40 years after, Web site recreates historic landing

The Apollo XI mission is recreated on weChooseTheMoon.org

Computer animation of the lunar module.

Forty years ago, the idea of an 'Internet' that would connect the world's populations through "personal computers" was just as much science fiction as the idea of "tweeting" messages on a hand-held telephone.

But sending three men in a glorified tin can hurtling 240,000 miles from the Earth to the surface of the moon was something that could be accomplished 鈥?with the right amount of resources and a whole lot of American gumption.

"It was the triumphant accomplishment of the 20th century," said Miles O'Brien, former CNN technology correspondent. "There's probably more computing power in your telephone than they had collectively in their spacecraft.

"What they accomplished was an amazing, against-the-odds, gutsy achievement and it needs to be remembered that way."

To help a new generation remember, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and AOL are launching a huge technical achievement of their own. On Thursday morning at 9:32 a.m., 40 years to the minute after the launch of the Saturn V rocket that carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to their historic rendezvous with the moon, their joint Web site, www.weChooseTheMoon.org,

The interactive site recreates Apollo 11's lunar journey in real time, from the launch on July 16, 1969, to Armstrong's "one small step" on the moon's surface four days later. Using video clips from NASA's archives, 3-D computer animation, declassified documents and more than 400 photographs, the site gives 21st century users the chance to relive the crowning scientific achievement of the 20th century.

But the crowning achievement is the 109 hours of audio transmissions from liftoff to the lunar landing, broadcast on the site in real time. In a twist that Mission Control could never have predicted at the time, transmissions can be picked up as tweets by Twitter users.

Even the technical team putting together the project felt goosebumps reliving history.

"It's pretty riveting stuff," said Brian Williams, senior art director at the Martin Agency, which designed the site. Even reading through these PDFs of the documents and hearing the audio transmissions all these years later, you can really feel the tensions that they were going through at the time."

On Sunday, after the 40th anniversary of the walk on the moon's surface, the site will remain as a "self-tour" of the Apollo mission.

"My kids' generation, they never had that magic - they never got sprinkled with moondust like we did," said O'Brien, who consulted on the project. "This meets today's generation on its own terms. Something like this is the way to carry the fire 鈥?the title of Michael Collins' autobiography was 鈥楥arrying the Fire' - something like this carries the fire for the next generation."