Fifty years since the moon landings

[sycamore54321]

It will be 50 years ago later this month since the first moon landing. I wasn’t born. I’ve always imagined though, what it must feel like to look up at the moon and know that there were people there. Do any MNers recall it? Was it scary or awe-inspiring? What did it feel like?

It seems so odd to me that this huge milestone took place half a century ago, and then abruptly stopped almost as suddenly as it had begun a few years later. And since then, loads of other exciting space stuff but nobody else has ever stood on something that wasn’t of our planet.

We all looked out of the window at the moon and my younger brother said I can see them! I can see them! I was really jealous as I totally believed him and I couldn't make out a thing.

Yeah, it's a thing, Mouldiwarp1. See also: 9/11 didn't happen it was all done with mirrors, vaccinations are a government plot to kill you and homeopathy is better than antibiotics. In days gone by these little pointy headed genuises would have just sat quietly in their rooms waiting for next door's microwave to kill them but now that we've got the internet they've all found each other.

I like buzz aldrin's approach to people who tell him he's a liar and a fraud and that he didn't walk on the moon.

He punches them in the face.

I'm sure I saw a Discovery channel doc last week, co-presented by a well known conspiracy theorist and an ex astronaut which was able to show the tracks of the moon vehicle thingy still visible on the moon.
The BBC pod cast 13 Minutes to the Moon is absolutely fascinating and tells the story from the early 60s JFK "we choose to go to the moon" speech.

Sorry but anyone who thinks the moon landing didn’t happen has got to be a little bit simple.

PaddyFOdder I think I love you.

Moon landing conspiracy theorists, anti vaxxers, flat earthers, and holocaust deniers all share a common platform in my view.

@TarragonSauce

Agreed. Brilliant podcast.

HBO did a great show back in the 90s called “From The Earth To The Moon”. It’s outnon DVD but sadly not download/streaming. It’s brilliant.

Ah! I know someone, flat Earther, moon landing denier. Tiresome chap! Utterly deluded into thinking he is far, far more clever than everyone else in the room because he knows something we cannot understand.

Yes Warren. That'll be because your attempts at explanation lack logic, coherence, sense...

I was 8, I remember watching the moon landings sitting cross-legged in the school hall.

I don't think I realises at the time it wasn't 'real' - the landing was in the evening of July 21st (UTC), the first steps on the moon in the early hours of the next morning. Even back in the 1960s schools had video recorders!

I can't remember what my feelings were - probably interested but I'm pretty sure I found it neither 'scary or awe-inspiring'. The thing is, to a child brought up watching 'tomorrow's world', despite what conspiracy-theorists now may think, the technology involved wasn't incongruent. It was the optimistic age of 'the white heat of scientific revolution'.

I don't loathe people who claim it never happened, I rather pity them.

I've a family member who thinks it's 'hilarious' when 'stuipid' people try to convince him they weren't faked.

Not entirely sure how he has enough evidence to be so sure. Farthest he's travelled from his rural village is about 200 miles!!

We were told to stay home from school(Australia) as it was so important that we should watch it with our families. I remember how moved my Dad, a scientist, was and how impressed he was with the quiet teamwork of the astronauts.
I have no time for the conspiracy theories.

I don’t believe the moon landing was faked.

I do however love the film Capricorn One about a faked Mars landing!

Been there . Bought a tea towel !

I watched every available minute of coverage of all the Apollo missions. I sat up all night to watch the landing, and fell asleep in Chemistry the next day. The teacher let me off, as he’d been up watching it too!
I’m sorry for those born too late to remember it. The spine tingling anticipation at the first dramatic chords of Also Sprach Zarathustra, which the BBC used as the theme tune for the programs, the amazing power and roar of the Saturn 5 rocket on take off, the nail biting when Armstrong had to make mental calculations and land the Eagle manually, when the primitive onboard computer (with less power than a modern pocket calculator!) was heading them into a boulder field - it was the most dramatic thing I’ve ever watched.
I can only imagine the tension at Mission Control - I still remember the CapCom saying to the astronauts after landing “You got a bunch of guys here about to turn blue!”, as they’d all been breath holding for so long on the descent!

@PaddyF0dder
Episode 9 just landed on my phone!
Tranquility Base!
I envy those who might binge listen. I've followed week by week and spent days waiting for the next bit.

As usual, I shall take my headphones down to my comfy chair at the end of the garden and lose myself for half an hour or so...

with comments ...

I watched it with my Dad. One of the most exciting things, ever! While I'm not quite so apoplectic as Paddy about those who believe it's fake despite all the actual, solid, incontrovertible evidence that it happened, I do despair at the conspiracy theorists and science deniers who seem to delight in ignoring history.

@Babdoc what a great memory you’ve shared, I really enjoyed reading that.

I was 8, I remember watching the moon landings sitting cross-legged in the school hall.

I remember that too, except it's wrong because I would only be 2. I think what did happen was when the school bought a TV (many parents were not happy - you go to school to learn not watch TV) we watched almost every programme on for a few days because there wasn't a way of recording soif we were going to watch a programme we had to be in the hall at the same time every week.

I'm fairly sure there would have been something on about space.

there wasn't a way of recording

Our school had a big tv mounted on wheels, and a reel-to-reel video recorder. Apart from the moon landings, they used it a lot for the many excellent BBC schools programs.

Ep 8 of the podcast already mentioned covers the part of the landing that Babdoc describes, using interviews with mission control staff and tape recordings of communications.
It truly is a nail biter....and I knew the outcome. Babdoc didn't, I can only imagine the breathlessness of listening to that!

when the primitive onboard computer (with less power than a modern pocket calculator!)

Online simulator

To be honest I feel sorry for people whose imaginations are so staid and limited they can only get as far as imagining it to be a hoax. To accept it as the reality it is requires way more imagination and intelligence

The scientists and engineers of 50 years ago might be stunned to find out how much computing power is available now, and how much is squandered on propagating anti-science conspiracies.

I was 8, I remember watching the moon landings sitting cross-legged in the school hall.

Snap!

Last day of school, West Hill Juniors, Wandsworth, as seen in the film "About A Boy."

Sat there gawping all morning at a still picture because the astronauts were asleep.