Cognitive Labs

Amidst the media hubbub for the initial flight to the moon mission (though there were numerous Apollo missions before - note this was number 11) one of the facts that is not mentioned is that Tang was not included.




This fact was confirmed by Buzz Aldrin himself in an interview...

"We... instead chose a grapefruit-orange mixture as our citrus drink. If Tang was on our flight, I was unaware of it." It might be that Tang was one of those items of National Security that is usually responded to with the statement 'I can neither confirm nor deny...'

Neil Armstrong has also stated that Tang was not used on the Apollo flights [citation needed - source: Wikipedia].

Tang was used, however, starting with the Gemini program...

A NASA engineer working with the Gemini Space Program on a life-support module explained the story of how and why it was used. Paraphrased:

"... There was a particular component of the Gemini life support-system module which produced H2O (water) among other things. This was a byproduct of a recurring chemical reaction of one of the mechanical devices on the life-support module. The astronauts would use this water to drink during their space flight. The problem was, the astronauts did not like the taste of the water because of some of the byproducts produced, which were not harmful of course. So, they added Tang to make the water taste better ..."

The inventor of Tang, William A. Mitchell, also invented Pop Rocks, which it was rumored, caused the untimely demise of Life Cereal's Mikey.

Labels: aldrin, apollo, mitchell, poprocks, tang

While there are many Apollo 11 videos, in this one (below) the suspense kind of builds up, making for a more dramatic lift-off. The pitch and tone of NASA's announcer also increases - leading us to speculate that he may have had a background in broadcasting. (Is this so? - let's research and find out)



The announcer, it turns out, was NASA public affairs officer Jack King.



Also in Alameda, California there is a special Apollo 11 remembrance event with an appearance by Buzz Aldrin aboard the floating, peaceful museum and aircraft carrier Hornet, which was the ship that recovered the space capsule after splashdown (On the calendar, July 24th-26th, 2009). Even if you can't make it during that window, the astronaut quarantine capsule is always on display.

It's also here on our site.

Labels: 11.2, aldrin, apollo, hornet, jacksonville, king

Whomever can design a robotic probe capable of reaching the lunar surface, trekking some 1,400 feet and sending back photos and video by 2010 - will win up to $30 million dollars from Google in the next iteration of the X prize.

The caveat is obtaining lift, attaining escape velocity, and then utilizing the appropriate telemetry to successfully land the object - possibly a bouncing ball lander would be appropriate, as the moon has no atmosphere, however, gravity is 1/6th what it is on the earth. Some of those old Commodore 64 programs that re-created the Apollo telemetry might come in handy.

Labels: $30million, apollo, Google, lander, telemetry, xprize