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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 1729.PDF
APOLLO ANNIVERSARY ission in 1968. According to NASA tradition, this would ave made him the Apollo 12 commander. The back-up ommander oj Apollo 8 was Pete Conrad, who would have been commander <>/ Apollo 11. When it was decided to fly Apollo 8 around the Moon, rather than to t<st the lunar module in Earth orbit, its commander, James McDivitt, '•tided that he would retain the lunia-module-testing mis sion, which became Apollo 9, while Apollo 9 became Apollo 8. Thus Armstrong, not Conrad, became the first tiuzz Aldrin would have been the first man on the Moon, according to initial NASA plans for the Apollo 1 I Moonwalk. On previous l/.S spaceflights, including Apollo 9, it was the pilot, not the commander, who went for the spaeewallis and it was naturally assumed that this trend would continue for the Moomvalks. In April 1969, NASA said that Armstrone would be the first out. It seemed hon- and, nunc significantly, Armstrong's post on the left-hand side oj the lunar module made it more convenient for him to leave first, since the door o/ the lunar module opened towards the light and hemmed in Aldrin at his post. NASA did not know what Armstrong was going to say when he stepped on the Moon. Neither did Armstrong, until after he had landed. NASA expected the quiet, enigmatic Armstrong to say something lifee; "t)K, the surface is smooths", lie stunned everyone with his eloquent: "That's one small step for a man, one polio astronaut James I.ovell described the Earth as a "frag ile oasis in the vaslncss of space". That view is one ol the legacies ol the politically motivated but technically tri- «A.umphant Apollo Moon Landing programme. Another, less poetic, legacy is that ol its enormous cost. The cost ol the Apollo programme amounted to some S25 billion in the 1960s, and even as it was reaching its conclusion, space bud- gels were being cut because of that massive expense. The equivalent ol that $25 billion today would be S250 billion, and an expenditure ol that level to, say, put people on Mars in 2004 might be seen as irrele vant in the light of the more pressing problems on that fragile oasis. Yet, dreams oT the Moon live on. In June, the European Space Agency (ESA) held an International Lunar Workshop which proposed a return to the lunar surface. Although the proposal takes into account tight budgets, it also lacks highly significant or urgent scientific objec tives, a criticism which was made of the Apollo programme. FSA's proposal sees four stages of lunar exploration. First, unmanned orbilcrs and landers would be launched, in a repeal of mis sions made in the 1960s. Next, a permanent robotic presence would be established by 2005, wilh a pilot radio-astronomy telescope and remote chemical-analysis station. The third phase would be a lirsl attempt to use the Moon's resources, including oxygen, wilh on-site automatic manufacturing plants. Finally, a human outpost would be established on the Moon in 2015. giant leap /or boohs say, Armstrong did not say "a" man. lie explained later that the way he talks sometimes results in one sylla ble words being lost in crack ling voice transmissions! "As >p syllables Ire- intended, ij you •y^^msm handled by an IBM instrument unit. b. diameter, hn high and weighing /Of. It c 25 components, Including a radar ahh accelcrometei, communications decodt control-signal processor. Vhe instrument the processing power oj a modem junket i *»ur
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