We need to be reminded that once we did great things.<p>I worked at MIT Instrumentation Lab on a compiler for the guidance software for the moon missions. My contribution was insignificant, but I am still proud to have been part of it. My only regret was that I never made it to Florida to watch a Saturn V take off.
Really, if you’re going to commemorate it, cite a more authoritative source.<p><a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/july-21-1969,10515/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theonion.com/articles/july-21-1969,10515/</a>
I recently picked up a box full of old copies The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction at a book sale. Whoever had originally purchased them had most of the 1960s and a good part of the 1950s, so they obviously had a lasting interest in science fiction.<p>The last volume he purchased was August 1969.<p>In my imagination, after the moon landing, he bought one more issue, and it just didn't work anymore. Science fiction had become science fact, and he had no need for any more fiction.<p>I wonder how he felt later, after we left the moon for the last time and never went back.
Mr. Armstrong replied:<p>"Thank you Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations, men with interests and a curiosity and men with a vision for the future."<p>Fucking awesome.
For me at least, I hope man goes back to the moon in my lifetime.<p>Dad has always talked about his memories of 1969 (he would have been a teenager at the time) and the excitement of it.<p>I feel like going back after so long will feel almost as momentous for some of my generation. Although possibly not the the majority, which is a little sad.
Many of the Apollo astronauts still make themselves available to the public, and they appear at collector events where they will sign autographs for a small fee. More than fair considering what their government pay must have been in the 60's... Go and meet them while you still can!
43 years ago! I was a small kid on holidays by the seaside and I remember watching it on the B&W tv of the people who were renting us out their cottage. Nice to be able to know where you were when something good happened rather than something terrible.
So I am optimistic we'll be returning to the Moon within the next 20 years. The reasoning is that technology is advancing to the point where its less and less of a 'big deal.' The last remaining hurdle is 'on-orbit refueling'.<p>Today, the last remaining challenge of landing on the moon, is carrying enough fuel for a trans-lunar injection orbit into orbit, and then for the lander to land on the moon itself.<p>With modern launch vehicles, it is straight-forward to launch a moon landing mission as three components (command module, lander, and engine/fuel. And link them together in orbit. However, there is a significant penalty to not launching all at once into the correct earth orbit to later elongate into a trans lunar orbit. So a 'modern' mission actually would need <i>two</i> loads of fuel in orbit, one to move the whole assembly into a prepatory orbit, and then one to move from that orbit to the moon.<p>If we have on-orbit refueling then you manage a depot of fuel for the second step, and the sequence becomes launch lander, dock it with a tug. Launch command module, attach that to the tug. Move the tug (with its command and lander modules) into the same ecliptic as the moon's orbit. Then refuel, and <i>then</i> use the tug to move you to the moon.<p>By re-using the tug multiple times the costs drop dramatically. (like $100M every time you re-use it, that is a tug you didn't launch from earth).<p>People want on-orbit refueling so that we can have longer lived satellites. (there are perfectly serviceable communication satellites in 'dead' orbits because they no longer have the fuel for station keeping.)<p>Once we get that capability it won't be a question of 'will' to get to the moon, it will simply be a question of money. And there is enough disposable income amongst the young billionaires of the world that getting the money won't be an issue either.
Does anyone know how we got such high quality (live?) video of astronauts walking on the moon, but recent moon missions like LCROSS [1] didn't even have video AFAIK?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_r...</a>
Audio + video of the landing: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVySHDCqOA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVySHDCqOA</a><p>Interesting writeup of the various alarms (beeps) that are going off: <a href="http://klabs.org/history/apollo_11_alarms/eyles_2004/eyles_2004.htm" rel="nofollow">http://klabs.org/history/apollo_11_alarms/eyles_2004/eyles_2...</a><p>At 3:15 you can hear Charlie Duke say "60 seconds" - that's how much time they have until they run out of fuel and need to abort the landing.
Is anyone retransmitting a "real-time" audio feed of the communications between the Apollo 11 crew and mission control?<p>3 years ago, I took my laptop to the terrace atop the building I worked in and listened as the sun fell behind the buildings. I was one year old at the time of the actual landing and I'm glad I could join in, even if with a 40 year delay.
I watched it in Overland Park, Kansas, with awe. Several years later, I watched another moon landing in a room full of high-school classmates who were more interested in the sunflower seeds they were chewing.
One thing I wonder about is why astronauts get angry when it is suggested the landings were faked rather than just laughing their faces. Aldrin even punched a guy. What's with that?