Neil Armstrong Explains

NPR's Robert Krulwich posted last week about comparing sizes. He was surprised to find out how small an area the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin wandered when they made the first moon landing in 1969.
Armstrong's longest, boldest walk took him about as far as Joe DiMaggio used to jog every inning — from home plate to about mid-center field. That's like walking about a block from your hotel's front door. Who knew?

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong doesn't do many interviews, so it was a surprise when he wrote to Krulwich to respond.
It is true that we were cautious in our planning.   There were many uncertainties about how well our Lunar module systems and our Pressure suit and backpack would match the engineering predictions in the hostile lunar environment.   We were operating in a near perfect vacuum with the temperature well above 200 degrees Fahrenheit with the local gravity only one sixth that of Earth.  That combination cannot be duplicated here on Earth, but we tried as best we could to test our equipment for those conditions.

There's a lot more you can read at NPR. http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/12/08/131910930/neil-armstrong-talks-about-the-first-moon-walk -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

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I only follow this because of my namesake, but it's amazing what they did and I love that in his explanation that he explains that he did break the rules / "went off camera for a bit"
Amazing. And why haven't we gone back?
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Armstrong's letter sounds like he's trying to offer an excuse for why he didn't go very far. That guy walked on the moon, he doesn't need to explain a thing. We understand Neil, the moon is dangerous.

And Radio Lab is always incredible.
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