Moon landing - 50 years

joe cassidy · June 29, 2021, 01:01:14 PM

Matt Damon used "astronaut waste" to grow potatoes in the film where he is stranded on Mars

Trainfish · June 29, 2021, 01:03:50 PM

So basically it's like a wet & dry vacuum cleaner? Need to be careful not to get your todger too close though unless ~~urine to~~ you're into that sort of thing

joe cassidy · June 29, 2021, 01:07:16 PM

In the Mars film it was bagged and labelled with the name of the donor.

The smelliest sample came from one of the female members of the crew.

Bealman · June 30, 2021, 09:55:49 AM

Good film, that Matt Damon Martian.

But, ahem, a couple of more Apollo 15 anecdotes....

That very same Al Worden became the first person to make an EVA (spacewalk) a long, long way from home! During the trans-Earth coast on the homeward journey, he ventured out back along the service module to recover film cartridges from the SIM bay.

Now to Bealman, that must have been one of the most mind-blowing experiences ever. Imagine floating, surrounded by nothing but three dimensional black nothingness all around you, then looking back and seeing the sunlit disc of the moon, and then the other way to see the blue Earth, which you are falling towards at 20,000+ miles per hour!

This brought the number of cabin depressurisations to 5 on this mission. NASA managers were concerned about this. When the lunar module landed at Hadley, Dave Scott had insisted on doing a 'stand-up' EVA, where both men had to suit up, depressurise the cabin, and Scott stood up on the ascent engine cover, poking his head out through the overhead rendevous hatch.

He then proceeded to take a series of photographs in a 360 degree pan. To me, this seemed to be an unnecessary procedure - he could have done the same from the surface, and I can understand why the brass would be annoyed about it. It is interesting that this did not happen on the remaining two flights.

Bealman · April 09, 2022, 02:01:56 AM

Ok, time marches on....

Fifty years ago today, a controller in firing room one at the Cape pressed a button which began the countdown for Apollo 16, headed to the Descartes region of the moon.

Strangely enough, I was on a geology field trip at the time in alien territory (alien to a Durham lad) in Gloucester!

RBTKraisee · April 09, 2022, 06:21:24 AM

Quote from: Bealman on April 09, 2022, 02:01:56 AM
Ok, time marches on....

Fifty years ago today, a controller in firing room one at the Cape pressed a button which began the countdown for Apollo 16, headed to the Descartes region of the moon.

Strangely enough, I was on a geology field trip at the time in alien territory (alien to a Durham lad) in Gloucester!

I had dinner a few years ago with Charlie Duke, Lunar Module Pilot on that Apollo 16 mission. He's also the guy who responds to Neil Armstrong after they landed, telling the Apollo 11 crew that the launch controllers are breathing again, that they were about to turn blue! Duke is a genuinely fascinating and friendly guy and it was a real pleasure & honour to talk technicalities with him - he still remembers everything from that mission, as most of those guys do.

I bought his lunar map, the long, folded, ring of paper that he used during ground training, showing the entire lunar surface under their projected flight path. It's an exact copy of the one he had aboard "Orion" (their Lunar Module) on the mission.

I wish I'd been alive for those Lunar missions. With a bit of luck we have some new ones coming later this decade though.

Ross.

Bealman · April 09, 2022, 07:25:53 AM

My son-in-law met Duke and Mattingnly when they were in Sydney a few years ago. Cool guys, he reckoned.

Young and Duke had the famous conversation on the moon about oranges and farts, when they thought the microphone was off.

Bealman · April 18, 2022, 02:13:36 AM

Fifty years ago today (18 April) Apollo 16 was halfway to the moon. Good mission synopsis here:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/apollo-16-pictures-the-most-dazzling-place/

Platy767 · April 18, 2022, 03:04:39 AM

My first recollection of space was John Glenn and Friendship 7. The capsule did a (terrestrial) thank you tour around the world and was in Sydney in July 1962. My mum took me along to see it in Hyde Park, near St James station. It was set up with a mannequin inside and I was amazed at how tiny the space was. During the orbits I had argued with my parents and insisted we turn every light on in the house, which we did. Glenn's orbits didn't pass over Sydney, but the people of Perth turned their lights on and it was a good marker as a finish to the Indian ocean and start of the Australian continent.

Godspeed, John Glenn

Skyline2uk · April 18, 2022, 09:30:35 PM

Quote from: Bealman on April 09, 2022, 07:25:53 AM
My son-in-law met Duke and Mattingnly when they were in Sydney a few years ago. Cool guys, he reckoned.

Young and Duke had the famous conversation on the moon about oranges and farts, when they thought the microphone was off.

Ah yes, and no doubt a source of great amusement for the archives at NASA.

The recorded transcripts of the Apollo missions (and the Mercury / Gemini before as far as I know) are legendary.

The discussions about porridge eating contests (specifically how good one "Buzz" Aldrin was at eating the stuff) in Corby which were taking place as Apollo 11 made their journey has led to a crater on Mars being named "Corby".

Yeah, Engineers and their "humour"

Skyline2uk

Malc · April 19, 2022, 11:44:35 AM

There are loads of exhibits from the Apollo missions in the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum in Washington DC. Well worth a visit.

Graham · April 19, 2022, 11:42:39 PM

what a wonderful place, managed to get there in 93 as part of a work trip when I had the weekend free, thought I'll have a couple of hours there and then look around Washington for a bit. walked in as the doors opened and came out at 4pm, managed to touch a piece of moon rock then, wonder if they still allow that.

Bealman · April 20, 2022, 01:02:02 AM

Yes, I was there in 2005, and touched the moon rock then. It was a cut polished slab from the Apollo 17 mission, if I recall, but could be wrong.

One of my favourite exhibits was Dave Scott's suit from the Apollo 15 mission, still covered in moon dust. Amazing to think that it had walked on the moon.

Another was the Skylab. I thought, this is a good copy, with pipes and everything. It wasn't a copy! NASA built two, but this one never flew.

Like Graham, I was there all day!

Bealman · December 12, 2022, 03:13:10 AM

I was watching the Orion spacecraft splash down after a brilliantly successful Artemis 1 mission. Great to see the way to the moon is now open again, because it's now 50 years since Gene Cernan left the last human footprints there.

As I type this, 50 years ago the Apollo 17 lunar module Challenger was sitting in the valley of Taurus-Littrow, and Cernan and Jack Schmitt (the only geologist ever to go there) were conducting three highly productive EVAs.

It's great that after 50 years, they're using the upgraded Apollo era technology again.

Bealman · December 13, 2022, 07:17:44 AM

My phone has lost the ability to view YouTube videos at the moment, but if you Google Apollo 17 lift off from the moon, you'll see the amazing last liftoff from the moon.

The sound is equally fascinating. Cernan says words like,

Abort stage, engine arm is in.

Ok I'll get the pro.

99 is in.

Ok, 3 2 1, ignition! We're on our way, Houston!

The first comments refer to the computer was told to abort the descent stage, and arm the ascent engine.

Pro refers to program. Program 99 is the liftoff sequence.

The footage is special because the TV camera on the rover was remotely operated by Ed Fendell in Houston, who correctly compensated for the time lag to the moon, and managed to scan the camera up and capture the moment of pitch over, when you can clearly see the LM ascent engine burning.