Neil Amstrong has passed on.

TDPerk · Post by **TDPerk** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:46 pm

Per this report.

Sad he didn't get to see a permanent return, and more.

Stubby · Post by **Stubby** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 8:32 pm

assuming he made it in the first place

one true Cold War hero.

CaptainBeowulf · Post by **CaptainBeowulf** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 8:40 pm

Yes, too bad he didn't get to see a more robust space program, but he'll remain an inspiration... and be remembered when we finally do get back there, and to other planets.

TDPerk · Post by **TDPerk** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:45 pm

Armstrong not Amstrong

And I can't edit it dammit.

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:32 am

Did not always agree with Neil Armstrong and was very disappointed by his very badly informed testimony about commercial crew in front of congress. He completely failed in his duty to inform himself well before making the statement.
That said, he was a great man and I have a lot of respect for him, a true inspiration for those interested in spaceflight.
He sure was a hero for many of us.
Ad Astra, Commander Armstrong!

Diogenes · Post by **Diogenes** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:00 pm

"I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow."

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/08/26 ... -engineer/

choff · Post by **choff** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:54 pm

As a pilot his skills were legendary.

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:16 pm

How did he get to the moon without an iPad or Facebook? Something's fishy.

hanelyp · Post by **hanelyp** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:42 pm

Those engineers in the 1960s performed miracles with slide rules and a handful of discreet electronic parts.

paperburn1 · Post by **paperburn1** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:12 pm

hanelyp wrote:Those engineers in the 1960s performed miracles with slide rules and a handful of discreet electronic parts.

Reminds me of a quote from Charley weburg he worked on the Apollo project, Me "How did you figure that out"
Charlie " Because they needed it"
It was almost a catchwords for what all they all did.

zDarby · Post by **zDarby** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:28 pm

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:24 pm

'Buzz' was there too. Seriously though, this thread should remain somber, given the pitiful state of the US space program as its pioneers depart.

zDarby · Post by **zDarby** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:21 am

DeltaV,
The joke is completely wrong for many reasons. Not only were Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins with him, but Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders had circled the moon months earlier in Apollo 8; and so did Tomas Stafford, John Young, Eugene Cernan of Apollo 10. Armstrong was never the "highest" human in history, no matter how you measure "high".

And then there's the reality that NONE of the astronauts of the Apollo era got high...any kind of high. (To my limited knowledge.) So there's no way this picture is of Armstrong high. Even if he had something happening in his private life, he would never, ever, EVER take such things to the moon.

It's the very fact that it's impossible he's high that makes it funny. I mean, come on! He looks high! It's the puffy, happy look of a newbie stoner....And of course he's happy! He's doing what he loves! And he's puffy because he's in space & his heart is used to pumping blood harder into his head. It's basic astro-physiology.

But it's FUNNY, dag-nab-it!
....And I had this big rejoinder, but it's just not worth the argument. I found it funny and I wanted to share it with y'all. You don't think it's funny, fine. Whatever. Sour grapes.

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:47 pm

@zDarby
I understand, and they would too, I think. Most of the early astronauts were great kidders. I added sentence 2 later as CYA, feeling that the Buzz statement would not go over well.

And, I was trying to keep MSimon from threadjacking! :)

chrismb · Post by **chrismb** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:16 pm

zDarby wrote:It's the very fact that it's impossible he's high that makes it funny. I mean, come on! He looks high! It's the puffy, happy look of a newbie stoner....

You speak as a gravity bound earthling.

If you have never been in low gravity then the easiest way to describe it is like feeling upside down. As if you are in a continuous free-fall. The blood will feel like it has rushed to your head, if compared with standing upright on Earth, because there is no gravity pulling it down to your Earthling feet.

Neil Armstrong's step on the Moon was the end of a period, not the beginning of a new one. In fact, it was the end of Renaissance civilisation which started 360 years earlier when Galileo used a man-made instrument to witness the Moons of Jupiter, thus demonstrating practically that the Earth was not the centre for every heavenly body.

The ultimate impact of that was so profound it lead Mankind from religious superstition into the realm of modern science.

Neil Armstrong's step brought that whole enterprise full circle (360 degrees, as well as 360 years!!); by using man-made instruments (that themselves had an ultimate origin through the setting-aside of religious faith and the take-up of science and engineering) Mankind actually went to meet those heavenly bodies in person. It was an act itself made possible by the profound consequences of the very observation that the Moon was 'just another astronomical body' that one might step on in person.

An act made possible by the consequences to the perception of the possibility of that act. This is the true endeavour of Mankind as a technological being.

RIP Neil Armstrong. RIP the great age of Mankind.

If chrismb still posted here, he'd say he cares not for this 'post-modern' view of science and engineering where people seem to accept claims simply because lots of people think the claims might be real. The current discussions on this forum could not demonstrate the futility of this 'post-modern' approach to technology more clearly.