h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last night, I was transported, on a magic carpet, to what I consider to be the most wonderfully brave, extraordinary pure act of bravey and faith it has been my joy to witness.

As if it was yesterday, I was lying on the soft lawn next to our swimming pool, gazing up to the skies, and trying to identify with those oh-so-brave pioneers who were flying towards thr moon, and then when they got there, around it .....

It was a spectacular programme. What was shown last last night was certainly not what I saw - or even imagined.

But I lay on the grass, with someone very special, and marvelled at the bravery of those first pioneers into space.

What times i have lived through.

The conquest of Everest.

The flight around and subseqent walk on the moon

"........one small step for me, but one Giant step for mankind! (I think the words were)

That horrid atom bomb....

Goodness me.

All this excietment is certainly going to be the end of me......

(Well - not really . If it did not polish me off then,it is certainly not going to do it now. !!

My dad woke me up and, with my younger brothers, we sat for 3 hours in front of our black and white TV watching the moon landing and first walk... Sheer magic!


lil x

That was before my time...

But as an illustration of how times are changing - the computing power of the Eagle lunar lander is similar to that found in an average mobile phone. The computers running the whole of Mission Control had about the processing capabilities of a modern laptop computer!

Are you going to the on your laptop, Hoggy?


lil x

My goodness Moonhogg, you have really put the efforts of these pioneers into perspective.

Would you fly to the moon using your mobile phone? Or even your laptop computer?

I certainly would not. But then I am not brave. But I so admire it in others.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

Christiane
AR80

Now, Now, GB What are you grinning about?

I shall guess1!1.

But were you too young to know anything about it?

With affection

Christiane
AR80

I read somewhere that the filmmakers who made "Jurassic Park" used more computer power to create those dinosaurs than the entire Pentagon has. Or maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, no doubt even more computer power is being used on movies nowadays.

Ah no, Christiane, I was grinning at your journal, you watched the same programme as myself, only you caught the repeat! James May taken to the edge of space, I wrote a journal about it myself and inspired a few others to watch the repeat

I did indeed witness the moon landing, I was 14 and my parents let me stay up all night

What was interesting about those times was although the black and white pictures on TV were grainy and not great, well it was from the Moon, they had Haselblad(sp?) large format film cameras especially adapted for space suit use with them and since Hasleblad cameras were said to be one of the best in the world(our world, lol) , the photos taken were fantastic!
.
The photos were widely published and a larger size book I had in 1970s had whole page photos from moon and showed the gold foil on landing craft, rocks, dust and reflections in space suit visors in high quality and detailed prints. It was wonderful to see those photos and they have stuck in my mind ever since from all those years ago.
Yes the spacemen were really brave as the spacecrafts were relatively primative and there was no way to rescue them unlike some space ships these days like the Space Shuttle.
The Moon Landings were one of the most eventful things ever without doubt!

My goodness Lil,

I still think that I lived through the most wonderful century the 20th !! I do not think that I actually saw the moonwal on TV. I think I heard it originally when it was happening, on the radio.

But that is why last night was abslutely wonderful. Events which one heard on the radio, but which could not be shown on TV in Central Africa because I suppose there were no satellites flying around to help the pictures be distributed.

I wonder if last night's film is on a DVD. |i really would like to get it if it is.
Thursday 24th June 14.25 BST

You are so fortunate to have met our friend from Holland. I never did.

With affection

Christiane
AR 80

Very dear GB.

Please will you let me know when such programmes come. I normally am in the land of Nod literally by 10 at the latest, and so last night was really by mistake.

It was thrilling was it not?

But you are a fundi on the heavens. I just gaze at them and marvel. !1

Much affection
Christiane
AR9-

Christiane
AR80

Sorry GB.

I meant to congratulate you on your marvellous use of smileys.

Fantastico. !!

CME
Ar80

Hi Strangely strange,

My goodness, you all know so much. I must admit that I was wondering about the quality of the photos. I thought it was my new TV, !!

I have never heard of that marvellous camera. The pictures were so wondwerful because of the marvellous quality of the phtographs and filming.

Do ytou stil have that large scrap book?

It is funny, but my mind seems a blank about that and yet I was still a fairly good functioning adult and deeply interested in all the space programmes that were going on.

go well,

Christiane
Alsoran80/

The Hasleblad was and still is a great camera used widely in fashion business and generally too. It had the advantage, when all stills cameras were film cameras, of a larger film size, hence negative, than many cameras at that time. The lenes were excelant too. I believe they have launched a digital camera too nowdays. Although like all Hasleblad cameras it is expensive. However quality costs money, but it produced great photos which could be enlarged to poster size with no problems.

Sometimes I think we place too much trust in computers. My first car had an engine which was designed in the 1960s, and it ran very well. I replaced it with a more modern car, that had an "engine management unit" - a small computer that monitors how the engine is running - most modern cars have them.
The computer failed, the car stopped working, and to repair it would have cost more than the car was worth.

When Neil armstrong was flying down to the moon's surface, the Eagle's computer overloaded twice, and tried to land him in a very rocky area. In the end, he took over, and good old fashioned person-controlled flying resulted in a smooth touchdown in a safe area.

It was just before my 6th birthday when Apollo 11 and it's crew landed on the . My memories of that day are bit clouded but I am sure that I would have watched items on the news about it. One of my childhood dreams was to become an astronaut and go to the .

Thank you moonhogg for that information about Neil Armsterong actually landing on the moon manually. So he was perfedtly correct in saying that it was one step for man and a huge leap for mankind.

Very interesting that. I had not realised it. or if I ever did know it I have forgotten it - sadly. !!

Go well,

Christiane
AlsoRan80

Thank you Strangely strange for the details about that marvellous camera.

I honestly do not think, that at at my age it is sensiblto buy one. !! I can hardly see let alone see into a lens of a camera. !!

From it's name i would think it could be a German made camera - or os from one of the nordic countries?

Go Well,

CME
AR80

I read somewhere that an astronaut was asked if he felt fear when his rocket was about to be launched. He replied that he didn't feel any more fear than you'd expect from someone about to trust his life to a billion parts that had been bought from the lowest bidders.