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Author
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Topic: Tom Hanks 'not that excited' about Apollo 11
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-19-2009 07:45 PM
   
Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were interviewed by New Scientist magazine about the 40th anniversary of first lunar landing: Are you doing anything to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon?Tom Hanks: I have been invited to 19 different things. But I am such a geek that I am not that excited about Apollo 11's landing. So what does excite you? TH: I want to go back and relive the Apollo 17 mission, when Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan lived on the moon for three days. They drove an electric car and it was a flawless mission. As Schmitt was a geologist, they got so much good science done. Alas, it was the last Apollo mission. Neil and Buzz just walked around for an hour and a half, got back in and took a nap. That's all they did. Don't write that down [laughs] - I just saw Buzz two nights ago. I don't want to rag on what they did. Here's what they did: they proved it was possible. Neil and Buzz did not die and made it back safe. They cheated death! |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 06-19-2009 08:00 PM
Geeze, me and Tom Hanks agree. What is a walk on the moon without a geologist? But I do have to concede that "first on the moon" may have outdid the geology. |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2474
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 06-20-2009 12:36 AM
It is not the individuals that are to be celebrated; it is the achievement of a nation. What Apollo 11 did was confirm that it all worked as designed and that paved the way for the more ambitious missions to follow. They did do science and they did bring back samples of the lunar materials. Was it the best? It was the best for that mission. |
NJSPACEFAN
Member Posts: 128
From: Ocala, FL USA
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 06-20-2009 09:25 AM
I think it's rather silly to compare the achievement of Apollo 17 to Apollo 11. 17 was three full years after 11 and benefited from all prior lunar landings. Why not compare Apollo 11 in 1969 to a Gemini mission in 1966? To easily dismiss landing and coming back also diminishes Apollo 8 - all they did was fly to and around the moon! But they never left the Earth's gravitational sphere, they never flew a Saturn V rocket, never left the moon's gravitational pull. Apollo 9 tested the LM in Earth's atmosphere, Apollo 10 wasn't exactly smooth and boring - and yet no one actually landed a LM anywhere, the dopler readings of the lunar landing weren't perfected for where they were, no one experienced the lunar atmosphere with a spacesuit, no one had to climb in and out of the LM in 1/6th gravity, no one had to launch from the lunar surface, the lunar rover was still in the design stages, and let's not forget the 1202 alarm, that they almost didn't have enough fuel to land and oh yeah, the entire world was watchig this one.Why not compare this year's computer to one 3 years ago? Wow, not as exciting is it! But reading the full article, Hanks is tongue in cheek about it and that he liked to razz Buzz. |
capoetc
Member Posts: 2169
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 06-20-2009 10:57 AM
The same kind of dismissal is often applied to the Apollo 7 mission. In retrospect, Apollo 7 seems kind of boring and mundane. But, at the time, coming on the heels of The Fire, the first flight of the Apollo CM was a HUGE deal.------------------
John Capobianco
Camden DE |
E2M Lem Man
Member Posts: 846
From: Los Angeles CA. USA
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 06-20-2009 03:11 PM
I am not surprised by Tom's answer. When we had the Moonscape set, we shot all six lunar landing episodes back to back at the Marine air station (which was commanded at the time by Gen. Charles Bolden, the incoming NASA administrator). I came there night after night as I wanted to see and help in anyway I could. I wanted to see all the sites (Apollo 16 was skipped to do the first wives club). Tom showed up the the first and last night of shooting there. But he also showed up casually the first night that the lunar rover came out and he had to try golfing on the Moon. When we went to the Moon to explore was the more important missions: Apollo 14 to 17. Apollos 8, 10, 11 and 12 paved the way but when we explored the moon was exciting. The incredible vistas, the beauty of the rilles and mountains - these were the reasons we went to the Moon! |
albatron
Member Posts: 2732
From: Stuart, Florida
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted 06-20-2009 03:35 PM
Neil and Buzz just walked around for an hour and a half, got back in and took a nap. That's all they did. Wow. You'd think he'd be a tad more learned than that... |
alanh_7
Member Posts: 1252
From: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 06-20-2009 04:30 PM
At first glance I was a little surprised by Tom Hanks comment. But then after reading the article again, I think it was meant in jest to get a dig at his friend Buzz Aldrin. I may be wrong but I do not think he was at all serious. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 06-20-2009 04:57 PM
If you actually read what he said it's obviously intended just to stir things up a little and make people think a bit beyond the usual 'first on the moon' hype.These days few people know anything about the moon landings beyond Neil and Buzz. All Tom is trying to do (apart from wind Buzz up of course) is make the general public think a little beyond Apollo 11. In terms of lunar exploration and scientific discovery each moon landing was more significant than the last, although obviously none of their achievements would have been possible without the achievements of the preceding missions. The same thing goes back all the way down the line, with Apollo 10, 9, 8, 7, through all the Gemini and Mercury missions. Everyone who knows space understands the principal of each mission building on the achievements of the preceding ones. So Apollo 17 marked the high point in lunar exploration to-date, and just as saying that doesn't disparage the achievements of all the prior missions (including Apollo 11), it doesn't do the Apollo 17 mission any disfavour to hope that the next moon landing will mark a new high point. |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 06-20-2009 05:26 PM
quote:
Originally posted by spaced out:
If you actually read what he said it's obviously intended just to stir things up a little and make people think a bit beyond the usual 'first on the moon' hype.
I agree completely.
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sts205cdr
Member Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 06-22-2009 10:34 AM
I thought I read somewhere that Neil collected one of the best suites of all the landing missions. |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 06-22-2009 07:02 PM
According to Jack Schmitt, Neil collected one of the best regolith samples of all six missions; he basically added the regolith to a sample box containing rocks, filling in the open spaces between the rocks. |
Apollo Redux
Member Posts: 346
From: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Registered: Sep 2006
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posted 06-26-2009 08:24 AM
Leif Erikson, who? Christopher Columbus, who? Naaw... nothing to hold my interest. |
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