I was ten. Was allowed to stay up all night on the sofa to watch it. I'll never forget it. Still vivid memories in black and white flickering images and commentary by James Burke and Sir Patrick Moore.
Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
31–40 of 95 posts
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#32For me at least, I hope man goes back to the moon in my lifetime. Dad has always talked about his memories of 1969 (he would have been a teenager at the time) and the excitement of it. 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.
I was 11 then. I have a feeling the actual landing was early morning in the UK, not sure I actually saw that. I'm afraid my dominant memory is the bleep they had between the voice from the moon and the reply from Houston. A fraction of a second long, and a bit higher than E above middle C. I can still hear that now, with the sort of echo at the end from the satellite relay I suppose. Dad (born 1930s, RAF technician a…
Those beeps are known as Quindar tones, and were used to mute and unmute the radio transmissions.
http://www.ehartwell.com/Apollo17/MissionTranscriptCollectio...
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#33I remember the last lunar missions. We all thought that man would be going back to the moon within a few years or so. Not the way it worked out.
Wellllll... Pretty much the reason why a lot of progress in manned spaceflight came to a halt is due to the Shuttle program. It was sold on a laundry list of promises that somehow a lot of powerful folks utterly bought into. But in the end it ended up being far less capable and far more expensive than just about every alternative. Although admittedly it does look pretty cool.
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Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#34Anyone want to place bets on the nationality of the next human to set foot on the moon?
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#35Anyone want to place bets on the nationality of the next human to set foot on the moon?
I'd rather bet on Mars. And I'd bet American.
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Men" as in mankind. It's just the way that word is used. I'm pretty sure Armstrong wasn't trying to be misogynistic there.
I know. But since I know that that kind of language is not ok my appreciation circuits are fried.
You just registered an account to complain about a message of unequivocal world peace from the first human to set foot on an extraplanetary body.
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#37Anyone want to place bets on the nationality of the next human to set foot on the moon?
It'd be a Russian TV crew filming an empty spot that was supposed to be that of an Apollo landing :)
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#38So 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'.
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.
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 two 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.
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 then use the tug to move you to the moon.
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).
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.)
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.
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was 11 then. I have a feeling the actual landing was early morning in the UK, not sure I actually saw that. I'm afraid my dominant memory is the bleep they had between the voice from the moon and the reply from Houston. A fraction of a second long, and a bit higher than E above middle C. I can still hear that now, with the sort of echo at the end from the satellite relay I suppose. Dad (born 1930s, RAF technician a…
Those beeps are known as Quindar tones, and were used to mute and unmute the radio transmissions. http://www.ehartwell.com/Apollo17/MissionTranscriptCollectio...
"Because replacement parts are no longer available, an "out-of-band signaling" system was installed in 1998 for the transmitters located in the U.S. This system uses a continuous tone that is below the normal audio frequency range. When the tone is present, the transmitters are keyed. When the tone is not present, the transmitters are unkeyed. It worked fine, but the Astronaut Office complained about the lack of tones which everyone had become accustomed to as an alert that a transmission was about to start. So, the Quindar tone generator, which was still installed in case it was necessary to key the transmitters at an overseas site, was re-enabled. "
Wonderful link, thanks. The quote above almost rivals Primo Levi's story about the paint recipe in The Periodic Table.
Re: Men Walk On Moon - July 20th 1969
#40I 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.
The last volume he purchased was August 1969.
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.
I wonder how he felt later, after we left the moon for the last time and never went back.