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Many fathers offered their children the moon when they
were growing up. Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, Michael
Collins and the folks at NASA gave it to them. It’s been
40 years since we landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. If
you’re one of those idiots that believes the knuckle headed
conspiracy garbage that it was all on a soundstage, you
might as well move on to another article. The only benefit
to arise out of that whole idiotic conspiracy theory is
the fine film “Capricorn One” and a fine TV movie made five
years before that one with Monte Markham that, sadly, has
yet to appear on home video. ***
It was one of the greatest movements in history that
luckily was caught on video. Sure there were other moments
that should be considered for that such as the discovery
of penicillin, the discovery of North America, the discover
of gun powder, etc. BUT for the 20th century truly THIS
was one of the moments because humanity flew to another
body in the heavens, landed on it and brought pieces back
with them. How is that different from, say, Columbus’ journey?
The astronauts on Apollo 11 and the other Apollo missions
unlike Columbus had no air to breath if their oxygen tanks
were damaged (as what happened to Apollo 13), if things
went horribly wrong and the return slingshot was miscalculated
they would have been thrown into the vacuum of space with
no hope of being saved. There was no food, no water where
they were going so if things went badly, they would starve
or they could die of dehydration. In other words, if something
went wrong it wasn’t just a one way trip it was literally
a dead end. ***
On this historic date we need to remember many things;
the computers that the Apollo 11 crew had to do everything
for them could do less than the laptop that you are reading
this on. In fact, the entire computer system in one room
at NASA had LESS capacity than your laptop. It changed the
way that many people looked at the world. Unfortunately,
many people quickly forgot that as traveling to the moon
became routine. ***
The reason that I state all of that is that the best
way to remember all of this or understand in depth for the
first time is to pick up many of the terrific DVDs on the
space race and science. ***
You’ll note that some of these DVDs and Blu-ray discs
don’t focus JUST on the historic moon landing that occurred
on July 20, 1969 but also includes the long often difficult
journey to that first baby step for humanity on another
world. It’s important to understand the context that created
the space race and how we ended up safely flying to the
moon and coming back. You need to understand the risks that
existed (for example a pebble flying through space could
be traveling at as much as 10,000 miles an hour and puncture
one of the space vehicles putting everyone’s life at risk.
If something bad happens in space, it suddenly becomes a
struggle to survive) and the payoff that ultimately benefited
everyone on our planet. ---
Titles to rent or buy:
“From the Earth to the Moon”-An excellent mini-series
that covers the entire history of the “space race” from
early flights to the triumphant moment when a human being
stepped on the surface other than the Earth which was co-produced
by Tom Hanks (who starred in “Apollo 13” the film about
how we almost lost three brave astronauts going to the moon
that went horribly wrong)may be a bit stiff at time but
it’s an involving drama. ***
“For All Mankind” covers everything from the earliest
Apollo mission and its disasters (including the fire that
took the lives of astronauts such as “Gus” Grissom) to the
missions that allowed us to achieve that brilliant shining
moment in humanity’s history. There are many people that
don’t understand why we reach for the stars (my wife among
them) while we have so many troubles at home we haven’t
dealt with. The reality is that those troubles at home from
homelessness to our current economic crisis will always
exist to some degree and I don’t think that pouring money
into those problems will solve all of them. ***
“Apollo 13”- Ron Howard’s marvelous and powerful movie
moves us not because it’s about our triumphant landing on
the moon but because it’s about three men on a tiny island
floating in space that are struggling to return home. Every
performance is amazingly authentic and powerful. ***
It’s ironic that the best DVD out there about the Apollo
11 landing was produced by the British. “A Night to Remember”
(Acorn Media) is hosted by Sir Patrick Moore an amateur
astronomer who hosted a popular BBC TV program “The Sky
at Night” that began airing a full decade before the moon
landing. ***
The footage consists of filmed material from the BBC
archives, NASA (although much of the original videotapes
done as a live stream were accidently destroyed in a boneheaded
move that NASA will probably never hear the end of) and
other sources that allows us to feel the excitement leading
up to that famous moment when Neil Armstrong stepped off
the ladder of the Lunar Module and left his foot print on
a different “world” (the footsteps unless there has been
any damage to the area from meteors, etc. should still be
there thanks to the vacuum of space sealing it in a time
capsule). The image of Armstrong and Aldrin planting an
American flag on the moon and the plaque (“We Came in Peace
for All Mankind”) that represented our ability to achieve
our goals are indelibly stamped in memory and history. ***
This is an excellent documentary that intercuts footage
including BBC reporter James Burke giving us a tour of the
living quarters for the Apollo team and the massive rockets
used to propel us to the stars. Unfortunately, while there
may be footage out there that shows us the U.S. broadcast,
none of the networks have put together as exhaustive a review
of this historic moment. *** Other titles that are worthwhile
and that focus on events before and after “Apollo 11”. ***
“Planet Earth-The Complete BBC Series”-Although this
isn’t about the moon landing or the space race, it reminds
us what a fragile little ball we live on. It also reminds
us the diversity of beauty and life that exists on our unique
little planet. ***
“Universe: Season 2”-An excellent documentary that covers
a broad range of subjects from the formation of the universe
to if we might be able to travel the cosmos, this terrific
TV series also focuses on the cost to travel in space. ---
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