Fame or time on the Moon: What would you want more?

[ramses]

Personally fame doesn't interest me, but in saying that, can you imagine the feeling off being the very first human to do it. No-one will ever go to the moon again knowing the whole world is watching and holding it's breath because of what you're doing.

I don't think that even a manned mission to Mars will have the impact on the human race that the moon landing did.

I for one would prefer to be the first. Not for the fame but for the experience Neil had.

[doggie015]

I'd prefer to be on one of the later missions. If I could be one of the lucky few that got to drive around on the moon then I would be happy with that alone!

[rasheed]

Time on the moon, gimmme the low gravity experience

[Kerbal01]

Time on the moon.

[chri]

I doubt that in this moment Neil Armstrong really cares of history books, being he dead, so I would prefer more time on the Moon.

Of course this doesn't apply if you believe in Heaven or in some other sort of "life after death", which I don't

[Apollo1391]

Nobody remembers the Apollo 8 crew either, and they were a bigger first IMO.

You know what would have sucked more than being Michael Collins? being on Apollo 10.

Well I think the guys on Apollo 10 were also on like Apollo 14 ,15,16

[dharak1]

I would pick fame if it was back then. Now is another story. I would rather LIVE on the moon than have more people know me today. Even if I was the first person on the moon in 5 decades I would want to stay for a long long time.

[Javster]

Jack Schmitt is a geologist. There's no way he would have traded the 3 day field excursion for the few hours that Neil and Buzz spent on the moon. I'd easily trade fame for time. Way better to be there longer and experience as much as possible. And the later, longer missions had rovers. How could you not want a rover?

The rovers were very uncomfortable and slow though.

[Mr Shifty]

Well I think the guys on Apollo 10 were also on like Apollo 14 ,15,16

* Stafford commanded the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project - last flight of Apollo

* Young commanded Apollo 16, become Chief of the Astronaut Office after Shepard retired, commanded the first Space Shuttle mission, and commanded the first Skylab mission

* Cernan commanded Apollo 17 and was the last person on the surface of the moon

I don't really feel too sorry for those guys. Note that none of the Apollo 11 crew ever went to space again after that flight.

[Mr Shifty]

The rovers were very uncomfortable and slow though.

I don't know that there was much about the moon landing that was "comfortable". Rovers went 8 mph or so; quite a bit faster than walking, particularly on the moon. (Walking speed on the moon is about 1 mph.) And they look to me like they were pretty fun to drive: