Reading response

Content

• What area of the world/universe is being discussed? What other explorations are mentioned (if any)?
  Space and the moon. Also mentioned were soviet space programs and the previous experiences of Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins in the Gemini program
• When did the events happen?
  Through the 1960s
• What questions do you still have about this expedition after listening to/reading this content?
  The system of choosing military pilots for astronauts makes a lot of sense, and is still normal today. But given the comparatively low-tech planes of the 1960s, the jump from that must have been enormous. How were the astronauts trained for the Apollo program?
• What parts of the story were most interesting to you?
  The podcast didn’t go into much detail on this, but the technical aspects of the spacecraft, and how they managed to build them. Otherwise, the political aspects of the space race were very interesting.

Form

• What is the form the content is being presented in?
  Medium length podcast- audio only
• What aspects of the form are especially interesting or noteworthy?
  The script was written by a listener and not the team. It makes me consider what sort of enthusiast would take the time to research and write such a great script. It also is interesting that it makes the pod-caster essentially just a narrator.
• What aspects of the form don’t really work?
  The advertisement for the “sunday-school dropouts” broke my immersion in the story. I understand why they would plug other programs, but I think it should be kept to the start or the end of the program.
• How could this content be made even more interesting or accessible to the general public?
  As it’s audio only, a lot of the things I’d normally like don’t apply (like pictures). That being said, incorporating some of the famous audio clips like Armstrong’s “one small step” quote could have been interesting.

Additional resources

• Find (at least) one additional scholarly resource that relates to this specific topic or the week’s more general topic. Create a citation and also add the resource to our class Zotero library.
• Find (at least) one additional primary source that relates to this specific topic of the week’s more general topic. Include an explanation of the source and a link to it. (I’d highly recommend using Tropy to keep track of these primary sources!)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3oXFFISI0 Broadcast footage of the moon landing from NASA. Neil Armstrong steps out of the lander at around 19:30