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Omegafanman
·Here is something I ran across today while looking back at the history of Armstrong's watch.
It is well documented that Armstrong left his watch in the LEM during the EVA as a back-up to the mission timer if needed. He discusses this in his oral history. Today I was looking for transcripts between Armstrong and Aldrin to see if I could find the conversation between the two discussing the watch and ran across this brief conversation between Armstrong and Aldrin prior to the landing.Question - Was Armstrong even wearing his watch during the landing? Maybe not.
Here is the transcript between Armstrong and Aldrin 56 minutes prior to the landing and it appears Armstrong's watch was in his pocket.
@TLIGuy Long post warning sorry. You make a good point here and it is something I looked into a while back. I am sure people will know some (maybe all) of this but this is my take on it. It would not surprise me if Neil was not wearing the watch for a few reasons. I would also say the fact there are references to the Speedmasters in the voice transcripts for Apollo 11 (I am sure they are talking about the watches) shows how critical measuring time was. Lets not forget on landing they only had 45 seconds of fuel left including 20 seconds for an abort burn. It is no surprise that they needed backup with such basic electronics/computers which were also cumbersome to use. They also had some coms issues early on so Mission control (who as mentioned before were using a Heuer mechanical stop watch) could not be relied on totally for timing information. Jumping forward it is well documented Neil left his watch in the LEM as the digital mission timer had been faulty. I have often wondered where and how it was left. That question links with my initial points above. The LEM environment was incredibly crowded and hectic with data coming in fast and fuel running down even faster. They also had spurious alarms to reset. There were multiple controls and switches to worry about plus the landing point designator scribe marks on the commander’s window to eyeball. You also need to get a visual on the terrain and refer to various maps and checklists. All this while wearing a pressure suit and linked to an umbilical cord.
There is also the small point of transferring from zero to 1/6th Earth gravity in a standing flight position. They had a lot of duct tape and Velcro to play with. Looking at pictures from all missions a lot of information was stuck on the walls. I think maybe the watch ended up stuck to the LEM chassis– perhaps near the mission timer? I would of stuck it on the left hand side under or on the window (looking forward). If you are using your hands for so many flying tasks in short order, it would make sense to have the watch in line of sight. They managed to break the return engine arming switch by bumping into it so I don’t think a loose watch would have lasted very long in that cramped space, especially considering the egress/ingress protocol for the EVA + rock samples. As co-pilot Buzz had more time to refer to instruments and was not hands on flying so easier for him to just wear his watch maybe? I think it helps to really try and think about the physical and mental situation they were in.
