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Neil Armstrong has died at 82 Today
- charlieok 14y agoA thousand years from now, most people won't know much about the politicians, generals, celebrities or billionaires this century or last. But they might well know who first walked on the moon.
- wazoox 14y agoWhat's sad is that we didn't yet returned to the moon, and he won't live to see it.
- Grovara123 14y agoHe waited until we got to Mars...
- serge2k 14y agoHumans got to mars? I should pay more attention.
- Grovara123 14y agoyou know what i mean.
- freehunter 14y agoYes, humans got to Mars. Just not in person.
- jhuckestein 14y agoThe earliest attempts at Mars exploration were made by the soviets and NASA in the 60s (largely unsuccessful IIRC). In 1976 NASA successfully landed on the Mars (Viking I) and, even more amazingly, sent back color photos. Curiosity is a great mission, but I'm still more impressed with the Viking missions.
- ricardobeat 14y agoWait and see.
- maartenscholl 14y agoThe Soviet Mars-2 and Mars-3 missions were quite successful (orbiting and landing). Here is a gallery of mars images 1971-1974[1] The soviets were also the first to land on Luna in 1966 [2] and on Venus in 1975[3] [1]http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMars.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMars.htm [2]http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm [3]http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm
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- nikcub 14y agothe lack of basic knowledge about human achievement in space is depressing
- daeken 14y agoThere have been 13 moon walks since the Apollo 11 mission in which he was the first to walk on the moon, spanning 5 missions from 1969-1972, FYI. He was the first, but definitely not the last.
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- wazoox 14y agoThis snarky comment is quite superfluous, I say.
- daeken 14y agoI'm sorry if this came off in a snarky way. I simply wanted to talk about our moon history.
- corin_ 14y agoNot sure what was snarky about it, other than the fact that he pointed out that you were incorrect.. He didn't say it rudely at all?
- randallsquared 14y agoThey are different conversations. The first is about humanity returning to the moon, having stopped going, and the other is about people in the first batch.
- wazoox 14y agoMisunderstanding both ways, obviously. I'm old enough to have seen Apollo flights live on TV, so his interpretation of my post makes absolutely no sense at all to me (except as a contemptuous insult). "Return to the moon" can only mean "a new post-Apollo mission".
- ColinWright 14y agoI would've thought it was obvious that he was referring to the past-Apollo era. Did you really not think that? I'd've thought it obvious that Armstrong was aware of all the Apollo missions, so the comment could hardly have been taken as you imply. And there weren't 13 moon walks after Apollo11, there were 26 in total. There were13 periods of EVA, each with two astronauts.
- protagonist_h 14y agoWith no plans to go to the moon again, we will soon be out of living moon-walkers.
- burke 14y agoxkcd ran the numbers: http://xkcd.com/893/ http://xkcd.com/893/
- raverbashing 14y agoIt ended up being fairly accurate (and in one of the lower percentiles)
- nkoren 14y agoAh, yes, the mouseover text on that is brilliant, and apt: "The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision." Personally, I'm optimistic that there'll be boots on the moon sometime around 2020 (although I suspect they won't have NASA logos on them). Looks like there will be 2-6 moonwalkers left to see that, with a 90% confidence interval...
- waterlesscloud 14y agoI'm going to need to see some evidence before I believe societies make economic decisions sensibly.
- thom 14y agoI too am optimistic. All day I've seen people claiming America's moon landings for all humankind, and then blithely ignoring planned Indian, Japanese and Chinese lunar programmes. It would be a shame to think that people were only excited at the thought of white people going back to the moon.
- TomAnthony 14y agoThe article currently is just a stub. I imagine this is related to the heart bypass surgery he underwent a couple of weeks ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185898/Neil-Armstrong-First-man-walk-moon-recovering-heart-bypass-surgery.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185898/Neil-Armstro...
- corford 14y agoIt looks like it's true :( More informative article here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dead/story?id=12325140#.UDknbaMdNhE http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dea...
- yanatan16 14y agoHe did get to see the next phase of space flight, with the SpaceX launch, the first successful private spaceflights. The future is bright with the expanded private interest in it.
- evride 14y agoHe was pretty critical of SpaceX, though, and of NASA's new strategy of outsourcing space launches.
- gliese1337 14y agoAnd publicly expressed his disapproval of it. The future may be bright, but I suspect Mr. Armstrong missed the future he would've wanted.
- karpathy 14y agoElon said in a video interview that he's hoping he can convince Neil in the future because he was a large hero of his. It's slightly sad that it looks like he won't get his chance. Edit: it was his CBS 60 minutes interview that can be seen here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7410538n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7410538n&tag=cont... see 12:20 mark. (you have to go through 2 commercials, unfortunately) Edit2: more direct link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbIcqTEuxvw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbIcqTEuxvw near end (only 1 commercial!, but only less complete excerpt)
- al_biglan 14y agoBlack bar?
- anigbrowl 14y agoMost certainly. Armstrong embraced danger and the risk of failure.
- FrojoS 14y agoNeil Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) RIP. I hope we will return to the Moon or better go to Mars before the last Apollo astronaut has died.
- mmcnickle 14y ago"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream." --- Neil Armstrong. An inspiring man. RIP.
- herval 14y agoIt turns out humanity's real soul (at least most of it) is always looking for gimmicks to waste their time - be it compulsive little "games", the gadget of the week, etc, etc. I wish we had more Armstrongs. Truly inspiring man indeed...
- daeken 14y agoPeople have always had their ways to escape; prayer, sewing, radio, books, TV. That doesn't mean we're in any less capable position to do amazing things. Do I think we take our information-rich world for granted? Yes. Does that make us lazy or in any way bad? No.
- herval 14y agoI'm not implying people from the past where any more productive or interested in challenge than today's (they were not). The main difference, though, is that a larger number of people leave in stable/confortable enough lives today than in the past - thus the number of people doing nothing but indulging themselves is proportionally larger...
- bermanoid 14y agoYou say that as if it's a bad thing. To me, "the number of people doing nothing but indulging themselves is proportionally larger" sounds like a good thing, a clear indicator that we've come a long way - we're so well off now that you don't actually have to do anything useful in order to survive. That's awesome, to the extent that it's true. Our goal should be a day when nobody has to work, and everything that we want done happens anyways. We're still pretty far from that, but I think motion in that direction is a positive indicator, not a negative one.
- smacktoward 14y agoFor a more in-depth consideration of Armstrong's life, there's an excellent profile written in 1999 here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/space/armstrongfull.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/space... "Pilots take no special joy in walking," Armstrong once told a group of well-wishers at an air show who wanted to hear what it had been like to walk on the moon. "Pilots like flying."
- blackjack160 14y agoExcellent 4-part interview series with him, quite recent too: http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/ http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/
- heyitsnick 14y agoThis really is an amazing interview. Def. would recommend sitting down and enjoy all four parts; fascinating, honest and inspirational.
- rdtsc 14y agoThank you. That was an excellent interview. It is rather sad, that one of the latest and more detailed interviews filled with personal insights, thoughts and comments came from an Australian CPA organization. I know why the connection is there, the disappointment is in the news organizations here locally. NBC even screwed the name as Neil Young when they announced the death. How his death is handled, as a society, shows how we treasure what he stands for and what the priorities are. He made a good comment in the last part how probably the best thing NASA did was inspire young people to do the best they can do, to dream of becoming engineers and scientists. What is there today to inspire that? Writing video games? Is flying larger probes with bigger cameras to Mars? One can argue we need a good global threat so we have a competitor. Maybe that's true. If we don't have one, we surely invented some. Goat herders in Pakistan or cocoa growers in Colombia. Maybe our children will be inspired by building stealthier drones to more efficiently eradicate goat herders in a country half way across the world.
- 001sky 14y agoNY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/science/space/neil-armstrong-dies-first-man-on-moon.html?hp http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/science/space/neil-armstro...
- uxp 14y agoInterestingly enough the NY Times article is nearly identical, word for word, to the linked article.
- 001sky 14y agoNo worries...the Original link was just a stub. ________________ The article currently is just a stub. I imagine this is related to the heart bypass surgery he underwent a couple of weeks ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185898/Neil-Armstro.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185898/Neil-Armstro.... reply corford 1 hour ago | link It looks like it's true :( More informative article here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dea.. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dea.... reply
- harscoat 14y ago"I've seen things you people would not believe..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzA_xesrL8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzA_xesrL8
- charlieok 14y agoNeil was my biggest childhood hero. I did one or two school reports about him, dressed as an astronaut for Halloween for three straight years, and went to Space Camp twice. That my birthday (July 20) fell on the anniversary of his historic moon landing didn't hurt my identification with him one bit. That interest in space, fostered by the examples of Neil and other early space explorers, translated to a lifelong passion for pushing science and technology forward. I'm sure many people here can say the same. Neil's accomplishment, which he of course shares with the countless others who (literally) lifted him up and made his mission such a success, is one of the most inspirational achievements in the history of this planet. May it continue to inspire many more!
- jballanc 14y agoNeil Armstrong would have been 17 years old when Orville Wright died in 1948. In the lifespan of those two men, humanity went from horse-and-buggy to standing on the moon. One wonders what the 17 year olds of today might accomplish...
- shanelja 14y agoI couldn't agree more, we stand constantly at the start of new things, in another 70 years, we will be so far past where we are now that to the people of those times it will seem as though we were as backwards as the people of 1948 seemed to us.
- namidark 14y agoSadly, I think a consumer of cat pictures with the way our education (people not focusing on math and science) is going
- daeken 14y agoPeople born with the drive to do amazing things will do them regardless of the education they (do not) receive.
- MichaelApproved 14y agoBut they need the support system of a country with educated people. OP is saying the school system is shit. You're saying a gifted person can do well regardless of the school system they're in. I'm saying the gifted need well educated people to help them realize their vision. Everyone losses, even the self educated, with a poor school system.
- gizmo686 14y agoIf that were true, then why do poor people have a disproportional high chance of having their children grow up poor?
- 3143 14y ago
- twakefield 14y agoHere's a collection of information I just came across about Neil Armstrong: http://learni.st/users/farbood/boards/3625-neil-armstrong?tb=540cf46629671b2b3c7e2eb0c131b55b http://learni.st/users/farbood/boards/3625-neil-armstrong?tb...
- AznHisoka 14y agoDid anyone read "Armstrong" and first thought of Lance Armstrong? When his life achievements were stripped away, I thought he would be on suicide watch.
- hkmurakami 14y ago"I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer - born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow." -Neil Armstrong http://www.eetimes.com/General/PrintView/4039730 http://www.eetimes.com/General/PrintView/4039730
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoI remember watching a documentary which quite rarely featured Neil Armstrong (and Buzz and Collins) discussing the actual trip to the moon. They related a story where they instructed the computer to begin reverse thrusters to slow their approach to the moon. The computer came back with a code which Collins duly looked up in the manual 3E - Are you sure? Twas ever thus. It stuck in my mind, as humanising people who otherwise outstrip us who in all ways look up to them. He will be sadly missed.
- olalonde 14y agoCan't find a reference to the story you are mentioning, could you share a link that explains it in more details?
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoSorry no - just a TV doc - it was perhaps called the real right stuff. It had interviews with I think every living Apollo astronaut, and was made for the 2009 anniversary. It might have been http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_Missions#Part_3:_Landing_the_Eagle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_Mi... (I certainly remember Charlie Duke talking a lot !)
- andyjohnson0 14y agoPerhaps "In the Shadow of the Moon"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Moon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Moon
- andyjohnson0 14y agoAs far as I know, the Apollo guidance computer's DSKY (user interface panel) [1] could only display numbers, not letters. In situations where the computer required confirmation from the crew it would flash 99 in the program display element and wait for the PRO (proceed) key to be pressed. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer#DSKY_interface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer#DSKY_i...
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoIt is not his death we should focus on - for Neil Armstrong, and his collegues, we should not let his life be in vain. Back to the moon for good - or a lot of good people wasted their time.
- robgough 14y agoI think it's possible to say with some confidence that his life wasn't in vain. He, along with his colleagues here and on the moon that day, haven't inspired just one generation - but every generation that came after. What an achievement. May he rest in peace.
- lojack 14y agoin coelo quies est
- dlsym 14y agoThat's one small step for a man... one giant step for mankind. - RIP Mr. Armstrong
- BadLogInMyAss 14y agoSo someone thought this wasn't going to be in the mainstream news and posted it here?
- arrowgunz 14y agoRespect for the old man! R.I.P Sir.
- grantatarde2011 14y agonice i like post
- denzil_correa 14y agoFor the moon was no longer a distant shining object but a place where we could gleefully leap RIP Neil Armstrong