Space is a uncanny lieu , and the quest to explore its enigma in person has been no pocket-size source of curiousness and surprise . Here are some lesser - known fact about humanity ’s ongoing missions beyond Earth ’s atmosphere .
Above : Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on February 8 , 2010 , in the Shuttle Program ’s final nighttime launch | credit entry : NASA
11. Shit Happens – Even in Space
Above : From the audio copy of the Apollo 10 delegacy , Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan , Command Module Pilot John Young , and Commander Thomas Stafford hash out a unaired meeting of the turd kind . ViaDistractions in Space .
10. Tall Pilots Need Not Apply
So you wanna vanish spaceships for NASA?You’ll want a college degree in mathematics , skill or engineering ; a minimum of 1,000 hours a command pilot in a jet-propelled plane aircraft ; and be able to pass a NASA distance physical , which requires remote visual acuity , ripe blood air pressure and – here ’s the literal zinger – a height between 62 and 75 inches . you may organise , train , and account for just about every other aspect of NASA ’s Pilot Astronaut requirement ( you may even have your eyes correct with laser OR ) , but unless you ’re between 5’2″ and 6’3″ , you are n’t get behind the steering wheel . ( as luck would have it , the top requirements for Mission Specialists – between 58.5 and 76 inch – are a niggling broader . )
9. NASA Holds 1 in every 1,000 U.S. Patents
Because – surprise ! – design ballistic capsule and getting humans to Earth electron orbit and the Moon usually meansinventing brand young solutions to problems most people have n’t even remember of yet .
8. Neil Armstrong Didn’t Misspeak on the Moon
Armstrong always maintained that the set phrase he uttered while first set groundwork on the Moon was not the grammatically incorrect “ That ’s one small step for mankind , ” but rather “ That ’s one pocket-size step for a man . ”
“ I think that reasonable mass will agnize that I did n’t purposely make an inane argument and that sure as shooting the ‘ a ’ was intended,”he once recount biographer James R. Hansen , “ because that ’s the only elbow room the statement makes any sense . ”
More recently , however , the controversial sentencehas been impute to a quirkiness of dialect – on the face of it fundamental Ohioans ( like Armstrong ) tend to intermingle the two - word sequence “ for a ” into what Michigan State University researcher Laura Dilley describes as a “ frrr(uh ) ” phone . As we compose when Dilley ’s analysis first came to light :
https://gizmodo.com/neil-armstrong-didnt-misspeak-on-the-moon-thats-how-510920446
The careful aid of the integral major planet combined with what was admittedly a less than optimal contagion timbre imply that Armstrong ’s “ for a man ” sounded like “ for serviceman , ” even if he himself had no dubiety he read the right thing .
7. And His Famous Speech Was Not Spontaneous
Neil Armstrong maintained until his death that his “ One low footprint ” speech had been made spontaneously , and consider shortly before ready infantry on the lunar Earth’s surface ; but a late interview with his chum , Dean Armstrong , suggests that Neil ’s iconic two - linerwas actually plan several months before the Apollo 11 launch , over a game of peril .
https://gizmodo.com/neil-armstrong-may-have-lied-about-the-origins-of-his-5972464
Edit : Andrew Chalkin , author of A Man on the Moon e - mailed us to clear up that Armstrong never claimed his statement was self-generated . As he wrote in an article for SPACE.com :
Nothing in Neil ’s post - flight statements rules out the possibility that he thought up the “ one small stair ” line before leaving Earth . He did n’t say “ I thought up the quote after we land ; ” he said , “ I decided what I would say after we landed . ”
6. President Nixon Prepared a Speech in the Event of an Apollo 11 “Moon Disaster”
And if you already have a go at it about Nixon ’s speech ( which he obviously never delivered ) , we bet you did n’t know this : The clergyman tax with deal interment services for the Apollo 11 cosmonaut was instructed to adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea , but to rather commend the cosmonaut ’ souls to “ the deepest of the thick ” – which is just terrific and forceful and beautiful all at the same time .
https://gizmodo.com/read-the-speech-nixon-prepared-in-case-the-apollo-11-as-5880226
5. The Moon Has a Distinct Smell
spaceman aboard several lunar missions have report that Sun Myung Moon dust smells distinctly of “ lactating ashes in a fireplace ” and “ spent gunpowder . ” ( And according to Apollo 16 spaceman John Young , it does n’t savour “ half bad . ” )
4. So Does Space
According to Louis Allamandola , beginner and director of the Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Lab at NASA Ames Research Center , distance is full of polycyclic redolent hydrocarbons that sense not unlike metal , Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel fumes and barbecue(astronauts recall aboard the International Space Station after a 6 - time of day spacewalk have report smelling “ burned ” or “ fried ” steak . )
3. The Apollo 11 Crew Took Out Life Insurance Policies in the Form of Autographs
exposure via collectspace.com
Life Insurance for a Moon - restrain spaceman in the late sixty was , understandably , ridiculously expensive . To check their menage were provided for in the case of their deaths , Neil Armstrong , Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins organise their own life indemnity policy . Via NPR :
“ These astronauts had been signing autograph since the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. they were announced as astronauts , and they knew even though eBay did n’t exist back then , that there was a market for such thing , ” [ articulate Robert Pearlman , a space historian and collector with collectspace.com ] . “ There was demand . ”
specially for what were called cover - – envelope signed by astronauts and postmarked on important dates .
About a calendar month before Apollo 11 was set to launch , the three astronauts enter quarantine . And , during free moments in the following workweek , each of the astronauts signed hundreds of cover .
They give them to a friend . And on important days — the 24-hour interval of the launch , the day the astronauts land on the moon — their admirer got them to the post government agency and got them postmarked , and then distributed them to the astronauts ’ families .
It was life indemnity in the form of autographs .
Today , it ’s not rare for one of these indemnity autographs to fetch $ 30,000 at auction .
2. NASA Hypnotized Apollo 12 Astronaut Pete Conrad to Keep Him from Swearing
The Agency did its best to preclude and cover upthe less radio- and family - friendly transmissions between its spaceman . One astronaut , in particular , had a riding habit of listing off profanities when his judgment wander . anticipate a PR incubus , NASA took an interesting pre-emptive stair :
https://gizmodo.com/how-nasa-kept-astronauts-from-swearing-on-the-moon-5873762
In make for his delegation , NASA had the spaceman hypnotized . Rather than curse , a psychiatrist put the idea in his head that he would rather hum when his brain wandered . The hypnotized spaceman is rarely name , but only one man can be listen humming as he skipps across the lunar Earth’s surface . transmission from Commander Pete Conrad are punctuate with “ dum de dum dum dum ” and “ dum do do do , do do ” making him the likeliest candidate .
1. Drinking Water in Space Is Harder Than It Sounds
Again from the Apollo 10 audio copy , Cernan , Young and Stafford discuss , somewhat abashedly , how to drink water in infinite . Via distraction in Space .
NASAScienceSpaceTechnology
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