[Closed] Interested in the Apollo 11 anniversary?

Some of us can remember it first time round. Nowadays such tech stuff goes unmarked but back then it was a total leap in the dark. Apollo 11 had less computing power than the latest phones...just work that out.

I remember being up all night waiting for Armstrong to make his walk. And they only had one chance to return. No back up. Get back to the orbiter or a long cold future. Guys with big cojones.

Definately, still kinda gutted that I missed it the first time round (only by a couple of years).
Was actually watching one of the many documentaries the other day and it's more like the entire computing power available to NASA during the entire Mercury/Gemini/Apollo missions was orders of magnitude less than a mid range iPhone of today. That's just mind boggling and it's in no small part to the space program of the 60's and early 70's that these phones exist at all..

That's remarkable, and compelling - even when it's only white noise! What time tomorrow is the landing, does anyone know?

Landing sequence starts at around 101:17 mission time, which is around 22 hours from now.

Of course Apollo 11 was the culmination of the efforts. It was interesting watching the development of the Gemini then Apollo programmes. Then came the disaster of Grissom, White and Chaffee.

The seemingly inexorable progress suffered a real setback.

But everyone seemed to be interested in the whole enterprise. Can't see you would get that total interest in these self interested days.

I was thinking the same thing watching the documentaries, 3 astronauts are killed in a test and it only puts progress on hold for 6 months. Neil Armstrong barely gets away from the Lunar landing test (the flying bedstead) rig alive in a crash and not only are the remaining test rigs kept in service unchanged but Neil is back at work that afternoon. Similar events today would have brought things to, at best a lengthy halt, but most likely would have ended the entire project. All because President Kennedy wanted it done by the end of the decade. Interestingly, I was reading the other day that apparently President Kennedy wanted a long term, technological project to reassert America's dominance over the USSR after losing earth orbit and the first human in orbit. Seemingly President Kennedy favoured finding a cheap solution to water desalination to solve the global shortage of drinking water but it was deemed to be 'not sexy enough' and the moon landings were chosen instead.!!

There's a pretty good podcast about it on the BBC at the moment: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2

Episode 11 is just the final 13 minutes to the moon with no commentary.

Landing sequence starts at around 101:17 mission time, which is around 22 hours from now.

About quarter to eight tomorrow night? Dang, we're out. 🙁

There’s a pretty good podcast about it on the BBC at the moment: 

Gotta say, I've found it only moderately interesting but very long-winded, until we got to episodes 8 and 9. Then it got fantastic. 🙂

About quarter to eight tomorrow night? Dang, we’re out. 🙁

You can scrub through to the landing anytime you want but I agree there is something very compelling about listening to it synchronised in 'realtime'.. 🙂

Don’t normally watch tv but doing a couple of hours an evening of pure space documentaries. I vividly remember it happening and watching it at the time. Loving the revisit and extra detail now, the technical, the social and political context. Really appreciating the ‘right stuff’ astronauts. Even enjoyed the Brian Cox and tv personality (apparently a comedian) programme.

I remember being up all night waiting for Armstrong to make his walk.

Me too. Still the most amazing thing to happen in my lifetime.

Boggles my mind that the most futuristic thing humans have ever done is now 50 years into our past.

Born in 1980 I missed the landing by a long way but tomorrow I’m going to watch it in real time with my Dad, who did catch the live version back in 1969.

Despite being 15 at the time, and Armstrong setting foot on the moon on my birthday, I never saw it happening, because I was on holiday in South Devon, in a small touring caravan with my folks, there was no such thing as a battery-operated portable telly, and the only tv available was in the small social ‘club’ belonging to the site which was in the bar, which I wasn’t allowed into. 😕
I was watching it tonight, and the remastered colour footage was of a vastly higher standard than anyone would have seen at the time, so I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

I was 11 years old ..saw it on a black & white tv while on holiday in the Lakes ..
Without wanting to open up another can of worms ( again ) I'm a non believer .. always have been and always will be ..

Bought the Lego Saturn V today. Just to be sure it had the 50 year anniversary receipt. And it has 1969 pieces. Channel 4 showed the original footage for 90 minutes tonight, although a lot was processed once they’d returned of course.

And for some balance to make you think what 4% of GDP might buy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4

Bought the Lego Saturn V today. Just to be sure it had the 50 year anniversary receipt. 

Nice one, wish I'd thought of that. 🙂

I’m a non believer .. always have been and always will be ..

Ah yes, remind me to add that to the incomprehensible thread...conspiracy theories about documented evens.

although a lot was processed once they’d returned of course.

NASA did a remastering job on the footage taken on the moon, so it’s basically HD now.
One interesting little titbit I read the other day involved a chap who’s into astrophotography, and he’d spotted something everyone else had missed, which was a brief moment lasting three frames when Armstrong was working collecting samples, and he lifted the gold visor to be able to see better. The chap then stacked the images and found the only photograph of Armstrong on the moon where his face can be seen, because he was main photographer, and when Aldrin took any photos Armstrong was either facing away, or had his visor down.

https://redice.tv/news/never-before-seen-photo-shows-neil-armstrongs-face-as-he-first-walks-across-the-moon

Even enjoyed the Brian Cox and tv personality (apparently a comedian) programme.

That’ll be Dara, then, who, apart from being a funny man, is also very smart, and knows his science.

I’m a non-believer

There are a whole bunch of ways to easily prove the landings happened, here are the obvious ones:

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-to-argue-with-a-moon-landing-denier/

There’s also Luna 15, which was actually orbiting the moon while Apollo was on its way, as an attempt to get samples back before the Americans did. Not only were the Russians actually there, watching what was going on, and there had been contact between the two competing teams to be certain there would be no physical or radio interference, but Jodrell Bank was tracking both missions, as were other telescopes around the world.
The Russian Luna mission failed, because it hit a mountain that couldn’t be seen by the lander, one main benefit of having a human pilot who could take control, as Armstrong had to in the last seconds of the landing.

I’m a non believer ..

Fair enough.

always have been

Fair enough.

and always will be ..

Then you're an idiot.

Bought the Lego Saturn V today. Just to be sure it had the 50 year anniversary receipt. And it has 1969 pieces.

As far as I'm aware, the 1969 pieces wasn't part of the original design. The finished model had several pieces either over or under that count, someone at LEGO spotted it and they fiddled the design of the blue display stand pieces to bring the count to 1969.

I'm going to have to find my Airfix 1/144 model of the Saturn 5. I seem to remember lots of white painting. I'm sure it will be in the loft somewhere.

I’m a non believer .. always have been and always will be ..

Then you’re an idiot

Don't be harsh on him, He has probably done some really extensive scientific research on YouTube.

Don’t be harsh on him, He has probably done some really extensive scientific research on YouTube.

My point was, you can have whatever beliefs you like. But to assert that you'll never change your mind about something is to say that you have no interest in the truth, you just want to think that what you believe is correct. And that's idiotic.

I have plenty of strong beliefs. It'd take something pretty big to convince me, for instance, that god(s) exist or that brexit is a good idea. But if such evidence presented itself I would be prepared to revise my opinions accordingly.

As for the moon landing "hoax,"

You can debunk every ill-conceived "yeah but" argument there is, but life's too short to try to explain complicated things to morons. You just need to ask one simple question:

If the moon landings were faked, why at the height of the Cold War did the Russians not call NASA out on it? Or at any point in the 50 years since?

It's not like this all took place in some secret bunker in a desert in Nevada. The entire world was watching not just on TV but directly, from actually being at the site to listening stations around the world. And no-one across the globe suspected or spotted any subterfuge during the course of six separate landings? Really? It would have been harder for them to consistently and realistically fake it than to actually go there.

f the moon landings were faked, why at the height of the Cold War did the Russians not call NASA out on it?

Because the entire race to the moon was a fake and by calling out the fake moon landings, the Russians would have to admit that they were also faking their efforts to get there as well. Obvious isn't it?

A bit of simple scientific (You Tube basd) research would have given you the trooof Cougar.

Like flat earthers, fake mooners will have an answer for everything.

the Russians would have to admit that they were also faking their efforts

Oh, OK.

If the moon landings were faked, why at the height of the Cold War did the Russians the USA not call NASA the USSR out on it, rather than embarking on an ambitious hoax of their own?

From a "did they actually land on the moon?" perspective, it's pretty clear that tens of thousands of people in Florida saw an 111 metre tall Saturn V rocket laden with thousands of tons of fuel and oxidizer launch into the sky. Now that mother was huge, large enough to lob a Skylab space station into orbit in one go. We know that a Skylab went into orbit successfully in 1973 because lots of people saw that, nine astronauts subsequently lived on it and bits of it survived reentry and came down over Australia in 1979.

NASA has published lunar orbiter pics of the landing sites here

If you're not happy with NASA pics, then the scientific communities of Soviet Union (and subsequently Russia), Japan, China, India and Israel have sent probes to the moon which have returned footage of the Apollo landing sites. Arguably the Chinese and Russians whould've had much to gain from revealing the landings to be a hoax, only they didn't.

you’re not happy with NASA pics, then the scientific communities of Soviet Union (and subsequently Russia), Japan, China, India and Israel have sent probes to the moon which have returned footage of the Apollo landing sites. Arguably the Chinese and Russians whould’ve had much to gain from revealing the landings to be a hoax, only they didn’t.

All of whom benefit from huge pots of government funding for space/defence/corruption. When it is proven that no-one goes to space, they will no longer be able to draw this funding from public money.
And, of course, they are all mates in the New World Order Club and/or Lizards

I'm quite getting into this conspiracy thing. Its easy.

As ever - Mitchell and Webb ...