What really happened on the moon...

Chances are that any photographs you have seen of the 'first man' on the moon are not of Neil Armstrong, but of Buzz Aldrin. This is because, for some inexplicable reason, Aldrin took virtually no photographs of the mission commander.

An unexpected call came through from President Nixon just after the pair had struggled to plant the American flag on the concrete hard substrate below the inch thick layer of powdery dust. Armstrong had photographed Aldrin saluting beside the flag and Aldrin was about to take the camera to return the favour when the call came through. Subsequently, Aldrin neglected to take a good photograph of Armstrong, although found time to photograph a 360 pan and his own footprints.

In the excellent authorised biography of Armstrong by James R. Hansen Armstrong's modest and humble personality would have precluded him from telling Aldrin, "Hey, take a photo of me why don'tcha!" Aldrin himself admitted later to being 'intimidated' by having the focus of millions on him, and so admitted to not thinking 'creatively'.

There has been some speculation, since Aldrin had petitioned to be the first man to step on the surface of the moon (and his military father had pulled some strings too) that Aldrin had purposely not photographed Neil Armstrong. In effect saying, "Well if I don't get to be first man, Neil can forget me capturing his moment of glory."

Columbus Analogy

Al Bean, the astronaut in Apollo 12, uses a analogy to describe the oversight.
" [There] should have been a bunch of good pictures of Neil. This was such an historic event. I mean, think about it: I'm going along on the boat with Christopher Columbus. he's carrying the camera at the moment, but I'm his first mate. We all know what should happen. Nobody knows the answer why it didn't."

The Flight Director at the time, Gene Krantz, is more emotional. '{The] only picture I can put up on screen of Neil [for some 60 - 70 public speaking engagements each year] is his reflection in Buzz's facemask. I find that shocking. That's something to me that's unacceptable. But, you know, life isn't fair."

First Words

Many theories also surround Armstrong's famous words when he stepped on the moon's surface. Officially, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Some crackle and distortion can be heard. There is of course a world of difference between what Armstrong said and what he thought he said. Armstrong says he meant to say: "That's one small step for a man..." By leaving out the article, Armstrong was in effect referring twice to 'mankind', with the first synecdoche making it grammatically flawed.

Worse still, by referring to himself as 'man', Armstrong would have been taking some license upon himself as representative of all human Earthlings, a license many would not be loathe to grant him during such a feat.

Despite the technical aspects, everyone knows what Armstrong was trying to say, and it remains one of the most memorable statements ever made. When did Armstrong think to say it, and what influenced him?

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins, in a scene in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, leaps over the creature Gollum. Tokien describes this jump as 'not a great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark.' The fact that Armstrong named his farm Rivendell (the elf sanctuary in the Rings trilogy) would seem to support this theory. However Armstrong says he only read Tolkien's books after 1969.

The plaque given to the two astronauts to place on the moon has the inscription,'We came in peace for all mankind," which may have sowed something of a seed in Armstrong's mind.

Armstrong says he thought of the statement only a few moments before stepping out of the LM. It was a spur of the moment thought which Armstrong says he merely associated with what he was doing - stepping out onto the moon.

Barbecue

Also fascinating in the Hansen biography is that the Columbia needed to rotate whilst flying between the moon and the Earth in order to prevent one side from becoming sizzling hot and the other from freezing.

All three astronauts concurred that the Earth did not only look beautiful, but incredibly fragile and vulnerable given their experience of space. They also felt a mutual sense that the terrestrial bickering made no sense from space when it was obvious that the planet was a shared home, a shared resource, and a treasure.

Paradigm Shift

While I have been for some years one of the many supporters of the idea that the moon landings were a hoax, I'd recommend Hansen's Life of Neil Armstrong. I admit that I am unsure what to believe, especially given Aldrin's admission that the LM's hull was 'so thin you could poke a pencil through it'.

What is indisputable is the character that Neil Armstrong was leading up to the Apollo 11 mission. Hansen confirms that Armstrong was unusually modest, and also a highly qualified engineer. Engineering - not science - brought about the lunar landing. Armstrong has also described himself as not a spaceman, or a pilot, but an engineer. In First Man Armstrong comes across as an intelligent, mild-mannered and decent fellow.

It may be that man's greatest achievement was the world's most expensive con. But if any man could have pulled it off, Neil Armstrong could. His bravery and patience taking over manual control of the LM whilst running out of fuel and with alarms going off, say much about his salt. In the end, the LM landed with less than a minute of fuel remaining. It landed in a cloud of dust which made visibility impossible, and landed so softly, both astronauts on board weren't absolutely sure they had even touched down until they cut the rocket.

More:

The Moon - by the guys who went there.
What the hell happened to the first man on the moon?

What The Hell Happened To The First Man On The Moon?

Retraction: Man Did Go To The Moon

Some years ago I did a serious investigation on the moon landings and came to the irrefutable conclusion - well, I thought - that man had never been to the moon after all. I listed several pertinent arguments (the deadly Van Allan radiation belts to name one)and there seemed to be a lot of compelling theory against the idea.

I recently saw a documentary (In the Shadow Of The Moon) with massive amounts of footage and plenty of interviews with many astronauts. I'm happy to say that I am convinced I was mistaken. I saw this against the background of studying some of the theories of mass media manipulation and the role of government, public relations and the private individual. That we suspect man's greatest achievement was a hoax shows to what extent we have been chagrined and disillusion by so much high level deception and manipulation. The crowd is not wise; but it is certainly not dumb either.

It is interesting that today iconic figures include the likes of Mandela, Lance Armstrong, some might say Bill Clinton and then the list tapers off. It beggars belief that the first man on the moon has faded to the extent that he has from our international consciousness. What the hell happened to Neil Armstrong?

I noticed that Armstrong didn't feature at all in this list of astronauts talking about their experiences. It was very interesting that one guy pointed out that in the very emotional moment of setting foot on the moon, Armstrong had the presence of mind to say: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for man giant." Other astronauts said they might have whooped or simply been overwhelmed by the moment. That Neil Armstrong was able to set aside himself in that moment, and address our species, is special. This is against the backdrop of nearly having to scupper the4 landing completely, when instruments showed they would be landing on large minibus sized boulders. They (thought they*)had something like 60 seconds to find somewhere else to land before the fuel burn would force an abort. One astronaut suggested that bthey would have landed on the moon anyway, even if it meant they wouldn't be able to leave. (A document had been prepared for the president to read for just such a scenario).

As one can imagine, Armstrong was propelled to fame, and if he is not an iconic figure, he nevertheless is representative of 'the first man on the moon', even if, somewhat anonymously. His signature has been flogged on eBay and the like for $1000 - as such he has been less willing to write letters, give interviews etc.

What else do we know about Armstrong? He was an exceptional pilot, as this anecdote from the Korean war illustrates (from Wiki):
While making a low bombing run at about 350 mph (560 km/h) in his F9F Panther, Armstrong's plane was hit by anti-aircraft gunfire. The plane took a nose dive, and sliced through a cable strung about 500 ft (150 m) up across the valley by the North Koreans. This sheared off an estimated six feet (2 m) of its right wing.

Armstrong was able to fly the plane back to friendly territory, but could not land the plane safely due to the loss of the aileron, which left his only option as ejection. He planned to eject over water and await rescue by navy helicopters, so he flew to an airfield near Pohang. Instead of a water rescue, winds forced his ejection seat back over land. Armstrong was picked up by a jeep driven by a roommate from flight school.

Armstrong's abaility to improvise continued after the Korean war. In March 1956, whilst flying a SuperFortress, this happened (from Wiki):

As they ascended to 30,000 ft (9 km), the number four engine stopped and the propeller began windmilling in the airstream. Hitting the switch that would stop the propeller spinning, Butchart found the propeller slowed but then started spinning again, this time even faster than the other engines; if it spun too fast, it would fly apart. Their aircraft needed to hold an airspeed of 210 mph (338 km/h) to launch its Skyrocket payload, and the B-29 could not land with the Skyrocket still attached to its belly.

Armstrong and Butchart nosed the aircraft down to pick up speed, then launched the Skyrocket. At the very instant of launch, the number four engine propeller disintegrated. Pieces of it careened through part of the number three engine and hit the number two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the number three engine, due to damage, and the number one engine, due to the torque it created. They managed to make a slow, circling descent from 30,000 ft (9,000 m) using only the number two engine, and they landed the aircraft safely.

There is a more folklore regarding botched and lucky crash landings besides. And it seems the reason Armstrong was chosen in the first place - to set on the moon first -was that he did not have a superego. He was chosen for his modesty.

Other interesting snippets:

From Wiki: Aldrin later gave the flag planting and subsequent phone call from President Nixon as reasons why there were no intentional photographs of Armstrong. In the entire Apollo 11 photographic record, there are only five images of Armstrong partly shown or reflected. Aldrin said plans were to take a photo of Armstrong after the famous image of Aldrin was taken, but they were interrupted by the Nixon communication.

On: One Small Step For [a] Man, Wiki: It has long been assumed that Armstrong had mistakenly omitted the word "a" from his famous remark ("one small step for a man"), rendering the phrase a tautology, as man in such use is synonymous with mankind. Armstrong is quoted as saying that he "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it wasn't said – although it might actually have been."

Armstrong has expressed his preference that written quotations include the "a" in parentheses.

Flick of a switch, Wiki: After re-entering the LM, the hatch was closed and sealed. While preparing for the liftoff from the lunar surface, Armstrong and Aldrin discovered that in their bulky spacesuits, they had broken the ignition switch for the ascent engine. The ascent engine had no switch to fire. Using part of a pen, they pushed the circuit breaker in to activate the launch sequence. Aldrin still possesses the pen which they used to do this. The lunar module then continued to its rendezvous and docking with Columbia, the command and service module, and return to Earth.

After the moon, Wiki: Armstrong then took part in Bob Hope's 1969 USO show, primarily to Vietnam, where some soldiers asked questions about how a man could be sent to the Moon while they were still stuck fighting the war...Armstrong announced shortly after the Apollo 11 flight that he did not plan to fly in space again...After Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971, he avoided offers from businesses to act as a spokesman...In 1972, Armstrong was welcomed into the town of Langholm, Scotland, the traditional seat of Clan Armstrong. The first company to successfully approach him was Chrysler, for whom he appeared in advertising starting in January 1979. In the fall of 1979, Armstrong was working at his farm near Lebanon, Ohio. As he jumped off of the back of his grain truck, his wedding ring caught in the wheel, tearing off his ring finger. However, he calmly collected the severed digit, packed it in ice, and managed to have it reattached by microsurgeons at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. In May 2005 Armstrong became involved in an unusual legal battle with his barber of 20 years, Marx Sizemore. After cutting Armstrong's hair, Sizemore sold some of it to a collector for $3,000 without Armstrong's knowledge or permission. Armstrong threatened legal action unless the barber returned the hair or donated the proceeds to a charity of Armstrong's choosing. Sizemore, unable to get the hair back, decided to donate the proceeds to the charity of Armstrong's choice.


*Wiki: Analysis after the mission showed that because of the moon's lower gravity, fuel had sloshed about in the tank more than anticipated, which led to a misleadingly low indication of the remaining propellant: At touchdown there were about 50 seconds of hovering time left.