Space nerd redux.

Let me give you an idea of just how deep my nerd-ocity goes when it comes to all things NASA.  I spent the better part of the last two evenings listening to the Apollo 11 mission audio – which NASA.com played in real time, in it’s entirety, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first landing – while I read the transcripts of the Apollo 14 landing.

Particularly fascinating to me was the transcript of Al Shepard and Ed Mitchell’s conversations as they suited up in the LM.  They were going back and forth with Houston trying to figure out why the comm-link in their space suits wasn’t working.  This was a rather important detail, as without it, they couldn’t get out of the LM to explore the surface.

Which was sort of the point of the whole trip.

So here were two guys – in bulky space suits with even bulkier life support systems strapped to their backs, standing in a space craft no bigger than a medium sized closet which was itself  sitting on the surface of the moon – essentially flipping random switches and asking “Can you hear me now?“

A quarter of a million miles from the nearest radio technician.

Surprisingly, neither of them seemed to get frustrated.  They just calmly went about the task of troubleshooting the problem – long past the point at which most people would have started banging their fists on the radio and screaming “Work, you piece of shit … WORK!” – until finally, almost an hour behind schedule, they got it fixed.

Then they got out and walked around, picked up rocks, and Al Shepard played golf … because apparently he didn’t have enough to do on the surface of the moon!

I don’t care what you say … Al Shepard was a badass!  It takes balls of solid granite to stop in the middle of a moon walk and essentially declare, “Fuck you guys … I don’t care how many billions of dollars and millions of man-hours it took to get me here … I’m playin’ golf.  Suck it, Houston!“

That kind of stuff is endlessly fascinating to me.

Which is probably why I’m still single.

One giant leap for Nerdkind!

I’m a huge space nerd.  Or, more accurately … I’m a huge Apollo nerd.  And July 20th is a holy day for Apollo nerds.  For it was 40 years ago today that the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” touched down on the Sea of Tranquility.

That’s on the moon.

I was five years old at the time.  I’m sure I don’t really remember it, couldn’t really comprehend it when it was happening, but I know I saw the ghostly images of Neal Armstrong climbing down the ladder, because my parents made sure that we kids were in front of the TV to witness history.

I’ve been fascinated with all things Apollo ever since.

You can imagine how giddy I was to see new photos on NASA’s website of some of the Apollo landing sites.  They were taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.  The fairly low-res images show the LM descent stages sitting on the lunar surface … right where we left them four decades ago.

Here’s the Apollo 11 landing site:

Is it cool if we just leave this stuff here?

That’s Tranquility Base!  The first human footprints on another heavenly body are still there, right next to that little white speck!  That’s the most awesome thing in the history of EVER!

Hold on … I’m getting a little light headed.

The best image is the shot of the Apollo 14 landing site.  You can actually see some of the scientific instruments and the tracks the astronauts made as they walked to and from the LM:

Now everyone knows exactly what you guys were doing up there.

It’s like porn for space dorks!