James Burke on the Moon

Today on Far Future Horizons we continue to commemorate the forty-eighth anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing with two retrospective documentaries presented by BBC veteran science journalist and science historian James Burke ten years after the event.

“Apollo 11: Remastered” - An Orbiter Film

The versatility of the Orbiter Space Simulator is truly amazing. I first wrote about this free space simulator program in my recent article "For All You Armchair Astronauts". Here is awe inspiring film made by TexFilms using Orbiter.

In “Apollo 11: Remastered” we can all vicariously embark on the epic voyage of Apollo 11 from launch to splashdown and relive this grand adventure. This film is a remake of TexFilms original Apollo 11 release featuring Orbiter Space Flight Simulator and AMSO Apollo addon.

Modern Marvels - Apollo 11

Today on Far Future Horizons we highlight the greatest scientific and technological achievement in living memory – Apollo 11 and the first manned Moon landing.

Modern Marvels - Apollo 11 chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Apollo program and its ascent to glory as the Apollo 11 crew touched down on the Moon's surface.

With insightful narration, interviews with Astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Flight Director Gene Kranz, NASA experts, scientists and engineers, the program winds through the evolution of the space program from President Kennedy’s famous congressional address to the stories of personal sacrifice necessary for Apollo’s success.

From Olduvai Gorge to the Sea of Tranquility

 

This is an essay I wrote eight years ago to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and was originally posted on the National Space Society's blog site on  August 10, 2009.

By far the two most remarkable photographs of the twentieth century are the ones shown above. For they encapsulate the whole evolutionary and cultural history of humanity and its possible destiny.

In 1978, paleoanthropologist Mary Leaky and her team discovered the earliest hominid footprints (dated to be three and a half million years old) preserved in the volcanic ash at Laetoli, forty-five kilometres south of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. They belong to one of our proto-human ancestors - Australopithecus afarensis. The picture above shows one of these fossil footprints next to the boot print left by Neil Armstrong in the volcanic soil of Mare Tranquilitatis (the Sea of Tranquillity).

It is very symbolic of the giant evolutionary leap forward we have taken as a species. From Olduvai Gorge to the Sea of Tranquillity, we humans have travelled very far.

In the Shadow of the Moon

Today on Far Future Horizons we commemorate the forty-eighth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing by presenting a retrospective of the entire Apollo program as seen through the memories of the Astronauts, scientists and engineers who made it happen.

Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON brings together for the first, and possibly the last time, surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission that flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words.

Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon

Today on Far Future Horizons we celebrate the forty-seventh anniversary of the first lunar landing and honor the memory of Neil Armstrong on what would have been his eighty-sixth birthday.  

We proudly present the documentary Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong's family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, tell the story of the first man to set foot on the moon. Drawing heavily on never broadcast archive footage and the unique perspectives of the contributors, this is an exclusive account of Neil Armstrong's extraordinary life story.

James May on the Moon

Today on Far Future Horizons we follow British journalist James May (of Top Gear fame) as he commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. 


 In this documentary feature May interviews Apollo moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt, Alan Bean, and Charlie Duke, before he himself experiences the trill weightlessness and G-forces similar to that of a Saturn V rocket launch.

From the Earth to the Moon - "Mare Tranquillitatis"

This fabulous photograph shows Neil Armstrong’s face through his space suit visor as he walks across the lunar surface. The image was captured in video footage by the movie camera mounted on the Eagle lunar lander. The image was retrieved by Spacecraft Films, an Ohio-based specialist in historical space footage, and was included in the newly published book, Voices from the Moon, by author Andrew Chaikin. Copyright NASA and Andrew Chaikin.

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the sixth episode of the acclaimed twelve-part HBO television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon - “Mare Tranquillitatis".

From the Earth to the Moon - Apollo One

We dedicate today’s Blog posting to the memories of the crew of Apollo One: Edward White, Command Pilot

Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Commander

Roger Chaffee, Pilot

Today on Far future Horizons we present the second episode of the acclaimed twelve-part HBO television miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon- Apollo One.

The second instalment of the series portrays the tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire from the perspective of its subsequent investigation by NASA and the US Congress. Its effects on key individuals are shown, including Harrison Storms of North American Aviation, Joseph Shea of NASA, astronaut Frank Borman charged with supporting NASA's investigation, and the widows of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

From the Earth to the Moon - "Can We Do This?"

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the first episode of the acclaimed twelve-part HBO television miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon- Can we do this?”


“From the Earth to the Moon” is a twelve-part HBO television miniseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick detailing the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin's book, A Man on the Moon, the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and outstanding special effects.

Beyond Tranquility

This essay was originally posted on the National Space Society's blog site on August 11, 2009.

 

After Apollo, Can the dream of Solar System Settlement become reality?

The answer to that question is an unequivocal yes and the reasons have to do with economics, national prestige, national and environmental security concerns and the existential threats we face as a species.

Our species and our ancient forbearers were and remain innately a migratory species. The lure and call of distant lands and new horizons is an ancient passion. Modern science offers us tantalizing evidence of this wanderlust and has helped us weave a tale that is the stuff of legend. This migratory history is written in our genes and the fossil record. It is the story of how our species emerged out of Africa and spread out across the globe to become a planetary species.

One Small Step - The Australian Story

Today on Far Future Horizons, in order to commemorate  Australia's major contribution to the Apollo Lunar Exploration Program  and as my own personal salute and tribute to my good friend Ralph Buttigieg (who got me into the whole business of blogging), I would like to present the documentary One Small Step - The Australian Story.

Forty-six years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, this one-hour documentary explores the front-line role Australian radio astronomers and technicians performed in bringing to the world Neil Armstrong’s "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

Apollo 11 interviews with Arthur C Clarke and Robert A Heinlein (July 20, 1969)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present a treasure from the CBS News Archives.

To the Moon

U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on the surface of the Moon after he and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first men to land on the Moon, July 20, 1969. 

For two hours in the July of 1969, the world stood spellbound as two men landed and walked on the moon. Tens of millions watched it happen, on blurry black and white television sets as the event unfolded a quarter million miles across the heavens.

For the first time in human history, all humankind was united as one as two of our number took their first fleeting steps on the Moon.

Moon Graffiti - What If the 1st Lunar Landing Had Failed?

Today on Far Future Horizons we present Moon Graffiti - What If the 1st Lunar Landing Had Failed?

History has the strange quality that it easily could have been otherwise. You can experience one conceivable "what if?" in Moon Graffiti, an excellently executed radio story that plays out what could have happened had the first moon landing gone awry.

The Truth Behind The Moon Landings

Was one of the greatest scientific and technological achievements of our age just an elaborate hoax? Was Neil Armstrong’s one small step just that- a small step in a studio in Area 51?

Today on Far Future Horizons we present “The Truth behind the Moon Landings” a documentary that debunks the assorted Moon hoax conspiracy theories that have been circulating for the past decade.

Bill Kaysing the former head of technical publications for Rocketdyne is considered, by many, to be the father of moon conspiracy theorists.

MythBusters ~ Moon Landing Wasn't A Hoax

Today on Far Future Horizons we join Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, the hosts of Discovery Channel’s hit television series “MythBusters”, in laying to rest the myth that the Apollo moon landings were a staged hoax.

The MythBusters chose Marshall as one of several NASA locations for an episode to debunk the notion that NASA never landed on the moon.
The cast conducted tests involving a feather, a weight, a lunar soil boot print, and a flag in a vacuum. A team of Marshall scientists helped with the tests.

The MythBusters built a small scale replica of the lunar landing site with a flat surface and a single distant spotlight to represent the Sun. They took a photo and all the shadows in the photo were parallel, as the myth proposed.
They then adjusted the topography of the model surface to include a slight hill around the location of the near rocks so the shadows fell on a slope instead of a flat surface. The resulting photograph had the same shadow directions as the original NASA photograph from Apollo 14.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

Today on Far Future Horizons we present Moonshot, a dramatisation of the events leading up to the landing of Apollo 11 on the surface of the Moon on July 20^th , 1969.

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." American astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke those words 45 years ago on July 20, 1969, just after stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle to become the first human ever to walk on the moon. 

The Apollo Space Suit

This fabulous photograph shows Neil Armstrong’s face through his space suit visor as he walks across the lunar surface. The image was captured in video footage by the movie camera mounted on the Eagle lunar lander. The image was retrieved by Spacecraft Films, an Ohio-based specialist in historical space footage, and was included in the newly published book, Voices from the Moon, by author Andrew Chaikin. Copyright NASA and Andrew Chaikin.

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the fifth and penultimate episode of the highly acclaimed documentary series Moon Machines.

The fifth installment of Moon Machines focuses on the teams that created the remarkable Apollo pressure suit.

The Apollo Lunar Lander

Apollo 12 Lunar Module on the Surface of the Moon

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the fourth episode of the highly acclaimed documentary series Moon Machines.

The fourth instalment of Moon Machines features the Grumman Corporation’s project to build humankind's only true spacecraft - the Lunar Module.

Moon Machines is a Science Channel documentary miniseries of six episodes documenting the engineering challenges of the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon. It covers everything from the iconic Saturn V to the Command Module, the Lunar Module, the Space Suits, the Guidance and Control Computer, and the Lunar Rover. It was created by the team who made In the “Shadow of the Moon” in association with NASA to commemorate the agency’s fiftieth anniversary in 2008.

Copyright Science Channel