Apollo 11 at 50

[GG.]

I don’t think I’ve missed a thread on this (quite surprised!) but the 50th anniversary of the moon landings is getting a lot of coverage recently.

The more you read and listen the more mind blowing it becomes. I thought I’d post a couple of my favourite pieces that I’ve seen on this in the last couple of days in case people are interested (is it possible not to be??):

Telegraph special article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/moo ... zz-aldrin/

And a great watchfinder vid with no watches! (There is a follow up no commentary watch porn with omega speedy special editions if you’re in to the watches).

Feel free to post any others as I’ve gone into full geek mode reading about this at the moment. To be honest the most interesting statistic would be how much fuel payload was needed to transport their gigantic testicles the quarter of a million miles

[Alex_]

I'm waiting for my 50th Anniversary LE Speedmaster .

[Jobbo]

The lack of computing power is the starkest contrast for me. Something we now take for granted (and I’m only a few years short of having been alive for the Apollo 11 moon landing) yet at the time, everything had to be planned for to the nth degree. Incredible.

[GG.]

Yes that was one of the things that blew my mind - the lunar module computer just beeping the numerical code for "stack overflow" or similar during the landing sequence and them having to switch it off and get ground control to do the calcs

Well, that and the lunar module walls being half a credit card thick (with a dropped screwdriver during assembly passing straight through it)

[V8Granite]

Apollo by David Whitehouse is a great book, it puts you through the timeline of Gemini and Apollo along with the Russian effort.

The F1 rocket engine is one of the greatest engineering achievements of our time, 1,500,000 pounds of thrust each. 20 tons of fuel per second!!!!

Dave!

[nuttinnew]

The F1 rocket engine is one of the greatest engineering achievements of our time, 1,500,000 pounds of thrust each. 20 tons of fuel per second!!!!

Dave!

[Jimmy Choo]

I've been enthralled at the BBC world service podcast called "13 minutes to the moon". It's been an incredible insight into what it took. The final episode is just the recording of the radio during the decent. The previous episodes have taught you how to follow it all.

The score is also by Hans Zimmer!

[NotoriousREV]

The score is also by Hans Zimmer!

The same guy that did the Going For Gold theme tune? Amazing!

[jamcg]

Scouts are making a big deal about this, as 11 out of the 12 men to walk on the moon were scouts. Got some nice merchandise to commemorate the anniversary
https://shop.scouts.org.uk/collections/ ... n-the-moon

[speedingfine]

Chasing the Moon series on iPlayer also very good.

[JonMad]

Didn't know they couldn't get it started when it was time for lift off, or that they were 4 miles away from target. What's then incredible is how that little thing managed to launch off the moon, locate the orbiting ship, connect to it, then fire themselves back to earth again,

[nuttinnew]

[dan]

I got 20 seconds in and was expecting the guy to suddenly electrocute himself or set his hair on fire.

[GG.]

The F1 rocket engine is one of the greatest engineering achievements of our time, 1,500,000 pounds of thrust each. 20 tons of fuel per second!!!!

Dave!

This vid on the Ruskies efforts is also interesting: