posted 08-26-2012 07:24 AM               

Did the crew make a conscious effort to work round it, or was it obliterated as they moved round the LM during activities near the ladder at the end of the EVA?

posted 08-26-2012 08:07 AM               

The astronauts could not really see their feet or where they were walking (e.g., getting Neil almost tripping over the TV camera cable several times, or John Young accidentally pulling out the heat flow probe cable on Apollo 16). I think it would have been impossible for them to pay attention to the First Step bootprint and still get their work done.

posted 09-03-2013 12:34 PM               

On the grainy film of Armstrong stepping off the pad he appeared to step to the left side of the pad which could have been easily avoided by both astronauts returning to the LM. Am I being trivial or would that boot print be the crown jewel for the "Lunar National Park" idea that the U.S. government has in the future?

posted 09-03-2013 01:02 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Skyguy48:
Knowing the historical significance of his first boot print, I wonder if NASA would have asked the crew to somehow "preserve" that boot print by not disturbing it.

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Besides, that was the first of many steps that was planned, many people thought we'd have colonies on the Moon by now, back then...

posted 06-12-2014 08:15 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Skyguy48:
Am I being trivial or would that boot print be the crown jewel for the "Lunar National Park" idea that the U.S. government has in the future?

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While I would love nothing more than to visit those sites, I'm in total agreement with preserving them. If I do go to the moon some day, I'd much rather make my own mark on virgin soil than detract from what the Apollo crews accomplished. I'm sure that in the future, someone will open the sites to visitors. I only hope I'm long gone when that day finally arrives.

As far as preserving Armstrong's first step, I think the TV record does a great job of that. Like others, I doubt seriously that anyone can identify the exact spot of the first step. You're right, it probably should have been preserved, but that would have meant no second step.

posted 06-12-2014 08:27 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by schnappsicle:
I believe there is an international agreement among the nations to preserve all six of the Apollo landing sites...

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posted 07-31-2014 02:48 PM               

At about 110:26:05, his right leg comes into view as he plants his right boot deliberately on the pristine patch. A frame from the 16-mm film taken at about 110:26:08 shows him with his leg extended and his boot planted. He then lifts his foot and backs out of the 16-mm field-of-view and takes two "after" pictures of the bootprint: 5877 and 5878. He took the second of these from slightly farther away and got better focus.

At about 110:27:00 Buzz steps back into view at the left and plants his boot just beyond the previous bootprint. In a frame from the 16-mm film taken at about 110:27:02, the first bootprint in just behind Buzz's boot. He now takes two pictures of his boot and the new print: 5879 and 5880.

posted 07-31-2014 05:09 PM               

Readers should note that Buzz is following his checklist fairly closely and that the footprint photos are one of his tasks.

posted 08-02-2014 10:37 AM            

Readers should note that Buzz is following his checklist fairly closely and that the footprint photos are one of his tasks.

posted 08-03-2014 05:03 PM            

That is not the point. The flight plan specifically called on Armstrong to take pictures of Aldrin at certain times (for instance, coming down the ladder). The flight plan contained no similar requirement for Aldrin to photograph Armstrong during the period when Aldrin had the camera. Had this been included in the flight plan, the greatest photographic omission in history would not have occurred. The fault lay not with the astronauts but with the planners.

The whole issue is covered comprehensively by the late H.J.P. Arnold in the July, 1988 edition of the B.I.S. magazine "Spaceflight" (pp 284-294).

There is no doubt that there was an expectation among NASA's P.R. people that a good photograph of the FIRST man on the Moon should be selected for publication. Arnold quotes Brian Duff, who had taken over as NASA head of public affairs from Paul Haney just before Apollo 11. Referring to a hectic session when the Apollo 11 EVA photography was being examined, Duff told Arnold: "Everyone was yelling and everyone had a candidate. Finally someone said: 'Shouldn't we try to get a picture of the first man on the Moon? That settled things down and we started looking for the best 70mm shot of Neil. Soon we were looking for any shot of Neil. Finally George Low or Bob Gilruth suggested I call Neil and ask him..."

posted 08-04-2014 07:56 AM            

• Buzz "forgets" to insert the TV circuit breaker which would have meant no TV pictures until he "remembers" to insert it just before leaving the LM. Unfortunately, Capcom reminds him to insert it as Armstrong goes down the ladder;
  
• Buzz sets the wrong focus on the movie camera while filming Armstrong's historic first steps;
  
• Buzz sticks rigidly to the flight-plan and deliberately takes no quality images of the first man on the Moon.

The "evidence" I have listed above would require the actions of a man who would surely not have passed the psychological evaluation tests during astronaut selection. Buzz Aldrin is driven, precise, technically-minded and probably would seem "odd" to most people, but I don't accept that he is a small, petty man. He is one of the team of three remarkable individuals who succeeded in achieving the greatest technological goal in human history, with the assistance of hundreds of thousands of gifted people in the background. It grieves me that the historical record does not have a classic close-up front-facing photograph of Neil Armstrong on the surface of the Moon, but with so many intricate plans to be drawn up, and so much to do during the mission, I am satisfied that the omission of "the photograph" was not due to conspiracy* but to c**k-up.

posted 08-04-2014 11:32 PM               

Or that strict adherence to his checklist precluded him from taking a photo? Nonsense. There was quite a bit of leeway in what the crew photographed. Where on Armstrong's checklist did it say to take so many pictures of the ALSEP deployment?

And I'm sure that as a test pilot you've never done anything during a flight that wasn't specifically mentioned on your checklist. Please. Humans were sent to explore precisely because they can think of appropriate things to do without having pre-planned them.

posted 08-05-2014 03:25 AM               

But it doesn't take much to call into question the latter. As already mentioned in this thread, Aldrin had no requirement to take the vanity shot of Armstrong once back inside Eagle, and yet he did.

Further, Aldrin did photograph Armstrong twice on the surface. And though they were not vanity shots, if Aldrin was dead set on not capturing Armstrong on film, he could have avoided him altogether.

It was not as though Armstrong and Aldrin were passing the camera back and forth between themselves. Armstrong never handed the camera to Aldrin; rather, he set it down on the MESA, where Aldrin later picked it up, per the checklist. So even the transfer of the camera was scripted.