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  • New Zealand Listener

    Space oddities

    Mar 04, 2024 3 minutes

    OUR MOON: A Human History by Rebecca Boyle (Hachette, $39.99)

    “The first human being to step on a world outside Earth blocked his home planet’s light with a rock-collecting bag.

    The Moon might not have air, but it smells. Its acrid scent reminded Neil Armstrong of wet ashes; to Buzz Aldrin it was “the smell after a firecracker has gone off”.

    The fine-grained grey stuff clung to astronauts’ suits and boots and was carried back into the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle, where it floated about annoyingly. The men noticed the smell after they took their helmets off. “[It

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