[Rhodes22-list] Moon Mutterings

[stan]

what do you expect from a Purdue engineer.

ss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 8:05 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Moon Mutterings


This article is in today's UK Times.  I don't believe it and will tell you
the rest of the story after you read it.  Brad

-----------------


  The Times October 02, 2006
One small word is one giant sigh of relief for ArmstrongFrom Jacqui Goddard
in Miami
         (NASA)

IT WAS the perfect quote to match a momentous occasion. As Neil Armstrong
became the first man to walk on the Moon in 1969, a global audience of 500
million people on Earth watched and listened with bated breath.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," they heard him
say as he dropped from the ladder of his spacecraft to make the first human
footprint on the lunar surface.

But from the moment he said it, and for 37 years since, debate has raged
over whether the Nasa astronaut might have fluffed his lines.

Mr Armstrong has long insisted that he meant to say "one small step for a
man . . ." — which would have been a more meaningful and grammatically
correct version, free of tautology. But even the astronaut himself could not
be sure.

"Damn, I really did it. I blew the first words on the Moon, didn't I?" he is
reported to have asked officials later, amid uncertainty as to whether he
had blown the moment or simply been drowned out by static interference as
his words were relayed 250,000 miles back to Earth.

Now, after almost four decades, the spaceman has been vindicated. Using
high-tech sound analysis techniques, an Australian computer expert has
rediscovered the missing "a" in Mr Armstrong's famous quote. Peter Shann
Ford ran the Nasa recording through sound-editing software and clearly
picked up an acoustic wave from the word "a", finding that Mr Armstrong
spoke it at a rate of 35 milliseconds — ten times too fast for it to be
audible.

Mr Ford's findings have been presented to Nasa officials in Washington and
to a relieved Mr Armstrong, who issued a statement saying: "I find the
technology interesting and useful. I also find his conclusion persuasive."

Mr Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who stepped out seconds after him,
landed the*Apollo 11
* Lunar Excursion Module on the Moon on July 20, 1969. In the tense six
hours and forty minutes between touching down and stepping out, Mr Armstrong
wrote what he knew would become arguably the most memorable words in
history. But Nasa was bombarded with inquiries and the recordings were
hastily reviewed.

The space agency backed Mr Armstrong's claim that there should have been an
"a", but they agreed that, on official documents, the "a" should be placed
in brackets because no one could be sure he said it.

In his official biography,* First Man*, Mr Armstrong tells the author James
Hansen: "It doesn't sound like there was time for the word to be there. On
the other hand, I didn't intentionally make an inane statement . . .
certainly the 'a' was intended, because that's the only way the statement
makes any sense."

Professor Hansen said: "Neil's not got much of an ego, he's a very modest
man, but I think this really means something to him to have the proof."

Officials at Nasa have met Mr Ford to discuss his findings. They have now
instructed their own analysts to run in-house tests.

------------------------------------

Now, as Paul Harvey would say, "here's the rest of the story!"

Armstrong grew up in Ohio and in the early years as a child lived in a
duplex next to Mr. & Mrs. Kline.  The walls between the two households were
thin and young Neil could hear every conversation between the Kline's.  Mr.
Kline, "Manny", was always begging Mrs. Kline for a blowjob.  She would
always reply, "Manny, you'll get a blowjob when men walk on the moon!"

What Armstrong really said from Tranquility base was, "One small step for a
man, one giant leap for Manny Kline!"
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