Friday, July 19, 2019

Lunar Landing Fiction

I consider it highly unlikely that we went to the moon.  But even if we did, this account below is obviously pure fiction.

‘You’re cleared for take-off,’ Evans says to Armstrong and Aldrin on Eagle. ‘Roger. Understand. We’re number one on the runway,’ Aldrin jokes. He and Armstrong have been on the moon for more than 21 hours.
Mission Control have failed to find a solution for the broken switch, but Aldrin thinks he may have one. He is holding a chrome-bodied felt-tip pen in the hole. If it doesn’t work, or the ascent engine fails, they have no hope of rescue.
Above them in Columbia, Collins is sweating with nerves. ‘My secret terror for the last six months has been leaving them on the moon and returning to Earth alone,’ he said. He has practised flying Columbia home without his colleagues.
Aldrin starts a countdown: ‘9, 8, 7, 6, 5...proceed.’ The felt-tip pen works, Eagle’s ascent engine fires, explosive bolts release the ascent stage section from the landing gear and a guillotine severs power cables between the two. Clouds of dust surround the lunar module as it lifts off, leaving the legs on the surface of the moon. Aldrin sees the American flag fall over. Back on Earth, their families are crying with relief.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7222693/Broken-circuit-meant-men-moon-stranded-salvation-came-unlikely-form.html

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Supposedly there was only one woman in the control room of the lunar mission.  But who was it? There are 3 different accounts of the first or only woman on the Apollo mission.
With seconds left in the countdown, JoAnn Morgan knew there was no turning back. This was the 1960s; most of the NASA workforce was male and white, and women were not allowed to be at the controls. But on launch day, a sweltering Wednesday in July, she was there. The Apollo astronauts had made history, and as the only woman in the launch-control room, she had, too.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/joann-morgan-moon-landing-apollo/594370/

POPPY NORTHCUTT was serious, preoccupied by the lunar landing plans she checked over and over again for good measure. As an engineer for NASA’s mission planning and analysis support team, she was responsible for getting astronauts home from orbit and the moon during multiple Apollo missions. Her pioneering work ultimately contributed to the success of numerous lunar expeditions, all while she was fielding media attention for her historic role as the first woman working as an engineer inside mission control.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/07/inside-apollo-mission-control-seen-by-first-woman-engineer-poppy-northcutt/


The first footsteps on the moon belonged to two men, but they may never have made it there if not for Margaret Hamilton. The software engineer developed the onboard computer programs that powered NASA's Apollo missions, including the 1969 moon landing. So, it's only fitting that in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, a portrait of the bespectacled pioneer reflected the light of the moon.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/19/us/apollo-11-margaret-hamilton-50th-anniversary-trnd/index.html

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