Apollo 11 and the first man on the Moon

[Souichiro]

[quote]LOL, Paul, that's cheered me up!

[RichieB16]

The camera used for the take off from the moon shot could have been remote controlled too.

Actually, thats exactly what happened.  The camara was part of the Lunar Rover-the land vehicle the astronauts used during the later landing missions (it was actually used on Apollo 15, 16, and 17-the final 3 missions of the program).  The camara was generally used for surveying the aera's and giving mission contorl an idea of what the astronauts were doing and what they encountered.  For example, it gave the lunar geology people back in Houston the ability to view what samples the astronauts were taking and allowed to point out anything specific if they wanted a special sample.  This camara was remote operated by a man at one of the consoles at Mission Control in Houston, Texas.

Although not the primary use, this was the same camara which was used to film the assent of the lunar module when the astronauts left the moon.  At the end of the 3 missions which had the rover, it was positioned a little way from the lunar lander so the liftoff could be viewed.  So, there should be 3 different videos of this-well thats not the case (there is really one 1 that is commonly known-although I have seen all 3, you can find them online in various places).

The lunar module (LEM) liftoff of Apollo 15 could not be followed by the camara on the rover because the camara could not move up or down (only side to side).  So, there is a video of the launch but you can't see any of the assent, the assent stage of the module quickly lifts off the screen.  The rover used on Apollo 16 did have the ability to move up and down.  But, you have to remember that there is a delay wend sending signals from the earth to the moon so the controller on earth would have to time everythign just right to view the launch.  Unfortunately, the camaraman's timing for the Apollo 16 LEM launch was not that good, so you can see the launch but before the camara begins to move upward the module leaves view.  So, Apollo 17 was the last chance and the situation was basically the same.  The only difference is the man controlling the rover's camara from mission control (his name escapes me at the moment) timed it perfectly.  So, the Apollo 17 LEM assent was filmed by a remote controlled camara on the lunar rover.  

[Anti-Societys Snake]

If you have a pwerfull enough telescope, you can see the flag. and you used to be able to see the fottprints but I don't know any more.

[RichieB16]

If you have a pwerfull enough telescope, you can see the flag. and you used to be able to see the fottprints but I don't know any more.

Not even the Hubble Space Telescope is powerful enough to do that unfortunately.  But, the ESA (I think it was the ESA) recently put a satelite in lunar orbit which is going to take percise photos of the surface so new maps can be made.  They are hopeing it will be powerful enough to view the Apollo landing sites but I haven't heard if they have tried it yet.

[Anti-Societys Snake]

realy? I though for sure my dad showed me pictures of the flag on astronomy sites before.... maybe I was dreaming....

[RichieB16]

realy? I though for sure my dad showed me pictures of the flag on astronomy sites before.... maybe I was dreaming....

No, this is one of the reasons that we can't "prove" that the landings actually happened.  There is a little web page here, it mentions that Hubble can't see any of the sites and even shows photos taken by the Apollo spacecraft orbiting the moon of landing sites.  Even on those (which are about 60 nautical miles from the surface) they are almost impossible to see: http://www.tass-survey.org/richmond/answers/lunar_lander.html

[beefhole]

Sure we can prove it.

What about the DME we left on the moon, the one that shoots lasers back to the earth?  Without it, we wouldn't know exactly how far the moon is.  This is the lasting evidence.

[Yurei]

If you have a pwerfull enough telescope, you can see the flag. and you used to be able to see the fottprints but I don't know any more.

this reminds me of the common myth that the great wall of china can be seen from the moon. it's amazing how many people still believe this

[TacitBlue]

How close are the landing sites to oneanother?

[RichieB16]

How close are the landing sites to oneanother?

I have no idea how far apart they are in miles of km, but here is a map that has dots on all the landing sites:


Also, you can see that there are 3 "Luna" missions; these are the 3 Soviet unmanned lunar probes that landing on the moon and returned samples to Earth.

[TacitBlue]

Wow! thanks for the quick reply. I only asked because I was wondering about there being pictures of old landing sites taken during later missions, but it looks like they didnt land close enough together. Of course, they didnt think they would have to prove it.  ::)

[RichieB16]

[quote]Wow! thanks for the quick reply. I only asked because I was wondering about there being pictures of old landing sites taken during later missions, but it looks like they didnt land close enough together. Of course, they didnt think they would have to prove it.

[beaky]

Here's a pic of one of the Apollo 12 astronauts actually touching Surveyor (not sure if it's Bean or Conrad). They both were impressed with how neatly it seemed to have touched down.... note their own lander on the close-by horizon; they had landed close enough to make an easy EVA over to Surveyor.

[Hagar]

Not wishing to get involved in this but I think the original question is about Apollo 11 & the first man on the moon. This was the most important for political reasons & what came afterwards is irrelevant. I have my own views on this subject but there's no point in repeating them here. The fact that it was accepted at the time had the desired result whether it was an elaborate propaganda exercise or not. I have no doubt that the arguments on that score will still be going on long after I've departed this mortal coil. It's worth considering what would have happened had the USSR got there first.

[ATI_7500]

It's worth considering what would have happened had the USSR got there first.

A red flag instead of a red-white-blue one?