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Apollo Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Sixth Man On the Moon, Dies At 85 (examiner.com)

Posted by timothy on from the brief-hours-well-spent dept.

MarkWhittington writes: According to a story in the Palm Beach Post, Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 85. He flew as lunar module pilot on board Apollo 14, which flew to and from the moon between January 31, 1971 and February 9, 1971. His crewmates were Alan Shepard and Stuart Roosa. Apollo 14 was the return to flight for the moon landing program after the near disaster of Apollo 13 in April 1970, and explored the Fra Mauro highlands on the lunar surface. NASA marks Mitchell's passing as well.

48 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sixth man on the soundstage! by Jhon · · Score: 1

    Ya know... some jokes at the expense of the deceased can "work" (see Graham Chapman).

    Something like this is just bad taste...

  2. Weird by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

    Didn't recognize the name, or the individual Wikipedia picture of him, then saw the crew photo of him with Alan Shepard, and said, "Oh, of course...". Getting old myself; probably time for my Geritol and a nap...

  3. Not a bad deal, really. by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If a prenuptial agreement with life had been presented to me when I was 21 or 22, I would've happily signed on for walking on the moon & living into my 80's.

    He had an interesting life; probably never dull and with few regrets.

    Rest in peace, astronaut.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Possibly few regrets... but think about what it would be like, after that event. You were one of the first few human beings to ever walk on another planet, and now... what? What can you ever do or experience in the rest of your life that is going to compare to that?

      Well, sure, maybe there are other highly important things to some people, like having children. But that's very different. That's something almost anyone can do, and countless people do every single day. But walking on another world? That's in a different category.

      So I could see room for a feeling that the most important thing you're ever going to do, is now done. Some, like Aldrin, have gone into public service and public policy, trying to shape the future as they want to see it. Others became near recluses. But I don't think it's easy, per se, to be an ex-moon-walker earthling.

    2. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Indisputably, his life was one of great accomplishment and fulfillment.

      However, it's a shame that his post-NASA career took him down the rabbit hole into pseudo-science and UFOs.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    3. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
      People are often surprised when their heroes turn out to be regular, mortal, flawed human beings.

      Actually, it makes the accomplishment even more amazing for its rather humble origin.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    4. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by Radres · · Score: 1

      Tell you what I'd do... two chicks at the same time!

    5. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Well said. Heroes aren't heroes because of their perfections, but because of what they do despite their imperfections.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      take the look to independently investigate the research that has been done in this area. There is a lot of bullshit, but there is also work that has never been refuted—work whose significance level is such that it is above and beyond anything except it is adequate in any other area

      Please link to this, I am not aware of such research.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Go read Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon".

      Pretty much all of the moonwalkers (and CM pilots) did not experience what you are talking about.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    8. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by lsulfate · · Score: 1

      Google would be your friend on this. A good start would be to simply search "Dean Radin". He has done research of his own, but is also pretty much the current standardbearer in this area, and you will find abundant links connected to his name. If you nose around a bit, you can also find the entire history of the ganzfeld research and all of the back-and-forth that has gone with it. Odds against chance in much of this research are huge, and that is sometimes used as a point against it: that such odds cannot be attained in any normal experimental circumstance, and therefore must be spurious in this case, especially. But the research is carefully done, statistical techniques have indeed sprung into being in pursuit of more rigorous ways to test these results, and although the mainstream scientific community has certainly not accepted them by any means, I personally find the results difficult to dismiss as chance. Everybody has an ontology, and no one likes results that seem to overturn it. Results such as these certainly upset the apple cart.

      Other research that extends back many decades originates in the work of the Frenchman Rene Warcollier and concerns clairvoyance, specifically the kinds of drawings that are now done under the name of "remote viewing". Remote viewing is simply clairvoyance couched in military parlance, and the field is absolutely rife with ex-Army nutcases spending their time on shows like Coast-To-Coast talking about alien invasions and whatnot. But the core of this research is interesting in that a) demonstrable results have been achieved on a repeated basis and b) the phenomena are lawful in the sense that drawings made by "viewers" not in normal contact with the target deviate from those targets in predictable ways. Objects may be broken down into details: squares become represented by a set of right angles, the American flag is broken down into a set of parallel lines, a rectangle, and an elongated cylinder, all rendered separately, and the viewer has no idea of the relation between them. And it's interesting that there are parallels between these phenomena and those found in patients with brain lesions, in this case lesions of the right hemisphere.

      To summarize, the research is if you look for it, and resist the urge to make a 'skeptic' site your first (and only) stop. Even searching a term such as "remote viewing"—which will dredge up a lot of crazies—will provide evidence that something is going on here. Add to that the ganzfeld research and earlier efforts extending back decades, and it becomes clear that it's unwarranted to dismiss the field out-of-hand. Some of the best stuff really comes from Warcollier—there's nothing statistically satisfying here, because he didn't do statistics, but the lawfulness of the phenomena are well demonstrated in the couple of books out by him. Ultimately, it's more satisfying. But unfortunately, there's a real paucity of work by the man available on the internet. The refrain "there is no evidence" simply isn't true. It's just something repeated over and over, and I think often by people who have an evangelical conviction against these phenomena from the get-go. You do have to look in the right places—nothing will change the reality that literally 95% of what you find in this topic area is utter bollocks written by New Age flakes. But research results are out there, and they're not easily set aside, in spite of what some would have you believe.

    9. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch'.

      That doesn't sound like going down a rabbit hole. It sounds more like waking up.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    10. Re:Not a bad deal, really. by lsulfate · · Score: 1

      In the best of these studies, there is no question of subtle indirect influence. Double blinding has been carried to extremes in some of these experiments, but their results are still rejected—essentially categorically—by those who find the challenge to their ontological positions intolerable. That's why it's really necessary to study the body of research in some detail, rather than confining oneself to secondhand surveys, which are inevitably written from one standpoint or another.

    11. Re: Not a bad deal, really. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      There are people that are exceptional at some things. They'll be mediocre at many others and dangerously incompetent at some.

      Always be on guard for the halo effect.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. The really sad thing by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The really sad thing here is that it is likely that all of the original Apollo astronauts will be dead before anyone else goes to any non-Earth body.

    1. Re:The really sad thing by retroworks · · Score: 1

      I think it was rational to go to the moon a limited number of times, and then give it a rest. Imagine if NASA had continued sending people to the moon into the 1990s, and it became an entitlement program. Edgar Mitchell is perfect in that he was brave, talented, and rare. A thousand more moonwalkers would have led to a backlash instead of nostalgia.

      --
      Gently reply
    2. Re:The really sad thing by KeensMustard · · Score: 2
      Not that sad.

      We should celebrate the achievement, certainly. Were I to meet one of these guys I would thank them for their service. But regretting the passing of the era of manned lunar flights is like mourning the end of the steam age. Yes - the steam age was a great advance over what came before. Yes, it is steeped (now) in romanticism. But what have now is far superior to the technology to steam technology. Let's not pretend we've regressed because nobody rides a steam engine from London to Oxford.

      The same applies to manned lunar flights (and to a large extent manned spaceflights generally). 50 years ago that was cutting edge. When Apollo was devised, hardly anybody realised the future of spaceflight lay in robotics, which at the time were not very advanced. Now, of course, we have machines which are orders of magnitude more capable than astronauts of yesteryear - that era is past. We can look back fondly, but we don't need to regret that we moved on to better things.

  5. The Sixth Man by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    out of Twelve.

  6. Re: And is an example of the worst... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Never mind the whole thing was kicked off by a democrat and continued by his democratic successor only to be canceled for costing to much by a republican.

    Payed attention in history class? Guess not.

    The political crap from the uninformed is getting old. But hey it's /.

  7. Obligatory xkcd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    relevant infographic

    1. Re:Obligatory xkcd by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Came here for this. Sadly, five down; seven to go.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  8. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just like any orgasm you think you might have witnessed.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  9. Sad in a philosophical sense by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The really sad thing here is that it is likely that all of the original Apollo astronauts will be dead before anyone else goes to any non-Earth body.

    While I agree that this is sad in a philosophical sense, we should also consider that while we haven't sent people to a non-Earth body, we *have*:

    1) Landed on a comet
    2) Got up-close-and-personal images of Pluto
    3) Also Charon
    4) Discovered over 5000 exoplanets
    5) Send a probe out of the solar system (*)
    6) Maintained a manned space station for the last 18 years
    7) Sent several robots wandering around mars and taking pictures
    8) (And occasionally vaporizing the miniature martian town centers with its "heat ray")

    And a bunch of other things, such as mapping the CMB, finding strong evidence for dark matter, imaged an exoplanet, gotten spectrometer readings of the atmosphere in an exoplanet, found an asteroid with rings, and many minor things.

    I'm not sure what the utility of sending a human into space is at the present time. Unless there's an obvious use case, it *seems* like the extra effort of sending a human isn't worth the risk, except as a political statement.

    Oh, and we're seriously considering mining asteroids. How cool is that?

    (*) Depending on the definition of the boundary, and the current definition is "cloudy" at that point, so that the probe seems to be going into and out of the boundary that defines the solar system edge.

    1. Re:Sad in a philosophical sense by Sarten-X · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The utility of humans in space is the long list of minor things that didn't make it onto your list of headlines. Crystallography, metallurgy, chemistry, biology, physiology, and materials science, to name a few, are all fields that have benefited from research on the ISS.

      For having so many small experiments and projects to maintain, a human presence is really not that much more effort compared to building robotic versions of each experiment. The human is also far more adaptable, able to repair and rebuild systems as needed.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:Sad in a philosophical sense by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      And yet, towering over all of these in importance is the kind of shirt the spokesman is wearing when he makes the announcement that humanity has arrived at some great new achievement.

      "If you can force a rocket scientist, celebrating the accomplishment of a lifetime, to cry and grovel and beg forgiveness on international TV for wearing a shirt, you are not unempowered."

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    3. Re:Sad in a philosophical sense by Kjella · · Score: 1

      For having so many small experiments and projects to maintain, a human presence is really not that much more effort compared to building robotic versions of each experiment. The human is also far more adaptable, able to repair and rebuild systems as needed.

      Well, except that humans are pretty much stuck at the landing site. Mars has half the circumference of earth or about 20000 km, you can get the equivalent of the lunar rover and cover maybe 20 km before you have to turn back. Sure, the rovers are a snooze feast but we got several of them in different places. For the same reason it's not practical to repair them or return samples to base either, even if we had a man on Mars.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Sad in a philosophical sense by KGIII · · Score: 1

      How to put this? Hmm... I'm in Florida for the winter. I'm in Panama City Beach area. I've done a whole lot of traveling in my life. Yesterday and today have been Mardi Gras and, at this one, it's "family friendly." Sending robots to the exclusion of sending humans is like going to Mardi Gras in Florida instead of Louisiana. Yeah, you can do it and the results are the same in that you can say you went to Mardi Gras but they're just not the same.

      I'm not against sending robots. I'm against the trend that I see where people think sending humans is too hard and beyond our capacity. While that might be true for the current state, the idea of not working towards a better future because it's too hard or technical in nature is disheartening. It's like going to a "family friendly" Mardi Gras, decaffeinated coffee, alcohol-free beer, or sugar-free candy. You can do it but it's just not the same and not working towards something because it's too hard or too risky is just disheartening. It's even more disheartening when you were able to see them do this live.

      Sometimes, you do things just because you can. "This, that, and the other things. Not because they are easy but because they are hard."

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  10. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 1

    I think WWII was faked. I mean really, you think that somehow we're not able to put a man on the Moon, but we were able to to go from propeller planes to nuclear bombs and cryptography and digital speech scrambling in a few years?

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
  11. Re: And is an example of the worst... by slazzy · · Score: 1

    {Insert-sarcastic-remark.py}

    --
    Website Just Down For Me? Find out
  12. Re:And is an example of the worst... by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You might also remember that the 60s were generally a decade of prosperity, not just for the 1% on top but for pretty much any and all people in the US. It was a decade of economic growth, people could actually afford building new homes, two cars and still pay off their mortgage.

    How much thereof was due to the moon program? Directly? Probably little. But indirectly the program had incredible impact on the US economy. Due to its secrecy and the "we" spirit, pretty much any and all work had to be done inside the US, creating jobs. New inventions, not only in technology but also in process management and management itself, boosted the economy further than anything before. The inertia of this all led the US well into the 80s.

    If anything, we'd need something like this again. Something that means more domestic production jobs, innovation and new possibilities. Right now we do have corporate welfare as well. But in the worst kind. Where the people pay for corporations to take jobs abroad.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. Re:Sixth man on the soundstage! by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 1

    I do that regularly, I'm Canadian, raised in metric, yet I describe myself in imperial units re height and weight.

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
  14. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

    Get a fucking telescope. Point at Moon. See Flag. See Rover. Now hang yourself from that bridge you live under.

  15. Not just now, but Apollo too by Myria · · Score: 2

    I'm not sure what the utility of sending a human into space is at the present time. Unless there's an obvious use case, it *seems* like the extra effort of sending a human isn't worth the risk, except as a political statement.

    It wasn't worth the risk in 1969, either, but it sure was a political statement back then.

    --
    "Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
  16. Believed in aliens ... by kbahey · · Score: 4, Informative

    He said he had had an "epiphany" in space and later devoted his life to studying the mind and unexplained phenomena. He said he believed that aliens had visited Earth. ... Mitchell left the US space agency Nasa in 1972 and set up the Institute of Noetic Sciences which aimed to support "individual and collective transformation through consciousness research".

    Source: BBC.

    --
    2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
    1. Re:Believed in aliens ... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      All the things that everyone knows are true, yet science won't dare to tread there.

      You wrapped up rumour, hearsay, and gossip into one tidy package.

      And like most people who prattle such nonsense as yours, you obviously think of "science" as some nebulous agency that does stuff, whereas it's nothing of the sort—science is a method whereby we find out stuff.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  17. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by Radres · · Score: 2

    Huh? You can't see those objects from an earth telescope.

    http://www.telescopes.com/blog...

  18. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Funny

    Get a fucking telescope. Point at Moon. See Flag. See Rover.

    That is only because the telescope manufacturers are in on the conspiracy. The telescopes have built in GPS modules that detect when you are pointing them at the moon, and then they project images of the flag and rover onto the lens. Duh.

  19. 65 Years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    http://xkcd.com/893/

  20. Re:And is an example of the worst... by blind+biker · · Score: 1

    One reason why there was prosperity for all and not only the top 1% was related to the strength of unions. As the unions in the US got weakened and disbanded, so did the salaries and rights of workers decrease. The working class lost a lot of their negotiating power, and by now even lost the memory of those different times and conditions.
    In the 50s, 60's and 70's, being left-leaning actually meant something. Today it's often a synonym of politically correct moron. Back in those decades the ultra-rich feared socialists and communists. Today's "liberals" are no threat to them. They would be ecstatic if Hillary became president.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  21. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

    I know you're trolling, but I am curious about one thing...

    There were plenty of Apollo missions that were manned but didn't land on the Moon. Apollo 7 stayed in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 took the CSM to the Moon. Apollo 9 tested the LEM in Earth orbit and Apollo 10 took a LEM to the Moon, but didn't land it.

    Were all of them faked as well?

  22. Re: And is an example of the worst... by camperdave · · Score: 1

    "Payed" most certainly *IS* a word. Rope is payed out. Seams between the hull planks on wooden sailing ships are payed.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  23. Re:Sixth man on the soundstage! by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

    All that circular reasoning seems to have left you a bit dizzy.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  24. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by khelms · · Score: 1

    Rover? Now you're claiming we put a dog up there too?

  25. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by khelms · · Score: 1

    "Can you describe this radiation?"

    Well, depending on your DNA it can make your body able to stretch really far, make it able to produce flame, make it invisible, or make it extremely hard and rock-like.

  26. Re:And is an example of the worst... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    As an European it sounds really odd to me to equate "liberal" with the political left. A liberal over here would be considered a right winger. Actually, "conservative" is something you'd put further to the political middle than right over here. Which, oddly enough, makes our "conservatives" usually more left leaning than the "liberals". Not by a lot, mind you, by European standards they're both firmly entrenched to the right of the middle of the political spectrum.

    Maybe because we actually do have socialist and social-democratic parties.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  27. Re:Sixth man on the soundstage! by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Ya know... some jokes at the expense of the deceased can "work" (see Graham Chapman).

    Something like this is just bad taste...

    See what I mean about the AC trolling? The thoughtful AC commenters will enjoy just as much anonymity if they had to register accounts.

  28. Re: Sixth man on the soundstage! by chooks · · Score: 1

    Wow. That is the most bat-shit crazy thing I have seen in quite some time.

    --
    -- The Genesis project? What's that?
  29. Oh, by iplayfast · · Score: 1

    What a lonely place to die....