[m777z]

Reminds me of the speech that Nixon would've given had the Apollo 11 astronauts been stranded on the Moon:

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/11/in-event-of-moon-disast...

[darrenf]

And then there's Michael Collins's take:

> "My secret terror for the last six months has been leaving them on the Moon and returning to Earth alone; now I am within minutes of finding out the truth of the matter," he wrote. "If they fail to rise from the surface, or crash back into it, I am not going to commit suicide; I am coming home, forthwith, but I will be a marked man for life and I know it."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/19/michael-coll...

[pinewurst]

Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire" is by far the best of the astronaut memoirs (IMHO). Really well written!

[mrec]

Interesting; I'd seen that speech before, but hadn't spotted the deliberate echo of Rupert Brooke in the last line [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soldier_(poem)

[52-6F-62]

One of my questions was what the contingency plan for the astronauts actually was. From what I could find, it's only that they would stay in comms with NASA until the air ran too low, when they would end comms—shortly before suffocation. Then NASA would broadcast a burial rite by a select clergyman.

Is this the extent of it? Does anybody know if they were to suffocate, or if they had another option? Surely suffocating on the moon would be similarly terrifying to drowning isolated in the ocean. Sure the potential was known, and the reasons noble, but still...

[Sharlin]

Dying of oxygen deprivation is actually one of the most peaceful ways to go. You just get drowsy, then pass out. The physical feeling of suffocation is caused by CO2 buildup in the blood, not lack of oxygen. So as long as their CO2 scrubbers worked, they could have just turned off the oxygen valve and drift off to sleep.

[52-6F-62]

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking of it as closer to holding one's breath/atmosphere leaving. I hadn't thought of it simply being an increase in C02 concentration.

[Doxin]

It's not an increase in CO2 concentration. It's a decrease in O2 concentration. Humans can't actually sense low O2 levels, but instead only high CO2 levels.

[tomrod]

I have always loved this letter.

[RcouF1uZ4gsC]

I first learned of that speech from this xkcd https://xkcd.com/1484/

[teddyh]

The fourth one always reminds me of Explorers We, written by Philip K. Dick in 1959:

https://d3gxp3iknbs7bs.cloudfront.net/attachments/42055afc4c...