
The triumph and near-tragedy of the first Moon landing - Hooke
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/apollo-triumph/
======
showerst
If you want a great experience and have 15 minutes to spare,
[http://www.firstmenonthemoon.com/](http://www.firstmenonthemoon.com/) has
synced up the key radio channels, the video, and the transcripts of the radio
traffic (with explainers for acronyms) in real time. I tense up every time as
they hit the various go/no go calls.

~~~
morsch
I had the 15 minutes to spare. :)

The go calls as well as some other chatter feature prominently in the song Go!
by Public Service Broadcasting:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIo6qwJarI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIo6qwJarI)
(The Louis La Roche remix is also great.) The whole album is spaceflight-
sample-themed.

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arise
Fun facts not mentioned in the article:

* The lunar module was off course because the astronauts failed to completely vent the tunnel between Eagle and Columbia and the resulting puff of air altered their trajectory.

* Apollo 10 was short-fueled to keep the crew from mutineering and attempting to land.

* Apollo 11 ended the crew's careers as astronauts: they were national and international heroes, and no sensible bureaucrat was willing to risk them.

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thetruepickle2
If you are interested in more details of the guidance and control system of
the Apollo missions, I highly recommend the book Digital Apollo by David A
Mindell.

Someone a while back on hackernews recommended the above book and it was
absolutely fascinating and it's written remarkably well, very engaging. I am
now a professional GNC engineer :) The book also delves into the gradual
evolution of fly by wire flight controls starting with the X-15.

~~~
dekhn
This book helped explain a lot to me. I used to think that going to the moon
was magic, but a lot of the stuff, like the lander module and the AGC, are
straightforward implementations of the next steps from building guided
missles, which the team had previously worked on.

That said the fact that they had a priority-based multitasking operating
system running well enough to handle data overload conditions while
maintaining real-time control of a spacecraft landing on the moon, is still
damn impressive.

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imglorp
So, so lucky we didn't kill anybody except the first three guys on the pad.
There were so many opportunities to suffocate, poison, burn, freeze, strand,
atomize, crush, or drown a crew. Their bravery, and the work of the engineers
to get them home safe, is more stunning now than ever.

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gumby
The cockpit transcripts are really worth a read. When I first read them they
were interesting, but then I realized they were _open loop_. Aldrin is
reporting instrument values he would want to know if _he_ were piloting the
ship -- but _he 's not looking out the window!_. Meanwhile Armstrong is
looking down out the window steering, assuming that Aldrin is telling him what
he needs and so is asking little.

Those guys really practiced and really knew each other well. What a team!

The transcripts:
[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11transscript_cm.htm](https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11transscript_cm.htm)

Also: I was a little kid and really excited by the moon landing, but couldn't
appreciate how complicated it was. Later, as a teen, I figured it was pretty
much pressing a button. But in my mid 30s I read these transcripts (and had an
engineering education) and then saw a photo of Armstrong re-entering the
command module after ascending from the moon. He was 37 at the time, about my
age when I saw the photo. And the grin on his face... I'll never forget that.

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Slackwise
Oh, also, Russ Olsen does a wonderful talk about the moon landing and the
engineering involved:

[https://youtu.be/4Sso4HtvJsw](https://youtu.be/4Sso4HtvJsw)

------
conistonwater
> _Normally, in this time period, that is, from P64 onward, we 'd be
> evaluating the landing site and starting LPD activity. However, the concern
> here was not with the landing area we were going into, but rather whether we
> could continue at all. Consequently, our attention was directed toward
> clearing the program alarms, keeping the machine flying, and assuring
> ourselves that control was adequate to continue without requiring an abort.
> Most of our attention was directed inside the cockpit during this time
> period and in my view this would account for our inability to study the
> landing site and final landing location during final descent[14]._

> _Nevertheless, Armstrong had time to notice that the LPD indicated "we were
> landing just short of a large rocky crater with very large rocks covering a
> high percentage of the surface"[15]...._

This guy is pretty good!

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justin66
_First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong_ by James R. Hansen is worth reading
in its entirety if one is at all interested in this stuff. (Although it looks
like they're making it into a movie for 2018.) It is a history written by an
engineer who knew how to ask the right questions, which helps.

------
hypertexthero
Always love seeing this, and recently watched a good film about the human
computers who helped getting humans on the moon: Hidden Figures
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures)

------
garaetjjte
More details on program alarms and other problems (eg. overcompensated
throttle control, not fixed until Apollo 14):
[https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html](https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html)

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mathiasben
It's been 45 years since anyone has been more than 300 miles away from Earth.
totally pathetic.

~~~
frogpelt
Well, there wasn't much to do up there.

~~~
mitchellberry
Apart from the asteroids packed with precious metals or water/zero-g vacuum
manufacturing /virtually limitless solar energy and near earth rendezvous from
interstellar objects?

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m777z
Reminds me of the speech that Nixon would've given had the Apollo 11
astronauts been stranded on the Moon:

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will
stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope
for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their
sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the
search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by
the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be
mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in
their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the
constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic
men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be
denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our
hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know
that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/11/in-event-of-moon-
disast...](http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/11/in-event-of-moon-
disaster.html)

~~~
darrenf
And then there's Michael Collins's take:

> _" My secret terror for the last six months has been leaving them on the
> Moon and returning to Earth alone; now I am within minutes of finding out
> the truth of the matter," he wrote. "If they fail to rise from the surface,
> or crash back into it, I am not going to commit suicide; I am coming home,
> forthwith, but I will be a marked man for life and I know it."_

[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/19/michael-
coll...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/19/michael-collins-
astronaut-apollo11)

~~~
pinewurst
Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire" is by far the best of the astronaut
memoirs (IMHO). Really well written!

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mar77i
To this day the stories of the moon landings are the greatest adventures in
the galaxy.

To think that they hadn't had the tech to fake it...

