Apollo 11 "live" coverage - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Bill Wood · #1 07-15-2009, 10:17 PM

July 16, 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11.
There's "real time" coverage of the event HERE. Lots of pictures and videos can be explored but the actual events are unfolding in real time.

For those of us who were alive during the 1960's it was an unbelievable time.
How man could build such an incredible machine as the Saturn V is still amazing. One billion horsepower.

MTI · #2 07-15-2009, 10:22 PM

The instant Mrs. MTI saw the L.E.M. module at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum . . . and despite explanations about no atmosphere and it's mission specific design . . . she instantly became a lunar landing skeptic.

MS Fowler · #3 07-15-2009, 10:23 PM

I have a friend who believes it was all faked. All I have to do ti liven up any event is ask him how it was all faked--he goes on and on.

I remember it well, and do not believe it was faked.

JimmyL · #4 07-15-2009, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

I have a friend who believes it was all faked. All I have to do ti liven up any event is ask him how it was all faked--he goes on and on.

I remember it well, and do not believe it was faked.

There is a program out there that tries to prove that it was faked. It is such compelling info that I am skeptical.
I believe there is a Japanese probe that soon enough will be close enough to the moon to take pics of the items left on the lunar surface. That will be the real proof I guess....

t walgamuth · #5 07-16-2009, 05:56 AM

It wasn't faked. It is truly astounding though.

Perhaps the most astounding thing is how they got the appollo 13 crew home on duct tape and pieces of paper rolled into tubes. I have a copy of Ron Howards movie about it and watch it once a year or so. Just a wonderful story about human perseverence.

The technology was much more primitave than what we have now but it got the job done.

MS Fowler · #6 07-16-2009, 06:18 AM

I have looked into some of the skeptic's arguments, and find them based on ignorance, and conjecture.

G-Benz · #7 07-16-2009, 07:50 AM

I remember watching the moon landing on TV...I was 9.

After seeing that, I felt there was nothing the U.S. couldn't do!

It was ironic that the next day at school I was reading a textbook with the sentence, "Someday, man will go to the moon". I chuckled to myself, in the same manner as if I read a text today stating "Someday, a black man will become President"...

LUVMBDiesels · #8 07-16-2009, 08:06 AM

What is a amazing is that all of the millions of parts worked together and that nothing catastrophic went wrong with Apollo 11. If it had failed we might have given up and listened to the nay sayers who went on about not a dime for space until we feed the human race...

My father worked for the Apollo project and I still have some of the original drawings and manuals that they used for assembly and for flying the thing. They are intense. To think that something THAT COMPLEX was built without modern CAD/CAM and modeling software blows me away.

It makes me wonder how far we could have gone if we had not canceled Apollo and put all our eggs in the Space Shuttle basket.

By all rights we should have a base on the moon by now and be running expeditions to Mars.

As for the conspiracy theorists, there are artifacts put on the moon by the Astronauts that are still being used today. They put up reflectors that are used to bounce laser beams off the moon to determine if the lunar orbit is changing. These reflectors needed precise alignment and could not be delivered by an unmanned probe.

Hatterasguy · #9 07-16-2009, 09:31 AM

It was amazing.

Lots of German scientists helped design that thing.

MS Fowler · #10 07-16-2009, 11:10 AM

IIRC, they say that the average $10 pocket calculator of today has more power than they had on board for their in-flight calcs. Now, THAT is amazing.

Medmech · #11 07-16-2009, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

IIRC, they say that the average $10 pocket calculator of today has more power than they had on board for their in-flight calcs. Now, THAT is amazing.

That is why the relied on the Omega Speedmaster, when Apollo 13 failed the Speedmaster was still ticking.

dynalow · #12 07-16-2009, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

I have a friend who believes it was all faked. All I have to do ti liven up any event is ask him how it was all faked--he goes on and on.

The only thing fake about that weekend was Teddy's excuse.

The night before Neil walked on the moon, Teddy walked out of the water, and Mary Jo never saw her 29th birthday, one week later.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4569

Ted ruined a lot of historic front pages with that behavior.

lutzTD · #13 07-16-2009, 03:09 PM

"good luck, Mr. Gorsky"

G-Benz · #14 07-16-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LUVMBDiesels

...By all rights we should have a base on the moon by now and be running expeditions to Mars...

I think even NASA concedes that space is far too hostile an environment to set up manned expeditions to the far reaches of the galaxy or set up colonies in other planets.

The space station is probably as far as we care to send humans for now...unless a dramatic technological breakthrough allows long range space travel and associated challenges to become feasible...

dynalow · #15 07-16-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by G-Benz

I think even NASA concedes that space is far too hostile an environment to set up manned expeditions to the far reaches of the galaxy or set up colonies in other planets.

The space station is probably as far as we care to send humans for now...unless a dramatic technological breakthrough allows long range space travel and associated challenges to become feasible...

Remember when?

Good day, gentlemen. This is a prerecorded briefing made prior to your departure and which for security reasons of the highest importance has been known on board during the mission only by your H-A-L 9000 computer. Now that you are in Jupiter's space and the entire crew is revived it can be told to you. Eighteen months ago the first evidence of intelligent life off the Earth was discovered. It was buried 40 feet below the lunar surface near the crater Tycho. Except for a single very powerful radio emission aimed at Jupiter the four-million year old black monolith has remained completely inert. Its origin and purpose are still a total mystery.