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So 40 years ago today, the Apollo 11 mission launched

Jul 16, 2009#1

Steven Soderburgin

Pretty cool stuff. :3

Jul 16, 2009#2

CrimsonSoul

Go 'Merica!

Jul 16, 2009#3

Frankie Williamson

My dad tells me stories about how he and his grandfather watched the moon landing intently live on TV. His dad, my grandfather, could never be bothered with such useless nonsense as he would say.

Jul 16, 2009#4

Except the moon landings are all fake, they were done on a soundstage and all of the footage you see was falsified. All of those little details that prove me wrong will be ignored.

Also, Buzz Aldrin is a liar and a coward and *gets punched in the face*

in case you can't tell, I am far from being serious

Jul 16, 2009#5

Shegokigo

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wym04J_3Ls0:jwfg7ax6][/youtube:jwfg7ax6]

Jul 16, 2009#6

Cat

So fake

Jul 16, 2009#7

Steven Soderburgin

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM36P59sJPo:3ox3c4s1][/youtube:3ox3c4s1]

Jul 16, 2009#8

Hylian

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation ... on-landing

This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research.

1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.

4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.

5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.

6. The \"one small step for man\" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want \"another Tang.\"

10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”

Jul 16, 2009#9

Shegokigo

hylian said:
7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

"Oh Buzz, by the way, don't forget, on your way do.....
*slam*
Oh fuck...."

Jul 16, 2009#10

Chazwozel

Shegokigo said:
hylian said:

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

Click to expand...

"Oh Buzz, by the way, don't forget, on your way do.....
*slam*
Oh smurf...."

That would have been the funniest shit right there.

Jul 16, 2009#11

Steven Soderburgin

Chazwozel said:
That would have been the funniest shit right there.

If the two men who first walked on the moon died tragically????????

Jul 16, 2009#12

DarkAudit

Kissinger said:
Chazwozel said:

That would have been the funniest shit right there.

Click to expand...

If the two men who first walked on the moon died tragically????????

Ever read James Michener's SPACE?

Jul 16, 2009#13

Rob King

6. The "one small step for man" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

Could you imagine something like this happening? If the first step is too high to get back into the lander. Or if they locked themselves out.

That would be a horrible, horrible way to go.

Jul 16, 2009#14

Chazwozel

Kissinger said:
Chazwozel said:

That would have been the funniest poop right there.

Click to expand...

If the two men who first walked on the moon died tragically????????

too soon?

you can't visualize Buzz scrounging for a set of keys in his pocket? Or Neil bopping him on the head with the American flag ala Three Stooges.

we're you absolutely born without a sense of humor?

Jul 16, 2009#15

Kissinger said:
Chazwozel said:

That would have been the funniest shit right there.

Click to expand...

If the two men who first walked on the moon died tragically????????

Yup, hilarious.

Jul 16, 2009#16

Covar

9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want "another Tang."

I just picture that quote of "another Tang" being said so bitterly by some NASA engineer.

Jul 16, 2009#17

sixpackshaker

I heard James Burke (from BBC Connections) give a speech at my university some time back. He told about his experience covering the Apollo Mission for the BBC, and part went something like this.

e was responsible for explaining the scientific motivations for going to the Moon, the motivations which stay valid after you beat the Russians there. As he reports in the Connections book, the British media put more emphasis on this than the Americans did, so British interest remained relatively high during the later missions, when NASA’s TV ratings in the United States were dropping. At the time, the significance of all this was probably less apparent, and Burke was busy enough just trying to translate NASA tech-speak into something people could understand.

Part of this job involved reading through NASA’s manuals for the equipment which would be used on the Moon. These machines were not simple devices, nor were their instructions straightforward. Each manual had to have a full description of possible failure modes, with contingency plans for each eventuality, and all written with such detail that both the astronauts and the Mission Control people could handle all possible malfunctions without going back to the original engineers. The result, Burke said, was something like this: “If X-Y-Zed, then gobbledygook. If X-Y-Zed-Beta, then gobbledygook squared.”

Finally, after a whole page of bullet-pointed technical jargon, came the last contingency plan:

“If all else fails, kick with lunar boot.”

Also 40 years ago today my Muther was 8 & 1/2 months pregnant with yours truly... In Texas with no A/C

Jul 16, 2009#18

Rob King

Kissinger said:
Chazwozel said:

That would have been the funniest shit right there.

Click to expand...

If the two men who first walked on the moon died tragically????????

That reminded me of this:

In Event of Moon Disaster

I got chills when I first read this.

Jul 16, 2009#19

sixpackshaker

Covar said:
9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want "another Tang."

Click to expand...

I just picture that quote of "another Tang" being said so bitterly by some NASA engineer.

You would not believe how happy Buzz Aldrin was when he was told that the guys were going to get to take some "Tang" to the moon. Then he was so disappointed to learn that it was orange drink and not actual "Tang"

Jul 16, 2009#20

Steven Soderburgin

Rob King said:
That reminded me of this:

In Event of Moon Disaster

I got chills when I first read this.

Oh yeah, me too.

Man, it's amazing what we did, particularly considering how little we knew about what was going to happen or what could go wrong.

Jul 16, 2009#21

CynicismKills

Kissinger said:
Rob King said:

That reminded me of this:

In Event of Moon Disaster

I got chills when I first read this.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, me too.

Man, it's amazing what we did, particularly considering how little we knew about what was going to happen or what could go wrong.

I got chills. Just imagining them having to cut communications and the two men having nothing but each other and the silence until the oxygen runs out.

Jul 16, 2009#22

Denbrought

CynicismKills said:
and the two men having nothing but each other and the silence until the oxygen runs out.

Jul 16, 2009#23

CynicismKills

Denbrought said:
CynicismKills said:

and the two men having nothing but each other and the silence until the oxygen runs out.

Click to expand...

Oh a gay joke.

I didn't see that coming.

Jul 16, 2009#24

Jake

Chazwozel said:
Kissinger said:

Chazwozel said:

That would have been the funniest poop right there.

Click to expand...

If the two men who first walked on the moon died tragically????????

Click to expand...

too soon?

you can't visualize Buzz scrounging for a set of keys in his pocket? Or Neil bopping him on the head with the American flag ala Three Stooges.

we're you absolutely born without a sense of humor?

My first image was Buzz trying to jimmy the lock with a moon coat-hanger while Neil is giving him seven kinds of hell.

Jul 16, 2009#25

Rob King said:
In Event of Moon Disaster

...wow. Never read or even heard of this, thanks.

Jul 16, 2009#26

Hylian

Rob King said:
In Event of Moon Disaster

wow...just wow....

Jul 16, 2009#27

Chibibar

http://wechoosethemoon.org/

Follow it "real time" as it happen 40 years ago... on the WEB!!

Jul 16, 2009#28

Le Quack

Rob King said:
In Event of Moon Disaster

Wow, that made me tear up. I'm almost crying.

Jul 16, 2009#29

Hylian

Chibibar said:
http://wechoosethemoon.org/

Follow it "real time" as it happen 40 years ago... on the WEB!!

the fact it is powered by AOL and it has an AOL icon in the beginning kinda turned me off from the site

Jul 16, 2009#30

CrimsonSoul

I couldn't cut communications if I were in mission control. I'd have to stay with those brave men to the very last it's the lesat I could do for them

Jul 16, 2009#31

Chazwozel

Le Quack said:
\"Rob King\":3afg3we8 said:

In Event of Moon Disaster

Click to expand...

Wow, that made me tear up. I'm almost crying.[/quote:3afg3we8]

Pussy.

:smug:

Jul 16, 2009#32

Piotyr

I think I'm more impressed that the astronauts all made it back safely to Earth after landing on the moon than the actual landing itself. It's one thing to make a one-way trip, but another thing altogether to do the round trip.

Jul 17, 2009#33

Shegokigo

I was really hoping for "more" from that link. It was quite bland. (The Moon Disaster one)

Now had they said "And we will broadcast We are the Champions by Queen after cutting communications", now that might have been a tear jerker. :tear:

Jul 17, 2009#34

Shannow

Hmm, 40 years ago. hey Ed, was this about the time of your second, or third marriage?

Jul 17, 2009#35

Shannow said:
Hmm, 40 years ago. hey Ed, was this about the time of your second, or third marriage?

I've only been married once. The Green Mile is so long I don't want to go through the pain of watching multiple wives die.

Jul 17, 2009#36

Shannow

For some reason, in my mind I now picture you are so very old, and have lived a Dewey Cox-esque life.

Jul 17, 2009#37

Shegokigo

After Ed said that, all I could imagine was:

Jul 17, 2009#38

Shannow

a red x? I think a bit higher of him than that!

Jul 17, 2009#39

Hylian

Shegokigo said:
After Ed said that, all I could imagine was:

FTFY

Jul 17, 2009#40

Shegokigo

Shows up fine for me. :Leyla:

Jul 17, 2009#41

Shannow

Not for us! :zoid:

Jul 17, 2009#42

Cat

Of course it does, it's already in your cache.

Jul 17, 2009#43

Shegokigo

Bloody namby pambys:

Jul 17, 2009#44

Shannow

red X ftw!

Jul 17, 2009#45

DarkAudit

That's why I always ctrl-shift-r whenever posting an image. :moon:

Jul 17, 2009#46

Cat

always rehost

Jul 17, 2009#47

Hylian

Shegokigo said:
Bloody namby pambys:

FTFY again :tongue:

Jul 17, 2009#48

Cat

Shegokigo said:
Bloody namby pambys:

Jul 17, 2009#49

Shegokigo

I can't rehost, I'm not at home and this system doesn't allow for HD saving. :eek:

rly:

It's freakin Tom Hanks from the Green Mile. :angry:

Jul 17, 2009#50

Shannow

We see em....thanks to Hylian :tongue:

Jul 17, 2009#51

Hylian

Shegokigo said:
I can't rehost, I'm not at home and this system doesn't allow for HD saving. rly:

It's freakin Tom Hanks from the Green Mile. :angry:

use imageshack to host the pics. It lets you host the image just using the image URL.

http://imageshack.us/

Jul 17, 2009#52

Gkbur

For anyone who's really nerdy (like me) NASA released the transcripts and audio of the voice recorders inside the craft, the stuff that was going on when they weren't transmitting to Earth, and some of when they were.

The Recordings, highlights on top, the rest on the bottom

The Transcripts; best read while listening to the recordings.

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