30 April 2012

This photograph was left on the moon


Universe Today has the story:
On April 23, 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts Charlie Duke and John Young embarked on the third and final EVA of the mission, exploring the Descartes Highlands via Lunar Roving Vehicle. During the EVA, before setting up a Solar Wind Collector, Duke placed a small family photo he had brought along onto the lunar surface and snapped a few photos of  it with his Hasselblad film camera. This is one of the photos.

The portrait shows Charlie, his wife Dorothy, and their two sons Charles and Thomas. It looks like they are sitting on a bench in the summertime... It presumably still sits there today, just inches away from Charlie’s boot print — which, presumably, is also there.

To know that a family photo is resting upon the surface of another world is nothing short of amazing… while the missions to the Moon were a testament to human endeavor, it’s small things like this that remind us of the people that made it all possible. 
Image: NASA/JSC scan.  Via Palahniuk & Chocolate.

12 comments:

  1. I'd bet the image is very degraded (if it's legible at all) since color prints in the 1970s used dye-based color. The intense UV light on the Lunar surface would likely have obliterated the image's light-sensitive colors quickly.

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  2. Was just thinking "sun bleached" myself. Pretty artifact to leave on the moon though.

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  3. It would have been funnier if he had left his keys.

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  4. and the winner for that century's most egocentric parent goes to....
    what purpose did that serve? now I wonder what else they did that they did not share pictures of...
    looks like litter to me (pun intended)

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  5. Astronaut Eugene Cernan, one of the Apollo missions to the moon:

    "I can tell you where I put my daughter's initials in the sand. Nothing is ever going to blow them away."


    This was mentioned on a recent episode of ABC sitcom "Modern Family."

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    1. Yeah, except for small bodies that impact the moon constantly and scar its surface... eventually the initials will be obliterated.

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  6. oh great, visit and litter. lame.

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    1. It's ok, the janitor cleaned up the studio after they were done shooting. ;)

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  7. Complete nonsense. The temperature on the moon is what in the direct sunlight? Yet this picture rivals the Fatima visions for miracles . On EARTH if you put a photo In sunlight it will ruin very quickly. Is moons temperature at the point of boiling water or not? If this picture doesn't degrade then other than an air supply an astronaut doesn't need his space suit. Are the moon landings a fraud?

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    1. Umm... I hope you understand this photo was taken when the photo was placed on the moon. There's nobody there now taking pictures...

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  8. yup.. leaving your stuff on multiple planets.. not smart. first thing I thought was LITTERBUG. fine, put it down, snap pics.. but pick up after yourself cause your mom and the maid don't have a space ship to do it for you.

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    Replies
    1. I understand your sentiment, but look at it this way. Suppose the Mars rover descends into an unexplored Martian crater - would you rather it found a) nothing unusual, or b) pix of the family of an alien nonhuman race that had previously visited and departed?

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