The Four (remaining) Moonwalkers of Apollo’s Legacy

The Four (remaining) Moonwalkers of Apollo’s Legacy

 

Less Talkers, More Moonwalkers – Your Official Lunar Landing Semicentennial Shirt Vsn 1.0

In commemorating the first manned lunar landing on 20th July 1969 let’s remember the twelve brave men who have walked the moon. Let’s also look forward to when other men and the first woman steps onto La Luna again, marking humanity’s true arrival as a space faring species.

Only 20% of the today’s world population were reportedly alive to see the first person walking on the Moon. The design recognizes that as at 20 July 2019, the semicentennial of the first Moon landing, only four moonwalking astronauts survive (Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, Dave Scott, Harrison Schmidt).

The design also attempts to link back to Apollo 8’s voyage  when humans achieved escape velocity from Earth’s gravity for the first time and the famous Earthrise picture that, for some, saved 1968 - and Apollo 14’s Blue Marble shot with the Earth’s globe showing us how beautiful, precious and fragile we are against the infinite blackness of space. This is done by adapting the Earth’s hemisphere pictures attached to Apollo 11’s Lunar Excursion Module, albeit not to scale being larger than the image that James Lovell’s thumb would have covered.

A final design element is the hinting of a popular cultural meme / fixture from around the same time with the Four Moonwalkers stepping across a lunar Abbey Rd – the Beatle’s album published in September 1969.

So much has changed in fifty years but our very human desire to create, explore and discover is still intrinsic to our species. Our future destiny must break the bonds of our beautiful blue marble, our little blue dot  that will forever be humanities birthplace but let’s also be better custodians of our planet and all of us who live here.

The Twelve Moonwalkers – We Salute You All.

  1. NEIL ALDEN ARMSTRONG (d August 25, 2012, at age 82).
  2. EDWIN "BUZZ" ALDRIN
  3. CHARLES "PETE" CONRAD (d July 8, 1999, at age 69)
  4. ALAN L. BEAN (d May 26, 2018 aged 86)
  5. ALAN SHEPARD (d July 21, 1998, aged 74)
  6. EDGAR D. MITCHELL (d February 4, 2016 aged 85).
  7. DAVID RANDOLPH SCOTT
  8. JAMES B. IRWIN (d August 8, 1991, aged 61)
  9. JOHN WATTS YOUNG (d January 5, 2018 aged 87)
  10. CHARLES M. DUKE JR (Capcom during the Apollo 11 mission).
  11. HARRISON "JACK" SCHMITT
  12. EUGENE E. CERNAN (d January 16, 2017 aged 83) Last man to walk on the Moon.

  

SOME QUOTES:

“I am and ever will be a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressable flow” Neil Armstrong, First Human to set foot on the Moon.

 

Neil Armstrong died on 25 August, 2012, aged 82. His family released a statement that ended:

“For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

“Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.” Charles “Pete” Conrad

"… America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow..." Apollo 17’s Eugene E. Cernan, as he left the Moon’s surface for the last time as the last man on the Moon.

 

“The space program has never been an entitlement, it's an investment in the future - an investment in technology, jobs, international respect and geo-political leadership, and perhaps most importantly in the inspiration and education of our youth...” Eugene E. Cernan

 

Thus, I bid us, temper our shouts of exultation as man breaks the fetters of gravity while being unable to forge the links of brotherhood.” Senator Jesse Jackson

 

(Just as Apollo moon landing success was only possible with large groups of people working together so the wicked problems of today and tomorrow will only be solved by working together).

“We know that most of the challenges and threats of today can no longer be solved by one nation alone, but only if we act together,"  Chancellor Angela Merkel

SOME PODCASTS For Your Commute or Downtime

 

 

13 Minutes to The Moon – An excellent podcast series with Dr Kevin Fong & wonderfully evocative music from Hans Zimmer (Watch Apollo 11 The Complete Descent 4 Jul 2019 (Part of Apollo Flight Journal Apollo 11 Collection) to get a visual capture of the event –

How and why was Neil Armstrong given the honour of being the first man on the moon ?

Space Boffins

Space Boffins Apollo 11 Special Part 1

Space Boffins Apollo 11 Special Part 2

Space Boffins discussing the preservation of Apollo’s famous mission control and China’s Jade Rabbit landing on the far side of the Moon in early 2019

Space Boffins: Echoes of Apollo 8 and Orion

Space Boffins: A Tribute to Mission Controllers

Space Boffins: 2018 Year Special with Apollo’s astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Gene Cernan and more

The Naked Scientists Nursing NASA’s Astronauts

Space Boffins: Buss Aldrin and his Mars Masterplan

Space Boffins: Last Man on The Moon, Gene Cernan

Space Boffins: Future Lunar Space Missions

Space Boffins: Houston We Have a Podcast

Space Boffins: Inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building & more from Gene Cernan

The Infinite Monkey Cage semicentennial Moon Landing Special

A special celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. Recorded at Cocoa Beach, Florida just down the road from Cape Canaveral, Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by some of the key players involved in landing the first people on the moon, 20th July, 1969. Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin and Apollo children Jan and Andy Aldrin give their perspectives on arguably one of the greatest scientific and engineering achievements of all time. Keep listening for a very special guest appearance by Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes.

The Infinite Monkey Cage Series 16 Astronaut Special

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by NASA astronauts Sandra Magnus and Terry Virts, ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier, and Apollo 16's Charlie Duke, one of the last people to have walked on the moon. They talk about their personal journeys to fulfill their long-held dreams, and literally reach for the stars. They hear from Charlie Duke about the extraordinary Apollo missions he was part of, including his role as Capsule Communicator for the very first moon landing, before taking his own first steps on the lunar surface as part of Apollo 16. They explore the different experience of astronauts from Charlie's era, and those who now become residents of space, spending months and months aboard the International Space Station, and the challenges each mission brings. And Claude Nicollier describes his epic spacewalk to repair the Hubble Telescope.

BBC’s 10, 9, 8, 7 podcast

Taking place over just eight months, four perilous and eventful space missions laid the foundations for a successful Moon landing. Each pushed the boundaries of technology and revealed new insights into our own planet. As we count down to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, astronaut Nicole Stott tells the story of the build-up to mankind’s giant leap.

A Life Scientific with Jim Al-Khalili

Katherine Joy studies moon rock. She has studied lunar samples that were brought to earth by the Apollo missions (382kg in total) and hunted for lunar meteorites in Antarctica, camping on ice for weeks on end and travelling around on a skidoo. Working at the forefront of the second wave of lunar exploration, she studied remote sensing data from Europe’s first mission to the moon, Smart 1 which launched in 2003 and data from many subsequent missions. She tells Jim Al-Khalili why she believes the moon is the most exciting destination in our solar system and explains what it can tell us about the long history of planet earth.

Beneath the magnificent desolation of the moon’s surface, multicoloured rocks contain vital clues about the history of our solar system. Every crater on the moon is evidence of a collision and the chemistry of these rocks tells us when these collisions took place. Katherine’s research supports the idea that a period known as the late heavy bombardment was a particularly turbulent time. Could the late heavy bombardment explain the origin of life on earth?

 

The Moon: geopolitics, commerce and militarisation 

In the Cold War era the prestige of science, “flags and footprints” drove the space race between the US and USSR. But today, private profit, space colonies and military control are shaping up as the major drivers.

Music and The Moon Landings

On the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landings, Beatriz De La Pava researches how real life events are reflected in the lyrics of popular songs, and shows how music can paint a vivid picture of the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape. She plays the music that chronicles the history of the space race, and speaks to the people who knew it, made it and loved it.

Some Books

Hasselblad And The Moon Landing 

Deborah

Ireland

2019

APOLLO’S LEGACY: Perspectives on the Moon Landing

Roger

Launius

2019

SHOOT FOR THE MOON: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11

James

Donovan

2019

The Astronauts’ Wives Club

Lily

Koppel

2013

The Mercury 13

Martha

Ackmann

2003

APOLLO TO THE MOON: A History in 50 Objects

Teasel

Muir-Harmony

2018

CHASING THE MOON: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America Into the Space Age

Robert & Alan

Stone & Andres

2019

AMERICAN MOONSHOT: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race

Douglas

Brinckley

2019

ONE GIANT LEAP: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon

Charles

Fishman

2019

“…The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age

Walter

McDougall

1985

Apollo 11: The Inside Story

David

Whitehouse

2019

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon.

Alan & Deeke

Shepard & Slayton

1994

Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race.

Alexei & David

Leonov & Scott

1998

Moonbound: Apollo 11 & The Dream of Spaceflight

Jonathan

Fetter-Vorm

2019

Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight

Jay

Barbree

2015

Apollo 11: The Moon Landing In Real time

Ian

Passingham

2019

Carrying the Fire

Michael

Collins

2009

First Man

James R

Hansen

2005 (Reissued 2018)

First on the Moon

Rod

Pyle

1970

Magnificient Devastation

Buzz

Aldrin

2009

NASA Mission AS-506 Apollo 11 Owner’s Workshop Manual

Christopher & Phillip

Riley & Dolling

2010

Rocket Men

Craig

Nelson

2009

The Mission of a Lifetime

Basil

Hero

2019

Apollo’s Legacy

Roger D.

Launius

2019

Moonshot

Richard

Wiseman

2019

A Man On The Moon

Andrew

Chaikin

2019

Safely to Earth

Jack

Clemons

2018

Moon Rush: The New Space Race

Leonard

David

2019

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race

Douglas

Brinkley

2019

One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon

Charles

Fishman

2019

Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions

Nancy

Atkinson

2019

The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America’s First Moon Missions

Brandon R

Brown

2019

The Moon: A History for the Future

Oliver

Morton

2019

Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

Margot Lee

Shetterly

2016

When We Walked On The Moon

David Long & Sam Kalda

Wide-eyed

2019

 

 

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