Apollo 1961 - 1972

[Byron In Exile]

I remenber this desaster, it could
only happend, while using a 100%
O² Athmosphere.

Yes, but at 15 psi!

Astronauts breathe 100% Oxygen, but at 5 psi.

You might have seen astronauts walking toward the launch tower in sealed suits and carrying portable air-units just prior to launch. The reason for this is that they have been breathing pure Oxygen for the last 12 hours. That is to purge the Nitrogen out of their systems. When the exterior pressure decreases, Nitrogen in the bloodstream boils out into a gas, and causes what sea divers call "the bends," an excruciatingly painful condition.

But, in space, the pure Oxygen environment is just 5 psi. During testing, the pressure was at sea-level, or about 15 psi. At 15 psi, in a pure Oxygen environment, Velcro will ignite.

 

[Polarbear57]

15psi, that´s 1.03 bar, that means a overpressure of 5%
over the regular pressure.

 

[Byron In Exile]

15psi, that´s 1.03 bar, that means a overpressure of 5%
over the regular pressure.

Well, to be specific, the average air pressure at sea level is 14.696 psi, or 101.3 kPa.

In space, the pressure would have been about one-third of that.

And, actually, the pressure in the capsule was a bit higher (maybe 16 or 17 psi) so that if there were any leaks, the oxygen would flow out of the capsule, and not air into it.

If the pressure had been more like the 5 psi that the astronauts would have experienced in space, then the velcro would not have ignited.

So, in fact, there was an overpressure of more than 300% during the ground test.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Bereiten Sie sich auf eine weitere Runde von ehrfürchtiges spam!

 

[dutchrain]

Bereiten Sie sich auf eine weitere Runde von ehrfürchtiges spam!

I'm preparing myself...

 

[Polarbear57]

Bereiten Sie sich auf eine weitere Runde von ehrfürchtiges spam!

........... let it flow.............

 

[Byron In Exile]

Apollo 8, excerpt 1

Apollo 8 was the first manned launch of the Saturn V.

It was originally intended as a low-earth-orbital mission.

But the CIA had information indicating that the USSR had plans to send a Cosmonaut to orbit the moon and come back to Earth.

As Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 LMP and Apollo 17 CDR) said, "If they orbit the moon before we land on it, then they've gotten there first."

So the Apollo 8 mission was changed from an earth-orbital type... to a flight to the moon. It happened around Christmas 1968 — the first time human beings had ever really left the earth.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Apollo 8, excerpt 2

 

[Byron In Exile]

"Und aus der Crew von Apollo 8, wir gute Nacht, viel Glück, ein frohes Weihnachtsfest, und Gott segne euch alle zu schließen. Alle von Ihnen auf der guten Erde."

 

[Erpan]

Very well made. They speak much of god, but the audience is also in Christmas trance, so this is okay too. An american dream even.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Very well made. They speak much of god, but the audience is also in Christmas trance, so this is okay too. An american dream even.

Aber vielleicht ein Traum für die Welt?

Nicht jeder ist jüdisch oder christlich.

Und doch gibt es etwas Spirituelles dabei.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Apollo 8, excerpt 3

"Houston, Apollo 8. Please be advised, there IS a Santa Claus."

 

[Erpan]

Aber vielleicht ein Traum für die Welt?

Nicht jeder ist jüdisch oder christlich.

Und doch gibt es etwas Spirituelles dabei.

Spiritual? Yes. But a dream for the world I can’t see. If this story would continue, I’m sure there would be landgrabs like that on the earth and then shortly a war for resources.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Spiritual? Yes. But a dream for the world I can’t see. If this story would continue, I’m sure there would be landgrabs like that on the earth and then shortly a war for resources.

Lol... I see what you're saying.

I recommend "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury.

And, also, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Nature is a self-correcting system.

 

[dutchrain]

'The moon is hard mistress'!!!

One of my all time favorites!
'The martian chronicles' I read, but I prefer Bradburrys short stories.

Asimov...
Now that man was a writer...

 

[Byron In Exile]

'The moon is hard mistress'!!!

One of my all time favorites!

One of mine, also!

But I believe that "Stranger In a Strange Land" is his best.

'The martian chronicles' I read, but I prefer Bradburrys short stories.

Bradbury, I think, wrote more short stories. However, he wrote some great novels, like "Fahrenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

"Martian Chronicles" started out as short stories... from Wiki:

In 1949, Bradbury and his wife were expecting their first child. He took a Greyhound bus to New York and checked into a room at the YMCA for fifty cents a night. He took his short stories to a dozen publishers and no one wanted them. Just before getting ready to go home, Bradbury had dinner with an editor at Doubleday. When Bradbury recounted that everyone wanted a novel and he didn't have one, the editor, coincidentally named Walter Bradbury, asked if the short stories might be tied together into a book length collection. The title was the editor's idea, he suggested, "You could call it “The Martian Chronicles.” Bradbury liked the idea and recalled making notes in 1944 to do a book set on Mars. That evening, he stayed up all night at the YMCA and typed out an outline. He took it to the Doubleday editor the next morning, who read it and wrote Bradbury a check for seven hundred and fifty dollars. When Bradbury returned to Los Angeles, he connected all the short stories and that became The Martian Chronicles.

Asimov...
Now that man was a writer...

Asimov was brilliant. His "Foundation Trilogy" won the Hugo Award for "Best Science Fiction Series of All Time."

And I could not agree more.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Spiritual? Yes. But a dream for the world I can’t see. If this story would continue, I’m sure there would be landgrabs like that on the earth and then shortly a war for resources.

Yes, that's probably true. Were the moon of any material value, then yes, it would be a Landgrabfest.

The moon only offers two things: knowledge, and perspective.

That was enough in the 1960's to make it worth the trip.

 

[dutchrain]

One of mine, also!

But I believe that "Stranger In a Strange Land" is his best.

Bradbury, I think, wrote more short stories. However, he wrote some great novels, like "Fahrenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

"Martian Chronicles" started out as short stories... from Wiki:


Asimov was brilliant. His "Foundation Trilogy" won the Hugo Award for "Best Science Fiction Series of All Time."

And I could not agree more.

'SST' Yeeees!
But I think 'Lazarus Long' is RHs strongest character.
I've got a lot of RHs books, in three languages, when I noticed his books were not published anymore, I grabbed what I could get, whenever I got the change.

'F451' also Yeeees!

Asimov:Foundation, yes! I like the Robot-stories too. Susan Calvin... such a lovely Lady!
And his non-sf, the Blackwidowers and others are quit genial too.

 

[Byron In Exile]

'SST' Yeeees!

"Stranger In a Strange Land"? Absolutely.

But I think 'Lazarus Long' is RHs strongest character.
I've got a lot of RHs books, in three languages, when I noticed his books were not published anymore, I grabbed what I could get, whenever I got the change.

I didn't really read enough of Heinlein to get to know LL.

'F451' also Yeeees!

Magnificent book.

Asimov:Foundation, yes! I like the Robot-stories too. Susan Calvin... such a lovely Lady!
And his non-sf, the Blackwidowers and others are quit genial too.

Susan Calvin I can see in my mind just from his description. Salvador Hardin... that's a real writer, Asimov, who can put you right in the situation and make you see it!!

You are there. It's electric.

 

[dutchrain]

"Stranger In a Strange Land"? Absolutely.

I didn't really read enough of Heinlein to get to know LL.

Magnificent book.

Susan Calvin I can see in my mind just from his description. Salvador Hardin... that's a real writer, Asimov, who can put you right in the situation and make you see it!!

You are there. It's electric.

And how I'm there!

It sizzles and sparks are flying when you open a book...
Even if you have read it X times already.

LL is good.
'Time enough for love' is the novel all about him.
Another favorite of mine is: 'Job; a comedy of justice'
In his later days, he got less 'space opera' and more philosophical.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Kurt Vonnegut.

Come at me, now...

This is your last chance.

 

[Byron In Exile]

One configuration of water molecules that only melts at 114°F??

What sort of insane genius thinks of something like that?

And then is killed by it?

 

[dutchrain]

Kurt Vonnegut.

Come at me, now...

This is your last chance.

Had to google him. Sounds interesting.

Jan-Willem van de Wetering and Robert van Gulik.
No sf, but also two of my all-time favorites.

Orwells '1984' I bought it 1983, read 1985, on January the first.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Had to google him. Sounds interesting.

Oh, read nothing else until you read Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle."

I had friends pestering me all the time to read it, to the point where I refused to read it. And then, some years later, I read it. And it was every bit as amazing as they had told me it was.

That the world could come to an end in such an ironic way...

Jan-Willem van de Wetering and Robert van Gulik.
No sf, but also two of my all-time favorites.

I don't know them yet, but I'm soon to make their acquaintance.

Orwells '1984' I bought it 1983, read 1985, on January the first.

Orwell was simply brilliant.

If you haven't read it, I recommend "Burmese Days."

Rare insight.