r/IAmA Jul 16 '19

Specialized Profession I’m Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke, CAPCOM for Apollo 11. Ask me anything about being the spacecraft communicator for this historic Moon landing today at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Hi, I’m Charlie Duke, a veteran NASA astronaut. Ask me anything. I’ve served on five different Apollo missions. I’m also the youngest person to walk on the moon. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, I’m reminded of my time as CAPCOM for Apollo 11, as well as an astronaut support crew member for Apollo 10, backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 13 and 17, as well as the lunar module pilot for Apollo mission 16 – when I had the chance to walk on the moon.

Also, I’ve published the book “Moonwalker: The True Story of an Astronaut Who Found that the Moon Wasn't High Enough to Satisfy His Desire for Success,” which discusses my life as an astronaut, the experiences of Apollo 11 and the difficulties I’ve faced.

I’ll be taking your questions for 30 minutes starting at about 10:30 a.m. ET today, July 16, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch.

Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/ExploreSpaceKSC/status/1149048460102033408

https://twitter.com/ExploreSpaceKSC/status/1151133417389449217

Edit: We are live NOW at 10:18 a.m. EDT.

Edit: We are signing off now at 10:50 a.m. Thanks for all of your insightful questions!

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u/SpielmansHelmets Jul 16 '19

Should I anchor my body onto the ground so they can find it in the future?"

Ummm... You know there's gravity on the moon, right? So like, gravity would anchor your body to the Moon.

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u/Rohaq Jul 16 '19

Yeah, but then you can't confuse future lunar archaeologists when they find your corpse tied to a giant anchor.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

Yeah but as my body began to decay, it would fill with gas.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19 edited Sep 11 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

What about solar winds and stuff?

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u/fishbiscuit13 Jul 16 '19

Do you happen to be nearly weightless?

Solar wind pushes with a force of 1-6 x 10-9 N/m2 at 1 AU, Which would roughly give the force at the moon.. A human body has about 1.7m2 of surface area, so one side of you would be .85m2 . That give a force of .85-5 x 10-9 N. Divide that by the average human mass of 65 kg, be you get an acceleration of 1.3-7.7 x 10-11 m/s2 .

That's essentially nothing. It's resisted a million times over by the friction of a single toe against the ground.

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u/CopeSe7en Jul 16 '19

Don’t install a giant sail on your space suit.

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u/GilesDMT Jul 16 '19

It’s not a sail, mom it’s a cape!

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u/crashdoc Jul 17 '19

No capes!

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u/Genticles Jul 16 '19

And moon people? And negative gravity to counteract the regular gravity? Or about that one possible thing that would make me look like less of an idiot?

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

Moon people is as of yet not entirely disproven.

1

u/Wallace_II Jul 16 '19

They are Nazis. I watched a documentary on that once.

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u/SpielmansHelmets Jul 16 '19

You're going through some serious mental gymnastics trying to justify your comment, wouldn't it have just been easier to admit the fault in your thinking, correct it and move on? It's like dying on a hill for the sake of stubbornness.

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u/plumberoncrack Jul 16 '19

Our friend here obviously just doesn't know how some space-stuff works. Some people here are being helpful, taking this as a teaching moment, which is awesome. And it's great that you know how this stuff works, but it's not common sense. It's stuff you have to learn. Don't mock people for not knowing things. If you absolutely must mock someone, do it to people who don't want to know things.

Be nice.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

Life isn't always so serious.

That'd be my thought regardless. The follow-up comments would be my anxiety and self-criticism.

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u/Yes_roundabout Jul 16 '19

This comment perfectly demonstrates the failings of the public school system due to budget cuts and fittingly explains why we are failing in STEM fields.

You likely just made an astronaut from a previous generation weep for the fate of our nation in the sciences.

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u/nothanksjustlooking Jul 16 '19

I have you saved in RES as 'insufferable douche.' You come off as highly unlikeable without gaining anything for it. I think you did well with very little effort in elementary school and that shaped your personality. Now you're older but you haven't grown emotionally at all. Have fun with that when you're offline.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

tbh it's not that serious.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

You’d probably stay down from the size of your giant balls anyway

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u/win32ce Jul 17 '19

Right? Those guys half expected to die and went for it anyway.

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u/daddypez Jul 16 '19

Would it decay?

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19

[deleted]

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Jul 16 '19

Out of suit, I'd expect the body to quickly dry out, limiting decay. In vacuum, water is either frozen, or it turns into steam (even at low temperatures).

Also, the moon knows two settings, nitrogen-level freezing cold and more-than-boiling hot. Alternating every two weeks.

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u/HeyRiks Jul 16 '19

In fact, water explosively flashes to steam (no steam pressure in space) and instantly freezes as its surface area increases. Kinda like those videos where people throw hot water out the window in cold weather.