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    Forty years on the Moon - TED Fellows 2009

    July 17, 2009

    Forty years on the Moon

    Media_httpwwwnasagovimagescontent369440mainlrocapollo11lrgjpg_vtrmfrgbhgbhcev

     
    Forty years ago today the astronauts of Apollo 11 passed the halfway point on
    their journey to the Moon. They woke up, made some coffee, and fired the engine for
    their final trajectory correction before lunar orbit insertion. They looked back
    at their home, commenting on its hues and weather patterns as they witnessed a
    giant anti-cyclone moving south-east of Brazil. They were 200,000 kilometers
    from Earth. Three days later, on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
    piloted their Lunar Module to touchdown amidst the magnificent desolation of the
    Sea of Tranquility.
     
    The irregular white dot in the middle of the image above, the speck with the
    long shadow, is what remains of Tranquility Base today. The Lunar Reconnaissance
    Orbiter (LRO), the NASA spacecraft currently in orbit around the moon, has been
    imaging the Apollo landing sites and NASA today released their results to
    celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html
     
    Although seeing Tranquility Base as it looks today is perhaps the most poignant
    of the images, the detail visible at the Apollo 14 site is phenomenal. If you
    look carefully you can see the tracks made by Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell in
    their explorations as well as what I suspect is the ALSEP (the highly reflective
    Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package).
     

    Media_httpwwwnasagovimagescontent369441mainlrocapollo14lrgjpg_sfoodyegnxwfjhe

     
    If you're having a tough time seeing the tracks you can use the Apollo 14
    traverse map as a guide.
     
    Media_httpwwwlpiusraedupublicationsslidesetsapollolandingimagessapos19gif_ijdfyyzgunklulu

     
    Today, as NASA is re-examining its plans for human spaceflight and all manner of
    media is abuzz with alternate plans, commentary and criticism, I find these
    simple images focus the mind on what we are commemorating this July 20th -
    there, on the surface of another world, stand the monuments to a moment in time
    when two individuals embodied the work of hundreds of thousands and united
    hundreds of millions in celebration and hopes for a safe return. They have stood
    as silent testament to human will for some 480 lunar sunrises and are set to do
    so for many more. What you make of all that is up to you. For myself, I find it
    hard to put it any better than Hermann Oberth did in his 'Man into Space' in 1957:
     
    "And what would be the purpose of all this?
     For those who have never known the relentless urge to explore and discover,
     there is no answer.
     For those who have felt this urge, the answer is self-evident."
     
    -Alex MacDonald

    via tedfellows.posterous.com

    • 18 July 2009
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