R.I.P. Neil Armstrong

What an adventure. That's one name that will still be remembered a long time from now.

 

I am very saddened to hear about this. It makes me wonder if my generation (or the younger one) will have people that accomplish great things.

 

Sad News.
But there is no doubt that he will be remembered forever!

And there are more planets and moons left for men or women like him to set foot on.

RIP Mr. Armstrong!

 

That's sad, the guy's a hero, first man on another celestial body other than earth. May he rest in peace forever.

 

Funny that there are people who still think the moon missions never happened. Likewise some fringe people are now saying that the latest Mars rover is actually driving around taking pictures in the Nevada desert somewhere.

 

Are you for real?
I knew that some think the Moonwalk is was hoax...and yeah kinda old that one!

But the thing about Curiosity being a RC Buggy in Nevada is new for me...lol

 

Back in 1969 it was not certain Neil and Buzz would make it. An interesting article on Yahoo brought out this speech -- to be given by President Nixon if the tragic occurred:

"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. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their 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 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.​

I also heard on a radio show the other day that nobody knew who was going to step on the moon first -- that's not true (at least not what I heard). It was the pioneering work of Buzz Aldrin while in orbit around the earth that a moon mission was possible. Until Buzz had shown the ability to do basic manual labor in space there was no hope to fulfill Kennedy's quest for the moon. Naturally, Aldrin felt since he had made the moment possible, the right to step first on the moon should be his. But Neil was the commander of the mission and had every intention of stepping first on the moon. After appealing all the way up the NASA chain of command Buzz got the verdict -- Neil had the right to make the decision.

 

It's one thing to deny the moon landing (still stupid if you ask me) but to deny the moon itself ? Gee, what have they smoked ?

edit: It's actually pretty funny to read, just finished it. wow, I don't know the exact rhetorical term for it, but the author does use some kind of logic. Read it, it's funny.

 

May he rest in peace. He was probably a great man himself (from what little I know about him), but he is also a symbol of humanity's drive towards greatness and ability to achieve incredible feats.

I hope that our generation gets a man like that.

 

I just hope I'll be alive to see the first human on Mars, that'd be something spectacularly awesome.

 

Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, that's a whole different story just due to distances. According to space.com, the average distance from Earth to Mars is 225,000,000 km, while the distance to the moon is a tiny fraction of that at 384,400 km. Those distances are pretty far beyond my comprehension, so somehow I can't imagine Neil Armstrong Jr. jetting off on a trip like that any time soon. And there are no Star Trek ships to tool around in, so ...

 

Of course it would be a long term mission, probably a two year trip. With current technologies a voyage to Mars would take approximately 6 months. The problem is that this 6 month is based on when Earth's and Mars' orbits are closest to each other. The Mars astronauts would have to wait a year to come back when the orbits of both planet are closest to each other again. Think of it like the tide, ships would normally go to sea during the high tide. It's somewhat analogous to it, something like "high orbit"

Why not just come back to earth even when the orbits of each planets are not closest ? Well, primary because of muscle atrophy; astronaut when not subjected to gravity uses very little muscle (and energy) to stay upright and a prolonged duration in such an environment would lead to loss of muscle mass. So it would be better for them to stay on Mars, which has gravity, to combat this phenomena. Even then, Mars' gravity is lower than Earth's, so they would still need to exercise rigorously.

There's other nefarious effect of spaceflight on the human body but, that's one of the most severe one.

More information

Space rules !

 

I believe the Mars missions are already planned. I work in the Aerospace industry and I believe that Companies are developing, as fast as they can, technologies to make it happen. There are BIG BUCKS to be made in that type venture...

 

My ex-girlfriend adamantly refused to believe that man has ever been to the moon, and when she first told me that I literally laughed in her face. When I was telling my friend about it later, she got pissed at me too. I later found out she also doesn't believe it, so when I said "She's such a ****ing idiot, using the same re-hashed claims to prove that it didn't happen even though all those claims have been refuted" she got just about as angry as my girlfriend.

Either way this is truly a great loss for mankind. One of the most important figures of the past century, that's for sure. Rest in peace, Neil.

 

I thought this page was pretty cool: Solar System Scale Model.

 

or anything else for that matter, that page is long. I wonder if it's really half a mile long, seems like it.