O
onesmallstep
Guest
<p>I have a question I would like to pose to the good folks here at SDC. It may sound a bit morbid, but it is something I have frequently wondered about, I guess ever since July 20, 1969. </p><p>That is, what if Apollo 11, (or any of the Apollo missions), had crashed on the moon? I know there were contingencies for such a thing, a speech was written for the President to give in case of such an event. The CMPs even trained to come back alone as the sole survivor of Apollo xx.</p><p>Thankfully, nothing like this occurred, but just for the sake of this thread, what do you suppose would have happened if say Neil and Buzz had died on the moon? Even more gruesome than a crash, would have been a scenario whereby the ascent engine fails and the two men just sit there waiting to run out of oxygen. I can imagine a teary eyed Walter Cronkite as he listens to the doomed astronauts say their goodbyes to their loved ones just before the radio goes silent. My goodness...That would have been a very emotional and intense event to endure.</p><p>I know there would have been memorials, speeches, statues built, and the like. But would it have affected the way humanity views the moon even to this day?...Would it have been possible to ever look at the moon again without thinking of those dead astronauts; still there waiting forever vigilantly for a rescue that would never come.</p><p>I wonder if the Apollo missions would have continued?...Probably, but there would have been a big dark cloud hanging over any subsequent missions. I also wonder if there would have ever been a mission to recover bodies, or would the moon forever be the final resting place of those brave souls?</p><p>Another scenario I have wondered about was the possibility of a returning mission missing the re-entry corridor, skipping off into space and forever being in an extended orbit around earth. As Jim Lovell put it, "A permanent monument to the space program." How would it affect the human psyche to be able to go out on a clear night years later and look up and see the Flying Dutchman of the space age streaking through the sky, never being able to find the way home.<img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cry.gif" border="0" alt="Cry" title="Cry" /></p><p>I hope no one thinks I'm weird for thinking of such things, but these scenarios were a real possibility during the Apollo era.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>