Does anyone know of links to quotes from astronaouts that walked on the moon stating that they walked on the surface of the moon? Anything written or filmed?
There's plenty of stuff if you look around, but why do you just want
links? What about all the pre-internet material that's available? For instance, from the DVD of the movie
For All Mankind:
Soundtrack1:09:05 James B. Irwin: I felt like I was an alien as I travelled through space. But when I got on the moon I didn't feel that at all. I felt at home there even though the earth was a long ways away. We could see it directly above, about the size of a marble. And realise that we were there but by the grace of God. I felt like I was at the end of a thin cord that, that could be cut at any time. It was precarious, but yet I felt comfortable. I felt something other than just what we can visually sense. A spiritual presence was there. Perhaps it was because so many people on the earth were focusing their attention. They were maybe sending signals to us somehow. But I sensed, I guess in away much like maybe the first man on the earth would have sensed — like Adam and perhaps Eve as they were standing on the earth and they realized they were all alone, there was no one else on the earth. But yet they had that special communication. And I guess it was similar to the feeling I had on the moon when I realized that Dave Scott and I were the only two on this vast planet, another world. We were the only two there. We felt an unseen love. We were not alone. 1:10:44
CommentaryGene Cernan — First words0:49:24 Al Reinert: How about your first words when you stepped down? 0:49:27
0:49:27 Gene Cernan: Well, no-one ever remembers the words I said. Everybody remembers Neil's words, and that's appropriate, and I tend to be an ad-libber, and I tend not to be one who wants to be programmed. 0:49:37
0:49:39 Gene Cernan: First words for the last man on the moon, you know they're six missions down the line. But here was the end of Apollo, and I just felt that the people who helped get us there, the people who gave of themselves, their courage, their dedication, their self-sacrifice, the people who were losing their jobs the moment Apollo 17 left the pad, and a lot got their pink slips when we launched, I wanted to dedicate our flight to all those people who made it possible, to all of those people who made
any of our steps on the moon possible because it was... yes it was the technology, but it was the human endeavour, the commitment of the people to do something that most thought was impossible, the commitment of the people to do something that most of the world thought couldn't be done. It's what allowed people like Neil and myself to walk on the surface of the moon. And so I just dedicated Apollo 17, when I said, "I dedicate these first steps to all those who made it all possible." Period. And I thought that said enough. 0:50:40
Gene Cernan — Sound0:50:42 Gene Cernan: When you stand on the moon, of course, you're in a vacuum, and so there is no sound, external. What we hear in the suit is our own breathing. Of course we're on the radio, so we're talking to people. We can hear a little machinery running our backpack, there are oxygen pumps and water pumps and that kind of thing. Externally when you take a hammer and you take a big swat at a rock, you can't hear it, but you can feel it, and feeling is almost like hearing. There is a buzz and a hum of a couple of environmental control systems and so forth, humming in the background, but you don't hear them because the dynamics of where you have been and what you have just done is so overpowering that they stop. Everything comes to an abrupt halt, and although I know there was some sound in the background, I didn't hear it, and to me that was silence. 0:51:36
0:51:36 Al Reinert: That's solitude, too. 0:51:38
0:51:38 Gene Cernan: It was solitude for a moment until we had to come to life and come to the realisation of where we were at that moment in space and time and history. We had just landed on another planet in our universe. Just saying that almost seems unreal to me. 0:51:53
Gene Cernan — Things left undone1:03:32 Gene Cernan: There are a lot of things I left undone when I was on the moon. I'd go back to the moon tomorrow morning. 1:03:36
Gene Cernan — One-sixth gravity1:03:44 Gene Cernan: There's only been 12 people who have ever experienced one-sixth gravity. Think about that. I would trade all the zero-gravity and all the earth gravity in the world — that's not meant to be a pun, but — that exists, for one-sixth gravity. It's so much easier to get around in and so much more comfortable, but the nice thing, much better than zero gravity, there is a down. You lay a pencil down, it stays down. You can pour water in a cup and it stays in the cup. In zero gravity it doesn't do that. And yet you're so much lighter on your feet. You can move so much more easily and quickly and you get accustomed to that, even though you're in this big, heavy pressure suit, you can get around so much more, so much more easily. We bounced around like rabbits and kangaroos and whatever. 1:04:30
Gene Cernan — Reflecting1:04:40 Al Reinert: It was hard to identify with because at the time it was going on it just seemed so bizarre and so hard to imagine yourself in that position, in that role. 1:04:52
1:04:52 Gene Cernan: You know you've done something unique and special and you've just got to take time to think about it. I've always felt because time was — on the moon time was our greatest asset because we were there. But it was also our greatest enemy because we didn't have enough of it. But I am convinced you absorb things subconsciously, that it takes time to sort of accept and realise. There were things going on on the surface of the moon. We were busy drilling holes, doing geology, taking pictures, and all those things, but you couldn't help but take a look. Steal a glance and look over your shoulder and look at the earth and take 30 seconds to realise where you were at that moment in space, in time, in history. And now you've done it, now you go back to work, but somewhere in there your subconscious absorbs that moment and it's somewhere in there, it's available for you to think about and come out and spend some time reflecting upon it. 1:05:47
Gene Cernan — We brought life to the moon1:10:50 Gene Cernan: So we brought life to it, we brought happiness, we brought joy, and we left our mark. Those who follow us some day — whenever — will know we were there, that there was life there, that we did truly explore within the capabilities we had at the time. So the moon is dead from a geologic point of view, it is not dead from a spiritual point of view. We left a little bit of ourselves there. 1:11:18
