OT: Moon Landing (cool story bro)
I was just watching the Olympics with the Mrs. and NBC had a piece about the space race between the United States and Russia. It reminded me of an incredible story I heard.
I have had many conversations with a man who was employed at NASA at the time of the first moon landing. As I'm sure you are all familiar with, Neil Armstrong, while taking his first steps on the moon, bounces slightly. Most people think it was because of a lack of gravity. My engineering friend said that was not why Armstrong bounced when he hit the moon's surface.
Before Apollo 11 landed on the moon, there was an extensive amount of discussion involving the NASA brain trust over what, exactly, the moon was made out of. After months of deliberation, the panel had decided on two possibilities. Either the moon was solid, and a human could walk on it. Or the moon had a center comprised of space dust and any human who touched it's surface would fall a hundred meters into it's center and be lost forever.
Neil Armstrong, before placing his feet on the moon's surface, wasn't sure if he'd ever come back to Earth. His bounce was a reflex, because he didn't know if he'd be buried forever in outer space, or be the first human to successful walk on the moon's surface .
I've thought of this so many times and can't believe how bad ass that crew was for taking that trip.
February 15th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^
There was essentially a single academic with some influence within NASA who warned of this possibility. He was not really taken completely seriously, but seriously enough that an experiment of his was placed on the Apollo 11 mission.
Here is a rather sympathetic look at his work:
http://www.airspacemag.com/space/shooting-the-moon-27389927/
February 15th, 2014 at 7:11 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 7:13 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 7:15 PM ^
Makes no sense. You can see the craters with a cheap telescope and a probe landed on the moon 10 years prior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lunar_probes
What does this mean?
"Or the moon had a center comprised of space dust and any human who touched it's surface would fall a hundred meters into it's center and be lost forever."
The moon has a radius of 1000 miles.
February 15th, 2014 at 7:16 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 7:23 PM ^
As a guy with an Aerospace Engineering degree from Michigan, that is the dumbest thing I heard. We understood pretty well about the density of the moon. There was no chance that someone thought Armstrong would fall "hundred" feet down. There is a MOON LANDER that weighs thousands of pounds supported by tiny feet securely standing. Why would anyone think they would fall? I think someone was pulling a fast one on your expense.
February 15th, 2014 at 7:30 PM ^
This seems to pretty ridiculous in retrospect but I won't blame Armstrong for being a little unsure.
February 16th, 2014 at 6:52 AM ^
Right. Even if you're more than 99% sure of something, if it's important enough (like a matter of life and death), there's always going to be that niggling thought running through your mind.
February 15th, 2014 at 7:31 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 7:31 PM ^
#mywifeactualluthinksthisandivegivenuptryingtoconvinceherotherwise
February 15th, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
A tinfoil swimsuit.
February 15th, 2014 at 7:33 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 11:42 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 7:58 PM ^
was from taking his first step on 1/6th gravity. probably thinking that was the day to try a two-handed, reverse, spinning, upside down jam.
February 15th, 2014 at 8:16 PM ^
I am here to tell you I have no clue if we did or didn't lol
February 15th, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
There are a million pieces of evidence saying we went. There are zero saying we did not. Seriously, every piece of counter 'evidence' ever mentioned has been independently disproven.
All thats left is tinfoil doubt. You're not that stupid.
February 15th, 2014 at 8:17 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 8:33 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 8:38 PM ^
It's not a moon landing denial post at all. He just says that according to this guy, Armstrong took a bounce step cause he was testing the surface.
February 15th, 2014 at 9:02 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 8:37 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 9:24 PM ^
http://youtu.be/QBK3QpQVnaw
February 15th, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 3:04 AM ^
who should have been awe-struck---how often do mere mortals have an opportunity to rub elbows with Space Ghost?
February 15th, 2014 at 9:40 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 9:42 PM ^
Kony runs NASA
February 15th, 2014 at 9:43 PM ^
Elon Musk disagrees with you, sir. That man poops gold.
February 15th, 2014 at 11:48 PM ^
February 15th, 2014 at 9:57 PM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 12:02 AM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 7:25 AM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 12:38 AM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 2:18 AM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^
February 16th, 2014 at 11:06 AM ^
http://www.lroc.asu.edu/news/uploads/M175252641LR_ap15.png
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), launched in 2009, took pictures of all 6 landing sites from an altitude of 25 km or so; the picture linked above is of the all-Michigan Apollo 15 mission--you can clearly see the Lunar Module, the Lunar Rover, the tracks of the Lunar Rover, and the area where the experiment package (ALSEP) was set up.
Check out the LROC website for hundreds more pictures of landing sites & other lunar features:
February 17th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
I don't doubt that you had conversations with someone who worked at NASA at the time, and what he believed were NASA concerns. But I don't believe the gist of the story, that NASA believed there was a possibility that the moon was made of soft dust.
Not buying it.
Given that we pretty much understood what asteroids were made of (solid stuff), and given the nature of the moon's surface (craters), it gravitational field and thus its implied mass versus it size, its pretty clear that the moon is solid, even back then.
This friend of yours - is he the same guy who thought the photoshopped MTV commercial with the planting of a big M (for MTV) flag was a real Michigan flag actually on the moon?