EEVblog #1230 - How The Apollo 11 Moon Walk Video Happened

[EEVblog]

How did the world get to see the video of Neil Armstong taking his first steps on the moon 50 years ago today?
Come on a tour of the Honeysuckle Creek tracking dish and site that received those historic first images.

[joseph nicholas]

The original broadcast showed Armstrong fucking up the pronouncement.  I should know I was there.

[EEVblog]

The original broadcast showed Armstrong fucking up the pronouncement.  I should know I was there.

Who cares about you, Neil himself said he intended to say it and believes he said it, good enough for me.
And of course I added in that comment to troll engagement, seems it worked 

[sibeen]

Great video, Dave. Thoroughly enjoyed that.

[DeanCording]

I had the chance to visit Honeysuckle Creek before it was demolished.  They essentially had just turned out the lights, locked the door, and went home.  Everything was left in place as it was - equipment, office furniture, noticeboards, everything.

Unfortunately over the years, vandals trashed it.  The place also had lots of contamination from asbestos, PCB, and other nasties.  In the 90's it was completely demolished, and left as an empty paddock for many years.

Nearby Orroral Valley Tracking Station met the same fate.

[Electro Detective]

So they didn't even try to sell off the gear, commission it to get scrapped,
or turn these places into tourist attractions or caravan parks? 

I'll bet taxpayer/battlers aren't impressed 

Who owns that land anyway, and if it's NLR, why not handball it back to indigenous locals they ripped it off from in the first place anyway?

That's not 'rocket science' to figure out and do 

or is it ? 

[bitwelder]

I'll bet taxpayer/battlers aren't impressed 

BTW, regarding tracking stations and the rest of the equipment built outside US soil, with whose taxpayers money have them been funded?

[Doctorandus_P]

Seems more like it was a giant leap for Lois Armstrong to get to the moon, but a small step for mankind.

Not much has changed in the last 50 years.
Human spaceflight is still almost non existent.

[Electro Detective]

Any layperson would assume the eeriespace industry would use what they know to increase speed, fuel economy and reduce emissions on air planes

and make a buck too 

Bring back the Concorde and iron out all the bugs FFS, that's if there were any   

you can't believe anything corporat spinners and media clowns flog anymore,

tar and feather the barstards and get genuine tech and real progress back on track 

[rrinker]

The original broadcast showed Armstrong fucking up the pronouncement.  I should know I was there.

Who cares about you, Neil himself said he intended to say it and believes he said it, good enough for me.
And of course I added in that comment to troll engagement, seems it worked 

 No more proof needed to know HE knew he said it wrong than that exceptionally long pause between the phrases - but too late to start over, plus he may have been just a teeny little bit overwhelmed being the first human to step foot on something other than the Earth. Who cam blame him.

[james_s]

Any layperson would assume the eeriespace industry would use what they know to increase speed, fuel economy and reduce emissions on air planes

and make a buck too 

Bring back the Concorde and iron out all the bugs FFS, that's if there were any   

you can't believe anything corporat spinners and media clowns flog anymore,

tar and feather the barstards and get genuine tech and real progress back on track 

Speed, fuel economy, reduced emissions, that's pretty much one of those "pick any two" situations.

It depresses me that the Concorde was retired with no replacement but it was very expensive to operate, having a small passenger capacity and an incredible thirst for fuel. It was transportation for the elite super wealthy, not something for the masses. Sure was a technological marvel though.

[Brumby]

What james_s said ^ ^ ^

Also, they were not welcome to go supersonic over populated areas - the sonic boom was a problem.

[ocw]

For an interesting look at how the cameras used for the initial videos were chosen see:
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/50-years-later-tvs-longest-ever-remote-remembered

It serves as a good reminder of where technology was at in 1969.

[EEVblog]

Any layperson would assume the eeriespace industry would use what they know to increase speed, fuel economy and reduce emissions on air planes

and make a buck too 

Bring back the Concorde and iron out all the bugs FFS, that's if there were any   

you can't believe anything corporat spinners and media clowns flog anymore,

tar and feather the barstards and get genuine tech and real progress back on track 

Speed, fuel economy, reduced emissions, that's pretty much one of those "pick any two" situations.

It depresses me that the Concorde was retired with no replacement but it was very expensive to operate, having a small passenger capacity and an incredible thirst for fuel. It was transportation for the elite super wealthy, not something for the masses. Sure was a technological marvel though.

Don't worry, Elon Musk will fix that! 

[EEVblog]

The original broadcast showed Armstrong fucking up the pronouncement.  I should know I was there.

Who cares about you, Neil himself said he intended to say it and believes he said it, good enough for me.
And of course I added in that comment to troll engagement, seems it worked 

 No more proof needed to know HE knew he said it wrong than that exceptionally long pause between the phrases

  Maybe, just maybe he paused because he was in the middle doing something kinda important and risky at the time...

[Electro Fan]

Maybe, just maybe he paused because he was in the middle doing something kinda important and risky at the time...

+1

[Electro Fan]

The original broadcast showed Armstrong fucking up the pronouncement.  I should know I was there.

And whether he paused or for how long, maybe when he said the word something along the way from the microphone to the transmitter to the propagation conditions to the receiver didn't enable the full signal to get from one end to the other.  To criticize Neil Armstrong over any version of this seems kind of (very) strange.

[Electro Fan]

And not to go all techie, but since this is EEVblog, I'm wondering if he had a Push to Talk Mic, or VOX.  Either way, but especially with VOX (or even PTT when you are doing something else other than rag chewing), anyone who has ever operated an amateur (or professional) radio will know that the potential for missing a syllable or a word is pretty high especially if propagation conditions are at all challenging.  And on top of the communications system and propagation conditions I think it's like Dave said - he had some important and risky work to do.

[EEVblog]

The original broadcast showed Armstrong fucking up the pronouncement.  I should know I was there.

And whether he paused or for how long, maybe when he said the word something along the way from the microphone to the transmitter to the propagation conditions to the receiver didn't enable the full signal to get from one end to the other.  To criticize Neil Armstrong over any version of this seems kind of (very) strange.

I didn't know this, even Buzz thought he said the "a", and this was a quote from Buzz on his way back from the moon, not a recent one. Buzz would have no doubt had a better audio loop than anyone back home.

[rrinker]

 I'm not criticizing Neil in this, I'm supporting the idea that he always intended for the 'a' to be in there!

Sure, there's many reasons the pause could be there but I think it's a darn plausible one that with all that's going on, he knew he missed the 'a'. Like right before doing anything important, thinking "don't mess this up...don't mess this up" and what happens? You mess it up.

I'm not saying he was some kind of idiot for messing up what he planned to say. Not under that kind of pressure. Sheesh. Yes, there were countless things distracting him from forming a sentence that is not merely a once in the lifespan of an entire species event.

[EEVblog]

I'm not criticizing Neil in this, I'm supporting the idea that he always intended for the 'a' to be in there!

Sure, there's many reasons the pause could be there but I think it's a darn plausible one that with all that's going on, he knew he missed the 'a'. Like right before doing anything important, thinking "don't mess this up...don't mess this up" and what happens? You mess it up.

I'm not saying he was some kind of idiot for messing up what he planned to say. Not under that kind of pressure. Sheesh. Yes, there were countless things distracting him from forming a sentence that is not merely a once in the lifespan of an entire species event.

Say it yourself and it's really easy for the "a" to practically vanish, especially in low bandwidth flaky audio.
This guy demonstrates, and mentions an audio dropout problem:
https://youtu.be/xwVzIZhGhEQ?t=1123

[SNGLinks]

I worked at the Winkfield (UK) NASA Stadan station. Most of the equipment was NASA owned. If any equipment became redundant it had to be either destroyed or sent back to NASA.
This I believe was because of UK Customs. Of course it was cheaper to destroy the items.

[Electro Fan]

Say it yourself and it's really easy for the "a" to practically vanish, especially in low bandwidth flaky audio.

+1 exactly

[SilverSolder]

Thank you for a very enjoyable video, presented with your usual contagious enthusiasm, so much I didn't know! 

I vaguely recall watching it, as a kid...  my father called me to the living room, way past bed time, saying "Come and watch world history in the making"...

I hope we (mankind) eventually regain our mojo with respect to space exploration...   seems like we are waiting forever to take the next step, after the first small one.

[Electro Fan]

Kind of related...

Really good if you are interested…


A tad more esoteric… but also really good…