[Stylist] Newest Draft of Project Narrative

Sat Apr 6 00:29:09 UTC 2019

I know you may be getting tired of me sending out draft after draft of this
narrative to the list, but I need to get this right.

My latest concern is how to subtly weave NFB philosophy into the narrative
We don't want to be heavy-handed with it, but we want the students to see
the connections between our philosophy and the moon landing. As you look at
this, I'd love to hear thoughts on how we can subtly weave NFB philosophy
into it and still have room for the actualities, and have it all done in 15
minutes.

(Launch sounds with count down and music) (Ed) Fifty years ago, three brave
explorers left the earth and went all the way to the moon and back. How did
it happen? Why did we go to the Moon?

The United States is a proud country, and we always dream of being the best.
So does Russia. Before any human beings had ever been to space, we were in a
race with Russia to see who could get there first. And Russia beat us.
Fortunately for the United States, that would soon change. The day would
come sooner than we thought.

Back in 1961, President John F. Kennedy had an idea. Let's put a man on the
Moon and get him safely back to Earth. And let's do it before the end of
1969.

(Kenedy) "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the
goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning
him safely to the earth."

(James) That time was only 8 years away. As you can guess, there wasn't much
time. Going to the moon was a huge challenge. The Moon is really far away.
How could we send a man to the Moon and get him back safely? How could we
make this dream come true? (music break)

)James) We started by taking small steps to prepare. NASA is the space
program and they began making rockets to launch astronauts into space.

(Ed) They used a small rocket for a program called Mercury. With this
program, engineers learned how to build rockets that could take astronauts
into Earth's orbit.

(James) Orbit means to circle one thing around another. Have you ever
noticed a fly or a bee circle around your head? If you have, that's an
orbit.

(Ed) The astronauts got to see how it felt to fly in space. They ate space
foods that were in tubes, kind of like toothpaste tubes! Would you like to
eat food from a toothpaste tube? I know I wouldn't. Yuck!!!

(James) Once we practiced sending one astronaut into orbit at a time, NASA
wanted to send two astronauts into space at a time.

(Ed) They called this new program Gemini. It used a larger rocket. With the
Gemini program, astronauts learned how to "walk in space" by floating
outside the spacecraft with a space suit tethered to the rocket by a strong
rope. They floated like you might float in a swimming pool.

They learned what it was like to live and work in space for up to two weeks.

They also learned how to get two spacecraft to find each other while in
orbit.

Finally, they learned how to connect (or dock) two spacecraft in orbit.

(James) During the Mercury and Gemini programs, astronauts got really good
at traveling in rockets and working in their spacecraft while orbiting the
Earth. And remember, they learned how to find and connect two different
spacecraft together in space. They needed to know how to do these things in
order to land on the moon.

(Ed) The next phase in the space program was going to be a big one.
Astronauts needed to leave Earth's orbit and actually travel a quarter of a
million miles to get to the Moon. That's almost 10 laps around the entire
planet Earth. It would take the astronauts three days to get to the moon
from the earth. The moon program was called Apollo. This time, three
astronauts would travel together in an even larger rocket.

Up to this point, astronauts had never left Earth's orbit before. Could we
get astronauts safely to the Moon? Could we get that dream to come true?
Let's find out together! (Music break)

Apollo 8 was the first mission where astronauts traveled all the way to the
Moon. They didn't land on the Moon, but they orbited the Moon and came home
safely back to Earth. This mission proved that we could get astronauts
safely to the Moon and back. It was a critical step before the Apollo 11
moon landing.

(James) Remember that back in 1961, President Kennedy wanted the United
States to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. Now, the
time had finally come! The dream was finally about to come true. Three brave
explorers were going to the Moon. Two of them were going to land on the
Moon.

Apollo 11 was an eight-day mission.  The astronauts on Apollo 11 were Neil
Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. They launched from Earth on July
16, 1969. They called their command ship Columbia, and the Lunar landing
craft Eagle.

Eagle was a lot smaller than Columbia. She had special feet so she could
land safely on the moon.

(Ed) On July 20, the two spacecraft separated while orbiting the moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled in Eagle so they could land on the
moon. Mike Collins stayed in Columbia and orbited around the Moon.

After months of practicing, Neil and Buzz headed toward the moon's surface.
This was very exciting! People all over the world were watching on TV! The
big dream was finally coming true!!!

Imagine you're in the spacecraft, headed to the Moon, when suddenly your
computer's alarm goes off. What would you do? That happened to Neil and
Buzz.

As Eagle came nearer to the moon, alarms were sounding in the cabin!
Uh-oh!!!! (Alarm sound) The astronauts asked Mission Control in Houston what
to do.

(Ed) Mission control told Neil and Buzz that it was OK to keep going.

(Voice of Mission control) "We're go on that alarm"

(James) This is why alarms were going off. The computer on Eagle was trying
to do too many things at once.

Computers were really huge, slow and clunky back then! Some were even as big
as this room! In fact, your parents' smart phone today is more powerful than
the computers the astronauts used during the Apollo 11 mission.

(Ed) But Neil and Buzz soon realized that their computer was taking them to
a dangerous rocky area. If they landed on rocks, their spacecraft might tip
over. If that happened, they'd be stuck on the Moon. They would not be able
to get home. They needed to land in a smooth area, so Neil started flying
Eagle by himself, without the computer's help. Luckily, Neil had already
practiced his flying back on Earth!!!!

Can you imagine how scary this must have been?

Mission Control in Houston warned the astronauts that they were getting very
low on fuel. They started counting down the seconds before they would run
out of gas.

(Voice of Mission Control) 60 seconds

(Improv)

(James) There were no gas stations in space. They had only one shot to land.
If they ran out of fuel, they'd never see their families again. They had to
land fast! Could their dream become a nightmare?

(Voice of Mission Control) "30 seconds"

(Improv)

(Ed) With only seconds of fuel left, Neil safely landed Eagle.

(Voice of Mission Control): "We copy you down, Eagle."

(Voice of Neil Armstrong): Houston .  Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has
landed." (Applaus and music)

(Voice of Mission control): Roger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground.
You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks
a lot.

(James) But this was only the beginning! (Music break)

(Ed) Six hours later, the astronauts got ready to explore the moon's
surface. Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the Eagle and looked down at the
ground.  He didn't know if the ground would be soft, hard or slippery. He
didn't know if he would sink, but he climbed down the stairs and bravely
stepped onto the surface of the Moon. He didn't sink. The ground was hard.
Then he said these famous words.

(Voice of Neil Armstrong) "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap
for mankind."

Ed) Twenty minutes later, Buzz came out of Eagle, climbed down the stairs
and also stepped foot on the Moon. Neil and Buzz set up a special camera so
everyone on Earth could see them walking on the Moon.  People all over the
world stopped what they were doing and watched the astronauts on TV. It was
an incredible moment. The dream of landing on the moon was coming true. 

(James) While both astronauts were on the Moon, they observed that the
ground was very dusty, like powder. Neil Armstrong said it this way.

(Voice of Neil Armstrong) The surface is fine and powdery . I can kick it up
loosely with my toe . It does adhere in fine layers . like powdered charcoal
to the . soul and sides of my boots.

(James) In other words, the powder stuck to his boots.

The astronauts discovered that there were small rocks on the ground. They
also found both large and small holes (called craters). The astronauts saw
that the sky was black because the Moon has no air like there is on Earth.
In the sky, they also saw the stars, and the earth which was mostly blue
because it was covered by more ocean than land. 

(Ed) We all have different ideas of what beauty is. Some people see it in a
rainbow. Some people hear it in a beautiful piece of music. Some people feel
it in the falling snow.

Here's how the astronauts felt as they explored the moon.

(Voice of Neil Armstrong) "It has a stark beauty all its own . it's like
much of the high desert of the United States . it's . different but it's
very pretty out here.

(Voice of Buzz Aldrin) Beautiful view.

(Voice of Neil Armstrong) Isn't that something? Magnificent site out here.

(Voice of Buzz Aldrin) Magnificent desolation.

Their surface exploration lasted for two and a half hours, but then it was
time to get back inside Eagle. They needed to rest before leaving the Moon.
(Music break)

(Ed) Remember how the Gemini astronauts practiced docking two spacecraft
together while orbiting Earth? Well, the next day, Neil and Buzz lifted off
the Moon in Eagle and docked with Columbia, where astronaut Michael Collins
was waiting for them. Remember, Michael Collins was orbiting the Moon all by
himself the entire time Neil and Buzz were on the surface of the moon.  Once
all three astronauts were back together, they started their trip back home.
Three days later, the three astronauts returned safely to Earth, and the
first Moon landing came to a successful end.

It was an amazing mission and we did land astronauts on the Moon before the
end of 1969, just as President Kennedy wanted. The dream for the United
States had finally come true!!!

There it is.

Also, we're still struggling wit the background section. Is there any way we
can shorten it? Is the wording in that section the best we can do? Have we
exhausted that section? I know we have to have that background in there, but
I don't want it dragging the rest of the narrative down. I also know that if
we don't include that section at all, the students would be left with a
false impression that going to the moon was easy. Have we run out of
options? I also don't want the narrative to sound too jumpy, but I do want
it to be tight.

That's where we stand. Thanks.