This episode is completely inspirational in it’s intention. I listened to it twice and both times paused, sitting quiet in my seat alone with my thoughts.

The idea or notion of this solitary family photograph left up there and possibly forever, there it is right now as i write laying on the surface of the moon and likely never to be recovered or maybe one day…

The thought of this, the gesture of leaving this photograph is so completely personal and so precisely human, to me this in some ways is more profound than staking your countries flag.

Of course, being a father meant this resonated in a certain way however the idea, the importance of family, and children it is so fundamental to our culture and sense of being human (let alone the survival of our species!) the act of leaving this family photograph, it is so beautiful in it’s meaning and its’ emotion, it just blew me away!

I am a relative newbie to the Memory Palace but i am hooked.

Great job on the show Nate very poetic stuff.

Cheers,
Tom Pilgrim

London, UK

Regarding Charlie’s “South Carolina lilt”, the voice in the audio clip telling Neil “we can see you coming down the ladder”, is not Charlie. Charlie was the CapCom for the first moon landing. He is the one saying “Roger Twang-Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again.
Thanks a lot.” http://youtu.be/9RCnS_Jry14 Charlie watched Neil later exit the lunar module and go down the ladder while sitting in front of his tv at home.

Charlie’s title as Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) was just that, a title. He was not piloting the lunar module at any time, John Young was. Young, as Commander, was most definitely the “Neil Armstrong” to Charlie’s “Buzz Aldrin” and not the other way around.

While Charlie and John were on the moon’s surface, they got news from Houston that Congress had approved funding for the Space Shuttle program. The space shuttle was designed for low earth orbit, and the astronauts knew the next mission, Apollo 17, would be the last trip to the moon for a long time. No more moon shots, no moon base planned, not for the 1980s.

Charlie knew he would likely not go back to the moon. Although he was the backup LMP for Apollo 17, that mission would be headed to a completely different area of the moon. If his family photo wasn’t destroyed by the heat from the sun, the same heat that the spacesuits were designed to protect humans from, his photo was gone as soon as the sun hit it. It’s the thought that counts though.

Astronauts are competitive. They chose to go to the moon not because it was easy but because it was hard. Family life took a back seat to the achievement of landing on and exploring the moon. Was it worth all the time and effort spent, and the marital discord, for only a few days spent on the moon? At the time, the astronauts would probably have said yes.