Wondrous images from the recently launched NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter [LRO] of some of the Apollo landing sites. The Apollo 11 landing site, whose launch 40 years ago I noted yesterday, is pictured left. And the Apollo 14 site image shows abandoned scientific instruments and a trail of astronaut footprints. [On tin-foil hat]
That Apollo 14 landing site image
John Laird (Lord Laird of Artigarvan) is unionism’s jester. His memoir A Struggle To Be Heard ” by a True Ulster Liberal” (from Slugger’s shop on Amazon here) might serve more as a heavy stocking filler than anybody’s idea of a main present. In it he wears the masks of comedy and tragedy to turn the [...] read our review »
World by Storm has a nice piece up on the IRA’s role in helping MK, the armed wing of the ANC, in the 1980s. In particular he sees a strange alchemy at work there: …if one can think of a clearly legitimate contemporary struggle it was that against apartheid and it is to the credit [...] read our review »
Good, does this mean we can finally silence the conspiracy theorists who think we never went to the moon?
David
Hopefully..
Common!
Massive annotation notes on the moon, 75m long! A little on the impractical side, dont-cha think! The things a total photoshop fake! In terms of getting the moons version of the Holywood sign there, the fuel costs would be … astronomical *ahem*!
Pete I’ll admit all this stuff aint my bag (unless it involves Carrie Fisher in a gold bikini) but you seem to have a passion for it.
Unlikely to put an end to the conspiracy theorists, Pete.
“Sure if you can fake the moon landings, it’s trivial to fake these photos” will be the new mantra.
Photos are awesome.
The footprints don’t show. But class photo.
I have a (brief) personal letter from Neil Armstrong (I wrote to him – at NASA-when I was 11)and was dumbstruck when he replied. prize possesion.
Pete,
Truly awesome. Many thanks for that.
As I watched the video of the launch I was struck by how high that baby travelled before the lack of oxygen killed the rockets. I didn’t imagine you could get that far—beyond the visible atmosphere and with nothing but blackness all around—before the fuel could no longer burn.
It would have been great to see the American flag the moonlanders planted way back then. Perhaps the solar wind had long since blown it away :^)
Great images Peter. I have always been fascincated by this space exploration stuff and space generally.
Pete
thanks for this one.
as a result on the next rainy day (today?) the family will be watching the DVD In the Shadow of the Moon
Driftwood, do you really have a letter from Neil Armstrong? The man fiercly protects his privacy so your letter has a significant rarity value.
Neil’s mate Buzz is quite fierce as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOo6aHSY8hU
wild turkey
It’s a superb documentary.
[No - edited moderator]
the moon missions are absolutely awesome. the 15 seconds of fuel remaining landing by apollo 11 couldn’t be made up. i love watching any documentaries on the subject. but what i cant work out is why we dont have clear close up images of all the landing sites. surely if we can read a car number plate from a satellite in earth orbit we can get close up pictures from some probe that we send to the moon. the pictures above are interesting but they could easily be a speck of dirt on someone’s lens, perhaps some bogies from a big sneeze. i wont be impressed until i see an image where i can make out some writing on the side of a lander module!
Excessive trolling has meant that commenting is restricted for the time being.
wild turkey
Yes, the (brief) letter is from 1974 and pretty bland. Thank you for writing, ….It was a great moment…yada, I don’t know if it was a NASA standard issue, but the signature is in fountain pen blue ink.
I was ‘over the moon’ receiving it.
And I have a similar one from Alan Shepherd which I assume is real.