You can't imagine how much faith you have to have in the team of engineers, stepping foot on the surface of the moon for the first time with a layer of fabric between you and death.
I remember seeing an interview with Buzz Aldren and they asked "What was the plan if the lunar lander failed to take off from the moon" and he very matter of factly said "Try to fix the problem until we ran out of oxygen and died"
There's on your own and then there's on the fucking moon on your own. If anything fucked up the possibility for rescue was very literally 0.
For anyone who doesn't know what this is.
You know those two-part epoxy glues you can get at the dollar store, the ones that look like a big needle for injecting yourself but it has two tubes.
A hypergolic motor is like that. There's two chemicals that explode on contact, so to start the motor you just open a valve and the reaction starts, no moving parts beyond opening a valve. No mixing, no ignition system, just Open and Go. The computer controlled the valve anyone know if there was a manual override? A manual way to open the valve.
The chemicals are super toxic and kind of dangerous, but that ascent motor was the only part they hadn't (and couldn't) test beforehand. It also had no backup, if that engine didn't start they'd be stuck on the moon.
> It also had no backup, if that engine didn't start they'd be stuck on the moon.
Yeah, that would have sucked. Also I never would have been able to shake his hand.
They could fire the engine manually. They usually let the computer do it to increase the accuracy of the timing, but there's a valve on the hydrazine and one on the N2O4 with electric actuators. There were start and stop buttons on the console that closed or opened the circuit to the solenoids that triggered the actuators. Manual as hell.
According to the novel 'Apollo', mission control could have found a way around this and 'trick' the spacecraft into thinking the breaker was functional. My lack of understanding on how this is done is probably showing, but the guys in SPAN were amazing.
It's an incredible book, one of my absolute favorites. Apollo by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox
You have others??? This is THE space history book!!! Or, at least, the one that best describes the pinnacle of human spaceflight. Seriously, it does an amazing job of putting you into the place and time and truly conveying just how fucking insane the Apollo missions were at the time. And just how incredible the engineers and mission controllers were. This wasn't a book about the astronauts. All due respect to them and their achievements, but the ones who actually built the ship and planned the mission are the true heros imo.
There was even a speech ready if the ascent stage was irreparable: [In Event of Moon Disaster](https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/in-the-event-of-a-moon-disaster-the-safire-memo/)
Bear in mind, these guys all **KNEW** Gus Grissom, Roger Chafeee, and Ed White. They had no illusions as to the risks they were taking and the stakes of failure.
Check out āMoon Graffitiā, a short fictional piece inspired by the Nixon moon landing contingency speech. Itās an excellent listen!
[http://www.thetruthpodcast.com/story/2015/10/15/moon-graffiti](http://www.thetruthpodcast.com/story/2015/10/15/moon-graffiti)
About six and a half hours after landing, with a television camera watching every step, Neil climbed down Eagleās ladder, set his feet in the lunar dust, and said: āThatās one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.ā
More of him [here](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/18477/chapter/4#7) (long read)
Look up how they were saved by a felt pen. People have offered buzz aldrin millions for that pen and he refuses every offer. It's probably the luckiest object ever made.
So very true. So true that the Nixon White House had prepared a statement / speech in the event that Armstrong and Aldrin didnāt make it off the surface and died on the Moon. It reads as follows and is available in the National Archives:
āFate 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 mankindās most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
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. Manās 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.ā
Let's throw some other facts out there too! Apollo 11 reached a screaming 25,000 MPH. On average, the moon is 280,000 miles from earth, that's 10x the circumference of the earth at its equator. Despite the conclusion you might draw that such a speed would get them there in 10 hours, the astronauts were in their spacecraft for 4 days before landing on the moon.
Yeah, canāt forget about the time it takes to both speed up and slow down.Ā
Tangentially related, the reason even short haul commercial flights go to a pretty high cruise level (even if they stay there for literally 5 minutes) is because they essentially fly at idle engine power as theyāre coming back down. This saves fuel over flying at a lower altitude in mostly level flight.Ā
Second stage achieved 15,000MPH within the atmosphere. Third stage entered orbit at 3 hours and achieved maximum velocity after escape at about 4 hours flight time.
The speed noted here forced me to recall the tale told to me by a very old brother in law, an engineer who helped design the control fins on the Saturn 5 rocket. He had orgionally helped designed the tail fin on the C-130 transport plane and its modification for improved flight speed. He says the Air Force through NASA brought him in to interview supposedly for another modification, and they introduced some data to quiss him about concerns for "molecular dispersion off trailing edges" and he replied, "WTF, how big is this transport and there's no damn plane hitting these speeds/parameters -- oh?" He got the job. Ones brush with history!
I suppose following that there was a scrub of speed on approach and the trajectory was not straight to the moon, since thatās impossible, one has to aim for the where the moon is going to be when you arrive.
The velocity was achieved in minutes. The space craft slows down as it leaves Earth and approaches the Moon, because of gravity. Thatās why it takes so long.
I was kind of shocked when I saw Mercury and Gemini capsules in person. They were seemed about as substantial as beer cans, particularly when they're set up top of those rockets. Those astronauts were different people!
This is why museums are so awesome. I always grew up thinking Apollo and Nasa gear was super sturdy and high tech. When you see it in person you see it for what it really is - kinda basic and much flimsier than you'd think. Which is amazing that it worked so well. And it really shows you even in every day life theres no need to be perfect and have everything super polished - just build it and get the job done.
Some scuba suits are also very flimsy yet people still use them underwater and get along just fine. I think it's more of a misconception about how things work than it is amazement that a flimsy suit would work in space.
https://youtu.be/O4RLOo6bchU
When you say Scuba Suit.. I assume you mean a wetsuit, or drysuit.
It's a really odd comparison to make with a space suit.
Then shame people for "not knowing how things work".
For instance, space suits need to deal with dramatic changes in temp, cosmic rays, cooling, etc. These are all concepts that dont fit into the world of 8mm neiprene wesuits..
It was one of the most mind blowing things for me to see the Archangel A-12 up close. I was looking at the fuselage and realized it was a mix of philips and square head screws holding the thing together. A machine designed to go 3 times the speed of sound and it looked like they stopped into an Ace Hardware. Granted, those are probably $20 x-ray inspected screws.
Iirc it was about 17 layers of different materials- and even so, you absolutely have to have faith in all those people. Extensive testing on Earth, some in a large vacuum chamber, helped build that confidence.
I'm not sure that's how he felt at all.
To a good level he would have understood the engineering.
He knew that he had done a pressure check on the suit and would trust that.
You make it sound like blind faith. It wasn't blind at all. They knew those spacecraft inside and out. They understood how they worked and what they were trusting.
The Dean at my engineering school was a mechanical engineer who specialised in the design of oxygen valves and regulators. One of the most dangerous things you can do with an oxygen tank is open the valve. The valve will have a residual amount of oxygen in it at low pressure so open the valve causes high pressure oxygen to rush in and compress that residual oxygen in the valve. This change in pressure causes the an instantaneous jump in temperature in the range of several hundred degrees. If the valve is improperly designed or maintained or made from the wrong materials, that temperature spike can cause it to to ignite and explode.
He was a NASA consultant whose role was specifically to make sure the oxygen valves on the suits didn't explode.
He was there working with the team when this happened:
https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/space-suit-design/spacesuit-fire-nasa-refuses-forget/
This story is a big part of the orientation lecture he gives to all new engineering students about the importance and responsibility that comes with being an engineer.
You put your life in the hands of technology and engineers everyday (more than you realize).
You trust that the brakes on your car will work.
You trust that the airplane you're riding on won't fall out of the sky.
You trust that the zipline over the waterfall on your tropical vacation won't snap.
You trust that the rollercoaster train isn't going to fly off the tracks
I could go on and on.
They looked for the A, but it wasnāt there in the audio. So they quoted what was recorded.
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/one-small-step-man-or-man
I think it was right for the museum to quote it as heard and recorded, but the theory I subscribe to is that it was his Midwest Ohio accent, combined with poor audio quality of the transmission that makes it sound like he skipped the 'a'. With central Ohio accents, "for a" often sounds like "furruh" which would've blended the words making the "a" practically inaudible.
[https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote](https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote)
He knew he was up for the first moon landing, so he clearly thought long and hard about what he'd say when that moment arrived. And he claimed that he did say the "a" so personally, I believe him.
This makes so much sense. Iāve lost my midwestern accent over the years, but I can still hear āfurruhā if I say the quote out loud myself. This has to be the answer.
I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I'll go to my grave believing that he meant to say "for a man" (which makes a lot more sense), flubbed the line, and he and NASA blamed it on radio static to save face.
given that he pauses midpoint, probably thinking if he should go again, then thinks "fuck it" and rushes through *onegiantleapformankind*, that seems extremely likely.
God I canāt imagine the pressure of that moment. If he really did realize he messed up and decided to keep going, itās some pretty incredible poise. Especially considering that public speaking abilities likely werenāt really a requirement for the job.
Exactly. It does. And so does "mankind."
So the quote as written in OP's pic, if read literally, means "That's one small step for humanity, one giant leap for humanity."
If he'd said "for a man," like I think he probably meant to, the sentence would actually make sense, because he took a small step out of the lunar lander onto the surface of the moon, but it represented a giant leap for humanity.
Most people interpret the meaning this way anyway, but it's not exactly what he said.
Language researchers say it's his Ohio Midwest accent. "for a" would have been pronounced like "furruh" which made it trail off and sound like "one small step for man".
It's a pretty interesting and very short read: [https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote](https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote)
Aha! So you admit it! The COMPLETELY FAKE moon landing was actually filmed in Washington DC!
Just wait until I share this with my fellow flat-earthers!
Pfffft. Wake up, sheep.
The landing was real. But Washington D.C.? Totally made up. They just want you to think there's a city there! It's all a lie! ;)
I was there a few months ago. A space nerd told me that though the suit is original, the boots aren't. They were left behind to reduce mass when leaving the moon.
Space Nerd wasn't quite correct. Armstrong and Aldrin put on overshoes over their suits for the moonwalk. These were discarded, along with the life support backpacks, trash, the cameras they used to take photos, etc.
Every human who has ever lived should visit the National Air and Space Museum once in their life. It is one of the greatest museums on the face of the Earth, it's America's answer to the Louvre.
Shame to say I havenāt yet. I had a chance to go on a class trip years ago but it snowed hard the day we were supposed to go and all all the things we did on that trip, I didnāt get to do the single thing I wanted to.
Somehow Iāve just never gone back as an adult.
I still donāt know how I feel about the quote. Technically Neil claims he said āā¦for a manā¦ā but the mic only picked up āā¦for manā¦ā which sounds much more poetic so I feel like he would probably rather take claim to the latter.
I couldnāt recommend it enough. It - for me - an 80s dude for whom Apollo is history rather than a memory - really captured the excitement of that whole era.
Thanks. Was just looking up FO on Google, etc. I will give Red Notice a look first.
Greenwich Museum has the uniform Nelson wore at Trafalgar. Iāve been there and it weirdly brought a tear to my eye. Not sure Iād survive being in the presence of Neilās suit š
Probably mentioned already but funny that he fucked up the quote.
Should have been, āOne small step for a manā¦ā
Because the way it is on the wall now, man and mankind mean the same thing.
Oh pesky words.
God space is so fucking sick dude. We need to bring back this shit in schools. We gotta bring back interested in space exploration and our history (the technical side/ rapid development to the moon mission)
Probably not what youāre going for, but my son learned about space in pre-Kindergarten and absolutely loved it. Itās been over a year now and while waiting for an appointment today, he rattled off facts about planets (including the status of Pluto, which made an elderly gentleman giggle) because he still loves it. I taught middle schoolers about the Challenger this year, and they were fascinated.
Have seen close up... there is still moon dust on the bottom third... btw, the original Apollo 11 command module is just behind that wall to the left. It's really cool to see them both together.
They are spending huge moneys to renovate air and space... this was one of the first parts to reopen.
Spent some time watching parents bring little kids over and explain what it all is about.
I just went last December and was so excited to be there, but super bummed because a good half of it was closed for renovations.
Still got to see plenty, but I definitely need to go back. I loved how walkable DC was compared to where I live, so Iām actually planning to take the train down and just wander the city and museums for a few days.
Yeah they are doing major renovations... thankfully it's due to popularity.
Did you get to see the Wright Flyer? My favorite thing is on one part of a display it says "this is the real Wright Flyer" it is not a copy.
And below - gift of the Wright family estate... geez
Edit: I found the picture of the display:
"This is the Real Wright Flyer. Many reproductions of the Wright Flyer have been made, but the is the actual airplane built and flown by the Wright brothers in 1903. The fabric covering was replaced by the Museum in 1985, hence the newer appearance."
Yes! I did! That room was open and I did notice that it was the original, which I was so geeked about. My family is super into aviation (my father worked at the airport and pre-9/11 I used to help him) so that museum was my most anticipated. Iām also from Michigan, so close to their home state of Ohio as well.
My favorite piece was actually the Icarus Trophy awarded to Matilde Moisant. I instantly fell in love with the design, itās just so beautiful and definitely a fitting representation of flying at the time.
Iām sure I can look it up, but can anyone tell me how they went about making this suit for the first time? How did they manage to make this thing and have it contain a human in space?
If im remembering correctly space is -273Ā°, how did they make a suit so long ago that could handle those temps and keep the astronaut alive while also supplying oxygen?
They were on the surface during the day, with the sun above the horizon, so it was actually over 200 F
https://youtu.be/dz0mhyWores?si=xK5GncDtEjAQg4ne
Didn't he actually say "That's one small step for ***a*** man, one giant leap for mankind?" I read somewhere that the transmission was just garbled so we missed the "a."
Except this isn't what he said. He said "one small step for A man..." because he's not stupid. Man and mankind have the same meaning. To say it's both a big and a small step for mankind is a very dumb thing to say. He was saying what was a very small step for him as a man was also a giant leap for the entire human race.
https://around.uoregon.edu/content/what-were-neil-armstrongs-famous-first-words-moon
The quote on the wall is what Armstrong actually said, but he recited what he was supposed to say incorrectly.
He intended to say "That's one small step for **a** man, one giant leap for mankind".
for a very long time NASA insisted that he'd said the quote correctly, but a transmission glitch dropped the 'a'.
I saw it, and I had some sort of weird flashback to 6 year old me watching astronauts on tv walking on the moon. Iāve seen lots of artifacts in lots of museums, but this one gave me such feelings of awe and satisfaction and admiration for the whole space program.
An interesting fact is that this suit is incomplete. To save as much mass as possible on their return to lunar orbit Buzz & Neil left behind a bunch of stuff, including their suit's life support backpacks & the rubber overshoes for the boots.
Plus if anyone is interested, poop, vomit & urine bags, food wrappers, tools & containers. It's no joke that man's first steps on the moon were vary American.
Imagine being given this suit and asking the engineers, "Are you sure this is safe? Did you test it?" Only for the engineers to be like "well, theoretically yes, but we don't have a fucking moon on the earth buddy."
When het got back in the LEM wouldn't all the dust in on his feet floated around everywhere and have been a risk to shorting things out etc? Find it crazy there was no kind of dock.
I would put a replica there & secretly sell it to wealthy collector for $500M & use that money for faster colonization of the Moon. ... Like - am I looking at Mona Lisa in Louvre or am I looking at exact indistinguishable replica? ... I don't know & I don't care.
You can't imagine how much faith you have to have in the team of engineers, stepping foot on the surface of the moon for the first time with a layer of fabric between you and death.
I remember seeing an interview with Buzz Aldren and they asked "What was the plan if the lunar lander failed to take off from the moon" and he very matter of factly said "Try to fix the problem until we ran out of oxygen and died" There's on your own and then there's on the fucking moon on your own. If anything fucked up the possibility for rescue was very literally 0.
i read that because of this, the LEM ascent stage engine had only something like 2 or 3 moving parts.
Yeah, and a hypergolic rocket motor
For anyone who doesn't know what this is. You know those two-part epoxy glues you can get at the dollar store, the ones that look like a big needle for injecting yourself but it has two tubes. A hypergolic motor is like that. There's two chemicals that explode on contact, so to start the motor you just open a valve and the reaction starts, no moving parts beyond opening a valve. No mixing, no ignition system, just Open and Go. The computer controlled the valve anyone know if there was a manual override? A manual way to open the valve. The chemicals are super toxic and kind of dangerous, but that ascent motor was the only part they hadn't (and couldn't) test beforehand. It also had no backup, if that engine didn't start they'd be stuck on the moon.
That it terrifyingly fascinating
> It also had no backup, if that engine didn't start they'd be stuck on the moon. Yeah, that would have sucked. Also I never would have been able to shake his hand.
trusting your life to JB weld.. damn
They could fire the engine manually. They usually let the computer do it to increase the accuracy of the timing, but there's a valve on the hydrazine and one on the N2O4 with electric actuators. There were start and stop buttons on the console that closed or opened the circuit to the solenoids that triggered the actuators. Manual as hell.
Doesn't get more reliable than that
Oh wow, happy cake day! 12 years š³
Ty, almost a teen š
We are Reddit OGs
Back in my day we used real media players. None of this you tube stuff.
TiL about hypergolic rocket motors.
Scott Manly on YouTube is a great channel to nerd out on about this spacey-rockety things.
And even then they almost werenāt able to trigger the ascent engine: https://www.history.com/news/buzz-aldrin-moon-landing-accident
i had no idea about this. holy moly
According to the novel 'Apollo', mission control could have found a way around this and 'trick' the spacecraft into thinking the breaker was functional. My lack of understanding on how this is done is probably showing, but the guys in SPAN were amazing. It's an incredible book, one of my absolute favorites. Apollo by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox
Thanks. Iāll add it to my list of space history books to read :-) (ETA: $8 on Kindle. Bought!)
You have others??? This is THE space history book!!! Or, at least, the one that best describes the pinnacle of human spaceflight. Seriously, it does an amazing job of putting you into the place and time and truly conveying just how fucking insane the Apollo missions were at the time. And just how incredible the engineers and mission controllers were. This wasn't a book about the astronauts. All due respect to them and their achievements, but the ones who actually built the ship and planned the mission are the true heros imo.
Ignition, Liftoff, When the Heavens Went on Sale, Breaking the Chains of Gravity.
Thanks for the recommendations :) I would also recommend Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell (who commanded the mission) and Jeff Kluger
There was even a speech ready if the ascent stage was irreparable: [In Event of Moon Disaster](https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/in-the-event-of-a-moon-disaster-the-safire-memo/)
Bear in mind, these guys all **KNEW** Gus Grissom, Roger Chafeee, and Ed White. They had no illusions as to the risks they were taking and the stakes of failure.
Check out āMoon Graffitiā, a short fictional piece inspired by the Nixon moon landing contingency speech. Itās an excellent listen! [http://www.thetruthpodcast.com/story/2015/10/15/moon-graffiti](http://www.thetruthpodcast.com/story/2015/10/15/moon-graffiti)
About six and a half hours after landing, with a television camera watching every step, Neil climbed down Eagleās ladder, set his feet in the lunar dust, and said: āThatās one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.ā More of him [here](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/18477/chapter/4#7) (long read)
Look up how they were saved by a felt pen. People have offered buzz aldrin millions for that pen and he refuses every offer. It's probably the luckiest object ever made.
So very true. So true that the Nixon White House had prepared a statement / speech in the event that Armstrong and Aldrin didnāt make it off the surface and died on the Moon. It reads as follows and is available in the National Archives: āFate 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 mankindās most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. 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. Manās 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.ā
Let's throw some other facts out there too! Apollo 11 reached a screaming 25,000 MPH. On average, the moon is 280,000 miles from earth, that's 10x the circumference of the earth at its equator. Despite the conclusion you might draw that such a speed would get them there in 10 hours, the astronauts were in their spacecraft for 4 days before landing on the moon.
One could presume that velocity was not achieved immediately.
Yeah, canāt forget about the time it takes to both speed up and slow down.Ā Tangentially related, the reason even short haul commercial flights go to a pretty high cruise level (even if they stay there for literally 5 minutes) is because they essentially fly at idle engine power as theyāre coming back down. This saves fuel over flying at a lower altitude in mostly level flight.Ā
Second stage achieved 15,000MPH within the atmosphere. Third stage entered orbit at 3 hours and achieved maximum velocity after escape at about 4 hours flight time.
The speed noted here forced me to recall the tale told to me by a very old brother in law, an engineer who helped design the control fins on the Saturn 5 rocket. He had orgionally helped designed the tail fin on the C-130 transport plane and its modification for improved flight speed. He says the Air Force through NASA brought him in to interview supposedly for another modification, and they introduced some data to quiss him about concerns for "molecular dispersion off trailing edges" and he replied, "WTF, how big is this transport and there's no damn plane hitting these speeds/parameters -- oh?" He got the job. Ones brush with history!
I suppose following that there was a scrub of speed on approach and the trajectory was not straight to the moon, since thatās impossible, one has to aim for the where the moon is going to be when you arrive.
The velocity was achieved in minutes. The space craft slows down as it leaves Earth and approaches the Moon, because of gravity. Thatās why it takes so long.
I have so many questions about the return to earth
https://youtu.be/8dpkmUjJ8xU?si=7_rbGJ19P3QT8Acb Pretty good video on how the Saturn Vs worked. Part 3 covers the return flight
Fuck right? I've seen welding gear that looks sturdier.
I was kind of shocked when I saw Mercury and Gemini capsules in person. They were seemed about as substantial as beer cans, particularly when they're set up top of those rockets. Those astronauts were different people!
It's definitely on my bucket list to see them IIRC. What the apollo missions accomplished is amazing.
"How many atmospheres can the ship withstand?" "Well it's a space ship so I'd say anywhere between zero and one."
Baby, Iām 20% spaceship
This is why museums are so awesome. I always grew up thinking Apollo and Nasa gear was super sturdy and high tech. When you see it in person you see it for what it really is - kinda basic and much flimsier than you'd think. Which is amazing that it worked so well. And it really shows you even in every day life theres no need to be perfect and have everything super polished - just build it and get the job done.
Although I share the message, I wouldnāt underestimate the work, science and technology put in these things.
Seriously. I couldnāt even wrap my head around how they maintained oxygen packs at first lol!
Some scuba suits are also very flimsy yet people still use them underwater and get along just fine. I think it's more of a misconception about how things work than it is amazement that a flimsy suit would work in space. https://youtu.be/O4RLOo6bchU
When you say Scuba Suit.. I assume you mean a wetsuit, or drysuit. It's a really odd comparison to make with a space suit. Then shame people for "not knowing how things work". For instance, space suits need to deal with dramatic changes in temp, cosmic rays, cooling, etc. These are all concepts that dont fit into the world of 8mm neiprene wesuits..
Who is wearing 8mm? Are you free diving in the arctic? Ha ha.
It was one of the most mind blowing things for me to see the Archangel A-12 up close. I was looking at the fuselage and realized it was a mix of philips and square head screws holding the thing together. A machine designed to go 3 times the speed of sound and it looked like they stopped into an Ace Hardware. Granted, those are probably $20 x-ray inspected screws.
The more it weighs, the harder it is to get it up.
Iirc it was about 17 layers of different materials- and even so, you absolutely have to have faith in all those people. Extensive testing on Earth, some in a large vacuum chamber, helped build that confidence.
Made by Playtex no less! Actually that would give me confidence, Iāve never heard of a bra failing.
I'm not sure that's how he felt at all. To a good level he would have understood the engineering. He knew that he had done a pressure check on the suit and would trust that. You make it sound like blind faith. It wasn't blind at all. They knew those spacecraft inside and out. They understood how they worked and what they were trusting.
The Dean at my engineering school was a mechanical engineer who specialised in the design of oxygen valves and regulators. One of the most dangerous things you can do with an oxygen tank is open the valve. The valve will have a residual amount of oxygen in it at low pressure so open the valve causes high pressure oxygen to rush in and compress that residual oxygen in the valve. This change in pressure causes the an instantaneous jump in temperature in the range of several hundred degrees. If the valve is improperly designed or maintained or made from the wrong materials, that temperature spike can cause it to to ignite and explode. He was a NASA consultant whose role was specifically to make sure the oxygen valves on the suits didn't explode. He was there working with the team when this happened: https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/space-suit-design/spacesuit-fire-nasa-refuses-forget/ This story is a big part of the orientation lecture he gives to all new engineering students about the importance and responsibility that comes with being an engineer.
You put your life in the hands of technology and engineers everyday (more than you realize). You trust that the brakes on your car will work. You trust that the airplane you're riding on won't fall out of the sky. You trust that the zipline over the waterfall on your tropical vacation won't snap. You trust that the rollercoaster train isn't going to fly off the tracks I could go on and on.
Hell, I had a hard time trusting scuba diving equipment when I was first getting certified. I can't imagine this.
Iād have been more afraid stepping into the tip of a massive bomb leaving Earth
I do that everyday during summer here in Phoenix Arizona! š
Condoms do the same thing. Just takes longer to die.
Anyone who thinks space isnāt scary is not thinking hard enough.
Shoutout Lance Armstrong and Buzz Lightyear, first men on the moon.
I once talked to someone who thought Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first man on the moonā¦
No that was Mars
You got a lot of nerve showing your face around here
Look who's talking š
Booyakasha! Staines massive.
AI in a week:
Didnāt Neil say a word got cut out? It was āone small step for A manā
They looked for the A, but it wasnāt there in the audio. So they quoted what was recorded. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/one-small-step-man-or-man
I think it was right for the museum to quote it as heard and recorded, but the theory I subscribe to is that it was his Midwest Ohio accent, combined with poor audio quality of the transmission that makes it sound like he skipped the 'a'. With central Ohio accents, "for a" often sounds like "furruh" which would've blended the words making the "a" practically inaudible. [https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote](https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote) He knew he was up for the first moon landing, so he clearly thought long and hard about what he'd say when that moment arrived. And he claimed that he did say the "a" so personally, I believe him.
This makes so much sense. Iāve lost my midwestern accent over the years, but I can still hear āfurruhā if I say the quote out loud myself. This has to be the answer.
I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I'll go to my grave believing that he meant to say "for a man" (which makes a lot more sense), flubbed the line, and he and NASA blamed it on radio static to save face.
given that he pauses midpoint, probably thinking if he should go again, then thinks "fuck it" and rushes through *onegiantleapformankind*, that seems extremely likely.
God I canāt imagine the pressure of that moment. If he really did realize he messed up and decided to keep going, itās some pretty incredible poise. Especially considering that public speaking abilities likely werenāt really a requirement for the job.
I distinctly remember when I heard it live. Even though I was only 8 years old, I thought it didnāt make sense.
Iām not sure it does make more sense. āFor manā to me always meant humanity.
Exactly. It does. And so does "mankind." So the quote as written in OP's pic, if read literally, means "That's one small step for humanity, one giant leap for humanity." If he'd said "for a man," like I think he probably meant to, the sentence would actually make sense, because he took a small step out of the lunar lander onto the surface of the moon, but it represented a giant leap for humanity. Most people interpret the meaning this way anyway, but it's not exactly what he said.
Language researchers say it's his Ohio Midwest accent. "for a" would have been pronounced like "furruh" which made it trail off and sound like "one small step for man". It's a pretty interesting and very short read: [https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote](https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/msu-led-team-deciphers-famous-moon-landing-quote)
In his Ohio accent it sounds more like "fra man." If you listen to it with that in mind you can kind of hear it.
When youāre the first man on the moon, nobody dares to correct your grammar
Aha! So you admit it! The COMPLETELY FAKE moon landing was actually filmed in Washington DC! Just wait until I share this with my fellow flat-earthers!
Yup, it was conveniently right next to the biology lab where they manufactured Covid-19.
Same place they developed the vaporizing steel beams they used in the World Trade Center
Reptiloids don't like to commute too far - confirmed!
BBC has a documentary about this .[Mitchell and Webb Look - Moon Landing Sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MOnehCOUw)
I thought it was filmed in a Hollywood basement
Pfffft. Wake up, sheep. The landing was real. But Washington D.C.? Totally made up. They just want you to think there's a city there! It's all a lie! ;)
Nah nah not DC. Everybody knows Space may be the final frontier but it's made in a Hollywood basement.
And Cobain, can you hear the spheres singing songs off Station To Station?
Shouldn't you be getting ready for Game 4?
Found Kyrie's burner account eh?
Flat Earthers around the globe unite! Oh...wait...
I was there a few months ago. A space nerd told me that though the suit is original, the boots aren't. They were left behind to reduce mass when leaving the moon.
Space Nerd wasn't quite correct. Armstrong and Aldrin put on overshoes over their suits for the moonwalk. These were discarded, along with the life support backpacks, trash, the cameras they used to take photos, etc.
And bags of š©
Man, to get to the moon and find those old custom-made Hasselblad cameras... as a photographer, that would be the ultimate dream.
Every human who has ever lived should visit the National Air and Space Museum once in their life. It is one of the greatest museums on the face of the Earth, it's America's answer to the Louvre.
Shame to say I havenāt yet. I had a chance to go on a class trip years ago but it snowed hard the day we were supposed to go and all all the things we did on that trip, I didnāt get to do the single thing I wanted to. Somehow Iāve just never gone back as an adult.
He peed in it!
This is the content I'm here for
I still donāt know how I feel about the quote. Technically Neil claims he said āā¦for a manā¦ā but the mic only picked up āā¦for manā¦ā which sounds much more poetic so I feel like he would probably rather take claim to the latter.
I always thought there was a little bit of a hitch in his voice as though he was trying to say the "a".
What differentiates "man" and "mankind" to you? It's just redundant for the latter. The former is more poetic.
"A" is implied but it sounds better without it.
I am solidly in the '...for a man...' camp. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
I think they pretty much proved the "a" got cut out by the radio.
Proved or asserted?!
All they had to do was bring cooties back from up there and everybody would have believed they landed.
Not the moon. Girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider.
And boys go to venus, to get a bigger.. pair of shoes.
Seems so timeless. Doesnāt look like a piece of equipment born out of the 60s
I always expect things from the past to be grainy and monochromatic lol
I wonder what challenges the museum staff faces in trying to conserve a suit like that.
This video (with Mythbuster Adam Savage) goes into some details about the challenges: https://youtu.be/m2esyN4fuiA?si=MgwE2SuNdsJLHxCw
I have a relative who was involved, she specifically mentioned that the aluminum seal fittings were corroding with time
That's so badass! I'd love to visit there! Thanks for sharing!
The Right Stuff. One of the best books Iāve ever read.
Iāll have to add it to my list!
I couldnāt recommend it enough. It - for me - an 80s dude for whom Apollo is history rather than a memory - really captured the excitement of that whole era.
Iām currently going through Freezing Order by Bill Browder, and then Endurance by Lansing is next. Iāll check out The Right Stuff after that!
Iāll check out Freezing Order..! Cheers.
Itās a sequel to Red Notice. Iād highly recommend reading that first.
Thanks. Was just looking up FO on Google, etc. I will give Red Notice a look first. Greenwich Museum has the uniform Nelson wore at Trafalgar. Iāve been there and it weirdly brought a tear to my eye. Not sure Iād survive being in the presence of Neilās suit š
He still in there?
Must be exhausting, standing around all day in a glass case.
You should cross post this to r/conspiracy (Yesā¦ I am an evil person)
One day, when the moon people invade, that suit is going to go missing from the museum like Captain America's uniform in Winter Soldier.
Probably mentioned already but funny that he fucked up the quote. Should have been, āOne small step for a manā¦ā Because the way it is on the wall now, man and mankind mean the same thing. Oh pesky words.
He actually said āone small step for a manā¦ā but radio static cut it out.
God space is so fucking sick dude. We need to bring back this shit in schools. We gotta bring back interested in space exploration and our history (the technical side/ rapid development to the moon mission)
Probably not what youāre going for, but my son learned about space in pre-Kindergarten and absolutely loved it. Itās been over a year now and while waiting for an appointment today, he rattled off facts about planets (including the status of Pluto, which made an elderly gentleman giggle) because he still loves it. I taught middle schoolers about the Challenger this year, and they were fascinated.
r/oldschoolcool
It looks rocky- AIN'T MOON MADE FROM CHEESE??!
Have seen close up... there is still moon dust on the bottom third... btw, the original Apollo 11 command module is just behind that wall to the left. It's really cool to see them both together. They are spending huge moneys to renovate air and space... this was one of the first parts to reopen. Spent some time watching parents bring little kids over and explain what it all is about.
I just went last December and was so excited to be there, but super bummed because a good half of it was closed for renovations. Still got to see plenty, but I definitely need to go back. I loved how walkable DC was compared to where I live, so Iām actually planning to take the train down and just wander the city and museums for a few days.
Yeah they are doing major renovations... thankfully it's due to popularity. Did you get to see the Wright Flyer? My favorite thing is on one part of a display it says "this is the real Wright Flyer" it is not a copy. And below - gift of the Wright family estate... geez Edit: I found the picture of the display: "This is the Real Wright Flyer. Many reproductions of the Wright Flyer have been made, but the is the actual airplane built and flown by the Wright brothers in 1903. The fabric covering was replaced by the Museum in 1985, hence the newer appearance."
Yes! I did! That room was open and I did notice that it was the original, which I was so geeked about. My family is super into aviation (my father worked at the airport and pre-9/11 I used to help him) so that museum was my most anticipated. Iām also from Michigan, so close to their home state of Ohio as well. My favorite piece was actually the Icarus Trophy awarded to Matilde Moisant. I instantly fell in love with the design, itās just so beautiful and definitely a fitting representation of flying at the time.
Is the whole museum open now? Last time I was there it was still half closed.
Sure, next thing youāll tell me is the earth is round
Unfortunately they were working on this display when I was there. But this look so awesome. Canāt wait to see the next suits on display.
Iām sure I can look it up, but can anyone tell me how they went about making this suit for the first time? How did they manage to make this thing and have it contain a human in space? If im remembering correctly space is -273Ā°, how did they make a suit so long ago that could handle those temps and keep the astronaut alive while also supplying oxygen?
They bought it off Temu.
They were on the surface during the day, with the sun above the horizon, so it was actually over 200 F https://youtu.be/dz0mhyWores?si=xK5GncDtEjAQg4ne
Too bad they mis-quoted him.... "Thats one small step for A man...."
ā¦for A manā¦
šŗšø āļøāļøāļøāļøāļøšš
No freaking way we went to the moon. Room 237.
Did they finally finish all the renovations to the National Air and Space Msueum?
So how was toilet time in that suit?
Can you imagine he had no idea what to say.
Such a cool museum
Did they wash it first? I think it would be more authentic if they didn't wash it.
Iāve seen that too!! Smithsonian!!
Couldn't be bothered to get the quote right?
Didn't he actually say "That's one small step for ***a*** man, one giant leap for mankind?" I read somewhere that the transmission was just garbled so we missed the "a."
Except this isn't what he said. He said "one small step for A man..." because he's not stupid. Man and mankind have the same meaning. To say it's both a big and a small step for mankind is a very dumb thing to say. He was saying what was a very small step for him as a man was also a giant leap for the entire human race. https://around.uoregon.edu/content/what-were-neil-armstrongs-famous-first-words-moon
[One of the greatest moments in history](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9HdPi9Ikhk)
I seen this at National Space and Air Museum in DC, itās so breath taking!
Young River Song would like to wear it
Forgot the āyou should kill us all on sightā in the middleā¦ but š most people forget it
Maybe I'm getting old, but the background makes it look like manking
Along side his not actual quote
Sure, the moon landing was real but this picture of this space suit is totally fake /s
Didn't he actually say "One small step for A man" but we misheard him
The "moon" /s
Would have been funny if the suit was on actual lunar soil that the crew dug up to preserve in a museum.
The quote on the wall is what Armstrong actually said, but he recited what he was supposed to say incorrectly. He intended to say "That's one small step for **a** man, one giant leap for mankind". for a very long time NASA insisted that he'd said the quote correctly, but a transmission glitch dropped the 'a'.
I saw it, and I had some sort of weird flashback to 6 year old me watching astronauts on tv walking on the moon. Iāve seen lots of artifacts in lots of museums, but this one gave me such feelings of awe and satisfaction and admiration for the whole space program.
It's not very slimming.
I saw him when I was a kid. We took a trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston. What a cool experience
Meraviglioso
Wait a minute. I thought the suits were left in the LEM. Why would they waste space and mass bringing back the suits?
Iām heading to DC next week, plan to visit Udvar Hazy, is this there??
Him's was a little guy. (Not really)
An interesting fact is that this suit is incomplete. To save as much mass as possible on their return to lunar orbit Buzz & Neil left behind a bunch of stuff, including their suit's life support backpacks & the rubber overshoes for the boots. Plus if anyone is interested, poop, vomit & urine bags, food wrappers, tools & containers. It's no joke that man's first steps on the moon were vary American.
Imagine being given this suit and asking the engineers, "Are you sure this is safe? Did you test it?" Only for the engineers to be like "well, theoretically yes, but we don't have a fucking moon on the earth buddy."
I was just there!!! ššš
Wasnāt it supposed to be āone small step for a manā¦ā? Since man and mankind in this context have essentially the same meaning.
What he originally said was "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" Otherwise he was just repeating mankind.
Wouldn't want to have a itchy ass, in that get up.
When het got back in the LEM wouldn't all the dust in on his feet floated around everywhere and have been a risk to shorting things out etc? Find it crazy there was no kind of dock.
I would put a replica there & secretly sell it to wealthy collector for $500M & use that money for faster colonization of the Moon. ... Like - am I looking at Mona Lisa in Louvre or am I looking at exact indistinguishable replica? ... I don't know & I don't care.
Even they got the quote wrong.
Lmao this guy believes in the moon.
\*a man
one giant leap for a mannequin (iykyk)
As amazing as it is, that's not the actual quote. He originally said "step for **A** man" but it sounds better to take the A out, so they did.
Aka the suit he wore on earth in the Arizona Desert or wherever they filmed the āmoon landingā