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#1 2004-12-27 08:05:38
- Palomar
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- From: USA
- Registered: 2002-05-30
- Posts: 9,734
Re: Space & Willingness - (essay by Robert Zimmerman)
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetra … ]Excellent, upbeat article
*I especially enjoyed the details regarding Apollo 8 (and James Lovell[able]). :laugh: The world's problems then are outlined -- and he says some aspects of 1968 were "much worse than today" (hmmmm...find that hard to believe). Very nice that he includes the Apollo 8 crew's wives and their concerns, etc., in the article.
The risks were daunting. For one thing, the Saturn V rocket the three men would use to get to the moon had only been tested twice before and, in its last test, developed serious problems, including the premature shutdown of two of the rocket's second-stage engines as well as the failure of the third-stage engine to re-ignite on command.
For another, the mission criteria required that before any crew was launched out of Earth orbit, they would carry both an Apollo capsule and a lunar module. Should there be problems with the capsule, the LM could act as a temporary lifeboat until the crew got home -- which is exactly what happened during the Apollo 13 mission in April 1970. The LM in that case saved Jim Lovell's life.
When Apollo 8 was launched toward the moon on Dec. 21, 1968, however, the LM was not yet ready, so the crew had no such lifeboat. Had what happened on Apollo 13 happened on Apollo 8, Jim Lovell would have been dead in less than two hours.
*Mr. Zimmerman is refreshingly optimistic about what he sees as an increasing American enthusiasm for our space program. He also discusses the bravery of Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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#2 2004-12-27 10:22:36
- Shaun Barrett
- Member
- From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Registered: 2001-12-28
- Posts: 2,843
Re: Space & Willingness - (essay by Robert Zimmerman)
Refreshing is right! :up:
Mr. Zimmerman reminds us that "living is a life-shortening experience" and that space exploration isn't something that can be made risk-free any more than anything can be made risk-free.
Bravo, Robert!
In my opinion, he made a pretty good case for 1968 being more of a mess than 2004, too. Yet America took its chances and reached higher than anyone had ever tried before.
Bravo, America!
But this is no time for the U.S. to lose her nerve.
"We choose to go to Mars and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard .."
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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