The Apollos That Never Were, Hardware fates and the dynamics of the program |
The Apollos That Never Were, Hardware fates and the dynamics of the program |
Jun 19 2008, 07:47 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
I was reading up on this mission and have a few questions:
1) Some of the instruments, e.g., LAMP (or LAVA LAMP, haha) will be used to identify any water ice in the "permanently shadowed" parts of polar craters. But with the Earth at least, the pole is said to have migrated quite a bit. Is the Moon conversely so locked in synchrony that its own pole can't wander appreciably? Seems like even if transient, it might not take too long to burn off any ice. 2) I was wondering what the first "earthrise" opportunity might be for LRO postcard purposes. According to the available SPICE kernels the initial orbit comes in around longitude 90 over the south pole and so from the point of view of earth circles without eclipse initially until it eventually precesses around or whatever. 3) The launch has been delayed by a month. Is there any possibility this mission might be cancelled? I.e., has NASA (read: US Congress) ever cancelled a mission where the spacecraft had essentially been built? -------------------- |
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Jul 23 2008, 08:22 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 753 Joined: 23-October 04 From: Greensboro, NC USA Member No.: 103 |
I was reading up on this mission and have a few questions: ... 3) The launch has been delayed by a month. Is there any possibility this mission might be cancelled? I.e., has NASA (read: US Congress) ever cancelled a mission where the spacecraft had essentially been built? Sorry for the late reply here, here's another Yes answer. Apollos 18 and 19 had the hardware completely built. They were forced to cancel essentially because the money was not allocated to run the support operations. -------------------- Jonathan Ward
Manning the LCC at http://www.apollolaunchcontrol.com |
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Jul 26 2008, 08:11 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
But, Dan -- to sound like me, you also have to read the Apollo Lunar Surface Journals several hundred times (as well as contributing some items to them), and read each and every book written about the Mercury-to-Apollo era, preferably re-reading the best ones (like Chaikin's or Murray & Cox's) several hundred times.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that I actually audio taped the Moonwalks (onto cassettes whose iron oxide flakes off if you try and play them today) from many of the missions, live from the TV coverage, and used to fall asleep listening to them. For years. As I've said in all humility, I am positive there are other people out there who have a broader and deeper knowledge of that era of manned space flight than I do, but I also suspect you could count them on some of the fingers of one hand... -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Jul 26 2008, 08:18 PM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
As I've said in all humility, I am positive there are other people out there who have a broader and deeper knowledge of that era of manned space flight than I do, but I also suspect you could count them on some of the fingers of one hand... -the other Doug Er...maybe half a hand if we're lucky, without false modesty. Seriously, dude...write a book! Everybody who actually did this amazing thing is probably gonna be dead sooner rather than later (unpleasant, but true)...you got the scoop, put it on paper! Hell, I find your posts on Apollo fascinating, and after the release of In the Shadow of the Moon, I'm sure that many others would feel the same way. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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