Looking Back, Looking Forward

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I've been posting a number of Apollo-related pieces over the last few days, and knows that today is the 40th Anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon. I've been trying to think of what I could say that would be unique, that others haven't already said, and said better.

I got zilch.

So I'll probably put up a couple of posts here on the subject as the day matures, and I'll probably continue to commemorate milestones from 40 years ago as they roll by for the next few days. As I said in an earlier post, "It really was all that."

But I came across this article at BBC, and it seemed like an appropriate first salute to the occasion: a optimistic and awe-inspiring look at our plans to return. The above pair of pictures is from the bottom of the article; if you don't have time to read it, at least click over, scroll to the bottom, and read the stats on these two landers. Here's a teaser:

Apollo 'Eagle' lunar lander

Crew size: 2

Surface duration: 3 days

Altair lunar lander

Crew size: 4

Surface duration: 7-210 days

And just to make sure I don't forget, I have been planning on putting this up from the moment I started thinking about this anniversary. Click for full-sized, explicit amazement, and thank The Onion for covering this. (Today's issue is a very funny, "We sold the paper to China" edition)