Forty years ago, Michael Collins was in orbit around the moon and two brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin (Jr) were sitting inside Eagle at Tranquility Base on the moon getting ready to make history and be the first men to ever walk upon a foreign body.

At 03:56:15am tomorrow UK (summer) time, back in 1969, Neil Armstrong placed his left foot upon the lunar regolith and said the words “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”, while the world’s population united as history was made. Mankind will forever cherish the most important moment in modern history, as one of our own, a homo sapien simultaneously explored a new world and gained the capability to escape our certain future of extinction on Earth (home sweet home).

Voyaging to another “heavenly” body (I’m not a religious man) wasn’t without it’s risks, and President Nixon didn’t want to be caught out in the event of a disaster.  A speech was prepared for the possibility of Buzz and Neil being the first men to walk on the moon, and die on it.

Here is the speech.  Revealed in 1999, it was prepared by Nixon’s speechwriter at the time, William Safire…

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

Just reading the speech above chokes me up as I appreciate the risk that these men faced. I’m disheartened that being an “80’s child”, I didn’t witness this historical moment with my own eyes, having only witnessed it on VHS, DVD, Satellite Television and YouTube. I can only hope that one day I will be down here taking a breath of Earth’s lifesaving air while I can look up knowing that astronauts above me have left the safety of low earth orbit on a new voyage of discovery.

It’s time for mankind to make another leap. It’s been too long. We need to look beyond fossil fuels, health & safety and explore the heavens again. Not to prove anything to other nations, but because, in the words of Frank Borman (Apollo 8 Commander), “Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit. “.

NASA has reported that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has sent back its first images of Apollo lunar landing sites. They say they will be releasing the images at 12 noon EDT (5pm London Time), today, Friday 17th July. Here is a link to the press release.

Update: The photos have been released at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html – Not the clearest, but once the satellite gets to it’s final orbit, we should expect images of the resolution I wrote about below.

The actual photos will probably be released at http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse.

Now, for the bad news… Although the orbiter has a high resolution camera, reportedly able to do one pixel per sqare foot (0.3m resolution), this is at perigee (the closest point of orbit) and at nadir (directly overhead). So far, the best images released are half of that (one quarter of the resolution) at one pixel per 0.56m.

I decided to work out what to expect to see.

The lunar lander module has a maximum diameter of 9.07m. At 56cm per pixel, this makes the lander 16 pixels in diameter… or like this:

Now, let’s overlay it on the moon, with a shadow:

Image sources are:
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/project/apollo.htm
http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse/view/iom20090703

I hope you weren’t expecting more than this…

At some of the Apollo sites, there will be tracks from the lunar rover. The rover is 72 inches wide, which is 1.82 metres, or 2.8 pixels, but the actual wheel tracks will likely be under half a pixel wide so possibly detectable by their shadows.

The foot prints will come in at around 0.5 x 0.25 pixels, hardly detectable.

We should be able to see the actual rovers at 3×4 pixels, and the PLSS (Life support back packs), provided they are lying flat at around 1×2 pixels, but bright white.

Although these images will be of great interest to us Apollo fans, the people who believe it was hoaxed won’t change their minds.

For those of you that use twitter, I’m going to be tweeting the Moon Landing Live (Well, 40 years late).

You can find the twitter feed at www.twitter.com/ApolloEcho.
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By default, Microsoft IIS only supports a small number of files. This is what you need to support KML and KMZ files in IIS.

The MIME type details are:

Extension: .kml
MIME type: application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml

Extension: .kmz
MIME type: application/vnd.google-earth.kmz

If you need to know what to do with these mime types, I have a step by step guide for setting up RSS files at http://www.john.geek.nz/index.php/2009/06/supporting-rss-files-in-iis/ – Just use the different extensions and mime types.

Article reads:
St Petersburg Independent – Friday, July 4 1969
[image] Credit: AP

Moon Shot
This double exposure of the moon and the Apollo 11 moon rocket was made after the service gantry was moved away during a countdown demonstration test. The rocket is scheduled to be launched from Cape Kennedy July 16, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edward E. Aldrin Jr. in an attempt for a lunar landing and walk on the surface.

Join me on twitter at www.twitter.com/ApolloEcho to relive the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing, 40 years late!

The Age – 5th July 1969
America’s Apollo 11 astronauts will bring back to Earth double the quantity of Moon specimens than was earlier planned, scientists announced in Houston today.

Join me on twitter at www.twitter.com/ApolloEcho to relive the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing, 40 years late!