First Images of the Apollo Landing Sites

Space nerds have been eagerly awaiting images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – specifically pictures of the Apollo landing sites.

The anticipation stems partly from the desire to quiet the moon-hoax element once and for all. Sadly, as with all conspiracy theorists, evidence against their position will be ignored or explained away with thin logic, defensive postures, allusions to secretive cabals and logical fallacies.

Aside from those on the fringe, it excites the geek heart to see what remains of the Lunar Module and some of the scientific equipment left behind 40 years ago. And, as Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy Blog puts it,

In all of human history, there are many dividing lines we can arbitrarily assign. Before and after the use of atomic weapons, before and after the discovery of the light bulb, before and after this war or that.

But there is one dividing line that can inspire us, fill us with wonder, make us dream of bigger goals, higher aspirations, better ways to live our lives for the future. And that is the dividing line between the time we were a race shackled to the ground, confined to a single planet… and the time a human being stepped foot on another world.

Yeah, that’s kind of it.

)

That is the Apollo 11 landing site - where we first set foot on the moon. The arrow points to what remains of the Lunar Module (LM). You can see the shadow it casts - the sun was clearly low on the horizon when this image was captured.

The bottom part of the LM remained behind because after landing it became essentially dead weight. The Ascent Module separated from the base as Armstrong and Aldrin blasted off to re-join Michael Cooper in the Command Module orbiting above. The diagram below shows the two parts of the LM.



This next image captures the Apollo 14 landing site where you can even see footprints…if only vaguely. Remember that with no atmosphere there is no weather on the moon. No wind exists to disturb the footprints in the fine silt (called regolith) that makes up the surface of the moon. Those prints will remain there forever until a meteorite disturbs them or we return to disturb them ourselves.



Understand also that these are not the highest resolution images that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is capable of. This is just a taste of even higher resolution images yet to come.

Thanks as always to Plait’s Bad Astronomy Blog …

Oh! Whoa. It's been one year.

I just realized.

It was one year ago today that I started doing this. I never intended it but looking back, I like the poetry of it. My first post at The Many Uses of Tim Foil, the launch of this blog, took place on the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11.

July 16, 2008 - July 16, 2009.

So far.

The Launch of Apollo 11

Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the mission that brought Buzz Aldrin, Neal Armstrong and Michael Collins to the moon.

(Last month I posted about this anniversary here and in first ever entry on this blog I espoused my admiration for the Saturn V rocket here .)

In addition to many other commemorations, today NASA released a sneak preview of digitally restored Apollo 11 video footage. The tapes were scanned and cleaned using state-of-the-art digital techniques, and clearly show visible improvement.

The remainder of the available footage will be cleaned up and released in several months but here is a montage of some of the footage released today.



(Thanks as always to Phil Plait at the Bad Astronomy Blog for uploading and sharing the video…)


I have also raved in the past about the Boston Globe’s Big Picture Blog which has some great shots of the planning, training and mission of Apollo 11. Click on these images to see bigger, mind blowing versions...


The Saturn V rocket. Primal.


"Earthrise" over the moon


Neil Armstrong back inside after the first historic space walk



Technology is so integrated into our lives that its easy to forget how insanely ambitious it was to put men on the moon. These images and this footage are chilling reminders.

Super, super cool.

Sheeple

More stick figure funny from XKCD …

Speed

Thanks to Jason Kottke's blog Kottke.org for the heads-up...

Bursting Bubble

Unrepentantly stolen from the UK's Daily Guardian Website ...

Photographer Richard Heeks, from Exeter, used a fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second and a wind-free day while his wife Sarah provided the all-important finger.

A bubble is made up of three layers - one thin layer of water sandwiched between two layers of soap molecules.

As Sarah's finger breaks the surface tension, the perfect sphere is replaced by a round mass of soapy droplets which dissolve into the air. No matter what the shape the bubble is initially, it will always try to become a sphere because it as the smallest surface area and requires the least amount of energy to achieve.

Sell Out

(But first, a personal note from Tim: Tomorrow we embark on a week-long family vacation so you probably won’t see too many posts while I’m gone. Hopefully I”ll have some stories to share when we get back but in the meantime, maybe you can keep busy with this!)

Back in October, 2008 I posted a British television commercial featuring John Lydon of Sex Pistol’s fame schilling for butter...



Now here’s another punk icon turned pitchman…




As a late 80’s/early 90’s playing-in-a-band kind-of-music-snob type, I was expecting to feel a surge of disgust in my gut from the sight of such disgraceful sell-outs.

But while waiting for that gut reaction I realized it wasn't happening. I just couldn’t gin up the proper indignation which is a far cry from the way I felt when I was in my twenties and thirties.

Back then though, the sell-outs were egregious and easy to spot, occasioning passionate rants against corporate rock and marking the bands and musicians as unworthy of attention of affection. But then it was no great risk to take on shit like this…it was more like shooting fish in a barrel.




Now that we’re almost out of the aughts, the music landscape has changed a lot. The radio industry has consolidated so much that breaking a band on radio just doesn’t happen anymore. It turns out that television shows and commercials have become one of the few vehicles that will give a band or a song national exposure.

(Neither a new or original observation there, I'm just saying...)

In some cases, it’s breaking new acts that benefit from this exposure. “The O.C.” became famous for it. In the clip below, The Dandy Warhols set the mood.



Now that’s not so bad right? George Michael Diet Coke? No, not acceptable. But thirty seconds leading into a scene on a guilty-pleasure TV show? Well, how the hell else are The Dandy Warhols going to get national exposure?

And there it is, the first crack in the wall of righteous indignation.

Sometimes its established acts. Real good acts with unimpeachable credibility. Really, who am I to assail the cred of Nick Drake or Daft Punk?







More cracks in the wall. And if Nick Drake can do it, said Sting to his agent, why can’t I?




And Sting’s agent, who also works with, say, Bob Dylan, gives Bob a call.




And the guys at CAA ask their clients if they’d be interested and sure enough, The Black Eyed Peas ARE interested.




And of all sudden there’s no wall left. Just cracks. Now its perfectly OK for your favorite band to sell soap flakes on TV.

But I still feel a tiny bit rotten (!) about it. Black Eyed Peas? OK, fine. Sting? Who cares? But Bob Dylan? Really? A gigantic fucking SUV?

Alas, I guess all things are cyclical. I found a couple of videos from the 50’s and 60’s that suggest that in an earlier era, the commercial sell-out wasn’t seen as anything to get worked up about.

The Rolling Stones did it…


(Note from Tim: Awesome, right?)

Dusty Springfield did it…



And speaking of Dusty Springfield, I have two radio commercials to present as further evidence. The first features Dusty singing the praises of Great Shakes, a powder that turns an ordinary glass of milk into a milk shake. Then, we’ve got Iron Butterfly (yes, Iron Butterfly) singing about Ban Deodorant. (Sorry for the low-fi nature of this clip but I was in a hurry!)



So I guess it used to be OK…then it wasn’t OK and now it’s OK again. Just like being a Michael Jackson fan!

That’s it for me. We’re off to Block Island for a family vacation. See you soon!