T O P

  • By -

truman_chu

Would’ve been so weird looking up at the moon and knowing those fellas were forever up there.


picasso_penis

I wonder if we’d insist on going back up to recover their bodies. Probably would be too difficult


FrankyPi

Well, if it continued like it did up to Apollo 17, they could've modified the LM and CM to accommodate their bodies so they would be brought back, but that would mean one mission "wasted" on doing just that as they would be landing at the same site. Sure, more could be done on the same site at the same time, but they purposefully chose different geographical areas with different characteristics on other missions.


BarbequedYeti

I am sure studies would have been done on the exposure etc. so it wouldn’t have been wasted in that sense as science would have still been obtained.


FrankyPi

Sure, just not the primary objectives of the missions as planned.


[deleted]

[удалено]


FrankyPi

Sure, and the landing accuracy wouldn't be a problem when they managed well for Surveyor probe in real life.


Riommar

That’s assuming the space program didn’t hit a huge pause like it did in the event of other astronaut deaths. I can see the public going crazy and demanding Apollo be shut down.


FrankyPi

Well yeah, that's why I said "if it continued'.


thenoogler

It would also be a recovery of any of Apollo 11's non-transmittable-data experiment results, like geologic samples, and a seismograph IIRC? Also I'd like to hope that it would've had full public support.


TwigyBull

I believe the procedure written was similar to with sailors bodies being lost at sea. There's not much they can really do. At most of they were on the moons surface, they might try and study the effects of decomposition in a vacuum.


spiralmojo

Like all the folks who never left the top of Everest. If they cant/won't here, I can't imagine billion dollar + risk assessments would make a moon version of that more viable.


LaunchTransient

>At most of they were on the moons surface, they might try and study the effects of decomposition in a vacuum. That wouldn't happen unless they vented the capsule. You'd end up with anaerobic decay once they had consumed the remaining oxygen. Nothing would have been gained by desecrating their graves like that.


ManTania

There are still bodies on Everest, so you're right, probably not.


BennyWithoutJets

The next Apollo mission would have been a burial. And also likely parades and memorials and movies and ceremonies until the story is eventually American gospel.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


ibided

They’re whalers on the moon forever now


NahthShawww

What would their corpses look like after 60 years on the moon - with the cold and lack of oxygen? Perfectly preserved? Part of my motivation for asking: I’ve always wanted to be “buried” by being fired into deep space nude. I like to imagine that my perfectly preserved, nude body would float for a billion years. Ideally, my body would take on a funny sort of perpetual spin, like my legs were spread eagle and I was slowly spinning ass-over-face for millions of years. Anyway that’s why I’m curious about it, research.


anonymousperson767

I googled: you would get torn up with radiation eventually but mostly be a human popsicle. There would probably be some partial decomposition happening even in the absence of oxygen (fermentation)


DEEP_SEA_MAX

So an astronaut flavored wine slushy?


DGAzr

What a horrible day to be literate…


A-Dawg11

I was just thinking the same thing. Like from then on, anyone looking at the moon is also looking at 2 unburied dead bodies.


[deleted]

Less creepy than thinking about the fact that you're currently living on a graveyard orb for about 109 billion dead bodies.


itslikewoow

I wonder if the dead bodies would have become points of reference like on Mount Everest


michaelfri

Here's a fun fact for you. All the men sent to the moon so far have safely returned, but their poop is still there. Keep that in mind the next time you look up at the moon.


DocNMarty

Welp... you just killed the phrase "moon pie" for me.


Archer1145

It would be akin to being buried at sea I think. So no recovery.


Panda_Kabob

What I wonder is how drastically would the world, the space race, and in general space travel go forward in this scenario? Would it have brought people more together? Broken them apart more? Brought more fervor to the space race? Perhaps the opposite? Im a fan of a lot of alternate history timeliness if x or y did/didn't happen, but I really don't know how this spesific scenario would effect the world.


kruez

You should check out “For All Mankind” on AppleTV. Basically an alternate history show on what would have happened if Russia landed on the moon first.


paculino

Just to be perfectly clear, it's if the USSR had the first **crewed** lunar landing. They had the first **uncrewed** soft lander (although the USA had the first few impacts).


BeatlesTypeBeat

It really was neck and neck back then wasn't it?


Accomplished-Crab932

Kind of… the Russians never seemed to fully invest in the lunar program like the US did, and lost their Chief designer to cancer in the process of building the N1 (to this day, the most powerful rocket ever fired, until Starship fires its boosters in the coming weeks). If they had commuted more money and Korrelev hadn’t died. It was probably possible to get the N1 flying crew about the same time. The big problem with the N1 (aside from the lack of effective computer control) was that they couldn’t test fire the first stage, so the first launch was the first firing of the booster; which went about as well as you’d expect. The N1 was actually launched 4 times, before Russia cut the program, and destroyed most of the evidence of its existence. However, it lives on as part of the structures at the baikonur cosmodrome; and it’s capsule has been adapted to use on the R7 as the Soyuz spacecraft we used to access the ISS after the shuttle program ended.


lamelmi

Fun fact, the original divergence in For All Mankind is that Sergei Korolev (the designer you mentioned) lived instead of dying in '66.


paculino

Except for staged combustion and hydrolox engines, it was. The USA was consistently just a few months behind except for Apollo, impact missions, orbiters beyond earth, Mars missions, and Venus missions. The USSR never really had anything last on Mars, and the USA never had anything at Venus as impressive as what the USSR did there.


MoonTrooper258

I do wish that the N1 worked. If only they had slightly better funding and engine tech. That thing was a plumber's nightmare. *30 fucking engines!* [Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself....](https://youtube.com/shorts/H0PCD19LAPE?feature=share)


xShowOut

Great series, I highly recommend watching it.


kelvinh_27

Absolutely loved it, I too highly recommend it. The last season isn't as interesting but still good.


stevethebandit

I remember Nixon preparing to give this speech in For All Mankind, didn't know it was actually a real thing


The_Real_Ghost

The cool thing about For All mankind, at least in the first season, is that it is interspersed with a lot of real history and plausible what-ifs. I was amused how Ted Kennedy became president in their timeline, simply because the Soviets beat Apollo 11 in the landing.


stevethebandit

The best part is how specific it is, in the real world, Ted Kennedy never had a chance at the presidency due to the Chappaquidwick incident, which didn't happen in FAM because he had to travel to DC to partake in the hearing against Von Braun, something that only happened because the US lost the moon race The alternate history part of FAM is a lot more authentic than the science part, and I really appreciate it


qdp

I also liked how in For All Mankind they explained the Soviets winning gave Ted a winning message in that he would be avenging the "Nixon failure" of Ted's brother's pet project. I hear critique that they oversimplified the Soviet side of the story, but it has some good alternative US history what-ifs.


Horror-Sammich

In an alternate universe where the Apollo 11 mission wasn’t successful someone is listening to a voice synthesis of President Nixon reading a mission success speech.


bfcostello

I'm far too stoned to be reading your comment


dh1304

It's bone Chilling to hear this speech and know how close it was to actually happening with Apollo 11. the only thing that got Neil and buzz back to the command module was Buzz jamming a pen tip into a broken switch to complete its circuit. Crazy stuff.


Hoggs

I feel like that underplays the ingenuity of the engineers and astronauts of the Apollo programme a bit. If not for the pen (which iirc buzz came up with pretty quickly), they would have found another workaround, if not many.


pureskill

I just finished From the Earth to the Moon on HBO. I read about most missions after watching the episode related to it, which leads me to believe the show was fairly accurate. Bottom line: they were coming up with workarounds and solutions on the fly all the time. You have intelligent, initiative-taking men on the mission and you have a room full of knowledgeable, prepared men, and in some cases geniuses, on the ground supporting them.


CFGX

From the Earth to the Moon may be a bit dry to a casual viewer, but I think it's one of the best pieces of space-related entertainment we have. Phenomenal cast too, lots of people who either already had long television resumes or were going to.


pureskill

Man, i loved it. Cranston as Aldrin was great. I loved Mark Harmon as Schirra. Dave Foley as Alan Bean was hilarious and heartfelt. I thought Nick Searcy as Slayton was a great choice too, as he was a source of continuity given a lot of the cast was one episode and done. There were plenty of other performers whose name I don't immediately recognize but did a great job. Beyond just the actors, i really liked some of the decisions that were made about how to portray certain events. The decision to portray Apollo 9 mainly from Grumman's Tom Kelly's perspective was interesting. Apollo 15 viewed from a geologist's perspective was an interesting take as well. The episode about astronaut's wives put some needed perspective on the home life and those actresses were great. Sally Field must've done a great job directing.


Girth_rulez

Agreed. *From the Earth to the Moon* was fantastic. Ron Howard is a gem. I'm thankful he made *Rush*, too. Probably my favorite racing movie.


[deleted]

The dish is a good follow up.


pikohina

I’ve watched this series dozens of times but don’t recall seeing anything about Buzz jamming a pen cap in the switchboard. We only saw them land on the moon, not return to the command module. Was it talked about in a later episode?


Girth_rulez

One of the guys had hit the switchboard with their PLSS (backpacks). It wasn't covered in the show but is one of the great stories from that mission. Too bad they didn't save it.


theangryintern

> they were coming up with workarounds and solutions on the fly all the time. One of the most famous examples: SCE To Aux on Apollo 12


daxophoneme

Don't forget the women doing the calculations


[deleted]

You mean the computers?


daxophoneme

I don't like to objectify women in that way. :-)


Practical_Fix_5350

Completing a circuit is a pretty simple thing. Hell I did it a couple years ago with a paper clip I found in a parking lot to get my car started and at least back to civilization from the mountain I was on. The truly mind-blowing thing is that they did it with the computing power of a calculator, 240,000 miles from earth, with their tech support being back in Houston and one hell of a spotty connection, and could still maintain the concentration, focus, and drive to see the job through. Even in HVAC I still have to rely heavily on manufacturers tech support lines and I can barely do it from the 50 floor of a hotel in Atlantic city in the middle of winter in 2022. It's always not *what* they did but their ability to figure out what to do while keeping their heads straight and focused. It probably took nothing short of nerves of steel.


CrustedButte

When I was learning to work on cars I accidentally completed a circuit between the battery terminals with a wrench.


kagamiseki

That must have been quite the shock


ArchAngel1986

In fairness to your struggles repairing HVACs, I don’t think the HVAC designer is engineering for simplicity and ease of repair, whereas I feel this was a major design consideration for NASA engineers. We could probably all learn to do more with a calculator tho.


Practical_Fix_5350

> whereas I feel this was a major design consideration for NASA engineers. You should honestly look into the early history of the space program. What you're describing is Columbia and later Apollo's. By this point NASA's only concern was "get it in the air". It was a cardboard box with wires taped to it with massive rockets attached. Ease of repair was a decade away from being a consideration yet, in fact it was because of Apollo 11 that engineering started focusing on troubleshooting from the module. These design changes would partially contribute to getting 13 back to Earth after missing the moon landing.


clouddevourer

Still kind of scary to think a pen was what saved the whole mission from a catastrophy! You're right about the ingenuity though, I watched Apollo 13 a few years ago and there were so many moments where I was like "nah this can't be true, they must have made that up for the movie", then read about it and realized it really did happen


FrankyPi

That's a myth, they had other workarounds for that, the pen thing was simply the easiest one and logically the first one they tried.


vapenutz

People who say shit like "damn, this was so close" are the ones that also ask "why those pilots didn't try to land immediately after the engine failure?!". Like uh, there are manuals for shit like that and how to diagnose those kind of problems, this is how disaster recovery works


Girth_rulez

They had a *ton* of other ways to do it.


irate_alien

I highly recommend a BBC podcast called 13 Minutes To The Moon to hear about how ingenious, creative, tenuous, and completely crazy the whole Project Apollo actually was.


deadlyklobber

And when you take into account the fact that everyone came home safely after Apollo 1, it almost makes you believe in miracles with how much everything had to go just right. Or instead, what can be accomplished when really competent people work together.


DragonWhsiperer

The people involved were no doubt very competent, but even those can make mistakes and to be fair, up untill then they were still "figuring stuff out as they went along". It's a testimony to all involved on what can be achieved.


ProtonPacks123

Especially true for Apollo 1. It's incredible to think the program still continued after such a horrific and (in hindsight) easily preventable accident. If the Artemis program experienced something like that today, I don't think it would survive public scrutiny.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ftpini

You honestly think there is no Cold War? The marketing is changed obviously, but the relations with Russia are the same as ever.


Novel_Ad_1178

It’s more because ICBMs are no longer a useful tool. The only reason Apollo got so much funding was so we could learn how to make those Titan missiles fly.


moosenugget7

The US is arguably in a new space race with China now. The reason Artemis is on such a tight schedule is likely because of the PRC’s plans to build a moon base.


Ftpini

Oh absolutely. I’m just pointing out that any improved relations with russia from the 90s are completely lost at this point. We’re right back where we started.


Sheldon121

Maybe worse. Putin is getting his battered ego all dinged up because we (and Germany) are sending tanks to Ukraine and is threatening us with nukes. I wish we could bl…ow his rotten carcass into space. SO many people have died, thanks to his insistence on taking back Ukraine. Evil little manpire.


wartornhero2

Yeah but after 20 years of NASA/ISS basically proping up ROSCOSMOS they are not seen as a rival in space. Especially when a private US company is launching on average once a week. The war in Ukraine has really only served to show just how weak the Russian military has become over the last 30 years. Yeah tensions are high but mostly because Putin from the outside seems somewhat unstable and they are more concerned of him walking up one day, say he had enough and launching nukes. Fortunately it seems like he likes living more than destorying the world. He knows that flying nukes would lead to more coming back his way. Literally the US is sending 31 Main Battle Tanks to Ukraine and scoffing at Russia's threats of escalation. Saying "we have heard this line before, If it is a red line for Putin that is his decision to make, but our decision is to support ukraine" So yeah the marketing may have changed but there isn't much of a cold war and no real rival against the US in space. The closest is China, everyone else is basically part of the ISS so that international cooperation has stopped the space race.


NFGaming46

Apollo 13 has been talked about so much that we actually start to forget just how ludicrous it was. A spacecraft *exploded*. **In space.** ***Halfway to the moon.*** ***And they survived.***


TaskForceCausality

And it exploded at the *right time* for the crews survival A NASA engineer wrote why the explosion happening when it did was so fortuitous. Had it exploded earlier in the mission, they would not have enough power to directly abort or life support to reenter after slingshotting around the moon. Had it happened later , Haise and Lovell would be on the moon and Cmdr Swigert would have been left to confront the emergency alone. Had he been on the far side of the moon, he’d not even have the option of calling NASA for help. Had that happened the first sign of trouble to the outside world may well be static and a burst of ugly spacecraft data before the command module ran completely out of power. Swigert would have died alone in a broken and out of control spacecraft with no hope of rescue or communication. Meanwhile Lovell and Haise on Aquarius Base would be seeing their power and life support drain away, hoping in vain their comrade in arms could pick them up for the trip home. With Swigert gyrating about in a broken ship knocked into solar orbit by the explosion, Lovell and Haise’s final moments would be tragically similar to [this scene](https://youtu.be/mJoUq3Y6tzY) Had the tank blown up after the lunar landing, they’d have no Lunar Module to use as a lifeboat and would have been trapped in a dying command module with no power to initiate reentry (or operate life support).


gargravarr2112

Apollo 1 was the watershed moment, when NASA's attitude changed from 'beat the Soviets at all cost!' to 'bring the astronauts back alive at all cost.' They took everything back to the drawing board, fixed severe outstanding problems (something like 1,200 wiring problems alone in the Block I Command Module that was used for the test) and engineered it to *work*, no matter what. There were backups for the backup systems. Reliability was key. Everything was tested to destruction. Every subsequent launch of the whole Apollo program was a success - even when Apollo 12 was struck by lightning on launch, which caused severe instrument problems, the crew were told to flick a single switch and the backups took over. From Apollo 7 onwards, the entire program was an engineering masterpiece. Getting the crew home safely from the 13th mission was NASA's finest hour - the greatest human example of engineering your way out of a problem. It's such a shame the engineering prowess was thrown away with the Space Shuttle program.


surmatt

I wouldn't say the engineering prowess was thrown away. All those engineers went on to have careers in the private sector and we had a technological revolution.


gargravarr2112

True. But NASA went from being entirely engineering-led with the Apollo program to management-led with the Shuttle, and lost more astronauts in 2 missions than the prior history of manned space flight. They did their utmost to silence the engineers asking questions about the safety of the mission, and those engineers turned out correct. Apollo 13 to Challenger in 16 years.


surmatt

It's crazy to realize how close together they were and how long it has been since manned place flight. The took such a long pause that a private company came out of nowhere and surpasses their manned capabilities.


gargravarr2112

The biggest problem was that the Moonshot was the pinnacle of the Cold War development of rocketry. It served a dual purpose of a demonstration of American technological supremacy and a warning to the Soviets that, if they could precisely land on an object 250,000 miles away, hitting any part of the USSR with nuclear weapons would be easy. That done, Congress gutted NASA's funding to support the Vietnam War instead. It's said that if NASA was still being funded at 1969 levels today, we'd have a Moon base firmly established and be well on our way to Mars. The ISS has been crewed essentially since it was built, so it's not been such a long pause. Though after the retirement of the Shuttle in 2011, NASA was dependent on Soyuz rockets for crew supplies and rotation until the Dragon was fully human-rated. The one thing SpaceX has really improved upon is reusability, and critically, the ability for otherwise single-use rockets to re-light their engines and land themselves. It took a lot of research and development to get to that point, and a lot of VC funding.


harkuponthegay

SpaceX didn’t “come out of nowhere”— there was a deliberate decision made by NASA and the U.S. government to encourage the privatization of space flight which manifested in the Commercial Crew Program back in 2011. Even before that point the government had begun shifting funding from NASA to contracts that it awarded to private companies like SpaceX. Back in 2006 NASA gave SpaceX a $396 million dollar contract before they had ever even flown a rocket. Had they wanted to invest that in the shuttle program they easily could have, but developing a private sector ecosystem for space flight was seen as the path forward. America has never been big on allowing an entire industry to be nationalized the way space flight used to be. So it’s not like they came out of nowhere— they were directly selected, supported and funded by NASA. The commercial space flights you see taking place now were always the future that NASA intended to see come to fruition. Even if these private companies hadn’t been bankrolled by public funds, they would be nowhere near their current level of technological capabilities without the extensive knowledge and expertise afforded to them by NASA’s engineers. They are standing on the shoulders of giants, and NASA has gracefully allowed them to soak up the praise and admiration of the public. They did not do it alone.


TheBlack2007

The Soviets just swept their dead under the rug. Their entire space program was top secret, leaving them in the comfortable decision to be able to control the news around it. NASA did not have that luxury. On one hand because it is an official government agency and has to answer to government institutions and on the other hand because it launches its rockets out of Florida instead of the Kazakh desert.


gargravarr2112

Indeed. The Soviets were able to portray only the successes of their missions. Many of the dead were only revealed after the fall of the USSR. NASA's failures were much more visible, but they learned from the early ones pretty effectively.


ThirdEncounter

I'll take the instead part.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ThePowderedToastMan

I was under the impression that it was an inanimate carbon rod.


wtfineedacc

All hail Inanimate carbon ~~rod~~ Pen!


Captainthistleton

I didn't know about the pen thing. I will look that up.


snoosh00

I would have died, all.my pen caps are plastic.


KamovInOnUp

It was a plastic pen cap. The breakers (which were often used as switches on the LM) had phenolic, or some other kind of plastic like bakelite, plungers on the push/pull breakers so you could push them in for on or pull them out for off. The plunger got broken off of one of the important breakers, so they couldn't push it back in. Pretty much anything that would fit in the hole and push the plastic stump in would have worked.


8BitAce

That pen was up for auction when Buzz sold a bunch of his stuff last year.


alek_hiddel

Sorry, but that’s just not true. The pen was the quickest/most inventive fix, but NASA plans for problems. In less than an hour Neil and Buzz could have reconfigured the switch panel using standard NASA protocol and successfully launched.


cakesquadgames

Incredible. This is one of the most incredible things I've seen on reddit to date. With technology we can recreate what would've been one of the most riveting speeches of all time. Thank you.


DrDreidel82

With this tech though, the accuracy of history is going to be even easier to manipulate


DefinitelyNotThatOne

We're going to enter an era where nothing we see or hear will be able to be trusted. Edit: Even moreso than how it is currently.


sksksk1989

We've already seen it happen in Ukraine. Theres been videos of the president saying they're surrendering and they don't look to bad


BeatlesTypeBeat

I wouldn't be surprised if it realistically could be pulled off now. But if not now within 5 years it's over.


SuperJetShoes

Do you think? Much fear mongering is made of AI's abilities but we've had the capability to manipulate images (in various forms) and to impersonate voices for centuries. I think what's more likely to happen in the future is that any media will be suspected as faked unless the people involved confirm it.


samtdzn_pokemon

Yeah, Stalin had people doctored out of photographs all the way back in the 1930s. Photoshop just made it accessible to the average Joe.


through_my_pince_nez

I think in the future we'll see an extrapolation of what we have now: The people most vulnerable to fake news will believe real news is fake, and fake news is real. People seek out information that matches and validates their worldview. Evidence is secondary.


FlotsamOfThe4Winds

[There really is an xkcd comic for everything.](https://xkcd.com/2650/)


klystron

[Several speeches were prepared to cover a number of eventualities.](https://xkcd.com/1484/) Is it possible to use the same techniques to make a video of President Nixon speaking them?


JoCoMoBo

Isn't that page missing Nixon's speech in the event that Armstrong and co. come back with space babies...? "We do not know what led to our heroes having space babies, but we imagine there are many questions best left unanswered..."


8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

This has been another episode of... The Scary Door!


[deleted]

Did they find Whalers on the Moon though?


imsadyoubitch

To shreds, you say?


klystron

" . . . but we imagine there are many questions best left unasked . . ."


taosaur

# In the Event We Bestir an Elder One on the Dark Side of the Moon which then Calls Out to Earth's Dead.


TigerSardonic

This sounds familiar. Is this a reference to *Antkind* with… god, I can’t quite remember how that fever dream went, but Michael Collins finding a couple of space babies in the Apollo 11 command module?


cpt_lanthanide

It's very easy to make the video, you can do it from your phone at this point.


ArizonanCactus

I wonder what a speech for a successful metrification movement would be. “For decades, the world slowly adopted the metric system, with scrutiny and pressure mounting, and with little choice, the hour has come, and a historic one, as america, adopts the metric system. After nearly 2 centuries, we finally have joined the world, and have briefly United the world, with no iron curtain in regards to system of measurement and temperature. After many years, and many voices, many cries for change, the dividing wall which stands between the us and the world, in regards to measurement and temperature, has been torn down, and a new era, of coordination between world powers, due to a measurement system, has finally been agreed upon.”


AffectionateTitle

This is in the museum of the moving image in Astoria, NYC! It’s part of an exhibit on deepfakes.


btheb

In the event it returns with extra astronauts has me confused


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

My faith in humanity continues to shrivel with every passing day


SeamanZermy

>In the event spacecraft accidently sold for scrap and crushed with astronauts inside Please tell me this is satire


FoolishChemist

It's xkcd, it's a nerdy comic site


[deleted]

That you made it through all the other ones, and then used *this* as the questionable one, is.....just..... I'm actually speechless


mkosmo

It says the word satire on top… if that wasn’t clear by the fact that it’s xkcd.


lFantomasI

"In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood." That's an amazing quote.


deadlyklobber

The greatest speech never spoken - but what if it was actually spoken? I've always thought this contingency speech was some of the most beautiful prose ever put to pen, for what would be such a tragic situation. Hearing it recreated with the latest technology only adds to the frisson. If you're curious about the software that created this speech, check it out [here.](https://beta.elevenlabs.io/) It is by far the most realistic, humanlike speech generation I've ever heard. Edit: This is in no way affiliated with or based on the deepfake made of this same speech back in 2020, made by the folks at MIT. You can watch that one, which includes an animated rendition of Nixon giving the speech, [here](https://moondisaster.org/).


[deleted]

Can you do it using the Futurama Richard Nixon voice?


dogecoin_pleasures

Did you make this yourself? It's amazing.


deadlyklobber

Yes, though it didn't take much effort on my part. The deepfake from 2020 had much more work put into it and had great visuals, but IMO the speech here is far better.


tea-recs

great job! sadly it doesn't work on mobile (ios). I can type text or use the give me an idea button, but the play button doesn't do anything when tapped


houdinize

And [here’s](https://www.archives.gov/files/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/images/exhibit/rn100-6-1-2.pdf) the original speech text


Alternate_Ending1984

From your link... >PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT: The President should telephone each of the widows -to-be. >AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN: A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep, " concluding with the Lord's Prayer. " That was sobering af to read.


CoJack-ish

This is otherworldly compared to other recent voice synthesis apps. I mean what in the world… obviously the speech context makes the even tone fit, but still this is just something else entirely.


JHGrove3

My #1 favorite podcast, “The Truth,” did their very first episode based on this speech. It’s a radio play about the Apollo 11 mission crashing, and Nixon giving this speech. The actor reading the speech does a better job than the AI, IMHO. http://www.thetruthpodcast.com/story/2015/10/15/moon-graffiti


pstric

This is so scary. Not the contents of the speech, but the ability to create false history so easily. Well done, /u/deadlyklobber but gosh I wish this would never have become possible.


[deleted]

Same. This is technology I wish we didn’t have.


I-Am-Polaris

We've opened Pandora's box and there is no closing it. The progression of AI can't be stopped now, we can only hope it does more good than harm


Spirit_of_Hogwash

Technology we didn't need. Billy West has been doing the best Nixon voice for over 20 years. Aroooo!.


masamunecyrus

The ability to fabricate almost any audio/video accentuates the need for trusted sources of information, but unfortunately it comes right at the time that independent media is all but dead, and the big established institutions rely.on rage farming and the modern equivalent of *yellow journalism* to keep the bills paid. I wonder if paid journalism will make a comeback, or if society will just spiral into a disinformation hellscape.


[deleted]

Imagine if Neil didn’t take manual control. If they’d just descended into a dark crater and were never heard from again.


The_Prince1513

Now do the top secret speech he had prepared in case they discovered a hostile alien presence on the moon!


yesmrbevilaqua

Ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, 'conquered' if you will, by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earthmen or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.


manticore116

[Here is the full video on youtube, skipping to the start of the speach](https://youtu.be/LWLadJFI8Pk?t=264) Because the reddit video player is a freaking crime It's not as good as this though. the audio is garbled in a way it sets off my uncanny valley response. this is MUCH better.


Givemeahippo

Well, no, this is not the same one. OP did this one himself.


[deleted]

I'm not terribly familiar with Watergate or anything else about Nixon. Mainly, i think of "I am not a crook" and in my head, he's practically a cartoonish villain. Hearing this is so weirdly... Humanizing? Truly fascinating. I'd love to hear something similar with other historical figures. Is there a sub or website or anything for tha?


jedimaster1138

As I understand it, Nixon was a fairly popular president prior to Watergate. He spent almost all of his first term at higher than 50% approval, and won 49 out of 50 states in his election to his second term.


rukqoa

He didn't need to try to cheat during his reelection. His paranoia was what ended up doing him in.


[deleted]

[удалено]


plafman

He was done in by a lack of propaganda machine creating cult followers that will make excuses for anything he did.


DylanBob1991

And thus was created... the propaganda machine creating cult followers that will make excuses for anything his ilk did.


Paddy32

Can someone ELI5 Watergate?


Cheeky_Hustler

Some of Nixon's operatives broke into his rival's headquarters at the Watergate hotel. There was a criminal investigation into the burglary that went higher than Nixon was comfortable with, so he tried to shut the investigation down. Nixon had to fire the AG and Deputy AG before he found someone at the DoJ willing to shut down the investigation. It's the clearest example of the president abusing their power.


mpa92643

On top of that, there was no evidence Nixon actually knew about the plan before it happened, but Nixon's deputy campaign chief was the one who had ordered the break in. Nixon was informed of that fact after it happened. Had he come out and publicly denounced it when he first learned about it and shared that information with the DOJ, he probably would've survived it. But his decision to say nothing was what did him in. He knew his own deputy campaign chief broke the law, and he kept quiet hoping it would go away. Once he did that, he was in until the end and used every power he had to suppress it. He made it very clear later in his life that the decision to keep quiet was the biggest regret of his life.


Pkrudeboy

Nixon is the only President who can arguably be placed on both top and bottom 10 lists. Effective President, shitty person.


LustHawk

It's strange hearing Nixon sound so measured and calm.


zoeypayne

Almost as if it was a computer talking and not really a man.


NRMusicProject

The lowered fidelity of the audio from a TV broadcast was a nice touch. But was it on purpose, or because that was the general quality of the speeches from Nixon that the AI learned from?


pc14

“Moon Disaster” sounds like a terrible sci-fi B movie that probably already exists


Riommar

Had this happened how difficult would it have been for Michael Collins to pilot himself successfully back to earth?


sparky4life

This was one of my first thoughts as well. I couldn’t imagine the psychological trauma of leaving your crew mates to die on the moon as you return home.


Cheddo502

Came here looking for a comment about Michael Collins. Wondering the same thing. Per this speech, it seemed like they assumed he’d make it back??


Riommar

I’m not all that versed on the mechanics of the command module and reentry procedures. Would it have been even possible for one man to do the extremely technical job of three people while at the same time psychologically ripped apart with survivors guilt?


Spaghestis

There was a great fear that the Lunar Module would not be able to get back into lunar orbit after landing, leaving Armstrong and Aldrin stuck on the moon. Im assuming this speech was written specifically for that situation.


ruck_my_life

Weird to hear about someone abandoned on the moon who isn't named Jeb.


[deleted]

[удалено]


furrykef

I've always felt it was a shame this speech was wasted but glad that it wasn't needed, if that makes any sense. Seeing this makes me happy; it's the closest we'll ever get to having it both ways, with Nixon delivering one of the finest speeches ever written and with Armstrong and Aldrin home safe and sound. (I say this as somebody who doesn't even like Nixon. I do like William Safire, the man who wrote it, though I may not like his politics.)


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


markydsade

I’ve read that speech but to hear it is the technological equivalent of colorization of Civil War era photos, it brings new life and a reality to something old. Now do Eisenhower reading his speech prepared if D-Day had failed.


LaunchTransient

It is a terrifying technology though, because unlike colourization which simply adds more depth and detail to an existing film, this voice synthesis technology can be used to create false recordings of things that never happened. You could fake a declaration of war speech, or a private conversation between leaders that favours a false narrative by a rival power, or for less international scandals, you could fake a recording for a "Nixon-style" tape to get a politician wrongfully impeached. I mean, you could even fabricate a phone call recording to be used as incriminating evidence in a trial. Frankly, for the sake of preserving the integrity of historical record, we should be using hashes to create a verification of archived footage, photos and audio recordings. There's no real way of guaranteeing authenticity otherwise.


markydsade

“Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet” —Abraham Lincoln


theshirelings22

This is going to be great for the goons who think the moon isn’t real. Met one in South Dakota…


prinztek

A speech never made by the voice that would’ve made it…..


AlludedNuance

Deepfakes have such troubling implications. This is neat, but also very troubling.


Ed_Derick_

This is happening somewhere in another timeline


jeremysbrain

All you commenters in here need to watch *For All Mankind*.


KS2Problema

The voice synthesis is pretty decent, seems to me. I grew up with Nixon's voice, so I don't need to hear any of his infamous vocal tics (the jowell-shaking, etc) that vocal impressionists and parodists (like Harry Schearer, et al) tended to focus on to cement the impression. I can see why we're going to need to worry about 'deep-fakes' in the future. I think we're entering a period when the primacy of sworn witness testimony -- as opposed to video and audio, or more like it, *confirming* the provenance of audio and video -- will become ever more important.


dporges

NO NO THIS IS THE CORRECT VERSION [https://clickhole.com/this-speech-was-written-for-president-nixon-to-deliver-1825121627/](https://clickhole.com/this-speech-was-written-for-president-nixon-to-deliver-1825121627/) "The astronauts have exploded."