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One Small Step

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It’s Moon Footprint Anniversary Day once again!

Last year an appropriately huge fuss was made over the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s mission to land on the moon. The 41st anniversary is less of a party. Things (even footprints in the dust) can remain unaltered for a long, long time in space. Imagine the ho-hummity of the celebration for the 1,285,300th anniversary of Neal Armstrong’s step off the LEM’s ladder.
Will we even have feet by then?

My eye was caught by this photo of the plaque on the base platform for the lander. This was designed to last a long time, and will certainly still be on the moon when we are all long gone. Will our children’s children’s children’s children gaze on it directly, or through plexiglass as part of some Moon Based Museum’s Heritage Walkway in the Sea of Tranquility?

Here’s another amazing shot. I don’t remember seeing this one 41 years ago.
But how could anyone forget it?

Complete this sentence: “If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we …?”

75 thoughts on “One Small Step”

    1. I had that very thought this morning as I stopped for gas on my way into work this morning. Didn’t they used to make the hoses long enough that it did not matter so much, or am I miss remembering?

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  3. Good Morning Babooners:

    I keep expecting scientists to discover that place where Missing Socks go to die, leaving us with all their unmatched mates. I think our washing machines are actually portals that are hooked up to some mysterious alternate planet where all the missing socks go to have parties without us.

    But the real challenge is obviously the pill that would make us all slim and healthy. We need a pill that will cancel the desire to eat bad food. I don’t need a pill that would drive me to eat healthy foods, for I already eat too much of them. Or maybe what we need is a “morning after” pill for eating. We could then go on having too much of all the tastiest food, and then we would pop the pill that prevents us from suffering health consequences. If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we do that?

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    1. Congress on the moon?
      Brilliant. Would that make winning a legislative seat more or less desirable?
      You’d get to be in space, but you’d have to be there with a bunch of people who might want to sabotage your air supply.
      What would be the effect of weightlessness on decorum?
      So many questions!

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  9. Good Morning to All

    Well if we can put a person on the moon, why can’t we fly? Shouldn’t we be able to move around freely in some kind of a personal transporter and have no need for cars, planes and the other restricive modes of travel that are limiting our ability to move about freely? I suppose that I am asking for too much. Of course there is a long list of problems we are facing that really need solutions, but I don’t want to get into that. This morning I just want to be able to fly.

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  11. About that plaque . . .

    That image, Dale, seems so silly. It looks like the plaque is protected by a series of metal bars. Protected from whom? Was NASA worried that stray dogs or Russians might come up and pee on it? But I see that the “protection” is just the ladder to the lander. Well, okay.

    And I just read about a crisis related to that plaque. NASA made its plans, including choosing the phrase: “We came in peace for all mankind.” Just before the launch, the White House called NASA leadership in to find out what the plaque would say. And when he heard it, Nixon protested. He wanted the plaque to say that we came to the moon for peace “Under God.” NASA guys panicked. Mentioning a unitary God like that might be seen as making a claim for sovereignty.

    But Nixon wasn’t negotiating. As one of his assistants put it, “The President is big on God.”

    NASA leaders made a cunning decision. They said “yes” to Nixon’s order that the plaque be made religious. And then they went up and stuck their original plaque on the moon. They counted on the general clutter of events to obscure the fact that God didn’t make that trip with the Apollo 11 crew. There seems to be no evidence that Nixon ever realized he’d been stiffed.

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    2. TeeHee. Nixon was always busy being too paranoid to notice the details of reality! Love the story.

      Renee: I always used NASA’s strategy on my mother during the mini skirt days. She thought the skirts were too short. I nodded and agreed, then rolled up the waist bands when out of her eyesight. At least your daughter will fight with you honestly about her fashion choices.

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  13. Why can’t we have self-cleaning litter boxes, power lines that don’t snap in ice storms, and daughters who comply with mothers’ fashion dictates without arguing?

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    1. can you send us a picture of what you are wearing today renee. i want to be certain that your fashion sense is worth defending

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      1. OK, here’s the deal. My daughter is 6 feet tall. She is very thin with very long legs. In circumference she is a size 4. I don’t know if you have shopped for teen girl dresses lately, but they are styled quite short. That’s ok with me if height and width are in proportion, but when a girl is a size 4 in width and size 12 in height, and she insists on wearing a size 4 very short dress, well, Houston, we have a problem. My fashion sense is negligible,but I just can’t condone semi-nudity at Homecoming Dances. (We are currently trying to find a dress that is mutually acceptable to mother and daughter. The only thing we disagree on is length.)

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      2. Thank you, Renee, for once again reminding me why I am so glad my only child is a son (whose only fashion sense is currently-don’t let anyone see me naked-or in something too little kid or girly, otherwise, whatever).

        I shall remember your words and try to reduce my comments to silent and unobserved head shaking.

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      3. Tim and Madislandgirl, I also can’t understand where my daughter gets her headstrong and stubborn streak! Honestly, why can’t she just listen and comply, worm-like, to the seasoned voice of reason!

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      4. Hmmmm, my parents have always wondered the same thing about me. what can I say, it wouldn’t be right of me to go along with them when they are just plain wrong, would it?

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      5. i’m laughing because my son is getting his senor pictures today.. he went out shopping with his sister 4 years older and they camme back with a long sleeved black dress shirt and 4 t shirts ..blue brown black and black i believe. i told him i thought for a big deal photo he may want to crank it up and notch and he told me “this is who i am dad. don’t put any more pressure on me”
        i love my children.

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      6. Do you remember what your daughter wore for her senior pictures and what went into her decision regarding her attire?

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      7. A shirt with buttons? I’d be good with that. It’s about as far down that path as the s&h is willing to go.

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      8. 30 years ago I challenged my homeroom boys to count the number of shirts they each owned with a collar. The total was not very high, but I had a lot of athletes who wore sports jersey type tops. My 40-year-old son just bought a suit for his wedding, the first he has ever owned. He has not owned a sport coat or the like for 20 years, in part because he used to be so obese.

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      9. @Renee – regarding the senior pictures: I remember agonizing over what to wear for my pictures. I look back now and wonder what the heck I was thinking, haha. I wore dark jeans, a black t-shirt, and a dark green long jacket thing. I don’t know what possessed me to pick that out, but I must have liked it at the time. I don’t remember arguing with my mom too much about fashion, but then I never went to a high school dance and I’ve never liked wearing dresses 😉 I do remember in junior high, I used to wear my older brother’s hand-me-down t-shirts…which were much too large. As a tomboy, I really didn’t care what I looked like.

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      10. I don’t quite remember what I wore in my senior picture (I think a blue sweater), but I do remember that I had my Irish Setter in the photo with me. This was back in the day when you just got one shot… not a huge montage of shots in different outfits and settings. She was a beautiful mahoghany color and I still think I had the best picture in the year book!

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    2. They tried, Renee — my neighbors have a motorized, self cleaning litter box that scares the cat som much that he wouldn’t go in it… 🙂

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    3. Renee,
      How about leggings underneath the skirt? Seems to be the fashion these days. My niece is about the same build as your daughter and that’s her solution.

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      1. That’s a great suggestion! My daughter and I never seem to get past snarling and spitting at one another, and the possibility of leggings gets lost in the ire. I will try to introduce the topic at a calm moment.

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  14. figure out a way for all to be happily employed?
    stop people from shooting each other?
    boost adoptions and slow down breeding?
    solve long-term conflicts like the Middle East?

    i reckon it’s all about where you put your resources….

    sorry i missed the goat discussions–dang!

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  15. p.s. is it a definite now we’ll gather at the Fair?
    I love going early when it’s cool(er), picking up some mini-donuts and coffee, then visiting the barns….i’ll go with a new appreciation of goats, of course!

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    1. Don’t know. My husband and I (and maybe Visiting Geek) will go and wait to see who else shows up.

      I’ve never been to the MN State Fair without the Morning Show. But I have been to the Iowa State Fair without this event. The Morning Show @ State Fair was always a family favorite, and became a tradition whenever it first began at that venue. We would describe it to friends and they would say, “You go to the State Fair at 6 a.m. to watch other people play Hide and Go Seek?” What’s wrong with you?

      Yesterday at the end of the posts someone, Beth-Ann I think, requested a goat theme for the fair and I provided suggestions. I just can’t help it. My dad was a great Fair-goer and cattle show-er, I was born during a County Fair, and my parents sent out a birth announcement in the form of a Registered Cattle Form. Then I was in 4H and did my own stint at fairs, etc. Just gotta go.

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    1. Still doing a lot better than this correspondant, who cannot seem to get the bike to the repair shop so there are tires to go on.

      GO CLYDE! You Rock (or in this case, it might be more accurate to say, you roll!)

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  17. Help, if possible. Before my computer did a semi-crash I had some free software called something like infascan or infrascan, which could reverse negative images. When I search I get other things, so I assume I have the name wrong. Does anyone know what that was I had? steve? tim?

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  18. have transporter abilities?

    I would love to be able to beam from Michigan to Minnesota in a heartbeat. I would get to see my family a lot more often 🙂 Driving takes too long. I’ve made the trip I don’t know how many times in the past 7 years and it never gets shorter. In fact, it’s gotten longer, as each time I’ve moved, it’s been farther away…

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  19. have trains all over the place again?

    and of course I’m with Alanna about the transporter – have another trip to Iowa this weekend – and couldn’t you just beam me?

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    1. They are talking about bringing back the Hiawatha Limited, which ran across southern North Dakota. I would love to take a leisurely train instead of driving so much. In the last two weeks I have traveled 1800 miles just in North Dakota, from Dunseith to Medora to Grand Forks and points in between.

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  20. I am so late posting today that it is almost tomorrow! But I do wonder how scientists and engineers can put a man on the moon but cannot design a coffee carafe that does not DRIP all over as you pour the water into the coffee maker???? Aaauuuggghh! (Head banging)

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  23. Update on my wife’s sister: after 5 months in the hospital, multiple surgeries, multiple traumatic moments including three bleeding events, etc., some just noticed she has been on three blood thinners through it all.

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  24. Keep lilacs in bloom longer, develop clothing that is resistant to grease spatters, make sun tanning an anti-aging measure.

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  25. I didn’t have time to read this blog yesterday but it is for the best because I can’t resist this: If they can send a man to the moon, why can’t they send all of them?
    Someone gave me a pillow with this saying on it, it cracked me up. But, really, I love you guys.

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