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Forum: Space Explorers & Workers
Topic: Neil Armstrong photographed on the Moon

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Message to Edit: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	Originally posted by Robert Pearlman on 11-07-2005 10:13 PM If the blame belongs with anyone, and I'm not saying it does, it's the ground support team that trained both Aldrin and Armstrong. This was the same team that didn't realize that two guys wearing the same identical outfits would need a way to be told apart. Clearly their attention wasn't on vacation snapshots or even personal glory, it was on getting key mission goals accomplished. Photographs were planned and then trained. Neil and Buzz weren't on vacation but let's use the situation you pose: you arrive at a famous landmark and your friend takes a picture of you standing before it. What's the next thing your friend does? If he's anything like the people I have traveled with, he hands you the camera and says, "Now me" (or the like). From the [URL=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.5886.html]Apollo Lunar Surface Journal[/URL]: <BLOCKQUOTE>[i](Public Affairs Chief Brian) Duff was under great pressure to make a selection because the world's media were desperate for the material. Both 70 mm and motion picture were laid out on light tables in long strips. 'Everyone was yelling and finally somebody said shouldn't we try to get a picture of the first man on the Moon?' They started looking for the best shot of Armstrong. Soon they were looking for any shot of Armstrong. Finally George Low or Bob Gilruth suggested that Duff call Armstrong to ask him. Duff clearly remembers the conversation with Armstrong who was sleeping in the LRL. It went like this. "Duff: 'Neil, this is Brian. When did you give the camera to Buzz?'" "Armstrong: 'I never did.'" "Duff: 'Thanks.'"[/i]</BLOCKQUOTE> (The ALSJ continues, "It is possible to explain Armstrong's answer to Duff. He didn't give the camera to Aldrin. According to the flight plan he was required to place the camera on the MESA from which Aldrin would pick it up when he was ready. Armstrong simply responded very precisely to Duff's question.") Armstrong appeared to be following the flight plan very closely, if he didn't once think to hand the camera to Buzz for a photo. And as the simplest answer is usually the right one: Why didn't Aldrin take a photo of Armstrong? Because it wasn't in the flight plan. (One could then ask, why wasn't it in the flight plan? Because no one thought of it. No one thought of taking a picture of the first man on the Moon. Hundreds of people working on the mission and no one thought of it. And yet we have to prescribe ulterior motives to Aldrin for the explanation? I just don't see it...)
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