Apollo 11 pilot Michael Collins dies

[The Crumb]

It would have been nice to see him do a space version of the driving off as they get to the door bit.

[Thomas]

I read the Armstrong bio First Man a few years ago, l was fascinated to see what made him tick as a man, to go down in history as the first human to leave our home planet with the knowledge that there was only a 50% he would make it back.
But I was so disappointed with it. It covers literally the nuts and blots of every plane he flew but never got into what made him so exceptional as a person.

I don't know if it's because the source material is so free of emotional insight, or whether it was a directorial decision to be quiet and sombre, but the I found the adaptation First Man (2018) - with Ryan Gosling looking glum as Armstrong - a depressing watch. The astronauts feel despondent throughout. It begins with family tragedy, ends on a gloomy note, and the stuff in between is muted. The emotional pinnacle is an invented moment

Spoiler alert

(Armstrong dropping a bracelet into a crater)

[close]

. Apollo 13, Moon, and even Sunshine are cheerier, more wonderous space travel films. Solaris is a comparative party.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I have Collins' autobiography, and only this week I wondered if I'd get around to reading it before he died. A resounding no.

Presumably you mean "Carrying The Fire"?  I've got "Flying To The Moon and other strange places" (1979), a version he did for kids. I got it at a book club at school.  Every week someone came round with a bunch of books and you could buy one for something like £1.


^^Yes I found "First Man" disappointing when i saw it on TV a few weeks ago.  There was no danger or jeopardy apart from the test pilot scenes early on, and once it got past that part I knew what was going to happen so there no surprises, just going through the motions.

[steve98]

It would have been nice to see him do a space version of the driving off as they get to the door bit.

ALDRIN: Aww come on Mike! Stay still, it's not funny. Over.

COLLINS: Roger. Sorry, won't do it again. Over.

ALDRIN: Roger. Better not lol............... Aww JESUS CHRIST MAN! IT'S NOT FUCKING FUNNY! Neil's dyin' for a shit!

[Gulftastic]

When idiots try to prove the fake moon landing stuff, they sometimes speak of the lack of technology back then.

Given how we've moved on in the last 50 years or so, how easy would it be to get back to the moon? And what could we do if we got there? Could we stay for a bit longer?

[MojoJojo]

When idiots try to prove the fake moon landing stuff, they sometimes speak of the lack of technology back then.

Given how we've moved on in the last 50 years or so, how easy would it be to get back to the moon? And what could we do if we got there? Could we stay for a bit longer?

The fundamental mechanisms for how we get into space, that is rockets, haven't really changed. They're pretty simple really, and there's not much room for improvement.

Material science improvements mean there are probably better alloys to use in the rockets, and we can probably make the payload a bit lighter. Computers would help a lot with design and again will save some weight over their 1960's equivalents. But fundamentally you still have blow up an absolute shit ton of fuel to get into orbit - and if you want to go further you have to blow up even more.

[Thomas]

And what could we do if we got there?

This is the key question, and the main impediment to going back. After a few successful missions, billions of dollars of research and development, global coverage, and national fanfare soon boiled down to: wat is point

If we have pretensions of getting (a few billionaires) to Mars, though, the Moon would be a useful outpost - especially now we know there's a bit of water up there. In fact, NASA have plans for a mission called Gateway, 'an outpost orbiting the Moon that provides vital support for a sustainable, long-term human return to the lunar surface, as well as a staging point for deep space exploration.'

[Zetetic]

We could let Grimes die there.

But it'd be easier just to make them think they were dying there, really.

[idunnosomename]

the curse of the moon strikes again! Buzz must be bricking it.

[Alberon]

When idiots try to prove the fake moon landing stuff, they sometimes speak of the lack of technology back then.

Given how we've moved on in the last 50 years or so, how easy would it be to get back to the moon? And what could we do if we got there? Could we stay for a bit longer?

The difference between 1969 and 2024 (assuming the date doesn't slip again) is cost. The Apollo programme cost a ridiculous amount as it wasn't about science but Cold War lunacy beating the damn Ruskies to the moon.

Assuming SpaceX can stop their Starships crashing (and on past performance they probably will) we'll be almost at the point a commerical company can land people on the moon and at a fraction of the price. Whereas in the 1960s it was the sole domain of the superpowers and even then only one superpower could do it as it was beyond the technical ability of the Soviet Union.

There's a very good TV series that has just finished its second season called For All Mankind (I think it's on Apple which is why you probably haven't heard of it). It's an alternate history of the Space Race where the Russians do beat the US to the moon (and Apollo 11 doesn't have as successful a mission either). Each season jumps forward ten years or so and the second season has both superpowers with a moonbase of their own and increasing cold war tensions. The teaser at the end of the second season for the series set in the 90s is

Spoiler alert

people on Mars.

[close]

. It's all done in a very realistic way and I recommend it.

[Petey Pate]

Only 10 Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon (and 4 who walked) are still alive now, and all are at least 80 years old. For all of NASA's achievements since, not to mention Elon Musk's current wanking about with SpaceX, I feel as if there hasn't been many space missions as iconic or remarkable as human beings actually visiting another celestial body. Strange to think too that the first moon landing is now closer in time to the end of WWI than it is to the present day.

I hope now that he's dead, more people will actually remember Michael Collins' name, who always seemed to get sidestepped in the public eye just because he never actually walked on the moon. Should check out his biography now as well.

One fact about the Apollo 11 mission that not many know, is that Neil Armstrong buried a plaque in memory of the then recently deceased Yuri Gagarin - which had been given to Armstrong by his widow. It's nice that beyond the Cold War politics that there was a mutual respect and admiration between the cosmonauts and the Americans.

[Thomas]

Strange to think too that the first moon landing is now closer in time to the end of WWI than it is to the present day.

fuckin ell

[dissolute ocelot]

Rocket technology to put things into earth orbit (and possibly repair or collect them) has obvious military value. Going to the moon has almost no military value, and limited scientific value (even a manned Mars mission is questionable). Human space flight is largely vanity.

Launching satellites has become routine because it's done so often, but a lot of it is still risky. SpaceX has blown up a lot of rockets in development (though thankfully they practice with unmanned rockets), there were 2 Space Shuttles lost out of 135 missions - imagine if one in 67 plane flights ended in the death of everyone on board, and there's a much higher rate of failure for things like space probes where it's not just routine (unless it's actually the Martians breaking all the Mars probes).

[steve98]

I wonder how long a series of successful, non-exploding, un-manned missions SpaceX/Musk will require before "Gettin' some live Spam in the can", as they say.

[Cuellar]

Was he the one who wrote the pervy space memoirs?

[JesusAndYourBush]

Given how we've moved on in the last 50 years or so, how easy would it be to get back to the moon? And what could we do if we got there? Could we stay for a bit longer?

I'm more surprised they've not sent a rover, like the mars rover.  You don't need to send people because as has been pointed out - there's nothing to do.  But having a buggy trundle around taking photos of craters & stuff would be pretty cool.

[monkfromhavana]

Let's be honest, the whole of space travel, like most other advancements in technology since the industrial evolution have all been based on one thing.

Digging something finite out of the earth and burning it.

[shiftwork2]

Let's be honest, the whole of space travel, like most other advancements in technology since the industrial evolution have all been based on one thing.

Shitein' thysen's kecks.

[chveik]

never heard of the cunt

[Replies From View]

Let's be honest, the whole of space travel, like most other advancements in technology since the industrial evolution have all been based on one thing.

Digging something finite out of the earth and burning it.

deeper you go, the higher you go, innit.  it's why space men understand burial to be better than cremation.

[mothman]

Presumably you mean "Carrying The Fire"?  I've got "Flying To The Moon and other strange places" (1979), a version he did for kids. I got it at a book club at school.  Every week someone came round with a bunch of books and you could buy one for something like £1.

I had this one too! Obviously for kids but still a fascinating read for a space-obsessed youngster.

There's a very good TV series that has just finished its second season called For All Mankind (I think it's on Apple which is why you probably haven't heard of it). It's an alternate history of the Space Race where the Russians do beat the US to the moon (and Apollo 11 doesn't have as successful a mission either). Each season jumps forward ten years or so and the second season has both superpowers with a moonbase of their own and increasing cold war tensions. The teaser at the end of the second season for the series set in the 90s is

Spoiler alert

people on Mars.

[close]

. It's all done in a very realistic way and I recommend it.

I love For All Mankind. Keep meaning to start a thread on it down in PB. The 1st & 2nd season finales, and the season 2 opening ep, are as gripping edge-of-your-seat TV as I've seen anywhere.

[Jittlebags]

Been reading about Laika today. It appears Laika got the gig because the preferred space hound had just had puppies. The poor dog got cooked to death within the first few orbits because a heat shield did not deploy properly. The Soviets covered this up and said she was euthanised prior to oxygen running out a few days into the journey. The true cause of death wasn't revealled until 2002.

[Jittlebags]

PS Let's not go down the route of dogs eating space shit.

[Fr.Bigley]

Does space shit behave (taste) like terrestrial shit?

[touchingcloth]

Computers would help a lot with design and again will save some weight over their 1960's equivalents.

Helichocters can fly by themselves on Mars now, so presumably a landing on the moon could be done entirely autonomously without the seat-of-the-pants antics which Eagle saw.

[touchingcloth]

Only 10 Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon (and 4 who walked) are still alive now, and all are at least 80 years old.

Everyone who landed on the moon also walked on it. Did you mean the flew to/walked split? There are 24 people who have flown to the moon, of which 12 landed and walked, and 12 orbited/looped around but did not land.

The youngest person who flew to the moon - Ken Mattingly - is now 85. Pleasingly, the commander of Apollo 16 on which he flew was John Young (who is one of three to have flown to the moon twice).

[Mr Banlon]

Has Ben Garrison done a crying moon with moon tears, or is he one of the fake moon landing crowd ?

[touchingcloth]

Has Ben Garrison done a crying moon with moon tears, or is he one of the fake moon landing crowd ?

Just desaturate the basketballs ones.

[Registering to lurk]

And what could we do if we got there?

Space 1999, 22 years too late.

[vanilla.coffee]

There's one technology that hasn't changed since the Apollo missions.
The watch they wore - Omega Speedmaster was certified by NASA for the missions back in 65 and you can still buy that watch new today.
Buzz Aldrin was the first to wear one on the moon (Armstrong left his in the lunar module as the Bulova clock had failed)
Michael Collins Speedmaster that he wore is on display at the Houston space museum.