Tranquility Base July 20, 1969 One small step.... The first task after landing is that of preparing the ship for launching, of seeing that all is in readiness to make the ascent back to a rendezvous with the command spacecraft orbiting above. 6:00 p.m.- With everything in order, Armstrong radios a recommendation that they plan to start the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), earlier than originally scheduled, at about 9:OO p.m. EDT. Mission Control replies: We will support you anytime. 10:39 p.m.- Later than proposed at 6:00 p.m., but more than five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opens the LM hatch and squeezes through the opening. It is a slow process. Strapped to his shoulders is a portable life support and communications system weighing 84 pounds on Earth, 14 on the Moon, with provision for pressurization; oxygen requirements and removal of carbon dioxide. Armstrong moves slowly down the 10-foot, nine-step ladder. On reaching the second step, he pulls a D-ring, within easy reach, deploying a television camera, so arranged on the LM that it will depict him to Earth as he proceeds from that point. Down the ladder he moves and halts on the last step. Im at the foot of the ladder, he reports. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches. . . the surface appears to be very, very finegrained, as you get close to it, its almost like a powder. 10:56 p.m.- Armstrong puts his left foot to the Moon. It is the first time in history that man has ever stepped on anything that has not existed on or originated from the Earth. Thats one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind, Armstrong radios. Aldrin is taking photographs from inside the spacecraft. The first print made by the weight of man on the Moon is that of a lunar boot which resembles an oversized galosh. [6] Its soles are of silicon rubber and its 14-layer sidewalls of aluminized plastic. Specially designed for super-insulation, it protects against abrasion and has reduced friction to facilitate donning. On Earth, it weighs four pounds, nine ounces. on the Moon, 12 ounces. Armstrong surveys his surroundings for a while and then moves out, testing himself in a gravity environment one-sixth of that on Earth. The surface is fine and powdery, he says. I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch. Maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine sandy particles. There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. Its even perhaps easier than the simulations.... Feeling more confident, Armstrong begins making a preliminary collection of soil samples close to the landing craft. This is done with a bag on the end of a pole. This is very interesting, he comments. Its a very soft surface, but here and there . . . I run into a very hard surface, but it appears to be very cohesive material of the same sort.... It has a stark beauty all its own. Its like much of the high desert of the United States. He collects a small bagful of soil and stores it in a pocket on the left leg of his space suit. This is done early, according to plan, to make sure some of the Moon surface is returned to Earth in case the mission has to be cut short. 11:11 p.m.- After lowering a Hasselblad still camera to Armstrong, Aldrin emerges from the landing craft and backs down the ladder, while his companion photographs him. These rocks . . . are rather slippery, Armstrong says. The astronauts report that the powdery surface seems to fill up the fine pores on the rocks, and they tend to slide over them rather easily. Armstrong fits a long focal length lens into position on the TV camera and trains it upon a small, stainless steel plaque on one of the legs of the landing craft. He reads: Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind. Below the inscription are the names of the Apollo crew and President Nixon. Armstrong next removes the TV camera from its fixed position on the LM and moves it away about 40 feet so it can cover the area in which the astronauts will operate. Over the next 2 hr and 47 min the astronauts place experiments on the surface and collect samples....
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:29:50 +0000
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