"When the lunar module lands at 4:18 p.m EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remain. Armstrong radios "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Mission control erupts in celebration as the tension breaks, and a controller tells the crew "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we're breathing again." [...] At 10:56 p.m. EDT Armstrong is ready to plant the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbs down the ladder and proclaims: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin joins him shortly, and offers a simple but powerful description of the lunar surface: "magnificent desolation."
io9's Mika McKinnon points out that NASA shares Moonwalk One...
"This documentary gives an in-depth look at the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. NASA archival footage, as well as reactions to the mission around the world, shows the enormous impact that the moon landing had."
"To peer inside the moon, scientists used measurements from two NASA satellites called Ebb and Flow, collectively known as the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. By measuring the tiny fluctuations in the moon's gravitational field, they have indicated that, in its first billion years, the moon (and, by inference, many of the inner planets) was fractured repeatedly by violent impacts from asteroids and other remnants from the early years of the solar system."
Sad word just arrived and his family shares that 82 year old Neil Armstrong has passed away. He was commander of the Apollo 11 lunar mission and the first human to walk on the Moon's surface on July 20, 1969. In Armstrong's own immortal words...
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Watch the "giant leap" as it happened (thanks Andrew Revkin)...
Iconic newsman Walter Cronkite reported the landing... And here's historic retrospective on this epic human achievement...
"With computer alarms sounding and fuel running low, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their lunar module Eagle in the Sea of Tranquility as millions around the world watched. Six hours later, Armstrong made his "giant leap for mankind", stepping onto the surface of the moon. He was soon joined by Buzz Aldrin, who described the scene as "magnificent desolation". They explored the surface for two and a half hours, collection samples and taking photographs. After their historic moonwalk, they successfully docked with the command module Columbia, reuniting with crewmate Michael Collins."
"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.”
Indeed, left behind on the Moon is the ultimate epitaph...
In light of supermoon, it's high time we look more closely at our satellite's cataclysmic past;-) Ian Sample of the Guardiansummarized latest NASA research a few years ago...
"Some regions of the moon are so pocked with craters they have reached what planetary scientists call "saturation equilibrium", where each additional crater wipes out an older one, so the number of craters remains the same. [...] A team led by James Head at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, used an instrument called a laser altimeter on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to map craters on the moon. The instrument bounces laser pulses off the lunar surface every 25 metres as it hurtles overhead. By measuring how long each laser pulse takes to bounce back to the spacecraft, scientists can map the surface contours of the moon to a vertical accuracy of 10cm."
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