Pandora's Archives No. 9｜The Story of Landing in the Sea of Tranquility and Farewell to East India (Let Love Power Season 2)

How is the story about the archive presented? This is an issue that I have been discussing with archivist Yan Pingshi recently. Yan Plushi is used to writing academic papers and has never written any prose, but he challenged me cheekily:

"Can you tell a thought-provoking story about the archives without the use of an academic paper or an argumentative essay?"

"A thought-provoking story about the archives?" I thought about it. "It reminds me of two stories about the archives two years ago. The two stories were originally unrelated to each other, but there was one person involved in both, so from From my point of view, the two are related.”

"Who is it?" Yan Lingshi couldn't seem to imagine, and was a little puzzled, "Where did the story come from?"

"Let's say half a century ago."

1969, Cold War, Adventure, Apollo 11

On July 20, 1969, the future archivist Yan Pluishi was still a young boy, camping in the field with his parents, enjoying summer time. At that time, the biggest news in the entire Western world was that the Americans were going to land on the moon . Yan Lingshi was very curious about this, but he couldn't watch TV in the wild, and could only hear the news from the radio.

"But I don't remember what was said on the radio," Yan Pluish said. "I only remember that they stepped on the moon. As for the big step of mankind, it must have been transformed into my memory through other media later. ”

Fifty years passed in a flash, and in July 2019, while the world was waiting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission, Yan Plushi complained that his academic career was not over.

"The Netherlands has raised the retirement age to 67. I still have a few years to live. Teaching, teaching, teaching, meetings, meetings, meetings..."

At the same time, we are tracking down the " Apollo 11 in Real Time " website that historian Ben Feist painstakingly built. He edited the Apollo 11 audio-visual text into a video of the same length as the mission, allowing the audience to simultaneously experience everything that the astronauts experienced fifty years ago.

Strictly speaking, I followed the more than eight-day mission from beginning to end. Yan Plover actually had limited interest in astronomical topics, and only briefly browsed the "Real-time Apollo" website. He doesn't use social media much, but tweeted about this example of the use of the dossier, probably only once that year.

During those eight days, the sound of Apollo 11 was the background music to my work. Sometimes there were long stretches of noise, no vocals, sometimes the Astros would chat, sometimes the Houston control center would talk, and sometimes it was televised. I sometimes hear long numbers and obscure abbreviations being exchanged between the control center and the astronauts.

When I was about to go to bed at night, I put the computer next to me and turned the volume down. Before falling asleep, I could vaguely hear the astronauts joking. When I woke up, the narration on TV said, "The doctor just confirmed the data with us, and now the three are in space. Everyone is asleep." The astronaut woke up hours later, and the first words were: "Houston, 11. Good morning."

After finally following them into lunar orbit, the command module and the lunar module separated a few hours later, and it took quite a while before the lunar module began to descend towards the lunar surface. During the descent, the control center lost the signal of the lunar module: "Eagle, we can't receive you." The astronaut Colin interface in the command module on the lunar orbit: "Eagle, Houston can't receive you. Yes." Armstrong calmly responded with "Oh" or "I see."

Finally landed safely twenty seconds before running out of fuel.

"Houston, this is Tranquility Base, and the eagle has landed," he said after a while. "Houston, the guy who said we're going to be confused is right, because we just have the problem here. I can't finish..."

The astronauts in the lunar module did not slowly climb down the ladder after landing, as in the edited moon landing film. Tranquility Sea and Houston began to exchange various data and abbreviations that they could not understand. Among them, there were problems that the control center could not solve at once. "Tranquility Sea, we will study it for you before the mission time."

Although they stayed on the lunar surface for nearly a day, Armstrong and Aldrin spent most of their time in the lunar module, and actually stood on the lunar surface with their feet for only two and a half hours. After they entered the lunar module again, they had to sleep and rest, and when they woke up, they were ready to lift off.

Colin, who drove the command module around the moon, recalled the past so many years later, saying that he was not worried that the lunar module could not land safely at that time, but that he was worried that the lunar module could not be successfully lifted off. He was asked what it would be like if the lunar module failed to lift off and rendezvous, and he had to return to Earth alone. He replied: like hell.

Adelin deserves to be a competent lunar module pilot, landed safely in the rugged Sea of Tranquility, and lifted off from the Sea of Tranquility again. After leaving the Sea of Tranquility, the callsign of the lunar module returned to "Eagle".

▼ This photo was taken by Colin in the command module. The earth in the distance is a half-moon scene. NASA released this photo in 2009 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.

Everything was easy halfway through the journey back to Earth. One day, shortly after the astronauts got up, the Houston control center said, "You said you wanted to know what happened on the ground, then we'll read the news to you."

Aldrin wanted to know when his house last mowed grass, so the control center said, "OK, we'll call your house, stand by."

Then the day went by and the astronauts went back to sleep at the scheduled time.

The 189th hour and 28th minute of the mission was scheduled to wake the astronauts, when the spacecraft had accelerated to over 10,000 kilometers per hour. The Houston control center said that a certain procedure could be omitted and simply "wake them up until the 190th hour", but Armstrong's refreshing voice came at this time: "Houston, 11th, good morning. ”

Houston: "Ah, there's no need for orthodontic procedures, you guys can get another hour of sleep."

Armstrong: "Oh, thanks."

Finally, the command module of Apollo 11 re-entered the atmosphere at the 195th hour of the mission time, and fell into the Pacific Ocean a few minutes later, but the procedures for salvaging the astronauts were complicated, and it took about an hour to send the astronauts to the Hornet. The aircraft carrier, waiting on the ship is President Nixon. The crowd in the Houston control center lit cigars in celebration.

Nixon spoke at length to the three astronauts, then asked them if they would like to attend the state dinner in Los Angeles. "The governors of all fifty states will attend, as well as the ambassadors to the United States. Would you like to come?"

Armstrong: "We'll do whatever you want us to do, Mr. President."

Nickerson also asked the astronauts if they knew what happened on Earth during this period.

Of course, Armstrong said, Houston read the news to us.

It's a fulfilling task.

Apollo 11, signing off.
Apollo 11, the end of communications.

▼ The Apollo 11 command module fell into the water.

2019, fifty years after the Apollo 11 mission

Theo, a 94-year-old man, lives alone in a small village in Brabant after the death of his wife. Although he looks very healthy and cheerful, he has lost weight for unknown reasons since the beginning of this year. He lost more than 10 kilograms in six months. Since he has no more days, he said to the ruffian photographer Arian: "I passed away. My father and brother left behind several Bibles published in the 19th century, and I want to take care of things while I can, and put the Bibles in the hands of reliable people.”

"Oops," Arian laughed, "my brother is an archivist, so send your brother's book to my brother." Then he did not forget to joke: "Although my brother is not very reliable, Handling files is reliable."

Arian's older brother, the archivist Yan Plush, just went back to the small village of Brabant where he grew up, visited the old man Theo, harassed his coffee, and visited the collection of Indonesian artifacts in his garden - including a boa constrictor The snake skin, the hideous snake head is still intact and attached to the thinly treated python skin, rolled into a large roll, placed in an old whisky box, disguised as a harmless spirit, along with other wooden or pottery decorations On the shelf in the garden shed.

"I got it in Indonesia during World War II. I bought it from a snake hunter," said Theo, the old man. "I think it's best not to take this kind of thing out now."

Yan Plover happily accepted two thick and heavy Bibles, and thanked the old man Theo. The conversation revolved around nineteenth-century Dutch-published Bibles for a while, and then he noticed a book on space activities on the old man's desk.

"Are you interested in space?" He asked the old man Theo, pointing to the book, and pointed at me, who was with him, "He is also very interested in space."

"Really?" Theo the old man turned to me. "You're so young, you haven't seen some big space events live on TV, have you?"

"Like?" I froze. "Like the Apollo 11 landing on the moon? I wasn't even born at the time, and I really didn't see it on TV. But those videos were all available on the Internet, so I You might have seen it.”

"So you believe that humans have been on the moon?" the old man asked.

"I believe it," I replied. It's amazing to ask such a question from such an old man.

The old man suddenly let out a long breath. "I'm 94 years old. I suffered from the Japanese in the Indonesian battlefield of World War II, and when I returned to Europe, I heard about the horrible Nazi concentration camps... I must say, it was a very difficult time. But even if After the brutality of war and the shock of Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands, there are still some good things in this world. That's what happened when humans set foot on the moon."

"I listened to the American broadcast on the radio. Although I didn't even see the picture, I never doubted that those two people set foot on the moon. I really did not expect that there have been more and more young people in recent years. Claiming that the moon landing is a hoax. They say all this technology is fake, everything is false propaganda.”

"That can't be fake," I said. "You can tell by watching the landing footage. There was no ability to make that kind of footage at the time. It could only have been made on the moon."

"Actually, I don't have much interest in landing on the moon itself." The old man suddenly changed his tone, "What I care about is the mentality of young people."

"Um?"

"When you are young, shouldn't you be full of vigor and have ideals? I was like this back then, and Arian and the others were like this. I think you should be too? I really can't understand what a young man full of frustrations is. Trying to deny the knowledge and accomplishments of those who came before? I feel like they want everyone to be as unhappy as they are.”

"Maybe this is a problem in the Western world?" I said cautiously. "As far as I know, these anti-scientific rhetoric is mainly from Europe and the United States, and it is not popular in other places."

The old man seemed to be a little surprised when he heard such a statement for the first time, but he smiled immediately, "If it's just a problem with Westerners, it would be much better." Seeing that we didn't understand what he meant, he added: "The West is not the whole world. what."

"You don't have to worry too much." I said, "Since those people are anti-science, they will not invest in the cause of science, and the cause of science will continue in good hands. After all, science is a European culture, and I believe Europeans will take it seriously. look at."

"Good hand..." The old man was reminded, and turned to look at Yan Plover again: "Please keep these two Bibles well, and if there is anything you can contribute, please make your own decisions as an expert. Also—etc. You are as old as I am, so please make sure you arrange before you die that the Bible will be handed over to the right people."

As we parted in the drizzle of Brabant, the old man Theo escorted us to the garden gate, a heavy wooden door with a strong medieval style.

" When you're as old as I am , I hope you still believe in human effort," he told me.

"Yes..." I didn't know how to answer such an exhortation for a while, "I... I will try my best."

"Maybe today's young people believe that they know more than their predecessors. But no one needs the experience and guidance of their predecessors." Experienced Javanese helped me, I would have died in Java long ago.”

Less than three months after that encounter, the old man Theoan passed away at home at the age of 94.

The two Bibles he entrusted are still in the archives of the archivist Yan Plushi.

After listening to the two stories, archivist Yan Plushi couldn't think of anything to say for a while.

"I haven't figured out what to do with those two Bibles," he said after a moment, "but I've promised him that there will be arrangements before I die."

"The summer solstice is almost here, and a month after the summer solstice, it's the anniversary of the moon landing again," I reminded him.

"Yeah, it's my birthday the next day," he replied thoughtfully. "Actually, he doesn't do anything about me at all, but it always feels like he's giving me a birthday present." He added, "But since I saw you After passing Theo, accepting his Bible, landing on the moon somehow became a little sentimental.”

"By the way, you know why he listened to the news on the radio? Shouldn't he be watching TV?"

"How do I know? Probably he was also camping that day. It was July when everyone was on vacation."