Scenario ... Neil Armstrong was never born

Question

Neil was in my eyes the perfect 1st man on the moon. If Neil never existed, Off the remaining 11 astronauts who walked on the moons surface, Who would have been "your" choice as first man on the moon and why ?

Buzz Aldrin

Pete Conrad

Alan Bean

Alan Shepard

Edgar Mitchell

David Scott

James Irwin

John W Young

Eugene Cerman

Harrison Schmitt

Answer 1

  Alan Shepard.... He was the other perfect American..A rebel in his attitudes.. A golfer on the moon for example..  

Answer 2

As long as we are rewriting history, I nominate Gus Grissom, whom his colleages referred to as "an astronaut's astronaut."

Answer 3

i don't know but David Scott sounds very smart. lol

Answer 4

It likely would've been either Buzz or Pete Conrad or John Young.... as it was, it was simply luck of the draw that the 3 astronauts on board Apollo 11 were the guys selected.  They assigned each 3-man crew to the the flights, with a back-up crew for each, not with an eye for who'd be first on the moon, but which teams worked well together.

I'm curious why you don't have Lovell or Borman in the list...

Answer 5

Ok if Neil Armstrong was never born, i would imagine Buzz Aldrin would have done just as good of job, but also there is no telling how Neil Armstrong effected the time-line for all we know his not being born might changed the time-line so Russia made the first historic first steps on the moon.

Answer 6

Alan Shepard... Buzz was a LEM pilot so could not have been 1st... Had Shepard not been stricken ill he probably would have been no 1 even with Neil being in the program...

Answer 7

Buzz Aldrin, no doubt, since he simply deserves it.

why ?

i heard him ranting that he was 'just' number two stepping down the ladder, and unfortunately being the number two has some sort of disadvantage within our society.

So why not make him the #1 and hear someone else ranting ?

(along with the fact that this is an outstanding achievement for both of them together i cannot really understand why people and especially buzz aldrin are like 'uh just the #2' .. HEY this isn't the summer olympics .. so ...there was no #2, there were just 2 number 1's)

Answer 8

Even without Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, who co-piloted the Apollo 11 mission, could still walk on the Moon's surface. He could still quote "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" or otherwise, something like, "I claim the Moon as part of the world!"

Or even without Apollo 11, later Apollo missions could still make up what Neil did, or for better or for worse, the Soviets could win the Space Race by landing- or ultimately colonizing- the Moon.

Answer 9

Harrison Schmitt, the only actual scientist in the bunch.