Even after half a century, yet people do not know much about the little switch that broke almost stranded Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in July 1969 No one can ever be sure how the switch is broken, but Aldrin pretty sure that happens is after that he and Armstrong returned the lunar module after their two-and-a-half-hour walk on the moon. The flight plan provides them to seal the door separates the rear part of the cabin under their backpacks and their dress connect life support systems of the pipe of the nacelle. Then they would vent the cabin again, open the door and throw the rucksacks and other equipment not needed on the moon’s surface to reduce the weight of the ship for takeoff. You have practiced the routine countless times, but in the whole displacement and movement and discard waste this time, one of the astronauts slammed something or other against the side of the dashboard Aldrin, instability of the switch, the power transmitted to the ascent engine. Without electricity, the engine would not be easy and the crew would go nowhere, leaving Michael Collins, head into orbit in the command module to fly home alone. Aldrin discovered the problem after they had closed the back door and he looked out the window. “I see something that is not heard in the dust,” he told TIME in an interview last year. “And it was this thing that looked like a switch. We have on my side and looked, and it was to find the engine switch arm.” In Houston mixing engineers a solution that would reroute the power to the motor without the option, but after a couple of hours, they had nothing. Finally, the solution was wonderfully simple, raw wonderful. The changeover switch shaft was still visible, recessed in the small remaining hole in the dashboard. It was too small for a finger hole. But a pin a felt tip the risk of short metal-metal could prevent only do well. Aldrin had and used it, and the point of rotation of a fifty cents no plastic, the story turned to the lunar module is lifted. We believe that much history this week, as the world celebrates a half-century anniversary of Apollo 11, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But history celebrates an exercise to the past, by definition, a popular but again the same. But maddeningly, there is a lot to look forward to: a strong competition back to the moon and explored more deeply in the room. This week temporal coverage takes a deep look at the new moon race. And in the future we will see some of the other players in the game space-India, Japan, the European Union, and more. trying to go beyond the world of ways around the world, countries. It ”s an exciting time for space dreams. What we download on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the experience of the Immersive team at TIME created a truly amazing project augmented reality to simulate landing on the moon. This allows you to experience the landing itself is from the lunar surface or inside the lander, and were built on an unprecedented record that John Knoll has worked on industrial light and magic for 20 years, so that every detail is accurate. It ‘s really worth a download: iPhone here and here for Android. CHART OF THE WEEK 1959, the first blood USSR in the Cold War space race moved to the US :. This year, the Soviet Luna 1, the first spacecraft was to reach the moon. Luna 2 was to reach the first of the lunar surface, and Luna 3 sent back the first images from the dark side of the moon. In 1966, Roskosmos space agency USSR-made the first soft landing on the moon. But in the late 1960s, NASA blew past Roskosmos with the Apollo program, with the first manned mission to the Moon, and of course the Apollo 11 mission, which activates the first man walk on the moon. From 1969-1972 12 persons-all-Americans walked on the lunar surface. Since then, not a single person has his foot stepped on the nearby celestial nearest land. But in recent years, the interest of the moon to reach again took to do business with Japan, the European Space Agency, China and India all their first mission successfully on the moon. Click here for a more in-depth, full-screen version of this scheme. READING What we have said, what we think we said? Neil Armstrong’s “one small step” line is one of the most famous phrases recorded in American history, and so it is no surprise that it was a lot of learning about them. What is surprising is how little agreement exists-how Armstrong came up with it, what it really meant to him, it has been for years misquoted. TIME Olivia Waxman explains what we know and do not know about the line. The next Moon Boot is worn by a woman. NASA has promised that the next time astronauts on the lunar surface, at least one woman of them is set. The Los Angeles Times has a nice round-off work and the most likely candidates miniature profiling: the 12 women in the active astronaut corps NASA (currently there are 26 men). The old moon boots are designed blind. Before the Apollo missions, NASA has not had lunar samples, or really have much idea of what the surface was actually like. It would quicksand, for all I knew. The famous shoe sole luna pressure was released the result of a response to this design challenge by a model maker in Connecticut. hero of the Cold War Nazi bleached or bad? This is the question of Alejandro de la Garza takes an intelligent thoughtful piece, how do you expect Historian iconoclastic Wernher von Braun today. What should we do with the fact the devil, one of the people most responsible for the dream of an American flag on the moon sold behind a pit of the most feared weapons of the Nazi military was the V-2 rocket? PICTURE OF THE WEEK I know we shared a David Burnett Pictures of 1969 Saturn 5 launch in the last newsletter, but they are so good, we wanted to share one. Learn more about this wonderful, rarely seen images.
Neil and Buzz were nearly stranded on the moon in 1969
