Neil Armstrong dead @ 82

[pekv2]

Neil Armstrong dead @ 82

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/25/neil-armstrong-dead-age-82_n_1830343.html

[Nachtwind]

R.I.P.

[myrkul]

 

Requiescat In Pace.

[mc_lovin]

so sad.. RIP!

[swissmate]

Oh man, there goes a legend.

This changes my point of view about today's society.

[repentance]

I lost it when I read the statement issued by his family.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

His legacy is not just of a generation or an era, but of humankind itself.

[myrkul]

IMO, the best thing we can do to honor his memory is to go back.



Lots of people have made a mark on the world. Not many have made marks on another.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I remember watching it live on TV when I was 9 years old living on W. Evergreen St. in Chicago, two blocks east of Humboldt Park. It was on a B&W console TV and I sat on a pucky green sofa against the wall with one of those Robert Woods framed prints overhead, while my dad sat in the LazyBoy-type recliner. We were both glued to the TV in awe. Believe it or not, mom made popcorn for all of to enjoy while watching the event.

~Bruno~

[repentance]

I'm thankful that the footage will be all over the news for the next few days.  Although my grandson has never known a world in which living in space wasn't possible, I doubt he's ever seen that first step on another celestial body which I witnessed as a 9 year old (I only wish that us 4th graders had been able to appreciate the true enormity of what we were seeing when we were crowded around the school's one - black and white - television).

It's sad to think that in my life time it is likely that every person who ever walked on the Moon will die.  To paraphrase what someone posted elsewhere, I am getting old in a world where the Moon is a place people used to want to go, before I was born.

[Littleshop]

Obligatory xkcd link:

http://xkcd.com/893/

Mouse hover over the image for interesting alt/text.

[FirstAscent]

His legacy is not just of a generation or an era, but of humankind itself.

I was going to say how that's certainly the most famous footprint in the world, and then I realized how that statement just doesn't apply.

[Stardust]

Obligatory xkcd link:

http://xkcd.com/893/

Mouse hover over the image for interesting alt/text.

Makes a good point:

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

[myrkul]

Obligatory xkcd link:

http://xkcd.com/893/

Mouse hover over the image for interesting alt/text.

Makes a good point:

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

That's the good reason, right there: If you don't go, you don't survive.

On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

Man-made ecological disaster. Ecological disaster completely unrelated to mankind. Asteroid Impact. Megavolcano. Global Pandemic. Nuclear war. The Sun expanding past Earth's orbit. Zombies. Robots. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when. Something will kill us off eventually. (OK, probably not those last two.) We need to get into space if we want to be around for very long.

[Bitcoin Oz]

http://www.spacex.com/

If we ever meet aliens I hope we trade with them rather than try to colonise them.

[repentance]

Man-made ecological disaster. Ecological disaster completely unrelated to mankind. Asteroid Impact. Megavolcano. Global Pandemic. Nuclear war. The Sun expanding past Earth's orbit. Zombies. Robots. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when. Something will kill us off eventually. (OK, probably not those last two.) We need to get into space if we want to be around for very long.

From the (really bad) song about the Moon landing.

The rivers are getting dirty
The wind is getting bad
War and hate are killing off
The only earth we have
But the world all stopped to watch it
On that July afternoon
To watch a man named Armstrong
Walk upon the moon

Even almost 50 years ago, we knew we were killing this planet and looked to the stars for the future of our species. The hopes and dreams of humanity went to the Moon with Armstrong.  We failed to live up to them.

[goodlord666]

Remember the good old days of pioneering?

[swissmate]