Neil Armstrong has died

[Skellington]

^ Buzz = Badass.

And when you think about it, anyone who has ever been played by Bryan Cranston (in From the Earth to the Moon) will turn out to possess much badassery.

He was also played by James Marsters in Moonshot. Marsters is another fine actor IMHO.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

As for Buzz: I loved it when he punched out that conspiracy nut.

Buzz once punched the lights out of one of the worst and most obnoxious Moon Hoax conspiracy theorists. The footage is on YouTube if you've never seen it. Just type in Buzz and Bart Sibrel.

Classic stuff. Buzz throws a good hook for a guy old enough to be most of our grandfathers.

^ Buzz = Badass.

Not just the proud owner of a fine right hook, but also a tight gangsta rapper:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcUeGRpPzgw[/yt]

 

[gturner]

Staggering news to me. I was born between Apollo 12 and Apollo 13, so my firsthand memories of the program are minimal. But the fact that humans had gone to the moon was a pervasive in my childhood, my earliest books and TV recollections and so on. What a time in human history! And what a pilot! The guy actually took manual control and flew the lunar module till he found a spot where he was confident to land. It boggles my mind, really, what that must have been like.

Actually the lunar module didn't have a manual mode because no human pilot could fly it. What they called "manual" was the pilot bumping the joystick as a computer input, which then added a velocity increment or decrement to its program in an X, Y, Z axis system. During landing the module was also gryo stablized to maintain a level orientation, so the X, Y was controlled by firing the horizontal attitude thrusters instead of tilting or banking.

Semi-automatic mode allowed the pilot to designate a landing point from his window, then the GNC would fly the lunar module close to the designated spot.

Auto mode allowed the lunar module to land at a set of pre-programmed coordinates. No astronaut ever allowed it to land in auto mode because they were test pilots and test pilots are going to fly the craft to whatever extent they can. So every single time the lunar module approached the pre-determined landing coordinates, the spot was to be "rocky", while a nice clear spot was conveniently nearby, requiring the commander to switch to "manual". Every. single. time.

The programmers and mission planners shouldn't have even bothered with a fully automatic mode because no astronaut was ever going to use it.

There was also an interesting bug in the lunar module approach routines (related to smoothing the flight path, like a spline fit to surface topography) that would cause the computer to merrily fly into the ground (the flight path calculation could interesect the surface if the radar altimeter went across the wrong crater or valley), but the astronauts would make sure that didn't happen, either.

 

[J.T.B.]

^ Excellent info, thanks.

 

[trynda1701]

Condolences to his family and friends.

As people have said, a humble man, who did with the help of others (Aldrin, Collins, the thousands of people at NASA and the companies that built the Apollo program) one of the most amazing things our species has done so far, left our home planet and walked on another.

We as a species have lost a pioneer and a hero, and it's a shame that we haven't managed to build more on that legacy, that came from the adventurous spirit that time gave to the Space Program.

It's something we have to get back to.

RIP Neil Armstrong.

 

[Paper Moon]

I watched him take that first step on the Moon and I took this picture:

<insert amazing photograph>

He came in peace for all mankind.

RIP, Neil Armstrong.

RJDiogenes, that photograph is incredible on so many levels. Thank you for sharing it.

If I were the Smithsonian, I would be interested in obtaining the original at some point. A historic moment in human history as most of the country saw it, preserved on a camera that revolutionized photography. What a tribute.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

R.I.P. sir

 

[RJDiogenes]

I watched him take that first step on the Moon and I took this picture:

<insert amazing photograph>

He came in peace for all mankind.

RIP, Neil Armstrong.

RJDiogenes, that photograph is incredible on so many levels. Thank you for sharing it.

If I were the Smithsonian, I would be interested in obtaining the original at some point. A historic moment in human history as most of the country saw it, preserved on a camera that revolutionized photography. What a tribute.

Thank you very much. I'm glad you liked it. I do treasure the original picture and I'd be delighted if the Smithsonian wanted it. I don't know if there will be anybody in my family to leave it to-- my relatives don't appreciate things the way I do.

 

[cooleddie74]

My mom turned 18 the day Armstrong and Aldrin landed and set foot on the Moon. She said it was probably the coolest and most exciting birthday she ever had. Party...family...friends...and humans walking on another world.

Not too shabby for someone's eighteenth birthday. Mine wasn't one-hundredth that interesting.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I remember listening to the grown-ups discuss it, asking a few questions, and going out and looking at the moon with them. I was 3, so I don't remember much more than that. We were in a place that didn't have TV.

 

[Garrovick]

I was pretty sad to hear about this. RIP Mr. Armstrong. A truly great man. Centuries from now, when all the politicians, entertainers, athletes, etc. that are so famous right now have all been forgotten, everyone will still remember Neil Armstrong.

 

[siskokid888]

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE

 

[RJDiogenes]

Science Channel will have a tribute to Neil this Saturday night starting at 8pm.

 

[cooleddie74]

The History Channel devoted its morning and afternoon lineup to Neil and the Apollo moon missions on Tuesday. It wasn't a prominent primetime lineup dedicated to him, but it lasted almost half the broadcasting day.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

I was pretty sad to hear about this. RIP Mr. Armstrong. A truly great man. Centuries from now, when all the politicians, entertainers, athletes, etc. that are so famous right now have all been forgotten, everyone will still remember Neil Armstrong.

Your post need a Like button!

 

[RJDiogenes]

The History Channel devoted its morning and afternoon lineup to Neil and the Apollo moon missions on Tuesday. It wasn't a prominent primetime lineup dedicated to him, but it lasted almost half the broadcasting day.

Crap. I wish I had noticed that.

 

[JarodRussell]

It's amazing how many people (including people in the news media) mix up Neil, Louis and Lance Armstrong.

 

[cooleddie74]

One person said the guy from Green Day had died. Somebody else said Neil Young.

I'm not surprised in the least.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I think it was NBC that said Neil Young.

It's a dark age we live in.

 

[Kemaiku]