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AlbaneseGummies327 OP t1_jcud9xw wrote

Fallen Astronaut is a 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck.

It is a stylized figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit, intended to commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration.

It was commissioned and placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15 at Hadley Rille on August 2, 1971 UTC, next to a plaque listing 14 names of those who died up to that time. The statue lies on the ground among several footprints.

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anymoredraw701 t1_jcuedfm wrote

We should’ve sent a second one with the Mars Laboratory.

The list has gotten quite a bit longer...:/

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3SquirrelsinaCoat t1_jcuzplg wrote

If you think about the artifacts we have from ancient human history, the stuff that survives is small and blunt. An arrowhead, a shell trinket, even a little carved doll. Imagine historians 60,000 years from now. Will they remember what we did, or is this one of the things that will remain and they'll wonder what we meant by it?

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Moist-Cut-7998 t1_jcv4lay wrote

So this confuses me, a while ago there was a post arguing about whether the moon landing was real or not. I suggested proving the disbelievers wrong by taking a photo of the landing site. The majority of responses said it was too small an area to find, yet we can find a tiny plaque?

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ESF-hockeeyyy t1_jcv91ws wrote

Really interesting to see the Soviet names there too. This was practically just past the peak of the space race, and global tensions weren’t any better or worse. A nice touch to include the Soviet sacrifices too.

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3SquirrelsinaCoat t1_jcv9vwn wrote

Replying to shanefking (#2,272,752)

To find Neanderthal sites, we imagine their activity and look in logical areas and then get very lucky. In 60,000, if human data is lost at some point (which becomes a greater risk with digitizing knowledge), future anthropologists with slim details about our civilization might only know, "They went to the Moon. We suspect in these areas. Let's see what we can find." And then they get lucky and find this guy with the hieroglyphics plate nearby.

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benzoe590 t1_jcvn5g6 wrote

Replying to AlbaneseGummies327 (#2,272,384)

There’s one other one that comes to mind, that being the “Moon Museum”. It’s a ceramic wafer about an inch wide, and is believed to have been hidden in the gold blanketing of Apollo 12’s lander legs.

A couple prominent artists were featured on it including Andy Warhol.

Source

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NetworkLlama t1_jcvnrew wrote

Replying to AlbaneseGummies327 (#2,271,527)

Every time I see Komarov's name, I get angry. Most astronaut deaths can be traced to a bad decision somewhere, either in design or construction, and none of them expected to die in the ways that they did. Even for Challenger, they thought the odds were with them for a safe flight. Komarov's situation was so blatantly based on politics--everyone was afraid of Brezhnev's wrath in case of a delayed launch--that he knew he was going to die, and he preferred that it be him instead of close friend and national/world hero Yuri Gagarin.

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ergzay t1_jcvs0yx wrote

Replying to Due_Menu_893 (#2,271,776)

Note: This was placed as a private agreement between the artist and the astronauts and then later tried to claim that the agreement was different than what the astronauts claimed and he tried to later profit off of it and sell 950 copies of the statue.

From wikipedia:

> The crew kept the memorial's existence a secret until after completion of their mission. After public disclosure, the National Air and Space Museum requested a replica of the statue. Controversy soon followed, as Van Hoeydonck claimed a different understanding of the agreement made with the astronauts and attempted to sell up to 950 copies of the statue. He finally relented under pressure from NASA, which had a strict policy against commercial exploitation of the US government space program.

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kayak_enjoyer t1_jcwi8ip wrote

It seems strange to me that the moon has no weather. I know it has no atmosphere, but every second of my life has been spent on Earth, where weather is unavoidable.

It's still up there? So weird.

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RollaCoastinPoopah t1_jcx1hgr wrote

Americans already leaving rubbish up there… go back and pick up your shit.

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420binchicken t1_jcxbc12 wrote

Replying to AlbaneseGummies327 (#2,273,160)

We will never know. It’d be nice to think they would. Apollo-Soyuz happened in the 70’s, and that would have taken a lot of co-operation and co-ordination between US and Russian space agency staff. I imagine most of them could put the politics aside and appreciate each others achievements in the field.

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Hattix t1_jcxew2h wrote

What's not well known is that, during the Apollo 15 mission, Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin almost added his own name to the list.

He had undetected and severe coronary artery disease and developed bigeminy while on the way to the Moon. If he wasn't in the pure oxygen and zero-G environment of the Apollo Command Module, that would have had a good chance to progress to full on fibrillation and zero blood pressure.

The coronary artery disease was only detected two years later when he had a major heart attack (at the age of 43!) and was given an emergency triple bypass.

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rattlebonez1 t1_jcz05it wrote

Yea We are so Gullible as a species..No one will ever be able to see this for themselves..I'm more of a hands on see in person kinda guy..lmfao..

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DanYHKim t1_jd07xzv wrote

Dahlquist!

Who will answer the muster for him?

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