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One of the greatest men of the last century who, along with the other 11 men to walk upon the moon, has left a legacy that will almost certainly outlast human civilisation.

Though I'm sure being in Dark of the Moon was the highlight for him. *DUCKS*.








I don't normally go for the sad pedantic bastard route, but the number of people on Facebook paying tribute to him with pictures of Buzz Aldrin has made me smile.

He's in the same category as Scotty for having inspired people, except no science fiction comforts in the legend. Just being strapped in with an immense amount of explosive force ready to go off, and facing situations where miscalculation would've been fatal not only personally and to the rest of the crew complement but to the minds of a generation.

The whole idea of Apollo is just so mental you can see where the conspiracy nuts are coming from.

"Right, we're going to fire you at the moon on a bigger version of one of those rockets Hitler used to **** up bits of Britain"
"Okay - how do you know we'll get to the moon?"
"We've done a ****ton of sums"
"Right. And what do we do when we get there?"
"Well, we're going to drop you down in a little capsule so you can pick up bits of rock."
"Okay, will that work?"
"Dunno, let us know when you get there."

Fair play. A bit more awesome that being able to run a fairly short distance slightly faster than anyone else, isn't it?

Does anyone else think Aldrin's through gritted teeth "He won't be forgotten. Until someone walks on Mars" tweet made him look more of a dick than usual?

Cliffjumper wrote:The whole idea of Apollo is just so mental you can see where the conspiracy nuts are coming from.

Nah. I think it was xkcd that made a good point about that line of thought: if NASA were willing to fake a moon landing, the moon landing wouldn't be NASA's last, best eye-catching accomplishment. If they'd faked the moon landing the news wouldn't be talking about the latest in a line of fragile Mars rovers, they'd be talking about an awesome manned mission to Titan or Io or Pluto or something.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised so much by Armstrong dying as I was by the fact that he was still alive to begin with. The moon landing is something that happened when my dad was younger than I am now. It seems like ancient history to me, like WWII or the Great Depression. And what really makes me sad isn't that Armstrong died, it's the fact that they sent someone to the moon 40 years ago using computers that had less processing power than a modern cell phone, and despite all the advances in technology we've seen since it's an accomplishment that hasn't been matched, let alone surpassed. A decade from now it's entirely possible that there won't be a single person left alive who's stood on the ground of a world that isn't Earth. The US and Russia have all but given up on manned space exploration and all the life-changing technological advances that tangentially spring from it, and that's just a shame.

inflatable dalek wrote:Does anyone else think Aldrin's through gritted teeth "He won't be forgotten. Until someone walks on Mars" tweet made him look more of a dick than usual?

Can't tell if that was a poor jumble of words or a vile jab. He's a weird dude, is Buzz.

It's sad that our population of world-reaching astronauts is dwindling. Hopefully the Chinese will top us up on that count before too long.

inflatable dalek wrote:Does anyone else think Aldrin's through gritted teeth "He won't be forgotten. Until someone walks on Mars" tweet made him look more of a dick than usual?

Is this online anywhere?

Here, apparently.

Much as I love Bay and Simpsons there's something pretty degrading about Aldrin. "I've done something anyone in my race will ever get chance to, let's exploit and demean it!". Like Warcry my initial reaction was a bit "Wow, I suppose he was still alive then", but then there's a certain dignity there that's easier to respect...

Denyer wrote:Is this online anywhere?

I read the original quote in the Mirror (don't judge me, reading the papers laying about the canteen is preferable to talking to the people I work with), but the search engine on their website seems to be useless on my computer. Presumably it should still be on his twitter feed though.

In fairness, his full length statement is more appropriate (though keen to emphasise they were both on the moon together), so it may just be that, like me, Twitter just confuses him:

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/08/26/b ... armstrong/

Terome wrote:Can't tell if that was a poor jumble of words or a vile jab. He's a weird dude, is Buzz.

Cliffjumper wrote: Much as I love Bay and Simpsons there's something pretty degrading about Aldrin. "I've done something anyone in my race will ever get chance to, let's exploit and demean it!". Like Warcry my initial reaction was a bit "Wow, I suppose he was still alive then", but then there's a certain dignity there that's easier to respect...

I recall an interview with him to publicise his SF novel where he talked about the Simpson's and how he didn't understand the "Second comes right after first!" gag suggesting a remarkable lack of self awareness, especially as the same interview had him going "We both landed at the same time, we were both first!".

It's actually very much to Aldrin's credit he made the cut for Apollo 11 at all because he wasn't typical NASA material- and his superiors were absolutely determined he wasn't going to be the first man out because they were very aware of his more... eccentric personality issues.

So despite the odds being against him he managed to be an essential part of one of the most important things mankind has ever done, and he's still spent 40 odd years annoyed he wasn't the most important. Whilst that's probably the strength of will that got him there in the first place, it's still a shame.

And of course, he's the main thing that shoots down any conspiracy theory (and thus is the silliest thing in DOTM), if they'd faked it, or done any other sneakery, he'd not have kept quiet about it for this long.

him thumping that guy was awesome though.

Part of the reason I've always admired Armstrong is that- even though I don't think he was fully prepared for the full impact he would have on his life (partly of course because no one involved was thinking there would wind up being so few men to go there)- he always carried himself with a quite dignity and never exploited or misused his fame. In the unlikely event I were ever to become that well known I'd hope to do the same.

I'm more likely to go all Prince Harry though.

There was a mildly annoying documentary a couple of years ago where, despite his desire for privacy being well known, a presenter tried to do everything he could to badger his way into an interview. He failed, but there was some interesting stuff about his post Apollo life. If you were essentially a humble man and you found out your hairdresser was keeping the off cuts and selling them you'd probably become a recluse as well.

Here is a fitting tribute, full of the kinds of crazy things that Cliffjumper mentioned:

http://youtu.be/TNNOyIKThP8

Cool stuff, though does the host have some sort of problem speaking more than two sentences in a row at once?

inflatable dalek wrote:Cool stuff, though does the host have some sort of problem speaking more than two sentences in a row at once?

Hahaha, yeah that's his style. He and his brother do some great basic biology and history videos. I am hooked on them despite (or because of?) their breathlessness.