so thrilled seeing these pictures I can't even express it sufficiently.

Posted by tabletop_joe on July 16, 2009 at 11:17 AM

The photo of the plaque left behind ("we come in peace for all mankind" is kind ), upon closer inspection, reveals that RICHARD FUCKING NIXON'S signature is left in perpetuity on the surface of the moon, documenting one of all humanity's greatest achievements.

That kind of ruined my day.

Posted by Juris on July 16, 2009 at 11:35 AM

@12, you didn't know that? Who did you think was President in 1969?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on July 16, 2009 at 11:41 AM

Those are some great special effects for the late '60s!

Posted by schmacky on July 16, 2009 at 11:42 AM

@11 The Shuttle is being retired and replaced by a capsule. Sadly the shuttle is a pretty under-admired craft. It really is an impressive accomplishment and things like the recent Hubble repair will not be possible with the new craft.

Posted by giffy on July 16, 2009 at 12:07 PM

This is my earliest memory. Curled up on the couch with my blanket and stuffed animals (I was 2), the entire family glued to Cronkite on the TV.

Posted by David Miller on July 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM

Check out http://wechoosethemoon.org/# for the real-time feed of the mission plus some interesting graphics (it's put together by the JFK Presidential Library).

Posted by kmoondawg on July 16, 2009 at 12:32 PM

Some of the most amazing photographs ever taken. Every penny NASA spent on training astronauts how to take pictures has repaid the public a hundredfold.

Posted by Greg on July 16, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Really pretty interface & presentation of the real-time mission communications/etc by the JFK Presidential Library & Museum:

http://wechoosethemoon.org/

Twitter feeds from capcom, spacecraft, and (eventually) eagle:

http://twitter.com/ap11_capcom
http://twitter.com/ap11_spacecraft
http://twitter.com/ap11_eagle

Posted by procne on July 16, 2009 at 1:16 PM

All of the people who are on the back side of the planet Earth are not in that shot, either.

But he was the only human in the universe who could take that shot, which is saying something, I suppose.

Posted by NapoleonXIV on July 16, 2009 at 1:19 PM

Simply amazing. Looking at those pictures makes me ache in wonder of what the human mind is capable of.

Posted by The Girl That You Knew Somewhere on July 16, 2009 at 1:24 PM

Cool photos from NASA, but where the fuck is my flying car???!!!

Posted by DOUG.

on July 16, 2009 at 1:26 PM

It's incredible to realize fully half the people now living on Planet Earth weren't even alive 40 years ago when Apollo 11 began it's voyage to the moon. Aside from the historical significance of the mission, I don't know if a lot of people really realize this was truly the first totally global media event; nothing that came before or has come since had the sheer scope of impact the Eagle landing had on the world. Fully one quarter of the total population of the planet, somewhere between 800 million and one billion people either watched it live on television, or listened via radio. For those few brief hours it literally was "the day the earth stood still", and the moment of touchdown itself may have resulted in the single largest collective exhalation of breath ever likely to occur.

Anthony, a lot of those seemingly nonsensical strings of numbers is Mission Control relaying code sequences that the astronauts had to manually enter into their guidance and navigation computers. (the first to utilize integrated circuits, BTW) in order to instruct the on-board systems to perform all the various tasks involved with keeping the ship on-course, and in the case of the Lunar Module, to properly interpret radar data, fuel consumption and the like during the landing.

And yeah, definitely check out wechoosethemoon.org. In addition to the "real-time" mission playback, there's a wealth of images, videos, simulations, interviews with participants, pretty much everything NASA has relating to the mission.

Also, for a true taste of what it was like for those of us who witnessed this historic event, check out the videos of CBS TV coverage of the landing starting here.

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Posted by COMTE