Apollo memories

[msd1107]

Well, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing is here. Definitely not Lotus oriented.

But was anybody working on anything related to the space program? Or, if you were alive then, what are your memories of the event and what implications it had?

Guess I'll go first.

During the early '60s, I wrote programs for a program that furnished the technology for the space suits used in the space program. Then I worked at NASA JPL, writing programs processing the data that arrived from the DSN (Deep Space Network) stations and the various missions. It was interesting watching the different DSN stations lock up on data, receive and process the data. If there were interesting pictures, we often were the first to see them on large monitors.

And during the time of the Apollo misson, I waiting for delivery of an Elan I had ordered. So in addition to watching the misson, I was waiting for a phone call that my car had arrived.

It is interesting how research and development advanced the state of the art in autombile technology, computer and communications technology, and space technology quite rapidly during that time frame. We have all benefitted from the advances made during that time.

David
1968 36/7988

[garyeanderson]

I think I am still pretty impressed with the Saturn 5 Launch vehicle. I don't think there has ever been so much energy harnessed in controlled mayhem before these launchs. since, or likely to ever be again in any of our lives. Much of the prosperity of U.S. for the last 40 years has been a indirectly related to the work in the early 60's for the space program.
We would have to be real lucky for another government sponcered program that has paid so much back to be able to do it again...

Gary

some specs
http://www.apollosaturn.com/s5news/tablecon.htm
http://www.apollosaturn.com/s5news/p2-7.htm (the basics)
more

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/saturnv.htm

[mac5777]

David, it is hard to believe that it has been that long ago. 40 years ago I was living in Beverly Hills and was the road manager of "Steppenwolf" when "Born to be wild and Magic carpet ride" was at the top of the charts. The ride never made it into space but it was spacey. Oh ya, Jimmy Hendricks was driving his Elan about that time.
We may have another chance to achieve a new bench mark if we can develop, using today's technologies, towards new energy systems and sources. It just takes the will. NASA did it without the technologies we have today. After viewing a return capsule, that was a brave bunch of guys.

Sarto

[1964 S1]

If boys hadn't acted like boys,
And opted for wars,
Maybe NASA and space,
Would be the place,
We'd spent our money.

Here's a thought, what if our recent first ladies had been prez, then said to their spouses, Jimmy, Ronnie, George, Bill, George, go out and play in the space program while we run the country.
I'd say Roz, Nancy, Barbara, Hillary, and Laura would've gotten more done, and..... our space program would be decades ahead of where it is now.

I watched the first moon walks at my parent's house, the summer between high school and college. When DID we go off course?

Eric

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

123

[richgilb]

He really did drive an Elan.....cool.

http://www.eskimo.com/~rkamp/jimi.html

[gerrym]

David, up until late 90s I was working on turbo compressors for gas reinjection. In the field, we were installing 18MW machines with all the mechanical work happening in a envelope no larger than 10" diameter by 20" long. The technology to solve the stability problems and write the code to predict and design the shaft dampening all started and came from the rocket motor designs from Saturn (and Shuttle).

Even today, flying across the Atlantic in the latest superjumbo, the shaft dampening in the Trent all has origins in those programs.

Regards

Gerry

[CBUEB1771]

I think I am still pretty impressed with the Saturn 5 Launch vehicle. I don't think there has ever been so much energy harnessed in controlled mayhem before these launchs. since, or likely to ever be again in any of our lives.

It was the summer before my last year of high school so I didn't contribute anything other than to stay up all night to watch on television. In graduate school I worked at Draper Labs in Cambridge where the systems engineers had debugged the LEM's operating system while it was descending to the moon's surface. Now that is quite a thought! Years later I walked through the lobby of the Manned Space Flight Center in Houston where one of the Saturn 5 propellant pumps was on display. That pump certainly spoke to the energy harnessed in controlled mayhem. The pump is a centrifugal flow device that would swallow and spit out my +2 without noticing it.