Astronaut Neil Armstrong Has Died 480
dsinc writes "Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon, has died. NBC News broke the news, without giving other details. Neil was recovering from a heart-bypass surgery he had had a couple of weeks ago. Sad news, marking the end of a glorious and more optimistic era... RIP, Neil." Also at Reuters.
A class act (Score:5, Insightful)
And a great pilot. You will be missed.
A true loss (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the greatest men of the last century - thank you for your contributions to mankind.
Re:Oblig xkcd (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, think this is a more obligatory XKCD:
http://xkcd.com/202/ [xkcd.com]
I'm too young... (Score:5, Insightful)
The final step for a man. (Score:5, Insightful)
And a loss for all mankind.
Godspeed, Mr. Armstrong.
Thank you, Neil Armstrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Mr. Armstrong, I watched you jumping about on the moon when I was nine years old. It was unbelievably cool! The future seemed to be one of boundless possibility.
Now I'm older, and more cynical, and the world hasn't really turned into the place I thought it would be at this point - but whenever I think about your trip to the moon I'm suddenly a wide-eyed nine-year-old that still believes anything can happen. It gives me hope that mankind really will solve it's most vexing problems, once it finally decides to do so.
Thank you for everything, sir. I hope your eternity is a pleasant one.
Re:Be as nasty as you want to the Baby Boomers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Technically most of the astronauts and people involved with NASA/Apollo missions were NOT boomers.
Neil was born in '30, while the Boomer generation was from '46-'64.
Moon landing was in '69, so the Boomers would have been at most 23 yrs old at the time, so they would have just been finishing college and entering the workforce.
The Boomers were responsible though for the eventual budget cuts to NASA and education, but still reaped the benefits of it's hay day.
Re:A class act (Score:4, Insightful)
Neil Armstrong has truly been an inspiration to each and every one of us. What we wouldn't have done to be in his shoes when he made that One Small Step.
Re:A class act (Score:5, Insightful)
A true steely-eyed missile man (Score:5, Insightful)
A moment of silence for one of those who used math and fire to punch a hole in the sky.
Re:Allegedly (Score:2, Insightful)
There's no proof that you actually have a brain, either. Funny how you can sit there typing a message that can be broadcast instantly all around the world from your house, on a computer that is engineered to sub-nanometer precision, you can take medication that is engineered on a molecular level, and you can drive a car made of composites that were only dreamed of 50 years ago, yet you refuse to believe in the Apollo program.
So what, pioneer, voyager, viking and all the rest are fake, too? Curiosity is fake? To what end would the government continue to fake all these programs - considering the glee with which it cuts NASA funding wouldn't it be easier to just not to fake them in the first place?
A hero (Score:5, Insightful)
I was little during the moon landing and thought it was pretty cool! It was only later when I came to appreciate the hazards and the guts to do the moon landing.
Arguably the most important American ever (Score:5, Insightful)
A hero, but without the hype please (Score:4, Insightful)
Sigh. Not to minimize Armstrong's achievements — which took courage, brains, and skill — but he himself would probably wince at your hype. One of the greatest men in the 20th century? He led a historic space mission. That's a big deal, but it's not in the same class as wiping out smallpox, discovering relativity, defeating Nazi Germany, holding a nation together with a third of its workers unemployed, laying the foundations of the computer revolution...
Re:Sad News (Score:4, Insightful)
Truly an American icon.
I grant you that, but as a non-American I'd like to add: Truly a human icon.
An ambassador of humanity (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A hero, but without the hype please (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:People who don't believe in heroes... (Score:5, Insightful)
A hero, don't discount him (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree that he would probably have considered it hype as well, but I disagree that he wasn't in the same class. He inspired a generation of kids to become engineers, pilots, and astronauts. He rallied the entire globe around a peaceful cause. He was a leader. And he was the face of NASA, and the proud face of what America was capable of. And in 1969, in the middle of the Cold War and the Vietnam War, amidst huge problems around the country with race riots in Watts and Minneapolis and Chicago and Baltimore, here was this Great American Hero that we could all agree had made a remarkable achievement. We needed Neil Armstrong to be who he was.
Rest in Peace... (Score:2, Insightful)
The first true World Hero. At the center of a great collective effort they put the right man. And he never wanted to steal the credit from the team. You will be missed.
Re:A class act (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it was Armstrong's ability to "stay calm" in times of crisis in the two instances you mentioned was the reason why he was chosen as mission commander on Apollo 11. During his days as X-15 test pilot, some test pilots at Edwards AFB thought he didn't have enough "stick and rudder" skills to handle sophisticated test vehicles, but Armstrong proved them all wrong....
Godspeed, Neil Armstrong.
Re:The state of space travel is a sad one. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Be as nasty as you want to the Baby Boomers... (Score:4, Insightful)
I call BS on the idea that we have the tech/means for a moon base right now.
Cursorily is only like the 2nd non-terrestrial craft to use something other then solar for power. And a moon base would need a fuck ton more power then Curiosity could produce. (almost half it's total weight is devoted to the power system)
Plus you have to take into account Oxygen, Water, Food. We can recycle some, but it's far from enough to be self sufficient. They would still need regular supply runs from Earth, like the ISS.
How about cosmic radiation? The moon is after all outside the van allen belt. And even with shielding, the previous missions were timed to keep radiation exposure to a minimum.
The most ideal plans at current call for a moon base in 2014, with a four man team, rotating out due to the previous issues I noted and regular supply runs. (Near the pole so it'll get near constant sunlight for solar power)
How To Be a Role Model, Hero, Human (Score:4, Insightful)
I was fortunate to get a first hand viewing on TV of all the Apollo missions while bouncing on the knee of my father. The Apollo 11 astronauts were my first heroes and not long after I could read I enjoyed every book, magazine and encyclopedia article I found about them and their mission.
Armstrong is the model on how to be a hero; do something exemplary and treat it as just another day at the office. Embrace knowledge, challenge your mind and enjoy your job. And when it's over, it is over. Armstrong shied away from the public spotlight and certainly passed on what would have been many lucrative opportunities to cash-in on his fame. Instead, he remained pretty much the same person after the mission as before.
Sad day today, to know of the loss of a great person.
Re:Be as nasty as you want to the Baby Boomers... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A class act (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sad News (Score:4, Insightful)
Truly an American icon.
I grant you that, but as a non-American I'd like to add: Truly a human icon.
Mod parent up. Gagarin and Armstrong regardless of their home country were, and maybe still are a great inspiration for millions of kids. Rest in peace.
Re:Allegedly (Score:5, Insightful)
For very obvious reasons it cannot be staged. The biggest one being the Soviets.
The whole thing was a HUGE publicity stunt and a big dick waving contest between the US and the USSR. Considering how easy it was for the USSR to get spies to some key positions in the US, I don't doubt that they had a pretty good view on the whole moon program, too. A chance to expose that program, a program that the whole nation dedicated considerable resources to and that was watched by people all over the globe, as staged would have been an absolutely priceless PR victory for the USSR. If they only had had a HINT of a chance that this could have been debunked, they certainly would have jumped on that opportunity. Everyone all around the globe had their eyes on that event. You really think they would have let the opportunity slide to expose the US as fakes?
It seems to me that trying to stage it and keep it hushed up would have required more resources than simply doing it.
Re:Allegedly (Score:4, Insightful)
State Funeral? (Score:5, Insightful)
While I do understand that the US is in financial difficulty, it strikes me as important that the first man to walk on the Moon---on another celestial sphere---should be given a significant send off.
Frankly, I think the funeral should be at least on par with that expected for a _sitting_ president, and probably beyond. It may well end up being the most important funeral, or the most important man, in the history of the United States, if not the world.
Neil Armstrong deserves a state procession---an international procession. America and the World owe both he and his generation that much at least.
Re:Pilot, Engineer, Professor .. A Real Role Model (Score:5, Insightful)
For once here we have a true world hero.
A million thanks Mr. Armstrong.
Re:State Funeral? (Score:4, Insightful)
While I do understand that the US is in financial difficulty, it strikes me as important that the first man to walk on the Moon---on another celestial sphere---should be given a significant send off.
Frankly, I think the funeral should be at least on par with that expected for a _sitting_ president, and probably beyond. It may well end up being the most important funeral, or the most important man, in the history of the United States, if not the world.
Neil Armstrong deserves a state procession---an international procession. America and the World owe both he and his generation that much at least.
He deserves exactly what every other person deserves when they pass away.** Their last wishes granted.
It's nice and all that we sit back and "demand" these glorious sendoffs, but in all honestly, I'd much rather respect a man of honor and whatever wishes he had for his end.
(** = I was going to use the words "leave this world" in reference to his celestial passing, but he's kind of BTDT already. ;-)
Re:A true loss (Score:5, Insightful)
That generation of astronauts(and kosmonauts) had to be able to do complicated math and astonishing engineering feats while spinning out of control and slowly asphyxiating.
To put it bluntly and to use a car analogy:
Those guys were the ones who had to devise and install a new braking mechanism in a car that goes 500mph straight to a curve that leads to a nasty drop. Resourcefulness, knowledge, physical fitness, level-headedness and pocket protectors.
Of all the great who participated in the moon program, they were -had to be- what Nietzsche wrote about. Prime underwear on the outside, cape over the shoulder and a giant S painted on the chest material. With pocket protectors. The people in the tin-can WERE Plan B. And C. And D.
Re:oblig xkcd (Score:2, Insightful)
related:
Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11 - July, 1969
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - Apollo 11 - July, 1969
Charles "Pete" Conrad - Apollo 12 - November, 1969
Alan Bean - Apollo 12 - November, 1969
Alan Shepard - Apollo 14 - February, 1971
Edgar Mitchell - Apollo 14 - February, 1971
David Scott - Apollo 15 - July, 1971
James Irwin - Apollo 15 - July, 1971
John Young - Apollo 16 - April, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)
Charles Duke - Apollo 16 - April, 1972
Eugene Cernan - Apollo 17 - December, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)
Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17 - December, 1972
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The final step for a man. (Score:3, Insightful)
Death is not a loss. It's a change. We shouldn't cling. We shouldn't weep. Rejoice in the riches he left us.
Re:Thank you, Neil Armstrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A class act (Score:4, Insightful)
Blame the politicians if you wish - they're not blameless. But they don't carry the real weight. We do - the people who elect. There are also the wealthy and corporations - the power-brokers who make sure that "the right people" are put in front of us, when we vote.
Re:A class act (Score:2, Insightful)
Agreed. If you were to screw up or if there were some problem with the spacecraft then people around the world would think of your corpse every time they looked at the Moon. No doubt there was a shitload of glory (which Neil didn't let go to his head), but there was an even greater amount of responsibility. The millions of people that were inspired by the landing could have just as easily been turned away from science and engineering by a catastrophic failure that forever tainted manned spaceflight.
The second or later landings, however, I would have loved to be on. In the words of the third man to set foot on the moon, Pete Conrad, "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."
Re:One of my first memories (Score:4, Insightful)
Big science is bigger than ever these days, and with the internet it's cheaper and faster. It just does things more quietly, more of of background hum than a climatic touchdown. A Higgs bosun here, an MRI machine there, an internet everywhere. Some amazing space pics, some dire warnings, and all but forgotten smallpox. I agree we could do with a lot more of it, but it's how we use it that counts.
Re:A hero, but without the hype please (Score:4, Insightful)
Yuri Gragarin.
Re:America, the Eagle has left. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was literally less than 24 hours old when Apollo 11 launched. I spent my childhood years dreaming of an upcoming adult life where being an astronaut would be as common as being a plumber, or an accountant. I eagerly read The High Frontier [wikipedia.org], eagerly anticipating orbital space stations and living in one.
I watched the Challenger explosion as a teenager, and soon after watched Congress, then subsequent administrations, all of them - they went and fucked up the whole space idea beyond all recognition. I eventually gave up those dreams with heavy resignation as a young adult.
Throughout it all? Armstrong, Aldrin, and many others among them kept the dream alive. Because of them, we now have Zubrin, Musk, Bigelow, and a whole cadre of people working like hell to make the original dream into reality. I'll likely be dead of old age before that original childhood dream becomes reality, but with a little hope and a lot of work, it may yet get there.
Armstrong was one of the pioneers. Certainly, you could say he lucked out, yadda yadda... but I disagree. His coolness under pressure made Apollo 11's mission possible (and successful) when nearly any other astronaut would have aborted too early or gotten everyone killed.
Godspeed, Mr. Armstrong.
Re:Be as nasty as you want to the Baby Boomers... (Score:4, Insightful)
You must be young. There are books from the 70s and 80s that address everything you're complaining about with viable solutions. Cosmic rays are a problem? Fine, live in buried habitats. That's been a feature of every moon base design I've ever read, except for The Millenial Project, which recommended a water shield instead (and included proposals for where to get the millions of kilograms of water necessary to shield an entire crater). Those designs even included ways of piping in filtered sunlight, so the residents wouldn't suffer from depression induced by light-deprivation.
Need power? Fine, land a nuclear fission reactor. Doesn't matter much which specific technology. We have it, and it doesn't even have to be engineered to survive operating in hard vacuum, because it can be buried too, in a pressurized chamber. You'd most likely use one of the designs used in naval submarines or aircraft carriers, since they're already designed to travel well.
Oxygen is easy. Even without any system whatsoever for regenerating oxygen from carbon dioxide, we know how to fly big tanks of compressed oxygen. And all the serious proposals included such regeneration systems, many of them incorporating plants.
Which leads to the next thing. Food. NASA has already done studies of what species of wheat would best grow in lunar conditions using minimally improved lunar material as soil. There's an entire corpus of material on the subject of how we might develop food self-sufficiency at a lunar base, and it's fairly obvious that it's possible. It's just a matter of GOING and doing the in situ research necessary to prove which ideas actually work. Until then, the solution of putting food on rockets and launching it is technology we have, and understand very very well. SpaceX just did precisely that, delivering to the International Space Station. It's so easy, it can be done on a budget.
Water is even easier. The human metabolism actually produces excess water as a byproduct, and treating water is something that's exceedingly well understood. It's not even remotely rocket science. It's science-based, but it doesn't take a scientist to run a wastewater treatment plant. It barely even takes a person, anymore. The ones in common use across the world are largely automated. Most of them don't even have very many moving parts. You'd be amazed what holding ponds in sunlight can do. Meanwhile, getting a system going with sufficient free water to start with is just as easy as solving food. You put a booster under it and you launch it. We know how to do this. Most serious proposals for putting massive amounts of water into space call for freezing it first, since it behaves better under launch conditions as a solid. Yes, people have actually considered that.
In short, we do in fact have ALL of the technology required to establish a long-term habitable lunar base. Becoming self-sufficient is then only a matter of additional research, which can only be done at an inhabited base. And we already know what research must be done. It's just a question of actually performing the experiments.
And doing it at all is solely a question of money, which is solely a question of will. There's more than enough free-floating capital doing absolutely nothing on Earth except generating commodity bubbles. The people who own it don't have the imagination to spend it.
Re:A class act (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem with your robust/fragile thesis is that NASA's primary methodology was the one you call fragile.
Which is precisely what NASA didn't do. They spent months creating a set of mission rules that spelled out what to do in the case of a wide variety of casualties and circumstances. They then fine tuned those rules in the process of training controllers and astronauts to respond reflexively when they encountered a change of circumstances, a casualty or problem, or any other deviation from the current flight plan. (I say current because each mission had a whole raft of plans... for an earth orbit mission in case they couldn't execute TLI, for a lunar orbit mission in the even of a LM problem, etc...)
You're correct - that was the final contingency plan. Executed only if no other option existed. That is why their process was so robust - because there were layers to the plan.
Re:A class act (Score:4, Insightful)