[It's Magic]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Michael Collins {1930-2021}, Command Module pilot who circled the moon while his other two colleagues walked on the service

I wonder what Michael Collins must have felt when two of his colleagues stepped down on the Moon and walked around for a while.
He came so far from Earth and got so close to the Moon, but didn't get the chance to land on it. :(

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by It's Magic

I wonder what Michael Collins must have felt when two of his colleagues stepped down on the Moon and walked around for a while.
He came so far from Earth and got so close to the Moon, but didn't get the chance to land on it. :(

Michael Collins was very professional and mature about it. BBC Hardtalk interviewed him in 2019 at the 50th anniversary. The maturity and sheer balance of the man shines through in the interview despite the shoddy manners of the interviewer.

https://www.bing.com/videos/rivervie...6524&FORM=VIRE

A better and shorter interview with 60 minutes Australia here https://www.bing.com/videos/rivervie...DFB&ajaxhist=0

Mike Collins as commander of the Command Module was responsible to get all three back to earth safely.

[Jeroen]

I was ten years old when this happened. And very much into space and rockets. My dad and I watched it live on television. Black and white obviously.

Many years later, early 80s I spend six weeks hitch hiking through parts of the USA. Cape Kennedy was of course top on my list to see and do. I think I spend 2-3 days doing all the tours. Of course, in those days it was all about the space shuttle, but there was still plenty to see from the Apollo program. They had a live-size Saturnus! And I got to stand next to one of the crawlers. The contraption that moved the Saturnus from the assembly hall to the launch platform. The scale, size and weight of all this machinery is just mind boggling!

I once met Neil Armstrong. He was a guest of honour at some aviation gathering which I happened to attend. A more down to earth person I have yet to meet.

I am still absolutely fascinated by the Apollo program. The Americans achieved so much in terms of fundamental research and innovative new design and engineering.

Much has been said about the Apollo and Landing Module Computer. I have seen the real deal in a museum in the USA. Probably in Washington?

This is by far the best explanation of this fantastic bit of computing kit. This guy has really dug into the design and operations. Some of us might recall that during the final descent to the moon surface the computer kept giving alarms, that nobody understood. Neil and Buzz sort of managed to figure out, on the fly, that it was, most likely, not that relevant and continued the descent.

Neil had to to take manual control as the computer was going to auto land them on a very rocky patch of moon. This video explains all about these alarms and also how the auto flight worked. Of course, the story is Neil landed manually. Which is actually not true. He directed the computer to a different landing location. Once you listen to this video you also understand what all these numbers are that Buzz keeps calling out to Neil. They had a very simple, but very effective scale etched into the moon lander windows. Those numbers represent geographical location to the targeted touch down point.

Absolutely fascinating

https://youtu.be/B1J2RMorJXM?si=FaB4N7et2SgYw6jm

Let’s not forget the program prior to Apollo, Gemini, which got Americans astronauts in space, did the first space walks, spacing docking and so on.

You might recall the “Liberty Bell” capsule with Guss Grissom. It sank after a successful splash down. Gus got out, but Liberty Bell sank. It was successfully recovered decades later. I saw it on display in Hutchinson when we lived in Kansas City. An Apollo capsule is small, but these Gemini Capsules are minute. It must take some BIG balls to strap yourself in and be rocketed off into space!

Jeroen

[FiestaST]

Sweet timing. I visited Jhonson Space center, Houston last week and was awed. Here are some pictures.

Original 747 modified to carry a shuttle.





F-1 (codename) engine which powered Saturn V rocket (part of Apollo mission)





Cockpit of space shuttle



The very control room used for the launch of spaceflight Apollo 11 Lunar Module - Eagle took off using Apollo 11 Saturn V space launch vehicle on July 16 1969. NASA preserved it for future generation and is open for tours.













Finally, SpaceX Falcon9 launch vehicle. Cannot believe the size difference between Falcon9 and SaturnV and even harder to believe the massive payload differences. Guess that's what 50 years of progress look like.

[dailydriver]

Ex minister Rajiv Chandrasekhar (no personal affiliations/interests) shares this memory about Neil Armstrong.

[dailydriver]

A minor addition to the thread, sourced from the NASA site.

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

[ranjitnair77]

For those who are interested in the first moon landing, I highly recommend watching Apollo 11. This incredible documentary uses archival footage and actual communication from mission control, launch control and the astronauts themselves to recreate the whole story. There is no narration or explanation. Just the footage. The part where Armstrong takes manual control to land gives you goosebumps.

I would give this film a 15/10 if I could.It's available on rent on Prime Video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Co8Z8BQgWc

I also highly recommend a book called 'A Man on the Moon' by Andrew Chaikin. While this covers the Apollo mission in great detail, it also covers the Mercury and Gemini missions before that in considerable depth. This book also makes you appreciate how Apollo 11 was the culmination of a decade of work with all the missions before that pushing the envelope just a little further. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins truly stood on the shoulder of giants.

[fhdowntheline]

It is intriguing as to why humans did not explore things beyond the moon or why did manned moon exploration stop at Apollo 17.It is also interesting that competition and existential threat( so to speak) led to so many advancements in space, aviation and electronics/ computing. By contrast we seem to have come to a bit of a roadblock ,worrying more about politically correct issues than about technology itself.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

It is intriguing as to why humans did not explore things beyond the moon or why did manned moon exploration stop at Apollo 17.

We have explored a LOT of things beyond the Moon. Voyager 1 launched in 1977, passed Jupiter in 1979, passed Saturn in 1980, it's 23.381 billion km away now and is still returning some usable data.

But like someone quipped, "No one is going to have a parade for a deep-space probe or a mission controller." No child is going to be inspired to grow up and pilot a deep space probe, rather than become an astronaut. That's is why manned missions will always be needed, to capture public imagination and get funding.

But to think completely practically, what is the point of sending people to the Moon again, or even to Mars at this point? We know it can be done. But it is worth the cost and the risk right now? For the same cost of one manned mission, we could probably map out the whole of the Moon using multiple unmanned missions. That could also fail multiple times without risking any humans and the negative headlines.

This article gives a balanced view:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...hould-explore/

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by am1m

We have explored a LOT of things beyond the Moon. Voyager 1 launched in 1977, passed Jupiter in 1979, passed Saturn in 1980, it's 23.381 billion km away now and is still returning some usable data.


But to think completely practically, what is the point of sending people to the Moon again, or even to Mars at this point? We know it can be done. But it is worth the cost and the risk right now? For the same cost of one manned mission, we could probably map out the whole of the Moon using multiple unmanned missions. That could also fail multiple times without risking any humans and the negative headlines.

This article gives a balanced view:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...hould-explore/

Right from the nuclear weapon age (circa 1940) through the end of the Cold War, human society was engaged in a technology race, the likes of which has probably never happened before. The sheer number of innovations, advancement in technologies is mind boggling. Everything that we are doing right now, including typing this out, can be traced out to that period. You have mentioned the risk factor- no advancement happens without any risk. Some of the greatest inventions have been fraught with risk. I am not taking a practical view here at all. There were several inventions that need not have advanced to the point that they did. Fighter planes need not have gone supersonic. Passenger planes actually (unfortunately) regressed from the days of the Concorde. In fact there was no need for a nuclear weapon use -reportedly the Tokyo air raids with conventional weapons destroyed as much or more than the twin atomic weapons. But that's how science often advances. Today's gen AI is a risky proposition in terms of its myriad possibilities and impact.. But I would love to embrace it. One would have hoped for something similar in outer space exploration.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by ranjitnair77

. The part where Armstrong takes manual control to land gives you goosebumps.
.

Yes it does, but the tension had been rising as they kept getting an unknown computeralar during their descent.

Technically Neil did not land manually. If you go though the video on the flight computer you will learn about that computer alarm and also the various flight modes. Manual meant the computers were still in full control of the descent and the actual landing. However, Neil directed the computer to land the LM on a different spot.

Even so, hair raising, edge of the seat stuff as they had very limited fuel. The responses of Neil and Buzz to the unknown computer error during descent and to the fact the computer was going to land them in a rocky spot, speaks of the professionalism and amount of training they had. Their heart rate was elevated, but not by much. Two very cool dudes, putting down on the moon, without so much as raising their voices.

Of course the whole world held their breath. This was first class gripping stuff! We were listening live and watching Houston control. The utter relief and joy of everybody, when they announced “the eagle has landed” is something I will never forget.

This is one of my prized possessions. The Haynes owner manual of the Apollo 11. It has been out of print for a good number of years, but you often find them second hand.



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Just came across this;

“Anything to declare?” Apollo crew: “Moon rocks.”
Best day in this Hawaiian customs agent’s life.
(55 years ago today)



Jeroen