December 2, 2023 • 9 mins
The short answer here is 'very efficiently'! Though perhaps best known as the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin is a tireless champion of space exploration. Learn more in this episode of BrainsStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/buzz-aldrin.htm
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Louren
Vogelbaum Here. Buzz Aldrin may forever be remembered as the
second human being two step foot on the Moon during
the Apollo eleven mission in nineteen sixty nine, but to
dismiss Aldren as history's most famous second place finisher is
(00:22):
to ignore his genius, his bravery, and his tireless advocacy
for crude space exploration. For the article of this episode
is based on How Stuffworks. Spoke with space historian and
author Rod Pyle, who's met and interviewed Aldren a number
of times and never ceases to be amazed by the
former astronaut's active engagement with the future of spaceflight, especially
(00:43):
as he's now ninety three years old. Pyle said, he
stands Ramrod straight, and he's full of energy and ideas.
Buzz thinks more clearly about the stuff than people my
age times three. Born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Junior in Montclair,
New Jersey, in January of nine, teen thirty, Aldren earned
his famous nickname from his little sister Feyanne, who called
(01:04):
him Buzzer instead of brother. He legally changed it to
Buzz in the early nineteen eighties. In a bit of
poetic foreshadowing, Aldren's mother's maiden name was Marion Moon. Aldrin
was a stellar athlete and a straight A student, graduating
one year early from high school. His father, a colonel
in the Air Force and himself an aviation pioneer, had
(01:25):
high expectations for Buzz and secured him a spot at
the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. But Aldren wanted to
go to West Point, says Pyle, because that's where the
flying was happening. After graduating third in his class from
West Point with a degree in mechanical engineering, Aldren enlisted
in the Air Force and shipped off to the Korean War,
where he flew sixty six combat missions and earned the
(01:47):
Distinguished Flying Cross. Aldren learned about the fledgling astronaut program
from Ed White, who he met during a tour of
duty flying F one hundreds in Germany. A Buzz wanted in,
but NASA was excluded recruiting test pilots, not combat pilots,
and the space organization rejected Aldron's first application. Not to
(02:08):
be deterred, Aldron figured out another way. In he knew
that one of the biggest engineering unknowns of spaceflight was
how to dock with another vehicle in orbit, so he
decided to become an expert in that. He earned a
PhD from MIT in astronautics with a thesis titled A
Line of Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous. When
(02:30):
he applied to NASA a second time in nineteen sixty three,
Aldrin won a spot and became the first astronaut with
a doctoral degree. His fellow astronauts called him Doctor Rendezvous.
At NASA, Aldron lived up to his nickname, taking command
of the rendezvous and docking preparations for the Gemini missions.
His first spaceflight was Gemini twelve, the very last Gemini
(02:52):
mission before the launch of the Apollo program. He and
James Lovell rocketed into orbit on November eleventh of nineteen
six with two critical missions, docked with the Agena spacecraft
and conduct the longest spacewalk to date. That first task
might have been a failure if not for Aldrin's speedy
math skills. The astronauts were approaching the Agena about seventy
(03:15):
five miles or two hundred kilometers out and closing fast
when their computerized tracking system went down. Luckily for NASA,
one of the men on the Gemni twelve crew had
spent the last six years calculating orbital trajectories. Pile said,
for a lot of people that would have been a
mission ender, but Buzz pulled out a sextant, a pencil,
(03:35):
a pad of paper, and a slide rule and calculated
the trajectory by hand. They rendez food and docked with
the Agena, using less fuel than anybody had previously using computers.
Then came the spacewalk A, known in NASA parlance as
extra vehicular activity or EVA A. Pile says that previous
spacewalks hadn't gone as planned. Astronaut Gene Cernan almost didn't
(03:59):
make it back from his Gemini nine eva A, suffering
from poor visibility through a fogged adviser, no handholds on
the ship's exterior, and dangerous levels of exhaustion. A Gemini
twelve was NASA's last chance before Apollo to prove its
astronauts could make critical repairs in orbit, but Aldrin didn't
think the top brass was taking it seriously enough to
(04:21):
prepare for his EVA. Aldrin was one of the first
astronauts to use underwater training extensively. Pile says that NASA
didn't have its own neutral buoyancy pool yet, so they
sunk pieces of the Gemini trainer in the deep end
of a pool at a private boys' school in Maryland.
A Pile said, Buzz was a scuba enthusiast, so he
just poured himself into the training and was there all
(04:42):
the time. He was really aggressive about it. All that
preparation paid off. Aldron spent more than five hours conducting
spacewalks on the Gemini twelve mission. He moved around the
ship effortlessly thanks to special handholds and foot restraints that
Aldrin himself had designed. He performed tes maneuvers with tools,
and even cleaned the windows for fun. Buzz was so
(05:05):
relaxed outside the capsule that he even snapped the very
first space selfie. He brought his clunky camera out during
the first EVA and pointed it at Earth, joking to
mission control, Okay, tell everyone down there to smile. Then
he balanced the camera on the edge of his hatch
and aimed it at himself. Now let me raise my
visor and all smile, said Aldron. Posing for these slightly
(05:27):
awkward but historic selfie. After Gemini twelve, Aldrin was slotted
for Apollo eleven, along with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.
Pile explains that Dieke Slayton, who was in charge of
scheduling astronauts NASA at the time, swore that it was
simply the bluck of the draw that Aldrin and Armstrong
were picked for Apollo eleven, and that Armstrong was the
(05:48):
first step foot on the lunar soil. Pile said those
guys were both uniquely qualified. A Buzz was the orbital
dynamics guy who figured out the EVA. Neil was the
incredible X fifteen pilot who was known for extreme flying
skills if you read between the lines, though, and Neil
is the guy with almost no ego and best suited
(06:09):
to be the first on the Moon. There was pushing
and pulling up until the last few months about who
was going to be out first. Aldrin's father really wanted
his son to be the first human on the moon,
and Buzz lobbied hard for the honor, arguing that his
position in the lunar module offered easier access to the hatch.
But once NASA shows Neil Pile says Buzz swallowed his
(06:32):
pride and dutifully executed the mission. While Armstrong's one small
step for Man quote has been immortalized, Aldren's description as
he took his own first steps on the Moon was poetic.
He said, beautiful, beautiful, magnificent desolation. Returning home, Aldron and
(06:52):
the Apollo eleven crew were celebrated as global heroes. A
Pile explained that of the three, while Buzz eventually ridged
his fame the most, he wasn't prepared for the rebound effect.
After such an intense emotional high. How do you follow that?
Pyle said, he descended into a deep depression. Buzz talks
openly about this in his memoir Returned to Earth. His
(07:15):
first marriage failed, he had a drinking problem. Money was tight.
At one point he was actually selling used cars to
make ends meet, but then Aldron found sobriety and his
post NASA calling. He spent every day of the past
four decades promoting the future of crude spaceflight. And who
better than Buzz Aldrin Apollo eleven hero to make the
(07:36):
case for humankind's return to the Moon and beyond. Aldron
isn't just a rocket booster if you'll forgive the pun,
he's very much still an engineer and adventurer at heart.
In the nineteen nineties, Buzz developed an ingenious scheme for
transporting astronauts to Mars called the Aldron Mars Cycler. The
cycler is a hypothetical cross between a space station and
(07:59):
a space craft continuously orbit the Sun in a path
that periodically intersects with each the Earth and Mars. Astronauts
could shuttle to and from the cycler without burning too
much fuel. Buzz also launched the Aldron Family Foundation with
his son Andrew to help inspire and prepare the next
generation of astronauts through steam education that is, science, technology, engineering, arts,
(08:23):
and mathematics. He was also a twenty ten contestant on
Dancing with the Stars at age eighty and recorded a
semi satirical rap called Rocket Experience with Snoop Dogg around
the same time, and of course, he lent his name
to Buzz light Year. In the Toy Story series, A
Pile described a phone conversation with Aldrin as the equivalent
(08:43):
of sitting in on a graduate level course in aerospace engineering.
He said, Buzz has a plan for everything. You do.
Get the sense that there's three or four brilliant minds
in there, all competing for the same mount and that's
just how smart he is and how driven he is.
(09:04):
Today's episode is based on the article second to None.
Here's the Buzz on buzz Aldrin on HowStuffWorks dot Com,
written by Dave Ruse. The brain Stuff is production by
Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com. It
is produced by Tyler klang A. Four more podcasts from
my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Louren
Vogelbaum Here. Buzz Aldrin may forever be remembered as the
second human being two step foot on the Moon during
the Apollo eleven mission in nineteen sixty nine, but to
dismiss Aldren as history's most famous second place finisher is
(00:22):
to ignore his genius, his bravery, and his tireless advocacy
for crude space exploration. For the article of this episode
is based on How Stuffworks. Spoke with space historian and
author Rod Pyle, who's met and interviewed Aldren a number
of times and never ceases to be amazed by the
former astronaut's active engagement with the future of spaceflight, especially
(00:43):
as he's now ninety three years old. Pyle said, he
stands Ramrod straight, and he's full of energy and ideas.
Buzz thinks more clearly about the stuff than people my
age times three. Born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Junior in Montclair,
New Jersey, in January of nine, teen thirty, Aldren earned
his famous nickname from his little sister Feyanne, who called
(01:04):
him Buzzer instead of brother. He legally changed it to
Buzz in the early nineteen eighties. In a bit of
poetic foreshadowing, Aldren's mother's maiden name was Marion Moon. Aldrin
was a stellar athlete and a straight A student, graduating
one year early from high school. His father, a colonel
in the Air Force and himself an aviation pioneer, had
(01:25):
high expectations for Buzz and secured him a spot at
the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. But Aldren wanted to
go to West Point, says Pyle, because that's where the
flying was happening. After graduating third in his class from
West Point with a degree in mechanical engineering, Aldren enlisted
in the Air Force and shipped off to the Korean War,
where he flew sixty six combat missions and earned the
(01:47):
Distinguished Flying Cross. Aldren learned about the fledgling astronaut program
from Ed White, who he met during a tour of
duty flying F one hundreds in Germany. A Buzz wanted in,
but NASA was excluded recruiting test pilots, not combat pilots,
and the space organization rejected Aldron's first application. Not to
(02:08):
be deterred, Aldron figured out another way. In he knew
that one of the biggest engineering unknowns of spaceflight was
how to dock with another vehicle in orbit, so he
decided to become an expert in that. He earned a
PhD from MIT in astronautics with a thesis titled A
Line of Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous. When
(02:30):
he applied to NASA a second time in nineteen sixty three,
Aldrin won a spot and became the first astronaut with
a doctoral degree. His fellow astronauts called him Doctor Rendezvous.
At NASA, Aldron lived up to his nickname, taking command
of the rendezvous and docking preparations for the Gemini missions.
His first spaceflight was Gemini twelve, the very last Gemini
(02:52):
mission before the launch of the Apollo program. He and
James Lovell rocketed into orbit on November eleventh of nineteen
six with two critical missions, docked with the Agena spacecraft
and conduct the longest spacewalk to date. That first task
might have been a failure if not for Aldrin's speedy
math skills. The astronauts were approaching the Agena about seventy
(03:15):
five miles or two hundred kilometers out and closing fast
when their computerized tracking system went down. Luckily for NASA,
one of the men on the Gemni twelve crew had
spent the last six years calculating orbital trajectories. Pile said,
for a lot of people that would have been a
mission ender, but Buzz pulled out a sextant, a pencil,
(03:35):
a pad of paper, and a slide rule and calculated
the trajectory by hand. They rendez food and docked with
the Agena, using less fuel than anybody had previously using computers.
Then came the spacewalk A, known in NASA parlance as
extra vehicular activity or EVA A. Pile says that previous
spacewalks hadn't gone as planned. Astronaut Gene Cernan almost didn't
(03:59):
make it back from his Gemini nine eva A, suffering
from poor visibility through a fogged adviser, no handholds on
the ship's exterior, and dangerous levels of exhaustion. A Gemini
twelve was NASA's last chance before Apollo to prove its
astronauts could make critical repairs in orbit, but Aldrin didn't
think the top brass was taking it seriously enough to
(04:21):
prepare for his EVA. Aldrin was one of the first
astronauts to use underwater training extensively. Pile says that NASA
didn't have its own neutral buoyancy pool yet, so they
sunk pieces of the Gemini trainer in the deep end
of a pool at a private boys' school in Maryland.
A Pile said, Buzz was a scuba enthusiast, so he
just poured himself into the training and was there all
(04:42):
the time. He was really aggressive about it. All that
preparation paid off. Aldron spent more than five hours conducting
spacewalks on the Gemini twelve mission. He moved around the
ship effortlessly thanks to special handholds and foot restraints that
Aldrin himself had designed. He performed tes maneuvers with tools,
and even cleaned the windows for fun. Buzz was so
(05:05):
relaxed outside the capsule that he even snapped the very
first space selfie. He brought his clunky camera out during
the first EVA and pointed it at Earth, joking to
mission control, Okay, tell everyone down there to smile. Then
he balanced the camera on the edge of his hatch
and aimed it at himself. Now let me raise my
visor and all smile, said Aldron. Posing for these slightly
(05:27):
awkward but historic selfie. After Gemini twelve, Aldrin was slotted
for Apollo eleven, along with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.
Pile explains that Dieke Slayton, who was in charge of
scheduling astronauts NASA at the time, swore that it was
simply the bluck of the draw that Aldrin and Armstrong
were picked for Apollo eleven, and that Armstrong was the
(05:48):
first step foot on the lunar soil. Pile said those
guys were both uniquely qualified. A Buzz was the orbital
dynamics guy who figured out the EVA. Neil was the
incredible X fifteen pilot who was known for extreme flying
skills if you read between the lines, though, and Neil
is the guy with almost no ego and best suited
(06:09):
to be the first on the Moon. There was pushing
and pulling up until the last few months about who
was going to be out first. Aldrin's father really wanted
his son to be the first human on the moon,
and Buzz lobbied hard for the honor, arguing that his
position in the lunar module offered easier access to the hatch.
But once NASA shows Neil Pile says Buzz swallowed his
(06:32):
pride and dutifully executed the mission. While Armstrong's one small
step for Man quote has been immortalized, Aldren's description as
he took his own first steps on the Moon was poetic.
He said, beautiful, beautiful, magnificent desolation. Returning home, Aldron and
(06:52):
the Apollo eleven crew were celebrated as global heroes. A
Pile explained that of the three, while Buzz eventually ridged
his fame the most, he wasn't prepared for the rebound effect.
After such an intense emotional high. How do you follow that?
Pyle said, he descended into a deep depression. Buzz talks
openly about this in his memoir Returned to Earth. His
(07:15):
first marriage failed, he had a drinking problem. Money was tight.
At one point he was actually selling used cars to
make ends meet, but then Aldron found sobriety and his
post NASA calling. He spent every day of the past
four decades promoting the future of crude spaceflight. And who
better than Buzz Aldrin Apollo eleven hero to make the
(07:36):
case for humankind's return to the Moon and beyond. Aldron
isn't just a rocket booster if you'll forgive the pun,
he's very much still an engineer and adventurer at heart.
In the nineteen nineties, Buzz developed an ingenious scheme for
transporting astronauts to Mars called the Aldron Mars Cycler. The
cycler is a hypothetical cross between a space station and
(07:59):
a space craft continuously orbit the Sun in a path
that periodically intersects with each the Earth and Mars. Astronauts
could shuttle to and from the cycler without burning too
much fuel. Buzz also launched the Aldron Family Foundation with
his son Andrew to help inspire and prepare the next
generation of astronauts through steam education that is, science, technology, engineering, arts,
(08:23):
and mathematics. He was also a twenty ten contestant on
Dancing with the Stars at age eighty and recorded a
semi satirical rap called Rocket Experience with Snoop Dogg around
the same time, and of course, he lent his name
to Buzz light Year. In the Toy Story series, A
Pile described a phone conversation with Aldrin as the equivalent
(08:43):
of sitting in on a graduate level course in aerospace engineering.
He said, Buzz has a plan for everything. You do.
Get the sense that there's three or four brilliant minds
in there, all competing for the same mount and that's
just how smart he is and how driven he is.
(09:04):
Today's episode is based on the article second to None.
Here's the Buzz on buzz Aldrin on HowStuffWorks dot Com,
written by Dave Ruse. The brain Stuff is production by
Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com. It
is produced by Tyler klang A. Four more podcasts from
my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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