The Apollo 12 Lunar Module as seen from the Command and Service Modules on Nov. 19, 1969. (Source: NASA)
| UPDATE: The lunar puzzler is solved! For the answer, read through to the end of this post. -- T.Y. |
Last Thursday marked the anniversary of a significant event in human history: the Apollo 12 Moon landing on Nov. 19, 1969. This was just the second time humans ever stepped foot on our cratered satellite. But the occasion passed us by last week largely unheralded. That's understandable, because the landing wasn't a first — the astronauts of Apollo 11 hold that honor. And a 46th anniversary isn't as resonant as, say, a 50th would have been. "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence," said Auric Goldfinger in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel. (*See the end for the rest of the quote.) But Apollo 12 showed just the opposite: Landing on the ...
