Domenic Lauria

5/9/17

Period: 4B
Neil Alden Armstrong, was the first human to ever land on the moon. He wasn't just an astronaut

he was an aerospace engineer,naval aviator,test pilot, and university professor. Neil has lived an

eventful life, and many people look up to him. Neil is a very smart man and his words will

forever be famous. In this essay ima talk about Neil landing on the moon, his space suit, and

making history.

To begin, On July 16,1969 Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket to take the

crew to space and the moon, but his wasn't his first trip to space, he's been there a few times

prior to Apollo 11.The crew of Apollo 11 had a smooth flight into space. The astronauts had

spent hundreds of hours training for this mission. They learned how to operate the equipment

and what to do if something went wrong. And Neil Armstrong knew how much could go wrong.

On an earlier space mission, his ship had spun wildly. He could have passed out, but he

managed to fix the problem. Four days after leaving Earth, astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin

climbed into the small, bug-like lunar module called the Eagle. They were ready to go down to

the surface of the Moon. But an alarm began to sound. The ship's computer was overloaded

with information, setting off the alarm. Then, from mission control back on Earth, the astronauts

heard the words they were waiting for: "We're go, Eagle. Hang tight." They launched the Eagle.

But a new problem came up: the Eagle passed the landing site. Aldrin told Armstrong the Eagle

was nearly out of fuel. Taking the controls, Armstrong coaxed the ship towards a clear area,

trying to land before the engine drank the last bit of fuel. With only 16 seconds of fuel left,

Armstrong called the control center in Houston. "The Eagle has landed!" There was a lot of

skepticism about this mission. Mostly because there has never been a mission like that done

before and i was extremely risky. He thought there was a 50/50 chance that he will land on the

moon do to how hard the mission was. Upon arriving onto the moon Neil Armstrong's famous

words were one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. After this Buzz Aldrin followed

him and was the second man to ever walk on the moon. After landing they spent two and a half

hours, and collected over 47 pounds of lunar rocks and other material to bring back to Earth.
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They spent just under a day on the lunar surface. A total of 21.5 hours on the surface. After

using the jettisoned Eagle upper stage to return to collins in the command module. They

returned to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.(Anderson)

To carry on with, The amount of technology that was used in the spacesuit that NASA

created for Neil was very advanced for its time. They invented a bellows like joint called a

convolute out of neoprene reinforced with nylon tricot that allowed an astronaut to bend at the

shoulders, elbows, knees, hips and ankles with relatively little effort. Steel aircraft cables were

used throughout the suit to absorb tension forces and help maintain its shape under

pressure.For Armstrong, that meant he could move freely enough to collect priceless samples of

lunar rocks and dust, help Buzz Aldrin deploy a pair of scientific experiments and, late in the

Moon-walk, take an unplanned run to photograph a crater some 200 feet from the lunar lander --

all without having to think about the fact that a few layers of material separated him from the

vacuum of space. A quarter century later, in 1994, Armstrong sent a letter of appreciation for his

wearable spacecraft to NASA. (Chaikin) Their space suits were specially made and are

extremely costly. Their suits had lots of engineering into it to insure they were they most

effective and comfortable. If it wasnt for the technology and the advances used in the space he

wouldnt of had a successful mission or even worse, he could've died. Many of the technology

that was used in the old spacesuits is still being incorporated today in modern day spacesuits.

To continue, Neil was the leading man in the space race In the 1950s, the United States

and the Soviet Union were embroiled in a political and ideological battle called the Cold War. On

October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union took that conflict into space when it launched the world's first

artificial satellite into orbit. Sputnik not only transmitted a radio signal back to Earth, but it also

sent shockwaves through the United States, which realized the Soviets were far more advanced

in their space technology. The United States scrambled to catch up and touched off a

technological competition between the superpowers known as the space race. Works

Cited(Sheposh), and by landing on the moon The United States of America had won the space
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Period: 4B
race and beat the soviets,

but many mysteries still lie about that day. Whether it was hoax in a Hollywood studio or not,

and why was the American Flag blowing if there wasn't any wind on the moon. No one knows

what Columbus was wearing when he set foot in the New World, but on July 20, 1969, when

Neil Armstrong took his "one giant leap" onto the Moon, he was clad in this custom-made

space-suit, model A7L, serial number 056. Its cost, estimated at the time as $100,000 (more

than $670,000 today), sounds high only if you think of it as couture. (Chaikin) That is a huge

accomplishment that Neil has made. His suit is nearly 6.7 times the amount it was when it was

first made.The Apollo suits were blends of cutting-edge technology and Old World

craftsmanship. Each suit was hand-built by seamstresses who had to be extraordinarily precise;

a stitching error as small as 1/32 inch could mean the difference between a space-worthy suit

and a reject. (Chaikin)

To finalize, Neil Armstrong is an inspirational man. He was and still is an American hero

and has made history for mankind. Many look up to him and all of his accomplishments that he

has accomplished.

Work cited

Anderson, Leigh. Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed. Appleseeds, Cricket Media, May 2009.
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Period: 4B
EBSCOhost, http://web.b.ebscohost.com/src_ic/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=b8c34e22-e730-

480a-93c8-f90c24f62209%40sessionmgr104&hid=115&bdata=#AN=42098800&db=f5h.

Accessed 9 May 2017.

Chaikin, Andrew. NEIL ARMSTRONG'S SPACESUIT. Smithsonian, Smithsonian Magazine,

2013. EBSCOhost, http://web.a.ebscohost.com/src_ic/detail/detail?

vid=2&sid=c06d689c-cea3-4c49-a706-

9dbd4bdbb521%40sessionmgr4009&hid=4209&bdata=#AN=91685002&db=f5h.

Accessed 18 Apr. 2017.

Sheposh, Richard. Apollo 11. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science, Salem Press, 2017.

EBSCOhost, http://web.b.ebscohost.com/src_ic/detail/detail?sid=b8c34e22-e730-480a-

93c8-

f90c24f62209%40sessionmgr104&vid=4&hid=115&bdata=#AN=87323311&db=t6o.

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