91Èȱ¬

You wonder sometimes whether space can still capture the imagination. I worry people have so overdosed their senses on Hollywood they can no longer recognise what is truly extraordinary.

These past few days have restored my faith.

The has initiated a cascade of comment - in newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The moment clearly still resonates.

The Spaceman asked the 91Èȱ¬'s Web Monitor to put a toe in this ocean of talk.

What's piqued your interest?

• the day that space tourism may be possible:

"The old argument about it being a waste of cash has never been true. Space always paid off in the long run: before the moon mission, for instance, computers were the size of houses and in the hands of the government. The astronauts' needs forced Nasa to think small and gave us the home computer and the unfathomable billions generated by that industry. But soon space missions themselves -- not just the spin-off technology -- will be lucrative."

• on how meeting Buzz Aldrin crushed his childhood dreams of a "giant-among-men":

"He was miserable, and whinged about the fuss generated by the Moon landing. 'It's overrated,' he said. 'There was nothing for us on the Moon. We should have gone to Mars.'"

• For News Week the scientists and amateurs who work at debunking the moon landing deniers' claims. Amongst them is Philip Plait who launched his blog to teach himself what he needed to know to prove deniers wrong. Similarly Jay Windley set up , an amateur organisation whose 'special mission' is to debunk so-called conspiracy theories. Windley became involved after a person sitting next to him on a bus insisted that American astronauts had never landed on the Moon. Soller says Aldrin had his own unique response to deniers:

"On those occasions when the men involved in the Apollo landings have been approached directly by deniers, it's led to calamity. Bart Sibrel, the filmmaker behind the Moon Hoax movie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon, once approached Buzz Aldrin and taunted him, calling him a 'coward,' 'liar,' and 'thief.' Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, had one response: a punch in the face."

• four books on the moon landings ranging from the gossip of Dan Parry's Moonshot, which covered how and what the astronauts ate in space and how their nappies worked, to the politics in Craig Nelson's Rocket Men which charted how Nasa staff worked to fulfil JFK's 1962 boast that the US would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. She reflects:

"Forty years on, what have we learned? Were the only real achievements spin-offs such as Teflon and Velcro? Or did the missions help to impress upon us, as [Neil] Armstrong argues, that our Earth is a spacecraft of sorts too: a fragile and beautiful craft whose crew must reassess how they treat each other and their remaining resources?"

(Spaceman comments: Teflon and Velcro were by Nasa. It is true to say, though, that the agency did champion these technologies.)

• a surprising money-spinners launched on the back of the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing - a $1000 coffee table photography book:

"Inside, in addition to a reproduction of Mailer's book, are scans of his original manuscript, and photographs that, decades after that Space Age began to feel dated, still boggle the mind."

• Also in the Daily Beast, Fashion Editor how the moon landings changed haute couture:

"When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon 40 years ago, they set off a style revolution--one small step for man, one giant leap for fashionkind... Taking inspiration from space suits, the designers creating the most iconic Space Age looks were masters of mod Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin, and André Courrèges. A-line miniskirts exposed stick-thin legs ready to plant themselves like flagpoles into the lunar landscape, while dresses eliminated unnecessary decoration to become space-cadet uniforms."

• the 10 surprising moon landing facts. Coming in at number eight is the Toughest moonwalk task:

"Planting the flag. NASA's studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over."

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