
In Event of Moon Disaster (1969) - shawndumas
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/11/in-event-of-moon-disaster.html
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Bluestrike2
The possibility of giving that speech scared the hell out of Nixon and helped
shape some of his later decisions on follow-up Apollo missions and NASA in
general. I've referenced the book on here before, but John Logsdon's _After
Apollo?: Richard Nixon and the American Space Program_ is a great book on the
subject. It makes mention of this letter, and how those fears impacted the
White House's budget battles with NASA.

~~~
rangibaby
Thanks for the book suggestion. They weren't wrong; Challenger was an absolute
disaster for NASA, especially considering the teacher on board.

~~~
JesseObrien
Another good one is _Safe is Not an Option_ by Rand E Simberg, with a forward
by Ed Lu. It gets into the nitty gritty of why exploring space is dangerous
and why we as humans should care little about that, and more about exploring
it. No different than the explorers who sailed across the seas. Some humans
died, knowing that they signed up for that before embarking. Exploring space
should be seen no differently, however NASA and the government are only
concerned with safety. Getting the opinion of ex astronauts on these issues is
great perspective.

~~~
tomjakubowski
These days we can explore new (to us) places without putting human lives at
risk. That wasn't an option until merely a few decades ago.

~~~
throwanem
Sure, if you count sending robots as exploring, or assume that any human life
is ever _not_ at risk.

~~~
lisper
> if you count sending robots as exploring

Why would you not? With >>99% probability, _you_ are never going into space.
What difference does it make if your surrogates are robots or other humans?

> assume that any human life is ever not at risk

The problem is not so much the risk per se as the cost of mitigating the risk.
Sending humans into space is orders of magnitude more expensive than sending
robots into space. Does sending humans produce orders of magnitude more value?

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jordanb
The big question was the rocket that had to fire to return the LEM to the
orbiter. It was packed in next to the retrorocket that was used to descend. It
was vibrated and jolted by the landing, then sat for three days, and then it
had work perfectly to get them off of the moon. There was no possibility of
any redundancy or the ability to test it under realistic conditions.

I saw a quote by Buzz Aldrin once where he gave the rocket a 50/50 chance of
working properly.

~~~
stevenwoo
The Moon Machines documentary series states the rocket used to get off the
moon could never be test fired to make sure that particular rocket engine
worked due to the propellant used - the engine had to be rebuilt after each
firing, so it was one use only for space vehicles. They compensated for this
by using the simplest design possible with self igniting propellant (separate
fuel and oxidizer sources).

~~~
theoh
There's a five-minute video specifically about the chemistry of that rocket
here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLCrZGgKD-k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLCrZGgKD-k)

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Razengan
_> they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into
the unknown._

This is such a subtly _eerie_ line.

Reminds me of the mood in certain sci-fi or fantasy stories where a group of
people sends reluctant incursions into a mythical, hostile region, or fragile
havens surrounded by a bleak landscape.

An infinitesimal point of light on a backdrop of blackness.

On one hand, humans have so much internal strife and self-defeating
bureaucracy that prevents us from discovering the truths about the Universe
and realizing our place in it. Strife that is mostly in our heads (politics,
religion) and doesn't make a difference to anything at large, and would
probably look very ridiculous to other intelligences.

On the other hand, we would probably go insane from the infinite loneliness –
and indifference – of the cosmos if we didn't have all these pointless
distractions..

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candiodari
I wonder, when it says "at the point when NASA ends communication with the
men", why did it say that ? Wouldn't it be possible to maintain communication
until long after they would have died ? Would they cut it off beforehand ? Was
there something like a movie to alleviate the boredom while the oxygen ran out
? Which one ?

Additionally isn't there more analysis ? What are some scenarios ? I mean
crashing after a failed launch attempt on the moon would perhaps be less
disastrous than on earth, but can you realistically hope to survive a fall of
several kilometers ?

~~~
rspeer
From what I've heard, they would plan to deliberately cut off communication,
so that the entire world would not listen to two men slowly dying.

~~~
rocky1138
I had always assumed they brought cyanide pills with them just in case of
disaster. I know that if I was stranded on the moon with no hope of escape, I
wouldn't want to sit there for 2 or 3 days until dying of starvation. I'd
rather just eat a pill and be done with it.

~~~
thearn4
they could probably have just depressurized their suits and would have lost
consciousness extremely quickly.

~~~
wdr1
This.

Whenever asked about cyanide, the astronauts always laughed, because if they
wanted to kill themselves, there were about a million ways to do so. They
didn't need cyanide.

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twic
The Onion has a slightly different version of the speech:

[http://www.clickhole.com/article/speech-was-written-
presiden...](http://www.clickhole.com/article/speech-was-written-president-
nixon-deliver-if-astr-3908)

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moonka
This makes the rounds every once in awhile, and yet I still end up reading it
every time. It's a little spooky. Does anyone know of other, similar "just in
case" speeches?

~~~
viksit
There's a whole list here - The greatest doomsday speeches never made.

[https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/01/the-greatest-
doomsday-s...](https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/01/the-greatest-doomsday-
speeches-never-made/)

~~~
moonka
Thanks! These are really something.

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drjackyll
I always wondered if astronauts were given some informal information how to
end their lives quickly, in case there is no hope for their recovery. I know I
wouldn't like sitting on the moon waiting for oxygen to slowly run out...

~~~
teraflop
Apparently, Carl Sagan was under the impression that astronauts were given
cyanide pills, but NASA and actual astronauts have denied this, pointing out
that poison is unnecessary when you can just open the hatch and depressurize
your spacecraft.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film)#N...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_\(1997_American_film\)#NASA)

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salimmadjd
Ironically, you wonder had the first mission failed. If the space fever of the
60s would have stayed far longer or not. In other words, did the public just
took it for granted that how difficult of feat it was and lost interest after
a few successful (Apollo 13 the exception) moon landings?

~~~
hodgesrm
Well, there was the Apollo 1 accident in 1967, which though gruesome did not
stop Apollo 11. [1] Add to that many near disasters in the space program as
well as the countless fatalities in the development of manned flight and you
have to wonder what it would have actually taken to stop the space program.

Humans have accepted incredible risks to explore the unknown. It gives one
hope for the species.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1)

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armenarmen
Eyes welled up a little in this one. Reminds you what a risk they took.

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scott_karana
> AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN

Jesus. It sounds like they'd tell the wives their husbands are going to die,
and then pull the plug; why not let the men say their goodbyes themselves, and
(at least) give them the dignity to end the communications of their own
volition?

They'd probably survive for hours, if not days, wouldn't they?!

~~~
LeifCarrotson
That completely depends on the nature of the failure. This speech was written
for a broad range of possible causes.

Capsule explodes on takeoff from the moon? No last words. Discover that nobody
remembered to refill the rocket fuel? Sure, they have quite a few days of life
support​.

Though I expect that, like the story of the doomed cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov
(who was allowed to say goodbye to his wife privately as his capsule burned up
as it careened, parachuteless, through the atmosphere) their last words might
not be something that NASA or Nixon would want to broadcast.

~~~
Hydraulix989
From Wikipedia:

"as Komarov sped towards his death, U.S. listening posts in Turkey picked up
transmissions of him crying in rage, 'cursing the people who had put him
inside a botched spaceship.'[26]"

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losteverything
"I had a hand in the first sign to be placed by earthlings on another
celestial body, and it contains a glaring grammatical error."

Safire's admission.

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davesque
Touching and relevant. A nice reminder of "mankind's most noble goal."

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alfres
This sounds significantly better in my head read with Kennedy's voice.

~~~
jacquesm
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon)

Was president back then.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
Obligatory xkcd [https://xkcd.com/1484/](https://xkcd.com/1484/)

~~~
emmelaich
One of the very few XKCDs I do not like. It seems rather ungracious and too
political.

Unwhimsical.

Un-XKCDish

~~~
AlexCoventry
A speech written in case the mission returned with extra unknown passengers,
not whimsical?

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tmsldd
Lucky everything went just fine.

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moxious
Shroedinger's astronaut

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hydroweaver
Curious droid YouTube ??

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packhughes
Every 6 months this gets reposted. Congrats!

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incompatible
Interesting bit about the clergyman going to "commend their souls to the
deepest of the deep". It sounds like they weren't expecting them to go to
heaven.

~~~
krallja
It's a nautical reference. When someone dies at sea, you can't bury them, and
you can't burn them, so you commend their souls to the deepness of the water.
Spacefaring borrows a lot of traditions from seafaring; the deepest ocean is
the one above us.

~~~
hitekker
> the deepest ocean is the one above us.

Poetic.

