So you have 20 questions to identify this picture.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 1:17 pm

So I have this picture in my little office area at home.
It is obviously a picture from an Apollo moon mission.
There were hundreds of pictures taken on the moon from the various missions.
This one picture has a particular significance.
The question is:
"What is the significance of this picture?"
I mean, there doesn't seem to be anything otherwise unusual about it, but it is nonetheless a very important picture.
You have 20 questions requiring "yes" or "no" answers.
Don't google it, you'll ruin the fun for yourself and everyone else.
Besides, I doubt you'd find the answer on google anyway.

"What is so significant about this picture?"

Twenty questions, requiring yes or no responses, to get to the answer....
Only one pending question at a time.

Michael Malinoski · Post by **Michael Malinoski** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:19 pm

NOT AN OFFICIAL QUESTION:

Was this taken on the left bank or the right bank of the sea of tranquility?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:26 pm

Ha ha...
Okay I'm going to treat that as Question #1 to get the ball rolling:

1. Was this picture taken on the Sea of Tranquility?

Answer: Yes.

Michael-P · Post by **Michael-P** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:47 pm

Was it Buzz's first step onto the moon?

Michael-P

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:54 pm

Good question Michael.

#2. Was it Buzz's first step on the moon?

Answer: No.

Gerry M. · Post by **Gerry M.** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:25 pm

Is it the last picture taken on the surface?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:38 pm

3. Is it the last picture taken on the surface?

Answer: No.

All good questions. This is an important picture in the field if space exploration.

AlexR · Post by **AlexR** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:42 pm

Does it include a photo of Lynch Bages 81?

Alex R.

jal · Post by **jal** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:43 pm

Is this Buzz imprinting his foot on the surface to check the texture of the soil?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:44 pm

So let's see what we have learned from the first three questions.
Well, we have established that this is shot on the Sea of Tranquility.
We would know that even if we knew nothing else about the picture because of a) the flatness of the terrain, b) the angle of the sun during this particular lunar excursion, and c) we can tell from what little we see of the descent stage of the LEM what stage of development the LEM was at during that particular mission.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:47 pm

4. Is this Buzz imprinting his foot on the surface to check the texture of the soil?

Answer: No.
But I'll give you guys a hint.
You are correct to be focusing on the astronaut.
Very important picture.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:55 pm

...And we know that the 1969 growing season at Lynch Bages was well under way.

jckba · Post by **jckba** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:26 pm

Does the importance of this picture have to do with the light sources?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 8:32 pm

5. Does the importance of this picture have to do with the light sources?

Answer: No.

Although, the angle of the sun was indeed an important consideration of that mission. Since we know it was at the Sea of Tranquility we also then know it was the first mission, Apollo 11. Being the first mission, the mission planners wanted the sun at a fairly sharp angle to create longer shadows and more definition on the surface to assist in the landing. They didn't want them descending into a splash of sunshine. Thus when the astronauts went out for their EVA later that evening (eastern US time), there was an eerie, lonely light over the surface that was not there for most if not all if the other missions. I believe the moon was a little beyond half moon by the time they landed. But as for the significance of the light to this picture, no, it is not significant to the picture.

Jay Winton · Post by **Jay Winton** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:40 pm

Is this when the first golf drive was hit?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:43 pm

6. Is this when the first golf drive was hit?

Answer: No.
That was Alan Shepard on Apollo 14:

http://youtu.be/KZLl3XwlAIE

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:30 pm

I believe that is Neil Armstrong in that photo.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:38 pm

http://www.nasa.gov/wav/62284main_onesmall2.wav

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:50 pm

Ooh a big question:

7. Is that Neil Armstrong in the photo?

Answer: Yes

And what is the significance of that?
Why does that make this picture so much more important than any of the other hundreds of moon photos?

tim · Post by **tim** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:52 pm

Does the picture involve telecommunications?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:19 am

8. Does the picture involve telecommunications?

Answer: No.

Although, of course, telecommunications were advanced exponentially in the space program.

During the 15 minute "powered descent" of Eagle they ran into some big "comm" problems as they came around from the back side of the moon, just as they had in the previous Apollo 10 flight, where the LEM went down to about 10 miles above the surface but did not land. Fortunately by Apollo 11 they figured out that switching high gain antennas resolved the problem, which they were able to accomplish pretty early in the descent.

Every once in a while when I need inspiration I watch the powered descent of Eagle, one of the great human achievements. This particular video is pretty good because it has some transcripts of the communications between Eagle and Houston, although this version does not include the inspiring "flight director's loop" of Gene Kranz and his young whiz kid flight directors (average age an incredible 25).

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=piQ6r-cJUVI#

jckba · Post by **jckba** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:19 am

Is it the first shot of Neil Armstrong on the moon?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:34 am

9. Is it the first shot of Neil Armstrong on the moon?

Answer: I'm going to give it to you jckba, congratulations!

Incredibly, believe it or not, this is the ONLY picture of Neil Armstrong on the moon.
That is the significance of this picture.
There is video footage, of course, but no actual photos.
The only other picture of Armstrong on the surface is his reflection in Aldrin's face shield when he took a picture of Aldrin.
Armstrong carried the Hasselblad camera most of the time during the 2 and a half hours that they walked on the surface. Armstrong took many pictures of Aldrin. When he finally handed over the camera to Aldrin, Aldrin took many pictures (including the famous one of his own boot imprinted in the lunar soil), but none of Armstrong. Some speculate that Aldrin was displaying some residual bitterness over the decision that it would be Armstrong who would take the first steps. This had definitely been a cause of some strains during training. Aldrin could be difficult at times. He was a perfectionist, very anal. (That's why he was selected. He was kind of a control freak. During Gemini he had perfected the space walk, eliminating some of the problems experienced on previous missions.) He insists it was a complete oversight, that he never intentionally avoided taking a picture of Armstrong. He's probably telling the truth.

jckba · Post by **jckba** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 1:39 am

I will take it with an assist from Bacchus that put me in the right direction

tim · Post by **tim** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 1:59 am

I was fortunate enough to watch a speech by Neil Armstrong at an IBM conference a few years ago. We didn't know who the keynote speaker would be until he was introduced onstage. It was amazing. He completely tailored the talk to a bunch of geeks getting together at a conference in Orlando.

For anyone interested, I uploaded it to the internet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUzHeaDU4NM

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 2:05 am

Wow that's tremendous Timmy.
He was a great man, we are really lucky he was the first one on the moon.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 1:56 pm

Cool thread, great video. Thanks for posting.

pomilion · Post by **pomilion** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 4:11 pm

Another interesting tidbit: Aldrin had also just had wine on the moon - another first! Parker probably wouldn't have approved, though -- it was Communion wine so no doubt a bit thin and watery for his taste...

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 4:15 pm

Lol... Indeed. Right after landinng... After they went through their several "stay/no stay" checklists to make sure that Eagle had survived the landing structurally, Aldrin pulled out a communion wafer and a small vial of wine and took Communion.

AlexR · Post by **AlexR** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:09 pm

Lynch Bages has been to the moon and back. I don't know what vintage.
http://www.journalepicurien.com/tag/lynch-bages/

J.M. Cazes said that his wine was well on its way to being not only one of the best wines on earth, but also in the whole universe !

As you can see, a lunar crater was also named in honor of Nuits-Saint-Georges.
http://www.bienpublic.com/edition-de-be ... -a-la-lune

Alex R.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:20 pm

That's interesting, Alex, Clive Coates also reports that Lynch Bages was taken on a moon mission. I wonder which one.
It would have had to have been a pre-1970 vintage.

Michael Malinoski · Post by **Michael Malinoski** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:37 pm

My 9 year old daughter just finished reading a biography of Neil Armstrong, which I know she really enjoyed. It was one of those <100-page kids' biography series, but I read it too and really got a kick out of it. I had no idea there was just that one photo of him from his historic journey. As an aside, a friend of mine's dad was roomates with Armstrong at Purdue for a short while. I'll have to pump him for some good anecdotes next time I see him this fall...

-Michael

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:11 pm

Yes Mike there is a full discussion of the issue in the authorized biography of Armstrong that came out a few years back. As I recall, the author spent quite a bit of time speculating that a bitter Aldrin did it on purpose. Aldrin denies that, and I would tend to believe Aldrin. They certainly had their minds occupied on many things besides pictures. Certainly, Armstrong did not take a few seconds to ask Aldrin to take a picture of him.

http://moonpans.com/Neil_Armstrong_on_the_moon.htm

Neil Armstrong was a very humble man, a great pilot, born to fly. Very reticent, shy. You can see it in that video Timmy posted, he was giving this corporate rah rah speech but he wasn't comfortable doing it, but it was brilliant nonetheless. The flight controllers and mission planners for Apollo 11 factored in his reticence in their planning. They knew that Armstrong would not be saying much as Eagle descended. About two minutes before the landing you can hear one of the flight controllers, I think it is Pete Conrad, advises Gene Kranz over the flight director's loop: "I think we should be quiet now." And the only thing you basically hear in the last two minutes is Aldrin calling out rate of descent and feet above the surface as Armstrong takes over manual control of the spacecraft from the computer program that was landing them in a dangerous boulder field. In the last 60 seconds he takes control of the LEM manually and, with fuel running out, calmly flies it horizontally -- to the surprise of flight controllers monitoring it in Houston -- about 100 yards past the boulder field to the landing spot. It gets the hair on my neck standing every time.

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