If You Believe, They Used A Pen On The Moon

The source of this story is the UK's Daily Mirror so...

tinyurl.com/hndhf

BUZZ HAD TO FIX MOON LANDER WITH BIRO
By Mike Swain, Science Editor

THE astronauts who made the historic moon landing in 1969 almost ended up stranded there, new evidence reveals.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin accidentally snapped off the switch of a circuit breaker - and they could not take off again without it.

But Aldrin improvised by jamming the end of a ballpoint pen into the hole where the switch had been and the astronauts' landing module was able to lift off the moon's surface.

This is true, I heard Buzz Aldrin relate this story when he came to talk in the National Concert Hall in Dublin in November 2004.

It was without doubt the best presentation of a living legend I have ever seen, a wonderful relaxed interview with lots of humour.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society
www.irishastrosoc.org

BUZZ HAD TO FIX MOON LANDER WITH BIRO

There are a couple of interesting things about the Apollo 11 mission.

The on-board computer almost failed just as they were coming in to land. It kept giving "12-01" and "12-02" alarms. These alarms were the code the computer used to indicate that it had too much information to process, that it was overloaded.

The reason was because the astronauts had left the landing radar on, and the computer was having to do the calculations for it as well as the other calculations for the landing.

The good news is that the one person from the computer team who really understood the alarm was in mission control at the time, and he was able to say that it was OK to continue so long as the alarm wasn't continuous.

Also, at one stage during the outbound trip, the astronauts asked mission control how far they were from their third stage booster, which was "following" them through space. The reason why they asked is because they could see something out the window. The answer came back that they were about 8,000 miles from the booster - so it was too far to be the thing that they were seeing out the window..... To date, no-one has come up with a satisfactory answer to what they were seeing.

And here is a pub quiz question - everyone knows what Neil Armstrong's first words from the surface were, but what were Buzz Aldrin's first words? If I'm not mistaken, they were "magnificent, magnificent - beautiful desolation".

Finally, President Nixon had two speeches prepared for the astronauts return. One was to be used in case of a successful mission, the second was to be used in case the astronauts were lost...

Of course, to me, the most momentous event about July 1969 happened on the 1st of the month, when I popped out into the world. Apparently, I'm told, I missed the moon landing - I was asleep. Damn! It won't happen again!

Chris.

And here is a pub quiz question - everyone knows what Neil Armstrong's first words from the surface were, but what were Buzz Aldrin's first words? If I'm not mistaken, they were "magnificent, magnificent - beautiful desolation".

I thought it was "Thats one small step for Neil, but one giant leap for a little guy like me!" But apparently thats what Pete Conrads first words on the moon were

I thought it was "Thats one small step for Neil, but one giant leap for a little guy like me!"

Yep - Pete Conrad, one of the shortest astronauts, and the third on the moon. His actual words were

Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.

BTW can anyone confirm my Buzz Aldrin quote? I got it by reading a transcript, but it wasn't clear from the transcript when Buzz actually set foot on the moon...

Also, another pub-quiz question that I'm just after learning the answer to. Who was the first right-handed person on the moon? Answer - Pete Conrad!

Actually Aldrin refuted this story at the NCH interview. He pointed out that sticking a metal pen into a live circuit breaker was not a very clever idea but that the story was a very clever way of getting publicity for Fishers, the manufacturers of the space pen. Another urban legend from the shores of Mare Tranquillitatis. Deirdre, if you though Buzz was good, you should have seen Neil the previous year!