The most watched golf shot in history has never happened in a major tournament. He wasn’t even at the PGA event. In fact, it did not happen on earth. And, as it turns out, their distance is embellished by legend.
It was a hand chip adapted with an aluminum Moon Rock pattern scooper with the head of the converted Wilson Staff 6-Iron Club. And the golfer was Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the 5th man on the moon.
Shepard hit two golf balls on live television half a century ago yesterday, at the end of the Apollo 14 moonwalk. Because the portable TV camera was at right angles to the flight of the ball, how far the shots went was left to the commentary of the jocular original “Mercury Seven” astronaut. First, he duffed clearly.
But another one appeared vague and Shepard suggested he might have gone “miles and miles”!
Well, not exactly. But who is keeping track?
Really old British imaging expert Andy Sanders, 46, named Appeal Sandy, Apollo 14 and other lunar missions from the long sixteenth video and photography to enhance the clarity of anyone really. And the results are nothing short of surprising.
Sanders’ enterprising work has used both new digital and traditional technologies to improve the brightness, sharpness and contrast of the 5-decade-old Apollo Moon program (1968-72) shots, so that we can now see all sorts of previously clearly hidden details. – From the desolate gray surface to the obscure faces of the astronauts behind their helmet visors, the intricate features of the moon landers and equipment, yes, the exact position of Shepard’s two golf shots.
Advanced NASA photo that now clearly shows Lan Lan Shepard’s golf balls.Andy Saunders / NASA
Photographs of Sanders will be available from the book later this year Apollo Remaster, Will be published by Penguin Random House. Some have been posted and can be viewed on the publisher’s advanced website, apolormaster.com.
Being the son of Apollo Command / Service Module Subcontractor North American Rockwell’s Industrial Industrial Engineer, I came to the U.S. The space program grew up amidst surprises. So, I was looking forward to spending half an hour by phone with her from her home in Kulsheth, Cheshire County, England, on Friday.
As Saunders explains, the original and clear film negatives were removed in NASA cold storage until:
“Somewhere in the last five years, they finally got the original flight film out of the freezer and scanned it at an incredible resolution of about 1.3-gigabyte file size. And every minute details that she had in the camera are on this digital file. “
For someone like Sanders – a space nut from childhood who developed significant skills with image enhancement – this was like a gift from heaven.
“But of course, in the analog world, with the photochemical process, they were not designed for digital; They were designed for light glitter by them on paper or in projection. So, you need to digitally enhance them to get the best out of them. And that’s what I’m using. “
British photo imaging expert and author Andy Sanders will publish a book of his enhanced images of NASA’s lunar landing later this year, titled “Apollo Remaster.”Penguin Random House
Given the advances in digital growth technology over the past decade, this has provided a unique opportunity to significantly clarify some of the most important images in human history.
So, how far did those 6-iron shots go in a sixth gravity? It has been the subject of hyperbolic speculation, not a little encouraged by the playful Shepard before his death in 1998.
We will get it. But first some background on how Shepard will manage golf on Earth’s sand trap satellite in the first place. The idea came to him in 1970 during a visit to the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Houston by Bob Hope’s ridiculous crack. In the 14 years that followed, she had the idea of leaving for Apollo with Shepard.
Shepard tells the full story of Moon Golf after an 88-minute interview with former NBC spaceflight correspondent and Philadelphia native Roy Neal in 1998, five months before the astronaut’s death from leukemia:
“I was an avid golfer. And before the flight, I was interested that the ball, with the same clubhead speed, would go six times and the flight time would be at least six times longer. It will not give a turn, as there is no environment to cut it or make a hook.
“So, I thought: a neat place to hit the golf ball.”
When Shepard approached NASA-powered spaceflight director Bob Gilruth with his idea, his response was immediate and emphatic: Forget about it. But Shepard continued with the revelation: there was only the extra cargo clubhead, it was composed by a well-known pro in Houston, plus a couple of golf balls:
“Which I paid for myself,” Shepard added with a smirk. “Not the taxpayer’s expense.”
It will all be left on the lunar surface. If there is nothing wrong with two or three hours of extraterrestrial activity (EVA) on the moon, Shepard agrees not to. If everything had gone as planned, he would have hit a couple at the very end of the second Eva on February 6, 1971, climbing the stairs with partner and lunar module pilot Ed Mitchell and closing the hatch.
In other words, it was kind of the mic drop of the show. And at that stage of the Apollo program – more than two years after the first lunar orbit of Apollo 8, and 18 months after the first human landing of Apollo 11, the lunar mission became an incredibly old hat. Gilruth turned again.
The lunar 6-iron used by NASA astronaut Alan Shepard during the Apollo 14 moon on February 6, 1971. Shepard’s Houston golf friend built the club with a Wilson 6-iron head and a moon-sample-scooper handle. Shepard later donated the club to the USG MuseumGetty Images / Steve Pike
It turned out, all floating with Shepard and Mitchell’s Eva, so the head and commander of the exiting club came out with two balls out of pocket in his suit. He knocked him over the Moonrock scooper, threw a ball into the dust and addressed him with some great flair.
Shepard knew from trying his relief in a heavy suit during training that there was no way he could either handle too much backswing or keep both gloved hands on the scooper handle. His vision was also limited by the inability of EVA to bend his neck further inside the helmet. So, he just used his right hand and tried a kind of flick on the ball like a gardener, as if he was weeding out the weeds.
His first stroke on the first ball barely moved him. The second attempt sank and apparently did not go further than asking for Mitchell’s mocking reaction. But after the third and final attempt, on the second ball, Shepard exclaimed as if he was praising Lee Trevino for a perfect drive: “Miles and miles and miles!” It is the imagination of the spectators that may have moved on, without being monotonous by the atmosphere.
Saunders has been working on all the footage of the Apollo moon for many years. Some of the results are stunning. In one, you can now see Neil Armstrong’s face clearly behind his visor, however, a rare shot, as he still had a camera mine for most EVAs and almost all the lunar shots you saw in Apollo 11 were lunar module pilots and companions Moonav ker kar bazna hai aldrin.
Therefore, the Apollo 14 growth is part of a larger project. But Sheppard’s golf ball discovery had a clear attraction:
“First, you might get an old quality golf ball. Even in the new high-res scan it felt a little rocky. Also [now] You can zoom in so far, because they were at such a high resolution, and you can process them hard enough that you can say – it was Certainly A golf ball. ”
Wide frame of the Apollo 14 landing site with divots and ball landing spots from Ollan Shepard’s golf shots.NASA
Saunders was able to triangle the position of both balls using a portable lunar camera and overhead photos from the video camera camera above the ascending phase of the lunar module, as it blasted to return to the command module.
Conclusion: Shepard’s first shot went 24 yards. The landing site of his other one, which had never been glimpsed before, was in fact not “miles and miles” away, as most people who knew Shepard’s turbulent nature were very suspicious – but only 40 yards.
The Apollo 14 lunar orbiting vehicle explodes from the lunar surface with an advanced frame from Shera Mera, in which Shepard’s golf ball and Ed Mitchell’s “Javelin” unused metal rod are thrown.Andy Saunders / NASA
Another tall golf story. Saunders gives all credit to him regardless:
“The only, quarter swing, he can’t see properly, continuing the huge backpack, hitting the largest sand net of the solar system effectively? Well done. “
Theoretically, how far away To be able to A golf ball is run on the moon by some bombers like Brian de Chembue, given an imaginary future in which we can be protected from lunar temperatures from lunar temperatures we cannot imagine today, perhaps at some sort of shelter moon topgolf franchise? Sanders did the math and says that Shepard’s exaggeration will no longer be the same: about 41,411 miles.
Alan Shepard was a man of many feats of extraordinary bravery as a pilot of both jet aircraft tests, not to mention the Red Stone rocket in 1961, whose earlier versions were blown on a pad, the first American to ride in a fire. Space.
Still, nutritiously enough, he was probably the only lunar golfer 23 years after his death. Is known.
He probably wouldn’t mind, as he later falsely confirmed that 6-iron:
“It was made for fun. Fortunately, that Was An interesting thing. “
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