--
Adam

+1

He certainly had the right stuff.

(I always thought I might live to see the death of the first man on the
moon. I have for some years feared I may live to see the death of the
last man to on the moon.)
--
Robin

On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:09:10 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:



--
Adam

Exactly.

I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the presenter
asked
"What was going through your mind when you were waiting on
the launch pad?", to which he replied,
"Every part of this rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"
....

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the presenter
asked
"What was going through your mind when you were waiting on
the launch pad?", to which he replied,
"Every part of this rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

That was previously said by John Glenn - the first American into space.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

In article ,
charles writes:
In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the presenter
asked
"What was going through your mind when you were waiting on
the launch pad?", to which he replied,
"Every part of this rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

That was previously said by John Glenn - the first American into space.

I probably misremembered it then - thanks for the correction.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:09:10 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

I hope his Saturn V ride to heaven is a smooth one :-)

Fly safe, Commander Armstrong. A true hero to many, and especially us
nerds.

--
Mike P

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:04:42 +0100, charles
wrote:

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the presenter
asked
"What was going through your mind when you were waiting on
the launch pad?", to which he replied,
"Every part of this rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

That was previously said by John Glenn - the first American into space.

So Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight doesn't count?

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

"Mike P" wrote in message ...
On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:09:10 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

I hope his Saturn V ride to heaven is a smooth one :-)

Fly safe, Commander Armstrong. A true hero to many, and especially us
nerds.

+1
Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

Tim Streater wrote:
In article , "Robin"
wrote:

+1

He certainly had the right stuff.

(I always thought I might live to see the death of the first man on
the moon. I have for some years feared I may live to see the death
of the last man to on the moon.)

Yes. For me, the successful landing of the Mars rover was about 100
times more important than the steenkeeng olympix. (Cue long "no it
wasn't" "yes it was" thread).

no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was


HTH

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:34:39 +0100, "Phil L"
wrote:

Tim Streater wrote:
In article , "Robin"
wrote:

+1

He certainly had the right stuff.

(I always thought I might live to see the death of the first man on
the moon. I have for some years feared I may live to see the death
of the last man to on the moon.)

Yes. For me, the successful landing of the Mars rover was about 100
times more important than the steenkeeng olympix. (Cue long "no it
wasn't" "yes it was" thread).

no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was
no it wasn't
yes it was


HTH


BEHIND YOU!

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

Jings, really? What a sad day. We should have been at Jupiter by now, and
be 11 years past finding the star gate on Iapetus. the dreams we had
sacrificed tithe screaming of the mob and the weak-kneed trembling of
politicians.

It seems we are on the timeline set by John Wyndham (The Outward Urge),
with a Mars landing in 2094, rather than one in the early part of this
century.

In article , Graham.
wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:04:42 +0100, charles
wrote:

In article , Andrew Gabriel
wrote:
I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the
presenter asked "What was going through your mind when you were
waiting on the launch pad?", to which he replied, "Every part of this
rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

That was previously said by John Glenn - the first American into space.

So Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight doesn't count?

John Glenn did sub-orbital, too.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

brass monkey wrote:
"Mike P" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:09:10 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

I hope his Saturn V ride to heaven is a smooth one :-)

Fly safe, Commander Armstrong. A true hero to many, and especially
us nerds.

+1
Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

BTW Tickets are still available to have dinner with some of the Apollo
astronauts. It's well worth the money. Not everyone can say that they have
had dinner with Buzz Aldrin and Fred Haise.

--
Adam

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/people/fe...rong_obit.html

Neil Armstrong: 1930-2012
NASA
August 25, 2012

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11
mission, has died. He was 82.

His family has released the following statement:

"We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away
following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was
just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot,
test
pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in
business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.

He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and
never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits.

As much as Neil cherished his privacy, he always appreciated the expressions
of good will from people around the world and from all walks of life.

While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable
life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the
world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore
and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than
themselves.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple
request.
Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next
time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at
you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

The family will be providing further updates at www.neilarmstronginfo.com .

Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins said simply, "He was the
best,
and I will miss him terribly."

Armstrong's words "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for
mankind," spoken on July 20, 1969, as he became the first person ever to
step
onto another planetary body, instantly became a part of history.

Those few words from the Sea of Tranquillity were the climactic fulfillment
of
the efforts and hopes of millions of people and the expenditure of billions
of
dollars. A plaque on one of the lander's legs that concluded "We came in
peace
for all mankind," further emphasized that Armstrong and fellow astronaut
Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin were there as representatives of all humans.

But Armstrong's single sentence, though it was focused above the national
divisions and quarrels of Earth, still signified unquestionably the U.S.
victory in the desperate space race with the Soviet Union.

Neil A. Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He earned an
aeronautical engineering degree from Purdue University and a master's in
aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

He was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952. During the Korean War he flew 78
combat missions.

In 1955 he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA),
NASA's predecessor, as a research pilot at Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland.

Armstrong later transferred to NACA's High Speed Flight Research
Station at Edwards AFB, Calif. As project pilot, he was in the forefront
of the development of many high-speed aircraft, including the X-15, which
flew at 4,000 mph.

He flew more than 200 aircraft models. They included jet and rocket-powered
planes, helicopters and gliders.

Armstrong was selected as an astronaut in 1962.

His first space flight was Gemini 8, which he commanded. He was the first
civilian to fly a U.S. spacecraft. With fellow astronaut David R. Scott,
Armstrong performed the first docking in space, with an Agena target
satellite.

Less than an hour later their spacecraft began an unplanned rolling motion.
After undocking, it increased to one revolution per second. One of the
Gemini's 16 thrusters had stuck open because of an electrical short circuit.

Armstrong used re-entry thrusters to control the capsule, and after a
30-minute
struggle, it was stabilized. Flight rules required a return to Earth after
use of the re-entry thrusters, so the crewmembers fired retrorockets that
sent
Gemini 8 to a contingency landing zone in the Western Pacific.

Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969, with Armstrong, Aldrin and Mike
Collins
aboard. Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module while
Armstrong
and Aldrin descended in the lunar module they had named Eagle to their
historic
landing on the moon's surface.

"Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed," Armstrong said,
telling
a tense and waiting Earth that men had finally reached the lunar surface.

He and Aldrin spent about two hours exploring, gathering more than 50 pounds
of
moon rocks and setting up three scientific experiments. The next day, after
21
hours and 37 minutes on the moon, they fired Eagle's engine to begin the
return
to Collins and the command module.

The crew returned to Earth, landing near the USS Hornet in the Pacific after
a
mission of just over eight days. President Richard M. Nixon was on the
aircraft
carrier's deck to welcome them.

"This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation,"
Nixon
told the three.

After 16 days in quarantine to protect Earth from any returned moon germs,
the crew
went on U.S. and international tours. Millions greeted them as heroes.

Armstrong later served as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in
the
Office of Advanced Research and technology at NASA Headquarters. He resigned
from the space agency in 1971. As a professor at the University of
Cincinnati from
1971 to 1979, he was involved in both teaching and research.

He later went into the business world. Among other positions, he served for
10 years
as chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc. of Charlottesville,
Va. and
later as chairman of AIL Systems Inc., an electronic systems company based
in Deer
Park, N.Y.

Armstrong was a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the
Royal
Aeronautical Society, and an honorary fellow of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the International Astronautical
Federation.

He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He served as a
member
of the National Commission on Space in 1985 and 1986, and in 1985 was
vice chairman of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger
Accident. He also was chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee
for the Peace Corps from 1971 to 1973.

Seventeen countries decorated Armstrong. He received many special honors,
including
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, thCongressional Space Medal of Honor,
NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award, the Explorers Club Medal, the
Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal,
the Harmon International Aviation Trophy, the Royal Geographic Society's
Gold Medal, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale's Gold Space Medal,
the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award, the Robert
J. Collier Trophy, the AIAA Astronautics Award, the Octave Chanute Award,
and the John J. Montgomery Award.

I also loved his very descriptive feelings when flying old biplanes with
the wind whistling in the wires as he throttled back to land.
Very evocative and a a very ordinary man with an extraordinary claim to
fame.

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...


--
Adam

On 26/08/2012 8:09 a.m., ARWadsworth wrote:

Rest in peace? Reminds me of the Monty Python skit - he's not dead,
he's resting.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:04:42 +0100, charles
wrote:

John Glenn - the first American into space.

Was he ********.

On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:53:12 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the presenter
asked
"What was going through your mind when you were waiting on
the launch pad?", to which he replied,
"Every part of this rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

Apparently, he and the others were chatting about the new Espresso
machine in the crew rest area, a mild diversionary conversation, when
they were interrupted by a "Good to go" message from Launch Control.
Right up to that point, they had been so used to postponements and
delays they didn't really expect to go that time either.

On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:16:52 +0000 (UTC), Mike P wrote:

Fly safe, Commander Armstrong. A true hero to many, and especially us
nerds.

If anyone ever deserved his ashes to be scattered on the Moon, it's
him.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:30:47 +0000 (UTC), Steve Firth
wrote:

It seems we are on the timeline set by John Wyndham (The Outward Urge),
with a Mars landing in 2094, rather than one in the early part of this
century.

I copy a reply I made elsewhere...

"Which is what we were absorbed with 40 years ago - after the Moon,
what about Mars?
With 70s technology, it would have been an utter, unparalled,
unmitigated disaster in slowmotion. Right now, if it had gone ahead,
we would have still been thinking of those poor dead Marsnauts lying
frozen up there and likely any further Mars programmes would have been
put on the back burner for decades or longer.
As it stands, we have a good chance of getting there in a decade or
two and have a decent chance of getting back intact - that's the
tricky bit."

In article , Grimly
Curmudgeon scribeth thus
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.

Indeed they weren't any of them. But lets not forget the army of
engineers and scientists who made the whole thing happen;!...

And for that matter the taxpayers of the USofA;!...
--
Tony Sayer

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.


Indeed.


http://space-lectures.com/index.html


Due to a lack of support the planned Apollo 17 event with Moon walker and
lunar geologist Dr Harrison H Schmitt has been postponed.

I know it costs but why are rooms not full of people wanting to meet these
people?

http://space-lectures.com/dinner_3.html

It's only £60.

But

http://space-lectures.com/tickets_4.html

is much more fun (and only £30) and you have 200 children there that are
allowed to ask him questions.


And they answer the questions the kids ask.

--
Adam

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:30:40 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Indeed.


http://space-lectures.com/index.html


Due to a lack of support the planned Apollo 17 event with Moon walker and
lunar geologist Dr Harrison H Schmitt has been postponed.

I know it costs but why are rooms not full of people wanting to meet these
people?

http://space-lectures.com/dinner_3.html

It's only £60.

I see the contact addy is Pontefract - is that where the dinner is
being held?
****sticks, if that was closer, and if I had known about such events
I'd have been there sooner.

Steve Firth wrote:
Jings, really? What a sad day. We should have been at Jupiter by now, and
be 11 years past finding the star gate on Iapetus. the dreams we had
sacrificed tithe screaming of the mob and the weak-kneed trembling of
politicians.

It seems we are on the timeline set by John Wyndham (The Outward Urge),
with a Mars landing in 2094, rather than one in the early part of this
century.

Mars is a dead end IMO. Why go all that way to drop into another gravity
well? The future lies in the asteroid belt.

Tim

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:30:40 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.


Indeed.


http://space-lectures.com/index.html


Due to a lack of support the planned Apollo 17 event with Moon walker
and lunar geologist Dr Harrison H Schmitt has been postponed.

I know it costs but why are rooms not full of people wanting to meet
these people?

http://space-lectures.com/dinner_3.html

It's only £60.

But

http://space-lectures.com/tickets_4.html

is much more fun (and only £30) and you have 200 children there that are
allowed to ask him questions.


And they answer the questions the kids ask.

Anyone else ever seen this?

http://www.andrewdawson.info/space_panorama.html

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...


--
Adam

+1
Those guys must have been very frightened.

On 26 Aug 2012 12:00:20 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

Anyone else ever seen this?

http://www.andrewdawson.info/space_panorama.html

No, but going by the description it's a load of wank.

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.

Ok, I'll substitute insane/crazy, intelligent idiots if you will (we all
know a few of those). How else would you describe folk who are prepared to
trust their lives to thousands of bits of kit designed and built by
thousands of others, all needing to work. I absolutely applaud what they did
but think they were a touch lucky.

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:30:40 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Indeed.


http://space-lectures.com/index.html


Due to a lack of support the planned Apollo 17 event with Moon
walker and lunar geologist Dr Harrison H Schmitt has been postponed.

I know it costs but why are rooms not full of people wanting to
meet these people?

http://space-lectures.com/dinner_3.html

It's only £60.

I see the contact addy is Pontefract - is that where the dinner is
being held?

Yes

****sticks, if that was closer, and if I had known about such events
I'd have been there sooner.

You would enjoy it. I did. It's worth looking around. The astronauts may be
having dinner elsewhere in the UK just before or after the Ponty event. They
need to make a living:-)

Have you tried their own web sites for info?

--
Adam

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.


Indeed.


http://space-lectures.com/index.html


Due to a lack of support the planned Apollo 17 event with Moon walker and
lunar geologist Dr Harrison H Schmitt has been postponed.

I know it costs but why are rooms not full of people wanting to meet these
people?

http://space-lectures.com/dinner_3.html

It's only £60.

But

http://space-lectures.com/tickets_4.html

is much more fun (and only £30) and you have 200 children there that are
allowed to ask him questions.


And they answer the questions the kids ask.

Well bugger me, I never knew such events occured. Well worth the trip.

brass monkey wrote:
"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just
test pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the
academically qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or
Honours in some Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.


Indeed.


http://space-lectures.com/index.html


Due to a lack of support the planned Apollo 17 event with Moon
walker and lunar geologist Dr Harrison H Schmitt has been postponed.

I know it costs but why are rooms not full of people wanting to
meet these people?

http://space-lectures.com/dinner_3.html

It's only £60.

But

http://space-lectures.com/tickets_4.html

is much more fun (and only £30) and you have 200 children there
that are allowed to ask him questions.


And they answer the questions the kids ask.

Well bugger me, I never knew such events occured. Well worth the trip.

So book a ticket. You are only an hour or so away. Or make a day of it.
There are plenty of things to see and do nearby.


--
Adam

brass monkey wrote:
"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

True - Armstrong left NASA and became a prof of engineering.
What many forget is that generation of astronauts weren't just test
pilots or fighter jocks, they were the first of the academically
qualified ones too. Many/most of them had Masters or Honours in some
Engineering or Aeronautical/Space discipline.

Stupid? Anything but.

Ok, I'll substitute insane/crazy, intelligent idiots if you will (we
all know a few of those).


How else would you describe folk who are
prepared to trust their lives to thousands of bits of kit designed
and built by thousands of others, all needing to work.

Two words. "Ford Mondeo"

--
Adam

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 13:23:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

You would enjoy it. I did. It's worth looking around. The astronauts may be
having dinner elsewhere in the UK just before or after the Ponty event. They
need to make a living:-)

I think it's a bit sad they have to, but I suppose an Air Force /NASA
pension isn't all that. Neil Armstrong did all right for himself, but
he had a magic kudos attached to his name.

Have you tried their own web sites for info?

No, never even thought of that.
One or two are bound to visit Ireland - like Dublin or Armagh, so I'll
keep an eye out.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 13:20:01 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

On 26 Aug 2012 12:00:20 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

Anyone else ever seen this?

http://www.andrewdawson.info/space_panorama.html

No, but going by the description it's a load of wank.

Written by a PR person. It was actually excellent.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

"ARWadsworth" wrote:
brass monkey wrote:
"Mike P" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:09:10 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

I hope his Saturn V ride to heaven is a smooth one :-)

Fly safe, Commander Armstrong. A true hero to many, and especially
us nerds.

+1
Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

Yeah I got to meet Gene Cernan briefly around 1996 when I did some
consultancy work for NASA. One of the few (at that time) managerial types
who understood and had an interest in my line of work and was able to
discus it coherently.

BTW Tickets are still available to have dinner with some of the Apollo
astronauts. It's well worth the money. Not everyone can say that they have
had dinner with Buzz Aldrin and Fred Haise.

That would be very tempting.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:17:52 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
"Which is what we were absorbed with 40 years ago - after the Moon, what
about Mars?
With 70s technology, it would have been an utter, unparalled,
unmitigated disaster in slowmotion.

Why? What's so different about it to landing on the moon, other than the
distance involved? An understanding of Martian climate (or rather lack
thereof) may have knocked it on the head, and also the additional cost of
developing equipment to get there (and back), but I'm surprised that the
technology itself was a limiting factor.

cheers

Jules

Jules Richardson wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:17:52 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
"Which is what we were absorbed with 40 years ago - after the Moon, what
about Mars?
With 70s technology, it would have been an utter, unparalled,
unmitigated disaster in slowmotion.

Why? What's so different about it to landing on the moon, other than the
distance involved? An understanding of Martian climate (or rather lack
thereof) may have knocked it on the head, and also the additional cost of
developing equipment to get there (and back), but I'm surprised that the
technology itself was a limiting factor.

Call it an order of magnitude harder and more expensive. The Superpowers
could just about afford the race to be first to the moon. To be the
first to Mars would have bankrupted them.

The technology was a limiting factor, as are the laws of physics, and
the biological aspects of the mission.

The journey to the moon took a few days. The quickest possible journey
to Mars and back takes several months, so you need to carry about fifty
times the amount of food and other consumables. You also need to find a
crew who can get along with each other in total isolation for a couple
of years without killing each other or themselves, rather than the week
or two that they had to put up with each other for the moon missions.

The escape velocity from Mars is over double that of the moon, so the
lander has to carry much more fuel to lift the same mass into orbit,
which makes it bigger, so it has to carry even more fuel, and all that
fuel has to be launched from Earth. As a rough guess, the Mars Excursion
Module (including fuel) would be about ten times the mass of the Lunar
Excursion Module.

We could do it now, but only by launching many rockets and assembling
the Mars mission vehicles in Earth orbit. They couldn't have done that
in the 1960s.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 08:32:21 +0100, charles
wrote:

In article , Graham.
wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:04:42 +0100, charles
wrote:

In article , Andrew Gabriel
wrote:
I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the
presenter asked "What was going through your mind when you were
waiting on the launch pad?", to which he replied, "Every part of this
rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

That was previously said by John Glenn - the first American into space.

So Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight doesn't count?

John Glenn did sub-orbital, too.

So will I when I when I go to the Isle of Man in two weeks.

Shepard's Freedom 7 flight is universally regarded as the first
American space flight it reached 187km altitude and splashed down
486km downrange, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shepard

I wonder who set the criteria of what is considered to be a space
flight?

Even Shepard himself must have conceded that Gagarin's flight was
infinitely more spectacular.


--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0100, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

brass monkey wrote:
"Mike P" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:09:10 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

I hope his Saturn V ride to heaven is a smooth one :-)

Fly safe, Commander Armstrong. A true hero to many, and especially
us nerds.

+1
Those guys were very stupid/very brave/both.

They we also very intelligent. I have met some of them.

BTW Tickets are still available to have dinner with some of the Apollo
astronauts. It's well worth the money. Not everyone can say that they have
had dinner with Buzz Aldrin and Fred Haise.

I had dinner with President Bush (senior) just after he left office
And I videoed his speech officially, for the charity that invited him.



--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%