Here is a few facts about the Apollo 11 mission you probably didn't know about: 1 The computers had less processing power than a cellphone. 2. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11's hydrogen-gas filters didn't work, making every dring bubbly. 3. One astronaut spent his entire mission on anti-diarrha drug because they didn't have "zero gravity" toilets yet. 4. When Apollo 11's lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn't fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module's landing 4 miles off-target. 5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. 6. The "One small step for man" wasn't actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn't compress and lock down. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle's ladder to the surface. 7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because ther was no outside handle. 8.Planting the flag was a monumental task. Studies suggested that th lunar soil was soft, but they found it was a thin dust over rock. The managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast and then took care not to accidently knock it over! By the way, the flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this to avoid another "Tang". Just thought you might like to know. Bob Pratt, BBD1 McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. Now a division of Boeing. Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:41:55 -0500 Subject: [GeoStL] NGR-Apollo 11 anniversary From: showme69@xxxxxxxxx To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx NASA is recreating the mission online. http://wechoosethemoon.org/ Gale _________________________________________________________________ Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd_062009