The Moon Landing. 50 Years On.

[Top Cats Hat 10]

Just now, Annie Bynnol said:

Why are the YouTube researchers 

Talking of YouTube, there is a fabulous YouTube channel run by a geeky space nerd called Amy Teitel called Vintage Space.

 

She is obsessed with the Apollo era and makes videos explaining in detail, everything about all aspects of spaceflight in those days in a geeky, charming way which doesn’t patronise. ‘Vintage Space is a weird thing to call it but then she’s only in her 20’s so to her it probably is the old days.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw95T_TgbGHhTml4xZ9yIqg

[Halibut 12]

I've thoroughly enjoyed some of the excellent tv and radio programmes surrounding the anniversary of the moon landings. One thought that struck me quite forcefully about the halfwits who pretend it didn't really happen was how enormously disrespectful such people are to the men and women who made it happen. There was real bravery and real skill involved - think about Neil  Armstrong for example - assuming manual control of the Eagle as they came down. It really was touch and go stuff. Men died for it - Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee asphyxiated in that terrible fire, and others.

   

Here's Billy Braggs song 'The space race is over' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Yubitl5nk

[Top Cats Hat 10]

One thing I didn’t know until last week was that the Ruskies also flew an unmanned craft (Luna 15) to the moon at the same time as the Apollo 11 mission, which crashed while attempting to land.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_15

[zach 234]

Real time from the launch onward...

 

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

Edited July 21, 2019 by zach

[pattricia 574]

I think  everyone thought that the moon landing would be the start of something big, but it wasn’t. However, the bravery of the three astronauts filled us all with admiration and pride. They were told that they only had a 50% chance of returning alive. Now that fact alone makes them heroes in my eyes.!

[Top Cats Hat 10]

1 minute ago, pattricia said:

They were told that they only had a 50% chance of returning alive. 

Most of the mission was fairly straightforward as most had been done successfully before. 80% of the risk was the actual descent and moon landing  itself. Not only did they have to get down without crashing but also to land on a relatively flat surface. Landing on a slope of 15 degrees or greater would have preventing them blasting off again.

 

I saw an interesting interview with Michael Collins, who remained in the command module during the landing. He was asked about the procedure if Armstrong and Aldrin could’t get off the lunar surface. He replied that he certainly wouldn’t be hanging around waiting for them to die, he’d be on his way back alone.

[pattricia 574]

12 minutes ago, Top Cats Hat said:

Most of the mission was fairly straightforward as most had been done successfully before. 80% of the risk was the actual descent and moon landing  itself. Not only did they have to get down without crashing but also to land on a relatively flat surface. Landing on a slope of 15 degrees or greater would have preventing them blasting off again.

 

I saw an interesting interview with Michael Collins, who remained in the command module during the landing. He was asked about the procedure if Armstrong and Aldrin could’t get off the lunar surface. He replied that he certainly wouldn’t be hanging around waiting for them to die, he’d be on his way back alone.

I saw the same interview which was very interesting

[Top Cats Hat 10]

3 minutes ago, pattricia said:

I saw the same interview which was very interesting

Collins took this photograph from the command module which shows everyone in existence at the time (minus 1, of course)

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/smNQqDuub8gqUL3cA

 

 

 

 

 

[Halibut 12]

40 minutes ago, zach said:

Real time from the launch onward...

 

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

What a stunning resource that is - thanks for sharing!

[zach 234]

1 minute ago, Halibut said:

What a stunning resource that is - thanks for sharing!

Very welcome.

 

I'm on about 3hrs 45 mins now. Very interesting listening.

[Halibut 12]

13 minutes ago, zach said:

Very welcome.

 

I'm on about 3hrs 45 mins now. Very interesting listening.

I skipped through to the landing!

[spilldig 185]

18 hours ago, Top Cats Hat said:

In case anyone didn’t know, at 8.17pm tonight 50 years ago, the Eagle lunar lander touched down on the surface of the moon.

 

A remarkable feat with the resources available, particularly with the computing memory and power at the time. The famous 1202 error code, minutes before they landed was because Buzz Aldrin had forgotten to switch off the docking radar and the microprocessor was crapping out due to being task overloaded. The Angry Birds game alone uses more processing than used in the entire Apollo programme.

 

Yes we know that the whole thing wasn’t a great attempt to further mankind’s quest for knowledge, but rather a huge PR exercise in response to the Soviets making all the first major steps in the space race, but we should still pay tribute to the thousands of men and women who played their part in this great adventure.

 

(can mods please delete any attempts to turn this thread into a ‘it was all filmed in the Nevada desert’ conspiraloon fest)

 

Why the note to mods at the end ?  I think they went, but I also think everyone  is entitled to express an opinion.