Quote:
Originally posted by AggieSigmaNu361
Also, to add to the whole sorority pin on the flag on the moon urban legend, one of my HS buddies was a Phi Delt at UTSA, and he told me that Neil had his Phi Delt badge on the bottom of his boot when he exited the lunar lander, so the first thing that touched the moon was his Phi Delt badge. Again, i'm not saying i believe this, but it's just another funny little urban legend.
Kitso
KS 361
|
Because I've kept hearing things about GLO pins and Neil Armstrong, and because I worked this summer at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center - home to the world's most extensive collection of space flown artifacts, I decided to ask some real experts (those who know even more than I do
)
Max Ary, who was CEO of the Cosmosphere as well as being one of the nations foremost experts on space history, told me that no pins would have flown in the first place aboard Apollo missions, particularly in the Lunar Module. Obviously a lot of possibility of it snagging on something or floating in to the circuits and what not. And many of the astronauts on the lunar surface were afraid of the possibility of putting a hole in the foil thin exterior of the LM. Gene Cernan, a FIJI and the last man to walk on the moon talks about this fraility of the LM in his book
The Last Man on the Moon.
Now it was fairly common for astronauts to smuggle aboard contraband, but as for putting his pin on his boot, I see two things wrong with this, first being the rigidity of the bottom of the boot, the second: facing the possibility of puncturing his space suit seems out of character for any astronaut, let alone Neil Armstrong. Almost all of the accounts of Armstrong that I have read have said that he was quiet, meticulous and by no means a troublemaker, and that as a civilian pilot, he didn't fit the typical "fighter jock" image.
I doubt this will put to rest any of these urban legends but at least all of you are informed.
Threaded Mode